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William Burke had travel to Scottland to work on the Union Canal, it is there that he met a young lady by the name of Helen McDougal. They left Scottland together to journey to Edinburgh, where they had to work on farms, sell old clothes and mend shoes just to earn enough money to eat on. William Hare had also moved to Scottland to work on the Union Canal, after the Canal was completed Hare moved to Edinburgh and found cheap lodging in a boarding house in a small area called West Prot. The owner was ill and soon would pass away, Hare provided moral support and comfort for the owners wife Margret and not shortly after his passing the two were living as common-law husband and wife, taking care of the Boarding house needs. The four of them met by chance one day when Burke and Helen were out and ran into Margaret Hare and she invited them back to the boarding house for drinks and to introduced them to her husband William Hare.
It want too long after that, that they were paying lodgers of the Hares. They had began a friendship of some sort you could say, loved to drink, and easy money making schemes no matter what method they had to use. During this time there was an increase in the number of students wanting anamotacial training and the medical classrooms soon became full to capacity. The anatomy classes were taught by a popular anatomists named Dr. Knoxx. ad the special requirements of a corpse for lecture and demonstration purposes.
The law provided that only the bodies of recently executed criminals could be used, due to religious beliefs. This lead to a shortage of cadavers for the medical students at the University. This in turn lead to the tail of the so called "Grave robbers", and soon became the occupation of many low-life characters. When the University would recieve a corpse from someone not authorized to transport and they suspected that they were those from graves, they still said nothing, in oder to keep the anatomy classes full of PAYING students. Kind of a "No questions asked" type of thing. It want just Burke and Hare, it dates back as far as the 1700 's, but what makes them different is that there corpses werent from the graves at all, they were murdered by a special form of strangulation that Burke and Hare had perfected.
It want until an older gentlemen by the name of Donald that had been staying in the Boarding house had suddenly became ill and died, that Burke and Hare became interested in taking advantage of the dieing need for corpse at the University. Hare was outraged by the death of Donald and not at the fact that this man had died, but because she still owed him 4 pounds in rent. Hare talked it over with Burke and the two realized what had to be done. They would take the corpse before the funeral and replace the weight with some bark and sand, and then take the body to the Anatomy office of Dr.
Robert Knoxx, who want in but the associate had told them to return at nightfall. They returned again at night and the two were given 7 pounds and 10 shillings. They were both satisfied and returned home. It want long after that, that another one of Hare's lodgers had fallen ill, but this error was not terminally ill, so Hare and Burke thought they would help him and put him out of his misery. They had began to give him whiskey and did so until he, in turn, passed out. Then by one holding his mouth and nose closed and the other restrained him, they killed thier victim by suffocation, providing the anatomy students with fresh, undamaged cadavers that they needed.
They continued this for months with mostly nameless victims. so that they would not be recognized by the students or so the local community would get suspicious missing neighbors. It want until they had stumbled upon Mrs. Docherty, that things took a turn for hte worse and everything started to unravel.
Before to long the two were on trial for murder but the actual amount is said to be anywhere from 13 to 30 people. They were only convicted for Mary Docherty's. Burke and Helen were taken to the police station and an anonymous tip led the police to Dr. Knoxx's class room frere they found the body of Mary Docherty. The Hare's were also arrested and the police were able to uncover the mystery of the numerous numbers of missing persons in West Port. They all four blamed each other.
Hare turned states evidence against the Burke's and Burke was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by hanging. William Hare was granted immunity and set free in February 1829. Hare is said to have died a penniless pauper in London in 1858. Ironically Burke's body was donated to the Medical School for what they called useful dissection. His skeleton is still on display at the University's and Medical School.
A pocket book was also made out of his skin and this is on display at the Police Museum on the Royal Mill. It is also said that Margret and Helen were both released and Margret moved back to Ireland but could not escape her past and was sought out wherever she went. Helen traveled south, but could never escape her past either and died in 1868.
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Research essay sample on A Tale Of William Burke And Hare
