In 1828, a series of 16 murders terrorized Edinburgh, and the victims’ bodies were sold in the name of medical science. By the early 19th century, the city was a leading center for anatomical research, but the demand for cadavers far outstripped the legal supply. This shortage turned grave robbing into a lucrative trade, but for two men, it was only a short step to a far darker crime. William Hare, who ran a lodging house, and his friend William Burke found a business opportunity when an elderly lodger died.
Instead of reporting the death, they sold the body to Professor Robert Knox, who ran a private anatomy school in Surgeon’s Square, for £7 and 10 shillings (the source says £710 shillings, which appears garbled; historically it was £7 10s, roughly £580 today). The cash was good, but the supply of tenants dying naturally was unreliable. Burke and Hare decided to take matters into their own hands. The pair began inviting victims back to the lodging house, plying them with alcohol and then suffocating them when they were too drunk to put up a fight.
The bodies were then stuffed into tea chests and sold to Professor Knox. The murder spree netted an estimated 16 victims, all lodgers or vulnerable people who wouldn’t be missed. Their crimes unraveled when former lodgers, who had forcibly entered the house to collect belongings, discovered a body. Burke and Hare were arrested.
Burke was found guilty and hanged on January 28, 1829, and his own body was publicly dissected in an anatomy lesson, a final irony given the nature of his crimes. Hare, who had turned king’s evidence, was released and disappeared into complete obscurity.