Burke and Hare: Body Snatch and Murder

In December, 1828, 12 months into their murder spree, Burke invited a woman he had befriended, Marjory Docherty, to stay in the lodging house but told that he first had to wait for the current lodgers James and Ann Gray, to move out for the night. When the Gray’s returned the following day, Burke told them not to go near the bed. This merely served to arouse Ann Gray’s suspicions and when she checked under the bed to her horror she discovered the dead body of Marjory Docherty. The Gray’s, appalled at their terrible discovery immediately set-off to inform the police. Realising what had happened Helen MacDougall pursued them down the street and offered them £10 not to tell, they refused. By the time the police arrived a few hours later the body had been removed. When questioned Burke told the police that Docherty had left the lodging house at 7 am, when Helen MacDougall told them that she had left that evening, they were both promptly arrested. When further investigations led them to find Marjory Docherty’s dead body already laid out on Robert Knox’s operating table, William Hare and Margaret Laird, who were known to be friends of Burke and to have worked for Robert Knox, were also arrested. When Janet Brown read about the arrests she went to the police and identified clothing found at the house as being that of her missing friend Mary Patterson.

Even so, the case against Burke, Hare, and the others was considered too flimsy to guarantee a conviction. Identifying the shy and nervous Hare as the weaker of the two and the one least likely to have committed the murders (though he was certainly responsible for at least one) the Lord Advocate Sir William Rae offered him immunity from prosecution if he would turn King’s Evidence and testify against Burke, he needed little persuasion.

William Burke was convicted on 16 charges of murder. He testified at his trial that Dr Robert Knox had known nothing of the origins of the cadavers and as a result Dr Knox was never charged, though he must have had his suspicions. Neither Helen MacDougall nor Margaret Laird were charged though they were forced to flee from angry mobs set on lynching them, they died in obscurity. William Hare was released from custody in February 1829. It was rumoured that he was later attacked and seriously injured. He was last known to be residing in Carlisle in poor health, possibly blind, and in some poverty. 

William Burke was hanged on 29 January, 1829. In the days immediately prior to his execution he was said to have forgiven Hare, and to have wept often and been truly remorseful for what he had done. A naturally garrulous man he spoke a great deal to the many catholic priests he insisted remain with him throughout his ordeal. He was, however, said to have faced his execution with fortitude. After his death he was, like his many victims, dissected for the benefit of the medical students of Edinburgh’s College of Surgeons. His death mask, skeleton, and a wallet made from his tanned skin remain as exhibits in the College Museum.