Burke, William; and Hare, William
- Burke, William; and Hare, William
-
▪ Irish criminals
Respectively,
born 1792, Orrery, Ireland
died January 28, 1829, Edinburgh, Scotland
flourished 1820s, Londonderry, Ireland
pair of infamous murderers for profit who killed their victims and sold the corpses to an anatomist for purposes of scientific dissection.
Hare immigrated to Scotland from Ireland and wandered through several occupations before becoming keeper of a lodging house in Edinburgh, where Burke, also Irish-born, arrived in 1827. On November 29 an old pensioner died in the house, and Hare, angry that the deceased still owed 4 pounds in rent, devised a plan to steal the corpse from its coffin and sell it to recover the money he was owed. With Burke's aid, the pair sold the corpse to Robert Knox, a surgeon, for 7 pounds 10 shillings. The profit led the two men, assisted by their common-law wives, during the following months to entice at least 15 unknown wayfarers into the lodging house, where they got them intoxicated and then smothered them (in order to leave no trace of violence). Afterward, they sold the corpses to Knox's school of anatomy. Burke and Hare were exposed when neighbours and police discovered their murder of a local woman on October 31, 1828.
Hare turned king's evidence and, along with his wife, Margaret, testified against Burke and his wife, Helen. Hare eventually was released, never to be heard from again. Burke was tried for murder, found guilty, and hanged. In his confession, Burke exonerated Knox of all knowledge of the crimes, but some years passed before Knox lived down the condemnations of the public and the press. Helen was released after the jury found that the charges against her were “not proven.” She later moved but was haunted by vigilantes seeking her death.
The Burke and Hare case has been treated many times in popular culture. It was the basis of the horror films
The Body Snatcher (1945) and
The Flesh and the Fiends (1959; called
Mania in the United States).
John Philip Jenkins
* * *
Universalium.
2010.
Look at other dictionaries:
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William Burke — (* 1792 in Urney (Strabane) im irischen County Tyrone; † 28. Januar 1829 in Edinburgh) war ein Serienmörder, der zusammen mit William Hare in den Jahren 1827 und 1828 in Edinburgh 17 Menschen tötete, um sie als Anatomieleichen verkaufen zu können … Deutsch Wikipedia
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