Buried Secrets of the City Murder Dolls

It’s a mystery that has remained until the 21st century, when Lothian-born forensics specialist Mike Barber finally got his hands on the so-called "murder dolls" to examine the theory that the person responsible for the tiny coffins and their contents was none other than one of the killers.

It’s the latest twist in one of Edinburgh’s oldest and most macabre murder cases which is being brought back into the spotlight on the National Geographic Channel.

It is around 170 years since 17 minute figures in coffins were first found by schoolboys out rabbiting on Arthur’s Seat back in 1836, prompting fears that they were related to witchcraft. But it wasn’t until the 1990s, decades after the dolls were bought and displayed at the Royal Museum of Scotland, that experts suggested that the 17 dolls in fact represented the 17 victims of the infamous Burke and Hare - murders for which Burke, picture on the right, was hanged after Hare turned Queen’s evidence to save his own life….

The Full story of the Burk and Hare Murders

In the mid 1690s Dr Archibald Pitcairn was dissecting bodies regularly in the name of science. He had an agreement with the town magistrates to claim all the people who had died while in the House of Correction. This turned out to be an excellent agreement for both parties as the doctor got bodies to continue his work and the town did not have to pay for the burials. Later this agreement was expanded so that the College of Surgeons could claim the bodies of unknowns who died in the street.

A century later Edinburgh’s College of Surgeons had so many students there simply weren’t enough bodies to feed the demand. So some citizens recognised this need and decided to profit by it in the most macabre way, grave robbing.

St Cuthbert’s, west of Edinburgh Castle and one of Edinburgh oldest churches, became the hunting ground for body snatchers who by lantern light at the witching hour performed their grisly deeds. But these acts were not just done for profit; students of anatomy in their quest for knowledge also turned a hand to grave robbing. This became so common the locals ironically nicknamed the people who undertook these horrific deeds ‘Resurrectionists’.

The tale begins

In the early 1790s three men were born whose actions would later cause a scandal in Great Britain and Ireland and become a part of British folklore.

William Burke was born in Orrey in the County of Cork in 1792. His parents were poor but respected and in the hope of giving their two sons a better life, managed to give William and his brother Constantine a better than normal education.

After he left school William tried various trades but eventually decided to join the Donegal militia like his brother. After seven years service, his regiment disbanded so he returned home to his wife and promptly found employment as a body servant to a local gentleman and here he remained for three years. It is not exactly known why he left for Scotland and abandoned his wife and family, possibly it was down to a row he had with his father-in-law over certain land rights but anyway in Edinburgh the construction of the Union Canal was under way and labourers were in high demand.

The history of William Hare seems to be for the most part a mystery especially the time before he came to Edinburgh. About the same age as Burke, he was also born in Ireland, possibly, County Derry or Newry. Brought up without education, he was reportedly a brutal man who was probably a farm worker before leaving Ireland but some people speculate he could, like Burke, have been a soldier.

Doctor Robert Knox was born in Edinburgh in 1791. Young Robert attended George Heriot high school until 1810 when he enrolled into medical classes at Edinburgh University and specialised in anatomy. He graduated four years later at the age of 23. A year later he would become an assistant surgeon in a military hospital in Brussels attending to the casualties of Waterloo. He would stay with the military for several years, travelling to South Africa and returning in 1821 a skilled surgeon.

Two years later Knox was established in Edinburgh. At the peak of his career he had over 500 students.

Burke & Hare; the start of an evil friendship

Burke and Hare arrived in Edinburgh in about 1818 to work on the construction of the Union Canal. After the canal was complete in 1822, Hare became a hawker and while working he became friendly with a lady named Margaret Log or Logue, whose husband owned a lodging house in Tanners Close. Shortly afterwards Mr. Log died and Hare stepped in and married Mrs. Log and inherited the lodging house.

Burke on the other hand met his partner while working on the canal, a woman by the name of Helen MacDougal. Burke tried various occupations after the canal was finished such as farm work, hedging, ditching and shoemaker.

Burke in his official confession, states that he never met Hare until November 1827 when he and Helen MacDougal met Hare’s wife, with whom he was previously acquainted, on the street. They had a drink and he mentioned that he had an intention to go to the West Country to endeavour to gain employment as a cobbler. Hare’s wife suggested that they had a small room in their house which might suit him and MacDougal and that he might continue to live there using the cellar attached to the lodging house to set up his business.

A chance to earn easy money

There was an old soldier by the name of Donald who had been staying at the lodging house for some time, and one morning he was found dead. Now this left Hare feeling cheated, as the old man owed him rent.

Previously in the local taverns Burke and Hare would have heard tales of the lucrative business of grave robbing so they must have felt this was a chance to recoup some of their lost income.

So when the coffin came for the old man and his body was put inside, Hare reopened the coffin and they took out the body and filled it with bark from the local tannery and placed old Donald in a sack. They then preceeded to the College of Surgeons where a student directed them to 10 Surgeons Square and Dr Knox. Here they met three young gentlemen, associates of Dr Knox. Burke told them that they had a body for sale and the three men told them to come back when it was dark but did not ask them any questions. Burke and Hare returned later that evening with the corpse and went to see the three young men, who instructed them to bring the body up the stairs and lay it on the dissecting table, which they did. At this point Dr Knox entered and told his assistant to settle with them and named a price of £7 10s; and he also did not ask where the body came from. They were bid farewell and told that they would be glad to see them again when they had other bodies to dispose of. So Burke and Hare would have returned to their partners to celebrate and tell the tale of their night's endeavour.

The first murders?

The order of the killings is not exactly known; with Burke himself giving different orders in two different confessions and it is believed that Hare gave another. But as all the victims suffered the same fate I will place victim number one as Joseph the miller.

Joseph was known to Hare and had been lodging with him for some time and when Joseph went down with a fever the Hares gave him a drink. They felt that he was clearly dying as the old man could not speak sometimes and there were rumours abroad of other fever cases. This worried the Hares as it might cause a loss in their business. So to show no sign of violence Burke took a small pillow and placed it over Joseph’s mouth and Hare lay across his body to pin down his arms and legs. His body was then transported to Dr Knox.

The next victim was possibly an Englishman from Cheshire who was staying a few nights with Hare and became ill with jaundice. His name was unknown to Burke but he said he was ‘about forty’. Burke and Hare held him down and murdered the victim by getting the thumb under the chin and pressing down on the nose hard with the first two fingers thus stopping the victim from breathing.

The third victim, an old lady from Gilmerton, was decoyed in by the Hares and eventually got drunk. Then Hare placed his hands on her mouth and Burke lay across her body. She never stirred. The pair went to Surgeons Square where they again met the three gentlemen and told them they ‘had another subject’. Dr Knox ‘approved of it being so fresh, but did not ask any questions’.

The murder of Mary Patterson

The next murder was not committed at Tanner’s Close, but in Gibbs Close in the Canongate at Constantine Burke’s house, William’s brother who by this time was also living and working in Edinburgh with his family.

Burke met Mary Patterson, a beautiful teenage prostitute and her friend Janet Brown in a drinking den and invited them back to his lodgings. Mary became stupefied with drink and lay helpless upon the bed, her friend on the other hand kept her head and excused herself and went to a friend of hers Mrs. Lawrie. Mrs. Lawrie sent her back to the house with her maid to collect Mary, but on their arrival Burke and Mary were no longer present and instead they met Hare and his wife. They invited them for a dram to wait for Mary and Burke’s return. So they sat and drank but unknown to Janet, Mary lay a few feet away, dead and naked, covered with a sheet.

The maid returned home and explained the situation. Mrs. Lawrie sent the maid back and demanded Janet remove herself from the house immediately. This act probably saved Janet’s life because had not the maid returned she would also be dead and packed in a old tea chest ready to be delivered to Dr Knox.

When Burke and Hare arrived with the body, one of Dr Knox’s students remarked that he had seen a girl similar to her in the Canongate. Burke dealt with this by saying he had bought the body from an old hag in the Canongate and that Mary had drunk herself to death. Some of the students drew pictures of her and a local artist was brought in by Dr Knox to record her beauty and well shaped body. This special subject was not dissected immediately but was put in spirits for three months to preserve her.

Janet Brown loyally continued to ask and search after her friend Mary Patterson for many months to come.

Ten more victims

Over the next three months Burke and Hare became even bolder, even taking the bodies to Dr Knox during the day. These ruthless murderers went on to kill a further 10 victims, including a grandmother and her 12 year old grandchild and even a distant relative of Helen MacDougal. At about this time Burke and his partner moved out to his own premises in his cousin's house. These two houses became the killing grounds for these poor people, but now we come to their last two victims. These would ultimately lead to the end of their sinister partnership.

The murder of Jamie Wilson (Daft Jamie)

Jamie was a simple minded 19 year old youth who was described as being big and strong but had the mind of a child. His adult tastes were confined to snuff, a habit for which he carried a brass snuff box and spoon; the latter he called ’the days of the week’ due to it having seven holes in it.

Jamie fled his family home after a disagreement with his mother and went to live on the street and survived by doing odd jobs like unloading carts and getting charity from people who took pity on him, but then he met Burke and Hare.

Burke's official confession states that Hare's wife brought him off the street for a drink while Burke was at a local shop having a dram. Once he was in the house and in the company of Hare she came across the street to Burke and stamped on his foot. He immediately knew what she meant. He went back to the lodging house and they invited Jamie to the smallest room in the house and advised him to lie on the bed. Then Mrs. Hare left the house and locked the outside door. Hare lay next to Jamie on the bed for some time but then suddenly jumped on poor Jamie. They struggled and fell to the floor and at this point Burke caught hold of his arms and legs and they both held him until he was dead. Burke said Jamie was very anxious and kept asking for his mother, he was told she would come soon. Hare took Jamie’s snuffbox and Burke his spoon.

Apart from the child, this must have been the most horrific of the murders because Jamie was sober and must have known what was happening to him. When the body was unpacked, several students recognised Jamie. Dr Knox denied it was him, but later when Jamie's presence was missed on the street, he quickly ordered his dissection.

Mary Docherty the last victim

On Hallowe’en, Burke was in a local tavern having a drink when an old lady came into the shop begging. Burke talked to her and discovered she was Mary Docherty and had come from Ireland in search of her lost son. Burke deceived her into thinking he was a distant relative and invited her back to his house.

Burke left her there in the company of MacDougal while he went out to buy whisky for the Hallowe’en party he had planned and to inform Hare of another likely victim.

They had a fine party that night, with lots of dancing and drinking. At the time Burke had an ex-soldier by the name of James Gray and his family staying with him. Burke asked if they could stay with Hare that night so the old woman could use their room, and they agreed.

Mrs. Gray returned in the morning to find Burke acting very suspiciously, and he stopped her going over to the bed to collect her child’s stockings. Later that day Burke went out to get more whisky. Soon after the house became empty Mrs. Gray went over to the bed and lifted a pile of straw and uncovered the naked corpse of Mrs. Docherty, bloodstained around the nose and mouth. MacDougal returned to the house and begged Mr. Gray who had entered the room not to inform on what he had seen and it would be worth £10 a week. Mrs. Gray, shocked by her discovery, said "God forbid that we should be worth money for dead people" and they went to inform the police.

The trial and a lucky escape

Burke and Helen were taken to the police station and interviewed. At about the same time a tip led the police to Surgeons Square and the body of Mary Docherty. The Hares were also arrested and the four were questioned over the next month. The police decided, that there wasn’t any real physical evidence to convict the foursome, offered the Hares the chance to turn King’s evidence and avoid execution. The Hares eagerly agreed, so Burke and MacDougal were charged with Mrs. Docherty’s murder and Burke with the murders of Jamie Wilson and Mary Patterson.

On Christmas Eve the trial began with both of the Hares along with other witnesses testifying against the pair. The jury was shown items of clothing from the victims, and Jamie’s snuffbox. The jury took just 50 minutes to reach a verdict of guilty for William Burke and not proven in the case of Helen MacDougal who was set free. William Burke was sentenced to hang and his body to be publicly dissected.

On January 28th before a crowd of 25,000 people William Burke was hanged and his body was put on public display. This attracted enormous crowds with people queuing all day to get a glimpse of his body. He was then publicly dissected and his skeleton was put on display to remind people of his terrible crimes.

The two women, Mrs. Hare and Helen MacDougal, eventually disappeared into obscurity but for a while were hounded wherever they went.

Dr Knox was never charged with a crime but the Edinburgh citizens were angry at his involvement and there was a riot outside his house shortly after the trial. He eventually left Edinburgh due to dwindling uptake of his classes and his general unpopularit, and moved to Glasgow and later London where he eventually died in 1862.

William Hare, now a famous mass murderer who killed more people than Jack the Ripper, was set free and was last sighted in the English town of Carlisle. He was rumoured to have been seen up to forty years later as a blind beggar but this was never officially confirmed.