WEBVTT - Why Did People Once Rob Graves for Science?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. And of all the possible get rich

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<v Speaker 1>quick schemes you could involve yourself in, I'm betting you

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<v Speaker 1>would stop short of serial killing. Yes, even if it

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<v Speaker 1>meant you'd be aiding the advancement of science. But that's

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<v Speaker 1>not the case for everybody. Take William Burke and William Hair, too,

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<v Speaker 1>Irish immigrants who ran a boarding house in Edinburgh, Scotland,

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<v Speaker 1>and killed at least fifteen people during a ten month

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<v Speaker 1>period across eighteen seven and eighty eight. And we're not

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<v Speaker 1>trying to aggrandize serial murders here, but they made a

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<v Speaker 1>small fortune doing it. Burke and Hair had no criminal

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<v Speaker 1>records before they got into the murdering business. Burke was

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<v Speaker 1>a cobbler and Hair a laborer who owned a lodging

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<v Speaker 1>house with his wife. When a boarder who owed the

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<v Speaker 1>Hair's a good deal of background died one day in

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<v Speaker 1>November eight seven, Hair complained to his friend Burke. The

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<v Speaker 1>two decided that the best way to recoup Hair's financial

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<v Speaker 1>loss was to sell the man's corpse to an anatomy

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<v Speaker 1>professor at the University of Edinburgh. Anatomy research was a

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<v Speaker 1>booming business in Edinburgh in the early eighteen hundreds, and

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<v Speaker 1>though many human dissections were conducted every day in the city,

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<v Speaker 1>human remains were hard to come by. Grave robbing was

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<v Speaker 1>frowned upon, but anatomists were only technically allowed to study

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<v Speaker 1>the bodies of deceased prisoners, suicide victims, orphans and abandoned children.

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<v Speaker 1>So Edinburgh's underbelly was crawling with body snatchers. Since the

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<v Speaker 1>demand was high for cadavers and the supply relatively low,

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<v Speaker 1>many anatomists used the services of so called resurrection men

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<v Speaker 1>to fill their human corps requirements. Resurrection men were folks

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<v Speaker 1>who made a business of body snatching or clandestinely removing

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<v Speaker 1>a body from a burial site. There was no law

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<v Speaker 1>against digging up a dead body and selling it, since

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<v Speaker 1>the dead didn't officially belong to anyone. Oh what an

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<v Speaker 1>innocent time, but the general public was perhaps understandably dismayed

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<v Speaker 1>by this practice. In addition to the living's emotional attachment,

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<v Speaker 1>who loved one's remains. At the time, many Christians were

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<v Speaker 1>concerned that the dissection of bodies after death would prevent

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<v Speaker 1>the deceased from rising during the final judgment. However, anatomists

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<v Speaker 1>desperate for cadavers were willing to pay good money for

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<v Speaker 1>bodies and sometimes in terrible condition, without asking questions about

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<v Speaker 1>where those bodies came from. A doctor and anatomist named

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<v Speaker 1>Robert Knox was a popular lecturer at the University of Edinburgh.

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<v Speaker 1>When Burke and Hair came to him with that first

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<v Speaker 1>cadaver from the boarding house, Knox paid them seven pounds

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<v Speaker 1>ten for the body. In today's money that's almost seven

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<v Speaker 1>fifty pounds or over nine fifty American dollars, and was

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<v Speaker 1>almost double with the dead man owed Hair in Backgront.

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<v Speaker 1>The body was pretty fresh, which pleased Knox, and he

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<v Speaker 1>was even more pleased a few months later with the

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<v Speaker 1>body of Burke and Hair's first murder victim. She was

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<v Speaker 1>a lodger who fell ill with fever in the boarding house.

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<v Speaker 1>Perhaps worried that her illness would mean bad business for

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<v Speaker 1>the boarding house, or perhaps looking to make a quick

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<v Speaker 1>book the two men suffocated her. Knox paid them ten

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<v Speaker 1>pounds that's thirteen dollars for that cadaver, worth over a

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<v Speaker 1>thousand pounds or hundred dollars today. Over the course of

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<v Speaker 1>the next year, Knox bought a total of sixteen bodies

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<v Speaker 1>from the pair, mostly women. Most of their victims were killed,

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<v Speaker 1>likely with the knowledge of the murderer's wives, by applying

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<v Speaker 1>them with whiskey and then suffocating them. Burke and Hair

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<v Speaker 1>preyed on people who were poor and alone or disabled.

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<v Speaker 1>During the eventual trial, the three victims named in the

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<v Speaker 1>indictment were a mentally disabled young man, a young woman

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<v Speaker 1>reputed to be a prostitute, and their final victim, the

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<v Speaker 1>one who got them caught, a middle aged Irish woman

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<v Speaker 1>named Margaret Dougherty, reportedly in Edinburgh's searching for her missing son.

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<v Speaker 1>Burke and Hair were discovered by a couple staying in

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<v Speaker 1>Hair's boarding house. They saw the two men drinking with

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<v Speaker 1>the woman in the evening, and the next morning she

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<v Speaker 1>had disappeared. They found her body packed in straw under

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<v Speaker 1>a bed, ready to be taken to Knox. After the

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<v Speaker 1>couple alerted the police, the authorities rated Knox's cadavers and

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<v Speaker 1>found the woman's body among them. In the trial, Hair

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<v Speaker 1>testified against Burke, and he and his wife were released.

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<v Speaker 1>Burke's wife was also released, but was executed. Knox was

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<v Speaker 1>exonerated of all charges because Burke testified that Knox didn't

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<v Speaker 1>know about the providence of the bodies he was buying.

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<v Speaker 1>The case was extremely high profile, and, along with other

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<v Speaker 1>murder cases, including copycat crimes, it led to the passing

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<v Speaker 1>of the Anatomy Act of eighteen thirty two. This controversial

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<v Speaker 1>legislation opened up anatomists options. Any donated body could not

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<v Speaker 1>be dissected, but with dissections still considered a sort of desecration,

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<v Speaker 1>the only people who considered such a donation tended to

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<v Speaker 1>be those in poverty. The Act therefore shifted dissection from

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<v Speaker 1>being a sort of secondary punishment for criminals after execution

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<v Speaker 1>to being a sort of punishment for not having the

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<v Speaker 1>family or funds to provide for yourself after death, and

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<v Speaker 1>led to riots at the Cambridge Medical School. Though attitudes

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<v Speaker 1>and laws have changed since then, the issue of the ownership,

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<v Speaker 1>transfer and treatment of the dead is definitely still under discussion.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was written by Jesselyin Shields and produced by

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<v Speaker 1>Tyler Klang. For more on this and lots of other

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<v Speaker 1>grave topics, visit our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>M