WEBVTT - S04 E15: Where The Bodies Lie 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:13.760 There's a place in Scotland that has dominated the landscape 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.520 of my childhood, much as it does the skyline of 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:20.200 the city of Edinburgh, having risen three hundred and fifty 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:23.759 million years ago, long before such periods of time were 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:27.720 expressed in our numbers, longer in fact, than some believe 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:31.440 the age of the universe itself to be. Arthur's Seat 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:36.000 sits today as a duel in the Scottish capital, having 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:39.960 first arisen due to volcanic activity, then later been carved 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:43.440 by a glacier. It is, of course completely and utterly 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:47.600 disinterested in the whims of humankind. Over the years, however, 0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:51.519 it has been gradually interwoven with many of its follies. 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:56.000 Just a cursory glance at any map of its surface 0:00:56.280 --> 0:00:59.080 will reveal our attempts to tame it and claim it 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:04.319 for our own names, tattooed across its steep crags and 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:09.560 valleys and the surrounding undulations of Holyrood Park. There on 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.399 each and every day of the year, walkers can be 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:17.800 found trapsing over Haggis, snow gutted Haddie or Hunter's Bog. 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:22.800 On the southern edge, you'll find the wells o'weary, a 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:26.759 former hub of folk life and tradition. It was there 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:30.240 in the eighteenth century that many would come to socialize 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:33.959 and wash their clothes, until those with the wealth to 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:38.039 avoid such indignities declared that an improper site for a 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:42.640 royal park. And to the west the high ridges of 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:46.240 Salisbury Crags, where many a duel was fought in the 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:51.240 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was here too, in seventeen seventy, 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:54.560 at the foot of the crags, that relatives attempted to 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:58.760 bury the body of Mungo Campbell, an excise officer who 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:02.800 had committed suicide after being convicted of murdering a local earl. 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:07.040 His burial was interrupted by a local mob angered by 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:10.880 the earl's death. Seizing the body, they proceeded to haul 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:13.600 it to the top of the crags before throwing it 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:18.040 back over the edge. Campbell's bashed and broken body was 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:21.519 eventually gathered by his family and taken to be buried 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:25.640 at sea. Turning up from Saint Margaret's Lock on the 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:30.160 meadow bank side, you'll find yourself approaching Winnie Hill, also 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:34.120 known as Fairy No an easy access point to those 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.200 who lived nearby as it was for the five young 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:41.080 boys who ventured onto the hill's northeast face one bright 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:47.679 summer's day in July eighteen thirty six. You're listening to Unexplained, 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:58.639 and I'm Richard McClane Smith. The boys had been out 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:02.480 hunting rabbits on the hill, digging into burrows with their trowels, 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:06.000 when one of them spotted something unusual in the side 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:09.560 of a cliff, three slabs of slate that had clearly 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:14.120 been arranged to hide something. Pulling the slabs away, the 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:17.960 boys discovered a small cave behind no more than twelve 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:23.119 by eighteen inches, inside of which lay something very unusual. Indeed, 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:29.560 Positioned neatly in rows across three shelves were seventeen small 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:34.440 wooden boxes. Each were about four inches long and one 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.320 and a half inches wide, and had been studded with 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:41.480 tiny ornaments made from tin and put together with great care. 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:46.120 Reaching into the hole, one of the boys pulled out 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:49.760 a box and gave it a shake. There was something 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:55.040 inside it. Hurriedly ripping off the lid, the boy, who 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:58.120 had been hoping for some kind of treasure, was disappointed 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:03.280 to find only a small wooden figurine inside. The enigmatic 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:06.640 figure cut from a single piece of wood, was dressed 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:10.120 head to toe in cotton clothes with a striking face 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:14.840 that had been delicately carved by its maker. Another box 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:18.520 was grabbed and quickly emptied, only to reveal yet another 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:24.960 strange wooden figure inside. Dissatisfied with their find, the boys 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:28.240 nonetheless grabbed as many as they could and spent the 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.320 next few minutes throwing them at each other until they 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:35.120 became bored and went back home, leaving the figures and 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:39.680 the boxes lying broken and exposed under the afternoon sun. 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:44.039 It was a few days later when the boys recounted 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.760 to their schoolmaster, mister Ferguson, what they had found on 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:53.720 Arthur's seat. Intrigued by their description of the figurines, mister Ferguson, 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:58.320 who was also an enthusiastic member of a local archeological society, 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.200 headed up the hill at the first opportunity, grateful to 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:05.520 find all the pieces just as the boys had left them, 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:10.119 with some still resting inside the cave. It wasn't until 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:13.479 Ferguson got all the boxes and figures home that he 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:17.200 realized what it was he was looking at. They weren't 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:22.320 just wooden boxes. They were coffins, which would make each 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:27.119 of the seventeen figures lying inside bodies of the dead. 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:32.240 To this day, the precise meaning and purpose of this 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:38.080 extraordinary discovery remains a mystery. Some at the time thought 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:41.760 perhaps they had something to do with witchcraft, with even 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:45.159 a local paper ascribing them to the infernal hags of 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:50.560 Arthur's Seat. More recently, however, a new theory was proposed, 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.800 with links to a story that began only a few 0:05:53.920 --> 0:06:04.920 years before the miniature coffins were first discovered. The ship 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:08.040 rocked and rolled about in the waves as any one 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.240 who wasn't part of the crew crammed themselves into every 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:14.880 conceivable space and cowered against the wind and the rain. 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:19.960 Up on deck, twenty four year old William Burke sits 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:23.960 huddled in a group, sipping whiskey, serenaded by the distress 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:27.039 calls of all the cattle, sheep and pigs with whom 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:31.480 they were sharing their journey. It was the year eighteen eighteen, 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:35.960 and due to a devastating post war recession, Burke, like 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:39.760 everyone else on board, was traveling from Ireland to Glasgow 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:43.760 in Scotland in search of work. Most would be hoping 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:46.880 to take advantage of the Scottish harvests, where they could 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:50.719 make anywhere between eight and twelvepence a day, the equivalent 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:53.839 of about two pounds fifty to day, doing all the 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:57.320 work that local workers wouldn't and at half the price. 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:02.800 Though mainly men aged between sixteen and thirty six, there 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:06.680 were women too, who, like now could look forward to 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:09.920 earning on average only eighty percent of what their male 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:15.160 counterparts took home. Most followed the harvest as the season dictated, 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:18.880 heading first to the border towns, then following the work 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:24.679 northwards up to Glasgow, before eventually returning back to Ireland. Others, however, 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:28.200 like Burke, might choose to stay on in search of 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:34.040 more regular work. By eighteen eighteen, having been demobbed from 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:37.360 the army only a few years before, Burke had made 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:40.600 this same trip a number of times, leaving behind his 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:44.640 wife and children for months on end. That year, however, 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:49.560 something had changed, either she had left him or Burke 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:54.360 had decided to cut ties. In any case, having got 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:58.080 wind of a vast new construction job requiring labor the 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:01.880 extension of a canal system into Edinburgh, Burke made his 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:07.320 way to the capital city, starting at Port Hopetown in 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:11.560 the west of the city, Burke, alongside countless others, worked 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:14.760 on and off for four years, chipping away at earth 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:18.800 and stone with nothing but bare hands, pigs and axes, 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:22.080 and the occasional mound of gunpowder to help carve the 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:27.040 ambitious waterway from out of the land, With workers having 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:30.160 to follow the progress of the canal sleeping by its 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:34.000 banks at night in makeshift huts made from wood and straw. 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:39.439 Burke soon found himself in Falkirk, a town some twenty 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:43.240 five miles west of Edinburgh. It was here that he 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:46.920 met Helen McDougall, with whom he struck up a relationship. 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.839 Four years later, the canal was finished. With no reason 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:55.959 to return to Ireland, William and Helen, now firmly in love, 0:08:56.480 --> 0:09:08.080 returned to Edinburgh. To day, Edinburgh is a veritable tourist attraction, 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:12.480 being the second most visited city in the United Kingdom. 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:16.040 But like any city, Edinburgh is and has always been 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:19.560 a tale of two halves, a state that had perhaps 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:22.960 never been more pronounced than in the early eighteen hundreds, 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:25.840 and as is often the case, it was in the 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:29.920 most deprived areas that many immigrant communities were forced to 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:35.880 seek comfort and communality For William and Helen. That place 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:41.200 was West Portsborough or Westport, the main thoroughfare of Portsborough, 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:45.240 an area of Edinburgh's old town, tucked away under the 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:50.160 southern shadows of Edinburgh Castle. It was a place described 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:52.600 by a member of the local sanitary committee at the 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:56.560 time as one of the most unclean and badly ventilated 0:09:56.600 --> 0:10:01.880 areas in this or any adjacent country. It was, however, 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:04.520 also one of the most vibrant parts of the city, 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:08.640 with many of the cities monetarily poorest, buying for work 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:13.240 and space crammed into vast, towering tenements, with some even 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:17.839 reaching ten stories high, inside which you might find as 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:20.880 many as forty eight families or one hundred and thirty 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:24.560 eight people living, with rarely a fireplace between them or 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:29.840 anywhere to boil water. Outbreaks of infectious diseases were commonplace. 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:35.600 Out on the street. Grocers, spirit sellers and textile traders 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:39.280 sold their wares under the smog of the many tanneries, 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:44.120 salt works and paper mills near by. Having found a 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:48.760 lodging house, Burke and Madougall became hawkers, selling second hand 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:52.240 goods throughout Westport and making do with what they had. 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:57.240 In eighteen twenty seven, the pair traveled south to Pennicook 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:00.679 to take on some harvesting work, where they came friends 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:05.800 with William Hare. Hare, who had also originally come over 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:08.679 from Ireland, had spent the last few years in Edinburgh 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:13.520 working as a coalman's assistant. During that time, he'd resided 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:17.079 in a lodging house in Tanner's Close, a small business 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:21.400 owned by Margaret Laird that was situated just off Westport. 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:26.200 After being discovered having an affair with Margaret by her husband, 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.400 Hare had been kicked out of the house, only to 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:33.679 return soon after when Margaret's husband died due to reasons 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:38.640 that are not entirely clear. When the harvest was over, 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:42.280 Hare suggested to Burke and Helen that they move in 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:52.680 with him and Margaret. Margaret's lodging house, located at the 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:56.680 bottom of Tanner's Close, consisted of two relatively large and 0:11:56.800 --> 0:12:00.760 roomy apartments with seven beds for lodgers, which were little 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:04.560 more than a straw mattress and a blanket. The beds 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:07.440 would go for as little as threepence a night, often 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:10.280 with as many as three people sharing one at a time. 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:15.880 Occupants could range from any age, but most were itinerant workers, 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:20.400 picking up jobs wherever they could find them. It was 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:24.400 late in November eighteen twenty seven when Margaret noticed one 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:27.760 morning that one of her guests, a man named Donald, 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:31.679 had failed to get up from his bed. Donald had 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:34.960 been suffering from what was then known as dropsy, an 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:37.680 excess build up a fluid under the skin and in 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:43.080 the cavities of the body. As Margaret soon discovered, Donald 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:47.800 was dead. Having made the necessary arrangements to have the 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:51.440 body removed, Margaret had little choice but to leave it 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:54.040 in the lodging house until it could be taken away 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:58.640 the next day. To make matters worse, Donald had owed 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:04.160 her four pounds before he died. That night. With Margaret 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:08.200 stewed over the lost revenue, Hair stared at Donald's dead 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:11.640 body from the dim light of a doorway, working an 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:16.319 idea over in his head. When Burke returned home later 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:22.080 that night, Hair made him a proposition. It was widely 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:26.520 known that the Surgical School of Edinburgh University, located only 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.760 fifteen minutes walk from Tanner's Close, was one of the 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:34.280 leading institutions of its kind in the world. In recent years, 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:38.360 it had gained an especially vaunted reputation in the burgeoning 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:43.520 field of anatomy, and as Hair also knew all too well, 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:47.080 it was an industry that was in constant need of 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:54.640 fresh corpses to experiment on corpses like Donald's. The next day, 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:59.120 Air and Burke watched carefully as a carpenter constructed a 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:03.440 coffin preparation for Donald's body's extraction from the lodging house. 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:07.560 After the carpenter had left, with the porter not due 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:10.880 to take the coffin away for another hour, Hair took 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:14.079 a chisel to the lid and carefully prized it open. 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:18.920 Having removed the body, Hair and Burke hurriedly stuffed the 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.920 coffin with leather, scraps and straw, before replacing the lid. 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:28.280 A short time later. With Donald's body carefully stashed away 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:32.800 under a bed, Hair watched expectantly as the porter collected 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:37.960 the coffin and took it away. That evening, the two 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.760 men made the short journey along the Grass Market towards 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:48.200 Surgeon's Square in search of doctor Alexander Munroe. At the time, 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.359 Munroe was well installed as the university's professor of anatomy 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:56.160 and medicine. The third in as many generations of Munroe's 0:14:56.400 --> 0:15:00.240 who had effectively had the position handed down to them. 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:04.160 In this capacity, Monroe was entitled to all the legally 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:09.840 procured bodies offered to the university. However, since doctor Monroe 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:13.320 wasn't in at the time, her and Burke were instructed 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:17.360 to try doctor Robert Knox instead, whose offices were also 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:23.240 on Surgeon's Square. Moments later, they were greeted by Knox's assistance, 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:27.240 William Ferguson and Thomas Jones, who told the men to 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:30.840 wait until it was dark before bringing them their body. 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:36.040 That night, the pair threw Donald's corpse into a sack 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:41.080 and hawked it up to Surgeon's Square. Doctor Knox arrived 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:46.080 soon after to examine it. Like many surgeons working and 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.880 teaching at the university at the time, Knox was fiercely 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:53.960 competitive and greatly frustrated by Monroe, who many felt was 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:58.640 undeserving of his position. In response, he taken to setting 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:03.440 up private classes students, which proved immensely profitable, just as 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.080 long as he could keep a steady supply of bodies 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:10.000 to dissect for them. After taking a quick look at 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:12.720 the one in front of him, Knox offered Hair and 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:16.320 Burke seven pounds and ten shillings on the spot, with 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:21.760 no questions, asked the equivalent of five hundred pounds today, or, 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:25.080 to put it another way, what would ordinarily take the 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:30.640 pair the best part of two months to earn. Knox's assistant, Jones, 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:33.760 duly counted out the money and handed it over to 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:38.120 the pair, adding quickly as they left that the good 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:41.440 doctor Knox would be grateful for any more should they 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:45.800 ever happen to come across any And with that, the 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:53.120 pair left the building and headed back to Westport. Are 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.040 you always taking care of your family? Do you often 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:59.160 take care of others and not yourself? Now it's time 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:02.400 to take care of your self, to make time for you. 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.840 You deserve it. Teledoc gives you access to a licensed 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.720 therapist to help you get back to feeling your best, 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:12.960 to feeling like yourself again. With teledoc, you can speak 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:16.760 to a licensed therapist by phone or video. Therapy appointments 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:19.679 are available seven days a week from seven am to 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:24.159 nine pm local time. If you feel overwhelmed sometimes maybe 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:28.240 you feel stressed or anxious, depressed or lonely, or you 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:31.840 might be struggling with a personal or family issue, teledoc 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:36.600 can help. Teledoc is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches, 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:39.399 so they make it easy to change counselors if needed. 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:44.520 For free teledoc therapy is available through most insurance or employers. 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:48.840 Download the app or visit teledoc dot com forward slash 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:55.480 Unexplained podcast today to get started. That's teladoc dot com 0:17:55.520 --> 0:18:04.359 slash Unexplained Podcast. What Burke and Hare had done was 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:07.680 not illegal, and there was no need for their duplicity. 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:11.920 Provided a body had died of natural causes and had 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:15.119 not been buried, and there were no relatives or dependents 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.399 interested in collecting it, it was more or less legal 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:23.800 to sell it for medical studies. Most executed criminals or 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:27.600 any who died in custody were also donated to the university, 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:32.640 though there were many known as resurrectionists or body snatches 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:36.800 that stalked the cemeteries at night, hunting for fresh flesh 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:41.119 to disinter and sell to the highest bidder. Contrary to 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:46.160 popular belief, Hare and Burke were never that they were 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:51.119 going to become something far worse. It was a number 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:54.600 of months later, in February eighteen twenty eight, with the 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:58.600 money from Donald's corpse, well and truly spent that Margaret 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:02.720 Hare noticed another of her clients, Joseph Miller, had come 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:06.560 down with a bad fever. Surely, as she explained to 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:09.200 her partner, it would only be a matter of time 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:12.360 before he too would provide them with a fresh corpse 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:16.720 for the good doctor Knox. But Miller clung on to life, 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:20.919 and soon his infection was having a drastic impact on 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:25.960 Margaret's ability to attract more customers. Perhaps it was Hare 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:29.640 who suggested that they might merely hasten what was already 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:34.800 inevitable in any event, one night, having sold Burke on 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:39.240 the idea too, Hair and his compatriot shuffled into Miller's 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:42.400 bedroom As he tossed and turned feverish in his bed, 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:45.880 unsure as to whether the two men that were now 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:51.600 standing over him were real or just an ominous fever dream. 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:56.000 Then Burke pulled a pillow from another bed and slowly, 0:19:56.200 --> 0:20:03.000 forcefully brought it down over Miller's mouth. The man struggled frantically, 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:06.680 but Hair was too strong, clambering on top of him 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:10.000 and pinning down his arms, putting so much pressure on 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:12.840 his lungs there wasn't even room to take a breath, 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:18.280 and then he was stilled when Burke pulled the pillow away. 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:22.159 Miller's face was frozen in a silent scream of terror, 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:26.800 his eyes wide open and bloodshot, as a tiny spittle 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:30.240 of blooded mucus collected in the corner of his mouth. 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:35.879 Perhaps things might have ended that night had they taken 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:39.680 a different turn, and there was no doubt some apprehension 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:43.040 in Hair and Burke as they stuffed Miller's body into 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:45.920 a tea box and wheeled it all the way up 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:50.919 to Surgeon's Square. When asked where the body, now stiff 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:54.840 with rigor mortis, had come from, the men replied simply 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:58.919 that they had purchased it from relatives. Being only the 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:03.199 second brought to in four months with obvious signs of illness, 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:13.639 there was no reason to suspect otherwise, Such were the 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:16.840 circumstances of the day. Hare and Burke had hit on 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:20.680 a perverse logic that the bodies of the poor were 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:25.640 worth far more dead than alive. Only days later they 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:30.200 spied another opportunity when salt seller Abigail Simpson took a 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:34.399 bed at Margaret's lodging house. The men applied her with 0:21:34.440 --> 0:21:38.960 alcohol until she passed out on a bed, then employing 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:42.240 the same technique, as they had to Joseph Miller they 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:46.680 murdered her, She too would end up on doctor Knox's 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:51.080 dissection table, and now they had a taste for it. 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:57.280 By late October eighteen twenty eight, Hare and Burke, with 0:21:57.359 --> 0:22:01.440 the apparent complicity of their partners Mark and Helen, had 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:05.880 deposited a total of fifteen bodies with doctor Knox, each 0:22:05.920 --> 0:22:09.159 of them being placed on receipt in water or alcohol 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:13.040 to draw out the blood, then kept in storage before 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:18.480 eventual dissection, the youngest being a boy of twelve. The 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:22.280 boy had been lodging in Tanners Close with his grandmother when, 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:25.399 after being informed that she had left without him, he 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:28.879 was taken tenderly to a nearby bed by Burke and 0:22:29.040 --> 0:22:33.359 given some whiskey to forget his troubles. Not knowing that 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:36.439 the body of his dead grandmother was in fact hidden 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:39.480 under the very bed he was sitting on, the boy 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:45.640 was then also murdered. Soon, however, suspicions would be raised 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:50.640 and Hare and Burke began to get sloppy. A young 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:53.800 woman brought to Knox with no obvious signs of death, 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:57.480 was believed by his assistant Ferguson to be someone called 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:02.560 Mary Peterson, who'd only recently been released from a local asylum. 0:23:02.760 --> 0:23:06.240 Though it was never confirmed, the rumors were that Ferguson 0:23:06.440 --> 0:23:09.600 might have even been romantically linked with Peterson prior to 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:14.560 her murder, but since her identity was never confirmed, Ferguson 0:23:14.600 --> 0:23:17.399 had little choice but to work side by side the 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:20.879 body of his possible lover as it was kept in storage, 0:23:21.400 --> 0:23:27.719 decomposing piece by piece each day, right in front of him. Then, 0:23:27.840 --> 0:23:31.840 in early October, Ferguson and his colleagues received another body 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:36.120 from Here and Burke, which they immediately recognized as Jamie Wilson, 0:23:36.640 --> 0:23:41.680 a popular character among the Westport community. Though not homeless 0:23:41.760 --> 0:23:44.919 and well looked after by his sister Janet, Wilson was 0:23:44.960 --> 0:23:49.000 prone to wandering the streets barefooted and entertaining passes by 0:23:49.119 --> 0:23:52.120 with his talent for naming the exact day of any 0:23:52.200 --> 0:23:56.480 date they could throw at him. But when Knox inspected 0:23:56.480 --> 0:24:00.400 the body later, he insisted that his assistance had been mistaken. 0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:05.159 On hearing that Jamie Wilson had indeed been declared missing, 0:24:05.840 --> 0:24:08.800 Knox ordered his assistance to bring the body that Here 0:24:08.880 --> 0:24:12.080 and Burke had last delivered ahead of any others he 0:24:12.119 --> 0:24:15.800 had in storage. Doctor Knox then ordered its head and 0:24:15.840 --> 0:24:19.440 feet to be removed before he later used it in class. 0:24:26.119 --> 0:24:30.560 By October, now earning decent money, Burke and McDougall had 0:24:30.560 --> 0:24:33.360 moved out of Tanner's Close and into their own lodgings 0:24:33.480 --> 0:24:36.719 a little further down the road. It was during this 0:24:36.800 --> 0:24:41.000 time that Helen's ex husband's daughter, Anne Gray, came to 0:24:41.040 --> 0:24:44.320 stay along with her husband James, and their newborn baby. 0:24:46.240 --> 0:24:49.680 Though Anne hadn't suspected anything at the time, having been 0:24:49.680 --> 0:24:51.920 told to clear out of the apartment. On the night 0:24:51.960 --> 0:24:56.439 of Halloween, she and James returned to find m'dougall and Burke, 0:24:56.880 --> 0:24:59.880 who had clearly had a late night in a strange move. 0:25:02.160 --> 0:25:04.560 When Anne, who was smoking a pipe at the time, 0:25:05.119 --> 0:25:07.960 tried to collect some stockings for her child from behind 0:25:08.040 --> 0:25:12.159 a bed, Burke pushed her away, warning her that the 0:25:12.240 --> 0:25:16.520 pipe could set the bed on fire. When Burke went 0:25:16.560 --> 0:25:21.119 out soon after, m'dougall, for no apparent reason, decided to 0:25:21.160 --> 0:25:24.199 lie down on the bed until his return, while the 0:25:24.240 --> 0:25:27.959 son of another lodger of theirs, named John, sat watch 0:25:28.000 --> 0:25:32.960 on a chair near by. When eventually m'dougall and John 0:25:33.160 --> 0:25:36.560 left the room for a moment, Anne stole in and 0:25:36.680 --> 0:25:40.720 searched the bed, recoiling in horror a moment later when 0:25:40.720 --> 0:25:47.520 she discovered a cold, limp body lying underneath it. Having 0:25:47.520 --> 0:25:52.040 informed her husband, Anne and James packed their bags immediately, and, 0:25:52.160 --> 0:25:56.400 despite McDougall's attempts to buy their silence, made their way 0:25:56.440 --> 0:26:01.560 straight to the nearest police station. With minutes, officers had 0:26:01.640 --> 0:26:05.240 arrested Burke and Medougal and would soon have William Hare 0:26:05.560 --> 0:26:11.399 and Margaret Laired in custody, two accused of murder. The 0:26:11.480 --> 0:26:16.400 body the sixteenth of their victims was identified as Margaret Docherty, 0:26:17.320 --> 0:26:19.680 a middle aged woman who had come to Edinburgh from 0:26:19.720 --> 0:26:22.960 Donegal in search of her son, who had moved on 0:26:23.080 --> 0:26:26.240 from the city only three days before. She had arrived. 0:26:27.359 --> 0:26:31.200 With Hair and Burke in custody, the most notorious murder 0:26:31.240 --> 0:26:34.760 spree related to the city of Edinburgh had come to 0:26:34.800 --> 0:26:45.560 an end. Incredibly, such was the carefully constructed method that 0:26:45.680 --> 0:26:49.240 Hare and Burke used to kill their victims, the police 0:26:49.240 --> 0:26:54.359 had no evidence with which to convict them. As such, prosecutors, 0:26:54.400 --> 0:26:57.760 following a well tried and tested method, selected one of 0:26:57.800 --> 0:27:01.159 the men at Brandam, in this case, William Hair, and 0:27:01.320 --> 0:27:05.560 offered him complete immunity from prosecution if he merely provided 0:27:05.640 --> 0:27:08.760 details of Docherty's murder and all the other murders they 0:27:08.800 --> 0:27:15.000 were suspected of. Unsurprisingly, Hair agreed in what's known as 0:27:15.040 --> 0:27:19.720 turning state's evidence or in those days, king's evidence. Hair 0:27:19.800 --> 0:27:23.520 effectively became the single piece of evidence for the prosecution 0:27:25.000 --> 0:27:28.760 in a highly publicized trial which began on Christmas Eve 0:27:28.840 --> 0:27:32.680 in eighteen twenty eight. Despite at first pleading not guilty, 0:27:33.320 --> 0:27:37.520 William Burke eventually confessed to the killings, his account differing 0:27:37.600 --> 0:27:40.680 somewhatch from Hair's as both tried to heap the blame 0:27:40.760 --> 0:27:44.879 on each other. Many have since come to believe that 0:27:45.040 --> 0:27:49.640 Hair was most likely the more dominant of the two. Nonetheless, 0:27:50.000 --> 0:27:53.639 Hair was duly exonerated in return for his earlier confession, 0:27:54.359 --> 0:27:58.159 while William Burke was convicted of murder and sentenced to 0:27:58.200 --> 0:28:03.040 death by hanging. Both Margaret Laird and Helen m'dougall were 0:28:03.040 --> 0:28:05.760 also released at the end of the trial and allowed 0:28:05.760 --> 0:28:10.040 to walk free, though both were later attacked by mobs. 0:28:10.080 --> 0:28:13.679 They were each given police protection, enabling them to return 0:28:13.720 --> 0:28:18.560 to their homes, with Margaret eventually returning to Ireland. Nothing 0:28:18.640 --> 0:28:24.040 is known about what became of them after William Hare, 0:28:24.520 --> 0:28:28.520 assisted by the police left Edinburgh in a disguise and 0:28:28.720 --> 0:28:33.159 was given passage to the town of Dumfries. However, after 0:28:33.200 --> 0:28:36.920 being recognized by a fellow passenger, Hare was also attacked 0:28:36.920 --> 0:28:40.240 by a mob on arrival in Dumfries, before police were 0:28:40.280 --> 0:28:44.080 again forced to help him escape. He was last reported 0:28:44.160 --> 0:28:46.960 heading over the border to England, from where he was 0:28:47.000 --> 0:28:52.240