The History of Burke and Hare, and of the Resurrectionist Times A Fragment from the Criminal Annals of Scotland

Such were the resurrectionist times in Scotland, and such the crimes committed by Burke and Hare, and their English imitators. Now-a-days it may seem strange that events like th...

In the following pages is the _Courant_ confession of Burke, about which there was so much difficulty and heartburning. It goes more into detail than the official document, and...

What has been related in the preceding chapter are some of the early escapades of the resurrectionists. Throughout the latter part of the eighteenth century, these worthies, to...

_Hare's Position after the Trial--Warrant for his Commitment Withdrawn--Daft Jamie's Relatives seek to Prosecute--The Case before the Sheriff and the Lords of Justiciary--Burke'...

The warrant _in meditatione fugæ_ by the relatives of James Wilson against Hare was withdrawn quietly on the afternoon of Thursday, the 5th of February, and the authorities at o...

The two preceding chapters have been devoted to stories circulated about doctors and medical students who engaged in resurrectionist exploits, but there are many other tales, qu...

As time went on the excitement among the public increased, and the newspapers, thoroughly roused to the importance of the West Port murders, and freed from restraint by the deci...

The official confession of Burke was made in the condemned cell by the criminal on the 3rd of January, 1829, in the presence of Mr. George Tait, Sheriff-substitute; Mr. Archibal...

At the first blush one is apt to think that the resurrectionist movement, culminating in Scotland by the apprehension of Burke and Hare, and the execution of the former, is of m...

It was certainly a strange conclusion to the West Port tragedies that the man who had been so active a participant in them, and who had assisted in supplying so many "subjects"...

Thus far we have traced the genesis, and the ultimate development, of the resurrectionist movement, and it will now be necessary to relate with some detail the connection of Bur...

The High Court of Justiciary met to decide on the case, as it now stood, on the 2nd of February. The importance of the issue to be deliberated upon is shown by the fact that on...

Such were the circumstances that led up to the passing of what was familiarly known as the Anatomy Act. In view of the long course of restriction to which it put an end, and of...

While these events were transpiring outside, the authorities were labouring anxiously in the preparation of the case against the accused parties. This was no easy matter. It was...

Perhaps none of the murders committed by Burke and Hare caused so much popular regret as that of James Wilson, known as "Daft Jamie." He was one of those wandering naturals know...

It is remarkable that at so early a period in their career of crime Burke and Hare should have shown so much boldness as they exhibited in the murder of Mary Paterson, a young w...

Gray, according to his threat, went to the Police Office to give information of what he had seen. When he arrived there no one was present who could act upon his statement. Afte...

While all this was going on, these four persons, bound together, as they were, by the joint commission of terrible crimes, had their little disagreements among themselves. The w...

As the day fixed for the trial drew near, the public excitement became more and more intense. The feeling against the culprits was very strong, and while the statement that Hare...

The first witness called for the Crown was James Braidwood, a builder, and master of the Edinburgh fire brigade, who attested the correctness of the plan of the houses in Wester...

The success of their first transaction with the doctors developed new feelings in the hearts of Burke and Hare, and their two female companions. Their minds, unconsciously, had...

Of course the public knew nothing of what the authorities were doing or had discovered, the examination of the prisoners before the sheriff being, as is still the custom in Scot...

But in addition to this outcry against Paterson, the public mind was, as has already been indicated, agitated by the rumours that no further action was to be taken against Hare,...

This other lesson, to which reference was made at the close of the last chapter, was given through the medium of a case which occurred in London. In many features the case was s...

The hour for the closing scene of the Burke and Hare tragedy was now almost come, and Burke, to all appearance, seemed to regard his approaching fate with composure. He is even...

As yet Dr. Knox had done nothing to allay the irritation which existed towards him in the public mind. In the eyes of many he seemed a greater criminal than even Burke and Hare,...

Without any delay, on the reading of the declarations, the Lord Advocate at once commenced his address to the jury, and the public feeling is fully reflected in the following re...

All through the trial Burke had seemed callous and indifferent, but when he was removed from the court-room to the lock-up he was considerably agitated. He threw himself on his...

In a previous chapter the escape of Hare from Scotland, and the stirring events that accompanied it, have been minutely described. What became of him after that is not really kn...

In view of what has already been said as to the serious discrepancies in the confessions given to the world by Burke, and considering also that many of the persons murdered, eve...

A record of the share which the doctors themselves took in the resurrectionist work has not been well preserved. Personally they do not seem to have done much, leaving the activ...

Passing mention was made in a previous chapter of the confessions of his crimes made by Burke while he was in prison awaiting the time fixed for carrying out the final sentence...

But the end was near. This wholesale slaughter of human beings in the metropolis of a civilised country was almost finished. The only marvel was that it had lasted so long.

The murder of so well-known a character as James Wilson, by Burke and Hare, can only be regarded, from their point of view, as an act of the most egregious folly, and, like that...

The revelations following the execution of William Burke, in the publication of his confessions, and in the paragraphs--more or less authentic--which appeared in the newspapers...

But returning to the cases about which more is known than those spoken of in the last chapter, or which possessed features that have given them a greater hold on the public mind...

These strange on-goings in Edinburgh, it has been seen, met with the approval of the greater number of the Scotch newspapers; but many journals on the Southern side of the Borde...

F F F F. The dotted line on which the four letters F are placed shows the passage from the street and flat above, and corresponds with the passage in the sunk floor.

The last stage of a long trial had now been reached. After the verdict against Burke there was only one course open to the judges, but still the attention of the audience was gi...

The violent outbreak of public feeling described in the last chapter against Dr. Knox seems at last to have moved him to take some means to clear himself from the imputations ca...

The news of the result of the trial spread rapidly. All the Edinburgh newspapers gave lengthened reports of the proceedings--putting the "affairs of State" to a side for once--a...

About nine o'clock on the morning of Saturday, the 1st of November, Burke went round at Hare's house to see about his lodgers, who had been forced to change their quarters for t...

Still the wholesale slaughter of weak human beings went on. The murderers never sought a strong, able man upon whom to try their fatal skill; they always chose the old and the s...

The beginning of the connection of the persons whose career, up till 1827, we have endeavoured to describe in the preceding chapter, with the resurrectionist movement, may be sa...

_Hare's Position after the Trial--Warrant for his Commitment Withdrawn--Daft Jamie's Relatives seek to Prosecute--The Case before the Sheriff and the Lords of Justiciary--Burke'...