Burke and Hare – The Anatomy Murderers

in economics supply and demand is a basic model which states that in a competitive market the price of the good or service will vary until the quantity demanded equals the quantity supplied with an increase in demand also comes an increase in price which persuade sellers to supply more of that economic good but what happens when the good in question is human bodies well in the early 19th century the Scottish capsule of Edinburgh was one of Europe's leading bastions of medical knowledge particularly when it came to Anatomy bourbon research into this area caused a huge demand for cadavers for dissection in turn this led to the rise of ghoulish resurrection men or Body Snatchers as we would call them today who dig up corpses and sell them to surgeons who were more often than not willing to just look the other way bizarrely the most infamous of these resurrectionists never actually dug up a body in their lives indeed to death of happenstance caused the duo to realize that creating bodies was far easier and a lot less messy than digging them up and so it was that William Burke and William hare embarked on one of the most gruesome killing sprees in the history of Scotland [Music] details our scans regarding the early lives of Burke and Hare booth what irishman the former is born in Ernie counted Tehran while the latter may have been a native of the parish of Nuri County our mark though we do not know for sure Burke was a military man who first married a woman named Margaret Coleman in Ireland who bore into children around 1817 he moved to Scotland to work as a navy on the Union canal he met and married Helen mcdougal who may or may not have assisted later in her husband's murder spree William hair is a much more obscure figure and there is almost no hard evidence of his life in Ireland he too was once employed as a navy on the Union Canal and then he moved to Edinburgh where he worked various odd jobs and was relatively skilled as a cobbler he shacked up with a widow named Margaret Laird who ran a lodging house in the city's old town sometime during the mid 1820s Burke and ham met and became friends and although neither of them had a history of violence or a criminal record it would not be long before they committed their first murder together in order to better understand the actions of Birkin hair we should take a moments to talk about anatomy and how it was perceived in society throughout most of history Anatomy was vilified by the common man the idea of dissecting a body mortified most people and so the act was typically performed in secrecy in Scotland human dissection was outlawed until King James the fourth allowed barber surgeons to dissect certain criminals who had been executed the murder act of 1750 - went a step further and made the dissections open to the public this change it served to intensify the punishment for murder not to enhance medical knowledge denying criminals proper burial and instead having them dissected and put on public display was meant to add a horrific extra deterrent to the death penalty but it also provided more bodies - anatomist working in hospitals and medical teaching centres so well that was a plus even say the interest of medical men in dissection had reached an apex and the supply of corpses still proved to be woefully insufficient thus the Resurrectionist trade it began to flourish the money was good especially for a fresh body and the practice it was relatively safe from a legal point of view bag then corpses were not considered property so those who possess them were free to sell them without fearing any reprisal from the law it was the crime of violation of sepal cos that usually led to resurrection men being finds and imprisons of course despite this legal protection the general public found Body Snatchers particularly loathsome if they were discovered the resurrection men were typically at the mercy of their captors which was often rather lacking the clients of this macabre industry included some of the most respectable medical men of their day this is perfectly exemplified by the story of one of the most coveted corpses of all time that of Charles Byrne also known as the Irish giant at seven feet seven inches he was considered the tallest man in the United Kingdom bodies with unusual features or freaks as they were called bluntly back in the day commands at much higher prices than your typical cadaver Vern knew that anatomist s-- were chomping at the bit to get their hands on his body after his death and was horrified by the idea of being dissected he was proven right as when burn passed away in 1783 at the age of twenty-two one newspaper reported that surgeons surrounded his house like harpooners wood an enormous whale burn had arranged with his friends to be sealed in a lead coffin and buried at sea but his preparations they proved to be for naught at a time when a body fetched up to ten pounds one of the most distinguished Scottish surgeons in history John Hunter allegedly bribed the undertaker five hundred pounds to remove the Giants corpse and replace it with stones according to the Bank of England's that is over seventy four thousand dollars in modern currency regardless of the costs both moral and financial hunter got his prize and even today burn skeleton resides in the Hunterian Museum in London's Royal College of Surgeons of England at the moment there is actually a push for the museum to surrender possession of the remains and give them a burial at sea as per Charles Burns's wishes you know even if it's 240 years to light [Music] all right so let's get back to birkin half their first victim was not actually murdered he was an old army pensioner named Donald who lodged at the house owned by hair and lad he died in November of 1827 of dropsy a swelling of soft tissue caused by excess fluids that we today refer to as an edema what matters to her however was that the old man died still owing him four pounds in rent money hair turned back for help in dealing with Donald's corpse and then came up with the idea of selling it to the surgeons to recover his losses the duo then went through a gratuitous ordeal to keep possession of the body while making it look like that had it buried first the carpenter brought them the coffin and then the three of them placed the recently deceased Donald inside and nailed the lid down after the carpenter left Bergen Harry opens the coffin took the body out and hid it under a bed they then packed the empty box tightly with tannaz bark covered it with a shoes and then nailed it down again the plan worked except for the fact that it was completely unnecessary since under Scottish law they were legally free to sell the body Birkin how went in search of professor of anatomy Alexander Monro whether or not there was a previous connection between these groups is unknown but the pair likely found out about him and the newspapers as he was featured for his dissections of executed criminals instead they found a man who referred them to dr. Robert Knox in surgeon's Square there they were paid 7 pounds and 10 shillings for Donald's body since the army pensioner owed him rent her took the bigger cart of the four pounds five shillings which still left three pounds and five shillings for Burke just for lugging a corpse around the two simply could not believe their luck that was a lot of money for easy work with no questions asked as they were getting ready to leave the premises one of Knox's assistants told them that they would love to do more business in the future if only they could get more dead bodies [Music] alright so the exact timeline of the murders that took place is a bit fuzzy after he was apprehended Burke gave two confessions separate times that had inconsistencies between them at the same time they differed from the confession provided by hair even so most historians agree that their next target and their true first victim was a man named Joseph another tenant who resided in hares house Joseph who may or may not have been a Miller was ill and delirious with a fever back in her reasons that he was not long for this world and so all they would be doing is hurrying along the process a little bit how had extra motivation to get rid of him as the presence of the sickly man did not do wonders for his business the criminal duo plied him with whiskey one of them then murdered him by suffocation while the other sat on his body to restrain his movements but I can help likely employed this killing method to avoid making any noise but it also had the added benefit of leaving the cadaver unmarked and undamaged this technique later became known as burking the most likely next victim was an English salesman whose name has been lost to history he came to Edinburgh to ply his wares and took up residence with the hares he fell ill with jaundice while staying there and again William hare was worried that his presence would drive away other prospective tenants he and Burke disposed of the Englishman and the same manner as Joseph like before dr. Knox paid top dollar for his body and did not ask any questions of course the killer's could not rely on a steady supply of people walking into his lodging house and falling ill therefore they started luring people to the lodge knowing that it was unlikely that anyone would miss them next up was Abigail Simpson in February of 1828 she was a pensioner who lived a few miles from Edinburgh and regularly came to the city to sell salt she stayed at a lodging house where had got a too drunk to return home he and his accomplice booked her during the night and promptly took her body to surgeons square another old woman was killed in the same manner later that month or perhaps in early March [Music] arguably the first notable scrap of the dastardly duo occurred when they started targeting prostitutes by the nature of their work they were more well known around the city than pensioners and traveling salesmen in April Burke met two ladies of the night Janice Brown and Mary Patterson also known as Mary Mitchell back then they were referred to as girls of the town which meant that at least part of their income came from prostitution Burke invited the two women to have breakfast with him at his brother's home Constantine Burke lived nearby with his wife and two children but he left for work soon after the trio arrived Patterson got drunk and passed out Helen mcdougal also came to the house and got into an argument with Burke over the presence of the young woman whether or not this was planned is hard to say but Jenny brown excused herself and left when she returned to find her friends Patterson had disappeared with Burke she was already dead by this point and she was headed for noxus dissecting table Patterson's corpse was more suspicious than the ones brought before several of the surgeon's assistants recognized her most likely because they once turned to her for her speciality services one of them even knew her by name is Mary Mitchell the body was young it had no signs of illness and clearly had never been buried they questioned Burke as to where he got it and he replied that he obtains the corpse from an old lady in the Canongate this was obviously a lie as he might as well have said that he tripped over it while walking down the street and yet the medical men they did not press the matter as Phenix himself he was so delighted with the quality of the cadaver that he ignored any peculiar details he preserved the body and whiskey for three months before finally dissecting it and even brought a painter in to immortalize it in a sketch this actually worked in the physicians favor during the trial because his defenders argued that had Knox known that Patterson was a murder victim he surely would not have flaunted her with so much enthusiasm Mary Patterson became the most notorious victim of Burke and Hare probably because her story captivated the public the most Jana Braun probably helped as well she offered her witness testimony at the trial but it proved unnecessary to secure a conviction so instead she told her story to the newspapers even though Mary Peterson raised a few questions the victims were still plentiful throughout the spring of 1828 all of them were women who were brought to their households were offered copious amounts of cheap liquor and then smothered when they passed out among the victims were a mother-daughter duo called Mary and Peggy Haldane who were worked months apart perhaps the most heinous murders happened that summer when Birkin hair killed two lodgers who consisted of an old woman and her grandson who was mentally disabled while the old woman was dispatched in the usual method Burke allegedly slayed the boy by lifting him up and breaking his back over his knee we cannot say for sure that he did this so maybe it was an accident or maybe the killer sadistic side was really starting to show [Music] the second-to-last victim in the gruesome murder spree was a young vagrant named James Wilson he was mentally disabled and had a bum leg and was known by the locals as daft Jamie the killer went smoothly at first but there were problems when Jamie ended up on Knox's Anatomy table some of the students recognized him around the same time that word spread around the community that daft Jamie had gone missing allegedly this course Knox to dissect the vagrants ahead of schedule he removed Jamie's heads and legs which gave him the distinct limp thus making the body unrecognizable if true this certainly implements dr. Knox showing at the very least that he did not want any scrutiny into the source of his cadavers Birkin has last kill it took place on the 31st of October she was an Irish woman named Margaret dirty she was staying at the same lodging house as Burke and MacDougall which belonged to his cousin John Brogan problematically there was another family in the building James and Ann grey the greys was sent to stay at the hair house for the night while hair went over to help Burke killed Doherty the next morning however the greys returned and found a woman's body hidden in a pile of straw they went to the police and reported the crime by the time they had arrived to search the lodging house Perkins hair had taken the body to surgeons scrab but already still found dirties blood-stained clothes hidden under a bet like with the rest of their victims back and hair kept the meager possessions that Doherty hat even under the circumstances they apparently didn't think it necessary to throw away our clothes police were convinced there was foul play at work they went to dr. Knox's hospital where James gray identified the body of Mary dirty as the women killed by Burke and Hare [Music] after 10 months and 16 murders the killing spree was over Berk her Laird and mcdougal had all been arrested initially they only had been charged with the slaying of Margaret dirty authorities knew there were more victims and eventually so did the public thanks to rumors and sensationalist media reporting soon enough every missing person in Edinburgh was thought to have fallen prey to the remorseless Anatomy murderess without any bodies authorities knew that it would be hard to prove that any of the other murders had taken place so they made a deal full immunity from prosecution for the one who turned King's evidence and gave a detailed account of all the killings whatever reason Hera was offered the deal first and unsurprisingly he readily accepted spousal privilege meant that he could not testify against his wife Margaret heir so she was off the hook as well her made a full confession and the prosecution decided that they had enough evidence to go to trial later once Peck realized that only the gallows awaited him he gave his account of the killings as well Berks the butcher has the thief Knox the man who buys the beef those words were part of a rhyme that circulated on the streets of Edinburgh after the anatomy murders they reflected the public opinion regarding the involvement of dr. Robert Knox in the killing spree even at a time when buying corpses from disreputable sources was a common practice obtaining murder victims was still considered a heinous act Knox's detractors argued that there was no way that someone with his medical knowledge would not at least have cause to be suspicious of back in hair he certainly would have noticed that the bodies that the two brought to him had never been buried which should have been an immediate red flag the surgeon explains this issue away by saying that as far as he knew birkin hair were in the habit of keeping an eye on lodging houses for the poor and buying the bodies of the recently deceased before anyone had made funeral arrangements for them an investigation into Knox's actions was headed by Sir Robert christeson a future president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh he considered that the doctors role in the murder spree was reprehensible and immoral but not against the law in the end the authorities did not pursue any charges against Robert Knox [Music] the trial started in late December Burke and MacDougall had only been accused of three murders those of Margaret dirty Daft Jamie Wilson and Mary Patterson these were the three strongest cases against them the defense went for a divide-and-conquer strategy and argued that it wasn't fair for his client to be charged with unconnected killings in a trial where the other defendant had no concern with two of the offences the judge agreed with this reasoning and concluded that each murder had to be tried separately the prosecution headed by Sir William Ray decided to start with the slaying of Mary dirty since it had the most solid evidence the jury took less than an hour to deliberate and unsurprisingly found William Berg guilty Helen mcdougal was given the Scottish verdict of not proven or the bastard verdict as it is more colorfully known and was released her common-law husband however was sentenced to death and public dissection although only one man was punished by the law for this ghastly crime spree several people were involved whose exact roles are a bit of a mystery to this day how is Constantin Burke involved or John Brogan according to Burke's confession four people were killed in his cousin's lodging house was he truly unaware of the grim goings-on in his own home and what about the wives most likely they never actually helped murder anyone but they certainly knew of their husband's actions and even brought some of the victims to the lodging houses that made the shocking revelation that Margaret hair even tried to convince the men to kill Helen MacDougall because as a Scottish woman she was untrustworthy the courts might have spared MacDougall and the hares but the mobs were still out for their blood on several occasions they had to be protected by the police from angry people looking for street justice eventually they all left Edinburgh individually and vanished into the mists of history there were rumours that had died as a blind beggar in London although this was more wishful thinking than an actual credible report Robin Knox was obliged to resign as permission and became a pariah of the Scottish medical world eventually he relocated to London William Burke was hanged on January the 28th 1829 in front of tens of thousands of people his body was dissected and his skeleton preserved it is still on display at the anatomical Museum of the Edinburgh medical school while his pan skin was used to bind a pocket work and a calling card case suffice to say the people of Edinburgh considered that there was nothing gruesome enough that they could do to Burke's body that would equal the pain and the suffering that he had caused alongside William hare so really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below and don't forget to subscribe we've got brand new videos just like this every day of the week also if you're looking for more from me I've got another channel called today I found out I'm gonna link to that below and as always thank you for watching [Music]

Channel: Biographics

Views: 495,930

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler, Burke and Hare, The Anatomy Murderers, Burke and Hare murders, William Burke and William Hare, Burke and Hare facts, crime, murder, pair of infamous murderers, Edinburgh body-snatchers, William Burke, William Hare

Id: 4HIxRPEw0rA

Length: 19min 34sec (1174 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 06 2019