During the first quarter of the 19th Century Edinburgh was the undoubted medical Capital of the World & produced many great medical figures of note.  People such as Robert Christison (1797-1882), professor of medical jurisprudence & also a police figure, later professor of medical material & the foremost toxicologist of his age & Alexander Monro III (1773-1859), who was a rather unworthy successor to his brilliant & renowned father & grandfather as professor of anatomy, and reputedly so bad a lecturer that students would rather flock to the lectures of outside tutors, whose prospects in the University Monro tried to block for as long as he could, too name but two. 

     It was from these outside sources that students built up their working knowledge of human anatomy & if extra payments were forthcoming to them corpses could be bought for their practical studies.  The most popular of these outside lecturers was Robert Knox (1791-1862), who later would write rather controversial scribblings on race, trying to use anatomy as a way to define different races.  As an outside lecturer though Knox not only faced the scorn of Monro III but also younger lecturers such as Robert Liston (1794-1847), who later became a professor at London University, and James Syme (1799-1870) who was later professor of clinical surgery at Edinburgh University & the greatest surgeon, it is said, of his time.  The presence of all of these individuals ensured that the medical school at Edinburgh University attracted students not only from all over Scotland, the rest of the UK & Ireland, Europe & North America.

     The problem was how did they get their bodies???  This was an age before donor cards & it was unheard of for anyone to decree their body be used in medical science.  The bodies would have to be fresh after death if they were to be used & preferably before decay set in.  Monro was given the bodies of executed criminals in his position of Professor of anatomy, his colleague Christison was given the bodies of murder victims, but murder victims were incredibly hard to come by.  Some of the outside lecturers employed "Resurrectionists" or "Bodysnatchers" to raid graveyards for newly interred corpses, some, like Robert Liston, even robbed graves themselves. 

     In fact the problem became so bad that grieving relatives employed various devices to protect the remains of their recently departed from these vile individuals.  Such things used were vigils by relatives, "Death-Watch Towers", mortsafe coffins & in some extreme cases gangs of "rogues" were employed to protect the remains from other gangs intent on stealing the earthly remains. 

     Onto this scene came Burke & Hare.  William Burke (1792-1829) was originally from County Tyrone, Ulster & had fought in the Donegal militia during the Napoleonic wars.  Like so many others he was demobbed after the final victory at Waterloo & came to Scotland to find work.  He had along the way learnt the art of shoemaking & indeed if a fire had not destroyed his lodging house & all his worldly possessions then perhaps the events to follow would never have happened.  Without a place to stay or a job he was taken into the "flop-house" of Mrs Margaret Hare.  It is here that he would meet his compatriot in evil William Hare, who was also from Ulster.  He had come to Scotland seeking work as well & had found it "navvying" on the Union canal which was currently under construction during the time.  Burke also worked on the Canal & it is possibly through contacts of Hare that he acquired the job.  By the time they met however Hare had left his job as a "navvy" & had gained later employment as a boatman & hawker at Port Hopetoun in Edinburgh.  Hare had married Margaret after the death of her first husband "Logue."  Indeed, the "flop-house" was his legacy to her. 

     Burke was known as a charming man who made friends easily it was said.  Although both he & Hare were Irish Catholics he mixed well with the Scottish Protestants & he even made an attempt to study Protestantism & worshipped in the Protestant Church as well as the Catholic one.  Burke settled in Edinburgh in 1822 & quickly fell in love with Scots lass Helen MacDougall, despite having a wife & family back in Ulster. 

     Hare's wife Margaret was known as a pugnacious woman "the equal of any man in fisticuffs" but she also appeared to have her gentler side & lent some money to an old lodger of hers called Donald, an army pensioner.  He was due to repay her the day he collected his pension, but unfortunately died the day before he was due to collect it. It would seem that this was gave Burke & Hare the idea that corpses meant cash.

      Auld Donald's body was duly collected by the pair who had heard that good money was to be made in the provision of corpses to the medical faculty.  The Hare's had arranged a pauper's funeral for the unfortunate old soldier, but when the coffin arrived they filled it with Tanner's bark & sealed it.  Everyone would think Donald was being interred, not used as a means to forward medical science.  Burke, who seems to have been the more literate of the two was appointed "ambassador" or go-between with the medical community. 

     Firstly they intended to approach Monro, but Robert Knox's name was suggested to them as a better bet for their business by a well meaning student.  Knox purchased the body "no questions asked" and his assistant muttered to the two that they would always be happy to do business with Burke & Hare.  Burke for his part told them honestly how they came across the body.  As I have said though the doctor's did not want to know.  Body snatching was a capital crime & "Ressurectionists" if caught could face death by hanging or at the very least a long stretch behind bars.

     Events were to take a more sinister turn from this point on.  Another resident of the "flophouse" had contracted the "plague" and was dying of it some weeks later.  Hare was afraid that the public health authorities would raid his establishment & close him down as a health risk, thus cutting off his means of income & making them all homeless.  Needless to say this fear was dealt with when the dying man was sent hurriedly onto his maker by smothering him with a pillow.  This was to the first of 16 "known" murders by the pair though it is possible that they were responsible for many more that were left unaccounted.  The two would perfect a murder method (Burking)  by using the thumb & fingers to draw closed the jaw & nostrils whilst the other held down the legs.  The first murders took place during the winter when the cold weather would help preserve the corpses.  For their first corpse (the only one to die a natural death) they were paid the princely sum of seven pounds & ten shillings by Knox, a veritable fortune in those days.  Later, in the winter he would pay them ten pounds per corpse & in the Summer when it was warmer eight pounds.  The second murder also appears to have been prompted over fears of the closure of the "flophouse."  After that murder bred more murder & each corpse supplied to Knox was purely on the basis of "no questions asked."

      On one occasion though one of Knox's best students William Fergusson raised doubts over the identity of one of the corpses for he was surprised to find upon examining it that it was the body of a beautiful prostitute with whom he had had previous dalliances.  Burke simply said that she had died after getting drunk & drowning in her own vomit!!!  Fergusson was later knighted by Queen Victoria & was later sergeant-surgeon to the same. 

     Many of their victims led a nomadic existence who wandered innocently into the West Port & were taken in by the generous offers of hospitality from the pair, who would ply them with alcohol & dispatch them from the face of the planet. Many of their victims were Irish like themselves & as they had a very limited grasp of English & so it would have at first been some relieve to them to find two fellow Irishmen offering them comfort.  In some way it could be said that Burke & Hare simply adapted the old Irish tradition of the wake, instead of having the party after the funeral though they held it before.  Apart from their Irish victims their murders also accounted for vagrants, a laundress, charcoal burner & old people travelling from outlying communities to collect their pensions.

     At first it seems that Margaret Hare knew nothing about these goings on, but as soon as she did she began to take a full part in the enterprise.  In October 1828 a popular & mentally backward match seller called "Daft Jamie" disappeared.  His murder was on the insistence of Margaret Hare.  Unlike the earlier victims though he saw his fate coming & fought hard against the two, but to no avail, he was eventually overpowered.  The body was examined by Fergusson on its delivery.  Once more he was shocked that he knew the identity of the man on the slab before him, and even went to the lengths of removing Jamie's distinctive twisted foot. 

     Psychologically events were beginning to tell on Burke.  He suffered terrible nightmares & his actions grew so reckless as to suggest that perhaps maybe subconsciously he was hoping that he would be caught. 

     Their last victim was an old Irish woman killed on Samhain (31st October) 1828.  She was murdered in front of Helen MacDougall who attempted to cry out for the police when she realized what was happening, therefore it seems unlikely that she had any prior knowledge of the previous murders.  Other lodgers in the "flop-house" were getting suspicious too, and when the old woman's body was discovered, the police were called.

     Burke had a very good reputation with the police.  They even supplied him with one victim when they gave a drunk over to his charge, but when he was questioned by them it was found his story of the arrival & departure of the Irishwoman contradicted the version previously told to them by Helen MacDougall and both Burke & MacDougall were immediately arrested.  The Hares were later subsequently taken into police custody. 

     Robert Christison was called upon to examine the body recovered from Knox to see if it had died due to natural causes or murder.  He found bruises but stated that these alone weren't indicative of a violent death & indeed could maybe have even be caused after it. This is what Burke maintained happened & that he had bought the corpse "badly packed."  So although Christison may have suspected murder he could not prove it.  Edinburgh Lord Advocate Sir William Rae offered MacDougall immunity if she would give evidence against the others but she refused, he then offered the same to the Hare's who readily accepted, but at the insistence of Margaret Hare this was also made to include a blanket pardon for all the 16 murders.  Burke & Macdougall were put on trial on Christmas Eve 1828 at the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh. 

     As the story got out about the deeds of the pair great interest was aroused in the trial from both the public & legal sectors. Through a combination of the unique Scottish legal system & a hatred of the Tory government (nothing changes), Burke & MacDougall were defended by the two great Whig lawyers Sir James Wellwood Moncrieff & Lord Henry Cockburn without fee.  The defence was orchestrated (almost certainly at Burke's insistence) to return a verdict of "Not Proven" on Helen MacDougall. Burke was found guilty by unanimous verdict & responded by hugging his lover & crying with delight for at least she was safe.  Burke was only convicted on the evidence of the Hare's.  Moncrieff & Cockburn denounced this as shameful & denounced the Lord Advocate for finding one party guilty whilst letting other parties (the Hare's) involved in the crime of Scot-free.  Rae stood by the Hare's however & even blocked a private prosecution brought against the pair for the murder of "Daft Jamie" by one of his relatives.  It is interesting to note that Burke only stood trial on the last of the murders.