Burke and Hare - they murdered people and sold the bodies

 Burke and Hare are often called grave robbers. In reality, they did not rob graves. Instead, they murdered people and then sold the victims’ bodies to surgeons for dissection. Today, many people donate their bodies to science but in the early 19th century, attitudes were very different. Most people were horrified by the idea of being cut up after they were dead. As a result, surgeons found it hard to find bodies to dissect in lectures. So some were willing to pay large amounts of money for dead bodies, without asking too many questions. Burke and Hare are believed to have murdered 16 people. 

William Burke was born in Ireland around 1792, and it’s believed he came to Scotland to work as a navvy on the canals. He eventually settled in Edinburgh, where he worked as a cobbler, repairing shoes. It’s not certain when William Hare was born. He was probably from Ireland. At any rate, by 1827, he owned a lodging house in Edinburgh and he had befriended William Burke. 

The murders began in stages. In November 1827, a boarder known as Old Donald died in Hare’s lodging house. He died owing £4 (a considerable sum of money in those days). Hare told Burke and they decided to sell the body to anatomists to recoup the money. They told the authorities that Old Donald was dead. A carpenter made a coffin for him. Burke and Hare filled it with bark (normally used for tanning). They sold the body to a surgeon, Dr Robert Knox, for £7 and 10 shillings (there were 20 shillings in a pound). So they made a handsome profit from his death.

The next step was to murder a man who was ill but still alive. A tenant called Joseph, a miller, fell ill with an infectious disease. That would drive away other tenants from the lodging house. The two men gave Joseph whisky, then suffocated him.

This time, Burke and Hare sold the body for £10. Suffocating him meant there were no marks on the body. When the body was dissected, it would not be obvious that the person had been murdered.

Burke and Hare began regularly killing people and selling the victims’ bodies. It’s not certain in what order they killed the victims, but the third victim was probably a woman named Abigail Simpson. In February 1828, she was lured to the lodging house and given whisky. She was then suffocated. Once again, they sold the body for £10. Over the next months, Burke and Hare continued luring people to the lodging house, giving them whisky, then suffocating them, and then selling the bodies. 

One of the victims was a mentally disabled man, James Wilson. He was called ‘Daft Jamie’. He was well known in Edinburgh. He was often seen begging. The unfortunate man was lured to the lodging house, where he was given whisky and suffocated. They sold the body, as usual, but this time several medical students recognised the dead person. Local people also noticed James was missing. Dr Knox likely suspected the truth because he ordered the immediate dissection of James’ body. Like so many other murderers, Burke and Hare became overconfident and started being careless.

The last victim was an Irishwoman named Margaret Docherty. She was murdered on 31 October 1828. Burke and Hare befriended her. She was invited to stay at the lodging house. Two other lodgers, James and Ann Gray, were told they must move out to make room for her. Margaret Docherty was suffocated in the usual way and her body was hidden under some straw. The Grays returned the next day to collect their belongings. They were left alone in the house and they looked under the straw, discovering the dead body. 

The Grays immediately alerted the authorities but while they were away, Burke and Hare removed the body and took it to be dissected. 

On 3 November, Burke and Hare were arrested. But the authorities were not sure if they could secure convictions.

So Hare was offered immunity from prosecution if he turned King’s evidence, that is if he testified against Burke. On 25 December 1828, William Burke was found guilty of murder and he was sentenced to death. 

He was hanged in public in Edinburgh on 28 January 1829. Burke’s body was publicly dissected, as his victims' bodies were. His skeleton was given to the Anatomical Museum of the Edinburgh Medical School. 

William Hare moved to England. What happened to him after that is not known. No action was taken against the surgeon, Dr Robert Knox.

The dreadful crimes were remembered in a rhyme:

‘Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief, Knox the boy that buys the beef’

Eric Brown - the landmine murder

 Eric Brown killed his father. He used a most unusual murder weapon, a landmine. Eric lived with his father, Archibald, and his mother, Doris. His father was partially paralysed and used a wheelchair. He was a bully who ruled over his family with an iron rod. 

His wheelchair was kept in an air raid shelter in the garden. On 23 July 1943, a nurse, Doris Mitchell, went to fetch it but found it locked. Eric emerged from the air raid shelter. Doris then got the wheelchair and took Archibald for a walk. After a while, she lit a cigarette for Archibald, but as he made himself comfortable, there was an explosion. 

Nurse Mitchell survived without serious injuries, but Archibald Brown was blown to pieces. The explosion was caused by a type of mine used to destroy tanks. It had exploded two feet above the ground. The police surmised it had been placed under the cushion Archibald was sitting on. 

They soon found that Eric had learned about this type of mine while in the army. He was on leave when his father was killed, and he had been seen in the air raid shelter. Eric soon confessed. He was brought to trial on 4 November 1943, but a doctor testified that he was a schizophrenic. The jury found him guilty of murder but insane. Eric was sentenced to be detained during his majesty’s pleasure. He died in 1975. 

The Hammersmith Nude Murders

 The Hammersmith Nude Murders were a series of murders in London in the 1960s. Because the killer removed the victims’ clothes, he became known as Jack the Stripper.

It’s not certain how many women he killed but on 2 February 1964, the body of Hannah Tailford was found floating in the River Thames near Hammersmith Bridge in London. 

She was naked apart from her stockings. The unfortunate woman was strangled and several of her teeth were missing. Her knickers had been stuffed down her throat. 

The police surmised she had been dumped in the river at Dukes Meadows, a parkland in Chiswick, London. Hannah was a sex worker. She was from Northumberland, and she was 30 at the time of her death.

On 8 April 1964, a second body was found on the shore of the Thames at Chiswick. The victim was Irene Lockwood, aged 26. 

Like Hannah Tailford she was a sex worker. The police realised that both women were probably killed by the same man.

A third victim was found on 24 April 1964 in an alleyway in Brentford. The woman had been strangled, and three of her front teeth were missing. She was identified as Helen Barthelemy, aged 22, from Glasgow. She was naked and specks of lead-based paint were found on her skin. It was the kind of paint used in the car industry and the police surmised that her body had been stored in a workshop where a high-pressure paint sprayer was used.

A fourth victim, Mary Fleming, was discovered on 14 July 1964 in Berrymede Road in Chiswick, London. Mary, a Scottish woman was a sex worker. She was 30 years old. This time, too, specks of paint were found on the victim’s body.

Another victim, Frances Brown AKA Margaret McGowan, was found in a car park in Kensington on 25 November 1964. Frances was a sex worker. She was born in Glasgow. At the time of her death, she was 21.

On 16 February 1965, the body of Bridget O’Hara, known as ‘Bridie’ was found by a shed behind the Heron Trading Estate in Acton, London. Again, flecks of paint were found on the body. Bridget was born in Dublin, and she was 27 years old.

The murders then stopped, perhaps because the killer committed suicide. Or perhaps he was arrested for an unrelated offence. Thames Nude Murders, also called the Hammersmith Nude Murders, were never officially solved.

Cruel Sports Banned

 On 9 September 1835, a new law in Britain outlawed 'sports' such as bull baiting. (A bull was chained to a post and dogs were trained to attack it. Some butchers would not sell bull meat unless the bull had been bitten by dogs. They said it made the meat more tender). The new law also banned cockfighting and dogfighting. Of course, making them illegal and actually stopping them were two different things but it was a step in the right direction.

The Nazis Banned Jazz

 In 1935, the Nazis banned broadcasting jazz music and swing music, claiming it was degenerate music created by Jews and black people (The Nazis despised both). The Nazis also banned the saxophone. In 1939, they made it illegal to listen to foreign radio stations. Yet, some brave young people known as 'swings' continued to listen to jazz.

The Nazis also strongly discouraged make-up. While not actually illegal lipstick, hair dye and painted nails were frowned upon. Girls in the Hitler Youth were forbidden to have them.

In contrast, in Britain using make-up was encouraged with slogans like ‘beauty is your duty’. Like most things, cosmetics were in short supply but women improvised, dying their legs brown to make it look as if they were wearing stockings and using boot polish as mascara.

Rule of Thumb

 I often hear this myth. This myth refuses to die. In the past, a man had a right to beat his wife provided he did not use a stick thicker than his thumb.

There has never been a rule or a law in England that a man is entitled to beat his wife provided he uses a stick no thicker than his thumb. William Blackstone (1723-80) wrote Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-1769). He made no mention of a supposed rule that a stick could be used to hit your wife if it was not thicker than a thumb. So it was never a part of English common law.

We are not certain how the phrase ‘rule of thumb’ arose but it probably came from craftsmen using their thumbs to measure.

Escape from the Tower of London

 For centuries, the Tower of London was used to hold important prisoners. The first was Ranulf Flambard the Bishop of Durham. When King William Rufus was killed in 1100 his brother became Henry I. The new king promptly arrested the bishop for simony (selling church positions for money).

However, the bishop escaped. He was allowed certain privileges, such as buying his own food and wine. On 2 February 1101, the bishop generously invited his guards to a feast. When the guards became drunk, he managed to squeeze through a window and climb down a rope. However, the rope was not long enough and he had to drop the final distance. The bishop was met by friends who rowed him across the river and he then rode a horse to the coast, where he escaped on a ship.