The History of Burke and Hare Part 6

CHAPTER XVI.

_An Ill Excuse--Strange Behaviour--Discovery--The Threat--Unavailing Arguments--The Last Bargain._

About nine o'clock on the morning of Sat.u.r.day, the 1st of November, Burke went round at Hare's house to see about his lodgers, who had been forced to change their quarters for the night. He was anxious to know how they had rested, and having offered Gray a "dram of spirits," he invited the family along to his own home to have breakfast. This they were not loath to do, as there was no prospect of them readily obtaining their food in their temporary lodgings. When they entered Burke's house they found there Mrs. Law and Mrs. Connoway, two neighbours, Broggan, and Helen M'Dougal.

They naturally missed the woman for whom they had been s.h.i.+fted, and Mrs.

Gray asked M'Dougal where the "little old woman" had gone. The reply was that Mrs. Docherty had grown very impudent to Burke, perhaps through having taken too much liquor, and they had found it necessary to put her out. Breakfast was served without further ado, and then Mrs. Gray set about the dressing of her child. Burke was behaving in a very curious manner, for he had the whisky bottle in his hand, and was throwing some of the contents under the bed, on the bed, and up to the roof of the apartment, at times put a little on his breast, and occasionally took a sip internally. His explanation of this remarkable proceeding was that he wished the bottle "toom," that he might again have it filled. Mrs. Gray, it would seem, was taking a smoke, and had a pipe in her mouth when she was looking for her child's stocking. In the course of her search she went to the corner of the room where the body of Docherty was lying covered with straw, but Burke called to her to keep out of there; and when she made to go beneath the bed to get some potatoes he asked her what she was doing there with a lighted pipe. He offered to look after them himself, but Mrs. Gray dispensed with his help, and collected the potatoes without having disturbed anything. All these circ.u.mstances created a suspicion in the woman's mind that something was wrong; but later in the day that surmise was strengthened by Burke, when about to go out, telling Broggan to sit on a chair which was near the straw, until he returned. Broggan either did not know of the mystery underneath the straw, or did not care, for Burke was not long away until he went out also. M'Dougal left the house too, and Mrs. Gray had then an opportunity of clearing up the suspicions she had formed. The straw in the corner had appeared to be the great object of attention, and she went direct there. She lifted the straw, and the first thing she caught hold of was the arm of a dead woman.

Gray himself went over, and there they saw the naked body of the old Irishwoman who had been brought into the house by Burke the day before.

The man lifted the head by the hair, and saw there was blood about the mouth and the ears. The horrified couple hastily threw the straw over the corpse, and collected what property they had in the house in order to leave it immediately. Gray went out first, leaving his wife to complete their packing arrangements. On the stair he met Helen M'Dougal, and asked her what that was she had in the house. The woman made a feeble pretence at ignorance, but when Gray said to her, "I suppose you know very well what it is," she dropped on her knees, and implored him not to say anything of what she had seen, and offered him five or six s.h.i.+llings to put him over till Monday. She urged that the woman's death had been caused by her having taken an overdose of drink--alcoholic poisoning is now the respectable name for it--and tried to make the man believe that the incident was such as might occur in anybody's house. Finding this line of explanation thrown away upon him, she tried another which she seemed to think more powerful. In her intense anxiety for concealment, she told him there never would be a week after that but what he might be worth ten pounds. It seemed to suggest itself to her that Gray, by such promises, might be induced to join their murdering gang. He, however, replied that his conscience would not allow him to remain silent. Just as M'Dougal left Gray to enter the house, Mrs. Gray came out, and the two women met. Mrs.

Gray turned back, and asked M'Dougal about the body among the straw; but the reply was similar to that given to Gray himself. The unfortunate creature offered the same inducements, but all to no effect, as Mrs. Gray exclaimed with unction--"G.o.d forbid that I should be worth money with dead people!" M'Dougal, seeing the end was near, cried out, "My G.o.d, I cannot help it!" to which Mrs. Gray replied, "You surely can help it, or you would not stay in the house." The husband and wife then left the place together, followed by M'Dougal, and when in the street they were met by Mrs. Hare, who asked them what they were making a noise about, and told them to go into the house and settle their disputes there. The two women invited Gray and his wife into a neighbouring public house, and there, over a round of liquor, they plied them with arguments and entreaties to keep silence as to what they had seen, and the benefit would be ultimately theirs. But all to no purpose. Gray was obdurate, and his wife supported him in his intention to inform the authorities of what they had reason to believe was a foul murder. Finding they were simply wasting their time, Mrs. Hare and M'Dougal, in a state of great anxiety, hurriedly left the place, as if to prepare for flight; and Gray made his way to the police office to lodge the information.

In the meantime, Burke and Hare were busy making arrangements for the removal of the body to Dr. Knox's premises. They applied at the rooms in Surgeon's Square for a box in which to put it for safe conveyance, but they could not be supplied with one; and later on, between five and six o'clock in the evening, Burke purchased an empty tea-chest in Rymer's shop. He had engaged John M'Culloch, a street porter, to call at the house for a box, and before this man arrived the two colleagues had wrapped the body of Docherty in a sheet, placed it in the box among some straw, and roped down the lid. Whether they knew of the discovery by Gray, and his subsequent threat, is uncertain: that they did not is probable from the manner in which they went about the work of removing the corpse. When everything was ready, M'Culloch was called in, and told to carry it to the place to which they would take him. As the porter was raising the box on to his back he saw some long hair hanging out of a crevice in the lid, and, having probably been in the service of resurrectionists before, he endeavoured to press it inside. This done, he went on his way with his burden, the two men who employed him walking by his side. Mrs. Hare and Helen M'Dougal, apparently beside themselves with excitement, had been near all the time, and followed some distance behind. It was now well on in the evening, and after the box and its contents were placed in the cellar at Surgeon's Square, Burke, Hare, and M'Culloch, accompanied by Paterson, "the keeper of Knox's museum," and still followed by the women, walked to Newington, where Paterson received from the doctor five pounds in part payment for the body. In a public-house in the vicinity the division was made. Knox's man handed M'Culloch five s.h.i.+llings for his services as porter, and Burke and Hare each received two pounds seven s.h.i.+llings and sixpence; but on Monday, it was understood, when the doctor would have had time to examine the body, they were to receive other five pounds, making ten pounds in all.

The end had now come; the murdering career of these terrible beings was closed. They seemed to feel that it could last no longer; their whole manner of working on that Sat.u.r.day indicated impending discovery, and helped towards it.

CHAPTER XVII.

_The Arrest of Burke and M'Dougal--Discovery of the Body--Hare and his Wife Apprehended--Public Intimation of the Tragedy--Burke and M'Dougal give their Version of the Transaction._

Gray, according to his threat, went to the Police Office to give information of what he had seen. When he arrived there no one was present who could act upon his statement. After waiting some time he saw Sergeant-Major John Fisher, who entered the place about seven o'clock, and to this officer he described all he had witnessed and what he suspected.

Fisher inclined to the opinion that his informant wished rather to do his old landlord an ill-turn than to benefit the public, but, notwithstanding, he, along with a constable named Finlay, accompanied Gray to Burke's house in the West Port. What took place there can best be told in Fisher's own words:--"I asked Burke what had become of his lodgers, and he replied that there was one of them--pointing to Gray--and that he had turned him and his wife out for bad conduct. I then asked what had become of the little woman who had been there the day before, and he said she left the house about seven o'clock that morning. He said William Hare saw her go away, and added, in an insolent tone, that any number more saw her away. I then looked round to see if there were any marks in the bed, and I saw marks of blood on a number of things there. I asked Mrs. Burke [Helen M'Dougal]

how they came there, and she replied that a woman had lain in there about a fortnight before, and the bed had not been washed since. As for the old woman, she added that she knew her very well, they all lived in the Pleasance, and that she had seen her that very night in the Vennel, when she had apologised for her bad conduct on that previous night. I asked her then, what time the woman had left the house, and she said, seven o'clock at night. When I found them to vary, I thought the best way was to take them to the Police Office." Fisher, while he considered it his duty to apprehend Burke and M'Dougal, in view of the contradiction as to the time when the woman left the house, and also of the fact that the bed-clothes were spattered with blood, seems still to have had the idea that the whole matter had arisen out of personal spite between Gray and Burke, and that the former wished to injure the latter. However, he took the wisest and the safest course by apprehending the two persons he found in the house.

Later in the evening, the officer, accompanied by his superintendent and Dr. Black, the police surgeon, again visited Burke's den in Portsburgh, and made a thorough search through it. They saw a quant.i.ty of blood among the straw under the bed, and on the bed they found a striped bed-gown which had apparently belonged to the murdered woman.

This was all very well for one night, and certainly the case had, to the official mind, a.s.sumed a more serious aspect than one having only a foundation on mere personal ill-will. Next morning, Sabbath, the 2nd November, Fisher went to the premises of Dr. Knox in Surgeon's Square, and having obtained the key of the cellar from Paterson he entered, and found there a box containing the body of a woman. Gray was immediately sent for, and he at once recognised the corpse as that of the old woman he had seen in Burke's house. The authorities then thought it was time they had Hare and his wife in custody, and they were immediately arrested. This was done about eight o'clock on the Sunday morning. They were then both in bed.

When Mrs. Hare was informed that Captain Stewart wished to speak to her husband about the body that had been found in Burke's house, she laughingly said that the captain and police had surely very little to do now to look after a drunken spree like this. Hare answered her that he was at Burke's house the day before, and had had a dram or two with him, and possibly the police might be inclined to attach blame to them; but as he had no fear of anything Captain Stewart could do to him, they had better rise and see what he had to say. This conversation between Hare and his wife seemed to be intended to "blind" the police, who were within hearing, but it did not save them from apprehension. They were taken to the Police Office, and lodged in separate cells.

The news of the tragedy and the apprehensions was quickly mooted abroad, and the public mind was agitated by the rumours that were afloat. But little satisfaction was gained from the following brief and guarded paragraph which appeared in the _Edinburgh Evening Courant_ of Monday, 3rd November, two days after the murder:--

"EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCE.--An old woman of the name of Campbell, from Ireland, came to Edinburgh some days ago, in search of a son, whom she found, and she afterwards went out of town in search of work. She took up her lodging on Friday in the house of a man named Burt or Burke, in the West Port. It appears that there had been a merry-making in Burke's that night; at least the noise of music and dancing was heard, and it is believed the gla.s.s circulated pretty freely among the party.

The old woman, it is said, with reluctance joined in the mirth, and also partook of the liquor; and was to sleep on straw alongside of Burke's bed. During the night shrieks were heard; but the neighbours paid no attention, as such sounds were not unusual in the house. In the morning, however, a female, on going into Burke's, observed the old woman lying as if dead, some of the straw being above her. She did not say anything, or raise any alarm; but, in the evening, circ.u.mstances transpired which led to the belief that all was not right, for by this time the body had been removed out of the house, and it was suspected it had been sold to a public lecturer.

Information was conveyed to the police, and the whole parties were taken into custody. After a search, the body was found yesterday morning in the lecture-room of a respectable pract.i.tioner, who, the instant he was informed of the circ.u.mstances, not only gave it up, but offered every information in his power. The body is now in the Police Office, and will be examined by medical gentlemen in the course of this day. There were some very strong and singular circ.u.mstances connected with the case, which have given rise to the suspicions."

This information, though substantially correct, was too meagre to satisfy the public craving, and the most extraordinary rumours were afloat as to the discoveries that had been made by the police. Meanwhile, the authorities were busy making inquiries into the case, and in the first instance they had Docherty's body examined by Drs. Black and Christison, and Mr. Newbigging. The result of these examinations conclusively pointed to the fact that the woman must have suffered a violent death by suffocation, and the case for the Crown was strengthened by this testimony. On the 3rd of November, the day of the first public announcement of the "extraordinary occurrence," Burke and M'Dougal emitted declarations before Sheriff Tait. Burke's account of the affair was that on the morning of the previous Friday he rose about seven o'clock, and immediately began his work by mending a pair of shoes. Gray and his wife were up before him, and M'Dougal rose about nine o'clock. After he had gone out for a few minutes for tobacco, all the four of them breakfasted together about ten o'clock. Burke resumed his employment, Gray left the house, and the women began to wash and dress, and tidy up the apartment.

In the evening he told Gray that he and his wife must look out for other lodgings, as he could not afford to support them longer, they having not even paid for the provisions they used. He recommended them to Hare's house, and accompanied them there. About six o'clock he was standing at the mouth of the entry leading to his dwelling, when a man whom he never saw before, and whose name he did not know, came up and asked if he could get a pair of shoes mended. This man was dressed in a greatcoat, the cape of which was turned up about his face. Burke offered to perform the work, and the stranger went with him into the house. While he was busy mending the shoes the man walked about, remarked on the quietness of the place, and said he had a box which he wished could be left there for a short time. Burke consented to give it accommodation, and the stranger went out, returning shortly with a box, which he placed upon the floor near the foot of the bed. Burke was then sitting with his back to the bed. He heard his customer unroping the box, and then make a sound as if he were covering something with straw. The shoes were soon mended, Burke received a sixpence for his work, and the stranger went away. Burke immediately rose to see what was in the box, but finding it was empty he looked among the straw beneath the bed, where he saw a corpse, though whether it was that of a man or a woman he could not say. The man called later on, and Burke remonstrated with him for bringing such an article into his house. The stranger promised to take the body away in a little, but this he did not do until six o'clock on the following (Sat.u.r.day) evening. This was Burke's account of what transpired on the Friday, the day when the murder was actually committed. In itself it was a stupidly told story, and one having not a single feature of truth in it to give it the slightest support from outside testimony. But his record of the Sat.u.r.day was even more blundering. He admitted that about ten o'clock on the Sat.u.r.day, while he was in Rymer's shop, an old woman came in to beg. He discovered by her dialect that she came from Ireland, and after questioning her he found that she belonged to Inesomen, in the north of Ireland, and that her name was Docherty. As his mother bore the same name, and came from the same place, he concluded that the woman might perhaps be a distant relation, and he invited her to breakfast. After sitting by the fireside smoking till about three o'clock in the afternoon, Mrs. Docherty went out, saying she would go to the New Town to beg some provisions for herself. When he was alone in the house about six o'clock, the man who visited him the previous evening, and who, on special inquiry by the sheriff, he now declared to be William Hare, came for the purpose of removing the body.

Hare was accompanied by John M'Culloch, a street porter. These two carried the body away in the box, as they said, to dispose of it to any person in Surgeon's Square who would take it. After the body was delivered, Paterson, Dr. Knox's curator, paid "the man" some pounds, and gave two pounds ten s.h.i.+llings to Burke "for the trouble he had in keeping the body." The woman Docherty never returned to the house, and he did not know what had become of her. Some of the neighbours had told him, when he returned after being paid the storage money, that a policeman had been searching his house for a body, and he, having gone out to look for the policeman, met Fisher and Finlay in the pa.s.sage. As for the body found in Dr. Knox's rooms, and which he had seen the day before, he thought it was the one which was below his bed, but it had no likeness to Mary Docherty, who was not so tall. Then the blood on the pillow-slip he accounted for by saying that it was occasioned by his having struck M'Dougal on the nose with it, as Mr. and Mrs. Gray could testify. Such an inconsistent story was of itself enough to condemn Burke, to say nothing of the identification of the man he had never seen before, and whose name he did not know, as William Hare.

Helen M'Dougal, in her declaration, emitted on the same day, was equally wide of the truth, though she did not make such a stupid mistake as to mix up the transactions of Friday and Sat.u.r.day. According to her, Mary Docherty entered their house about ten o'clock on the Friday morning, just as they were about to begin their breakfast, and asked to be allowed to light her pipe at the fire. This privilege was accorded her, after which she was asked to take some breakfast along with them. In the course of a conversation, Burke arrived at the conclusion that the old woman was a relative of his mother, and on the strength of this he went out for whisky and gave them a gla.s.s all round, "it being the custom of Irish people to observe Hallowe'en in that manner." About two o'clock Docherty left to go to St. Mary's Wynd to inquire for her son, and she never returned. The rest of the day and night was spent in drinking with Hare and his wife, and Mr. and Mrs. Gray. On the Sat.u.r.day evening she quarrelled with Mrs.

Gray about having stolen her gown, and the Grays had apparently vented their spleen by raising a story and bringing the police down upon them.

For her part she knew nothing about a body being in the house, and certainly the body shown her in the Police Office was not that of the old woman, as Docherty had dark hair, and the body of the dead woman had gray hair. Such, in brief, was her account of the events of the two days, and the only point on which her declaration could be said to agree with that of Burke was as to the cause of the bloodstains on the bedclothes.

CHAPTER XVIII.

_Public Excitement at the West Port Murder--The Newspapers--Doubts as to the Disappearance of Daft Jamie and Mary Paterson--The Resurrectionists still at Work._

Of course the public knew nothing of what the authorities were doing or had discovered, the examination of the prisoners before the sheriff being, as is still the custom in Scotland, strictly private. The newspapers, as we have seen, did little to satisfy the natural curiosity of the people, but that was due probably to the fact that the police, finding themselves on the eve of making a great discovery, chose rather to keep silent, and deny the press information, than run the risk of having their movements made known to parties whom it might be better should not be aware of them.

The _Edinburgh Evening Courant_, of 6th November, had, however, a very circ.u.mstantial account of the murder of Mrs. Docherty, but it was hid away among items of little importance. It was as follows:--

"EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCE.--FURTHER PARTICULARS.--We have used every endeavour to collect the facts connected with this singular story. The medical gentlemen who examined the body have not reported, so far as we have heard, that death was occasioned by violence. There are several contusions on the body, particularly one on the upper lip, which was swollen and cut, a severe one on the back, one on the scapula, and one or two on the limbs; none of these, however, are of a nature sufficient to cause immediate death. The parties in custody, two men and two women (their wives), and a young lad, give a very contradictory account of the manner in which the old woman lost her life. One of the men, not Burke, states that it was the lad who struck her in the pa.s.sage, and killed her. Burke, however, acknowledges being a party to the disposing of the corpse. The lad's account of the story is different from that of the others. He says he was in Burke's house about seven o'clock on Friday evening, when the old woman was represented to him as a fortune-teller, who for threepence would give him some glimpse into futurity, and with this sum she was to pay for her lodgings; but not having the money, his fortune was not told, and he went away. The parties at this time were seemingly sober. He went to the house about two o'clock on Sat.u.r.day morning, when he found Burke, his wife, and two other persons, in the house, seemingly the worse of liquor. He sent for sixpence worth of whisky, which was drunk; and soon after the whole party fell asleep. The old woman was not present, but the lad thought nothing of that, believing she had left the house. At a later hour in the morning a neighbour came in, who had been in the house on the previous evening, and asked, what had become of the fortune-teller? To this Burke's wife replied, that the old woman had been behaving improperly, and she (Mrs. Burke) had kicked her down stairs. Another neighbour saw the old woman joining in the mirth, as late as eleven o'clock on the Friday night. The above are the outlines of the statements that have reached us; we must, however, admit that, from the secret manner in which the investigations are conducted, it is impossible to obtain accurate information. A great number of rumours have gone abroad of individuals having of late disappeared in an unaccountable manner, but one of them, however, a sort of half-witted lad, called 'Daft Jamie,' was seen on Monday, not far from La.s.swade, with a basket, selling small-wares."

This notice makes one or two interesting discoveries, notably what professes to be the drift of Hare's declaration, and that of the young man, Broggan, who had also been arrested on a charge of complicity in the murder. Another point is the manner in which Mrs. Docherty was presented to Broggan, and some of the neighbours. But if the newspapers did not devote much s.p.a.ce to the "extraordinary occurrence," it was a topic which moved the very heart of the people, and was on everybody's tongue. The journals were too busy discussing the siege of Silistria, the proceedings of politicians in London, or the state of Ireland; but the inhabitants of Edinburgh, and, indeed, of broad Scotland, thought and talked of little else but Burke and Hare and the resurrectionists. Before the time fixed for the trial the newspapers discovered they had made a mistake, and at last gave some degree of satisfaction to their readers by supplying a full report of the case. It is somewhat amusing, however, to find the _Glasgow Courier_ of 27th December, with this apologetic notice:--"In the absence of any political news of importance we have devoted a considerable portion of our paper of to-day in giving a full report of the trial, before the High Court of Justiciary, of Burke and his wife for murder."

The public were strongly of opinion that to the machinations of Burke and Hare could be traced the disappearance of Daft Jamie and Mary Paterson, the latter especially, as she had been seen in Burke's company. The authorities, also, pursued their inquiries in the same direction. On the 10th of November the two men and their wives were committed by the Sheriff to stand their trial for the murder of Docherty, but Broggan was liberated, his innocence being apparent. The doubt as to the disappearance of Daft Jamie was deepened by a statement in an Edinburgh newspaper that he had been seen in the Gra.s.smarket after the apprehension of the accused parties. This was repeated by several other prints, and the public mind remained in suspense, though there was a suspicion, amounting almost to a certainty, that Jamie had been the victim of foul play. At last the _Observer_ and the _Weekly Chronicle_, who had been the most strenuous advocates of the safety of the lad, were forced to admit that he was amissing. Possibly the rumour that he had been identified in the dissecting-room by some of the students had something to do with the change. The _Observer_ announced that it had been "credibly informed that this poor pauper," Daft Jamie, had really disappeared in a mysterious manner, and that circ.u.mstances of a suspicious nature had transpired. The _Chronicle_ was more elaborate in its explanation, stating that there were two Daft Jamies, but that there was no doubt one of them had been made away with.

While all this was going on there were other events connected with the resurrectionist movement coming to the front. One of these was a terrible contest which took place in a churchyard near Dublin. A woman of the name of Ryan died, and was decently interred. Her relatives were afraid that her remains would not be allowed to lie in the grave, as the body-s.n.a.t.c.hers were then busy with the Irish burying-places. They therefore joined to keep a watch for a time over her tomb. One night, between eight and nine o'clock, two of the men were left sentry at the grave, while the others went into a cabin in the vicinity, erected for the use of watchers. These latter were not long seated when a knock was heard at the door, and when it was opened they saw nearly a dozen armed men, who declared their mission to be body-lifting, but who, with all courtesy, stated that if the watchers would kindly point out where the body in which they were specially interested lay, it would be pa.s.sed over. The watchers, however, intimated that, they would resist the uplifting of any body. A desperate contest then took place, but the resurrectionists were at last driven off. About two o'clock in the morning they returned, but again they were defeated, it was thought, with loss of life, for more than one of them was seen to fall.

It would be difficult to say whether it was this incident, or the general plundering of Scotch churchyards, that led the _Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle_ at this time to devote a leader to the question of the importation of corpses for anatomical purposes to Scotland from Ireland.

This journal very soberly discussed the resurrectionist system, "its advantages and the indispensability of it in the present state of the law." The writer seriously objected to the "noodles of functionaries on the banks of the Clyde," interfering with subjects when they were _in transitu_, and pointed out that "for every Irish subject they seize they insure the rifling of some Scotch grave." Very fine sentiment--the resurrectionist system was good enough in Ireland, but immediately it touched Scotland it was evil.

Two cases--one of them not without a touch of grim humour--came to light in Edinburgh at this time, and furnished material for additional commentary on the West Port tragedy. A resurrectionist, wis.h.i.+ng to raise the wind, waited on an Edinburgh lecturer, and stated that he had a "subject" to dispose of, but he required two pounds ten s.h.i.+llings to meet some immediate demands. The money was given him, and in a short time a box was sent to the lecturer's rooms. To the infinite surprise of the gentleman and his a.s.sistants, the trunk was found to be filled with rubbish. Such tricks, it was said, were often played on anatomists; but for all that, four individuals were apprehended in connection with this fraud, and were sentenced by the police magistrate each to imprisonment for two months. The other case ill.u.s.trates the extraordinary boldness of the resurrectionists, even at a time when the popular feeling was strong against the miscreants apprehended for the murder of Docherty. A mulatto of the name of Masareen, who kept a public house in the Gra.s.smarket, died on the autumn of 1828, and a month or so later his wife became unwell and was taken to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where she died in the end of November. On the day of her death her body was claimed by two men who represented themselves as her relatives. It was given them, and they took it away ostensibly for interment. Next morning her real relations appeared, and the greatest consternation was caused by the discovery that the Infirmary authorities had been duped by some very clever rogues. A search was made, and after some trouble the body was found in a dissecting room. It was taken back to the Infirmary, and was decently buried on the 1st of December.

In the newspapers at this time, also, there were stories about events occurring outside the city, which helped to increase the general excitement. In the _Courant_ for Monday, the 13th November, there was a report of a case tried before the Middles.e.x Sessions on the Thursday previous. Three men were then charged with having on the 13th of September unlawfully broken open a vault in the church of Hendon, in which were some dead bodies, and with having severed the head from one of them. The object was rather strange. One of the prisoners was a surgeon, and the body which had been mutilated was that of his mother. There was in his family a hereditary disease, the causes and nature of which he wished to investigate, in order to prevent its attacks on himself, and he was under the impression that if he could obtain his mother's head for dissection, he would be able to find out the information he desired. All the prisoners were found guilty, and were severely punished. Another incident of a more amusing kind was recorded at this time in the _Stirling Advertiser_. At Doune Fair several special constables were on duty, and had the village school-room a.s.signed to them as a watch-house. While they were sitting quietly talking to one another, a big burly Irishman, heavily laden with whisky, fell in through the open door-way, and lay p.r.o.ne on the floor. He was a most undesirable visitor, and it was evident that to attempt to remove him by force might have rather serious results. Still he could not be allowed to remain. One of the constables was a bit of a wag, and he whispered to his companions that the man on the floor would make an excellent subject for the doctors. They quickly entered into the spirit of the jest, and the conversation turned on the question of how the prospective subject was to be "despatched." Some recommended suffocation, others stabbing. Meanwhile, the Irishman, who was not so tipsy as he seemed, had overheard the discussion, carried on in a stage whisper, and began to feel exceedingly uncomfortable. As the conspirators gradually came to an agreement as to the method to be adopted, the intruder, who had been carefully pulling himself together, suddenly jumped up, and went out of the place, faster, if anything, than he entered, amid shouts of laughter from the constables.

Under all the exciting circ.u.mstances of the time, it is not surprising that the people should break out into riot at a very small matter. Between nine and ten o'clock of the forenoon of Thursday the 11th of December, a gig, occupied by two men of notoriously bad character, was driven at a furious pace along the North Bridge of Edinburgh. Some one suggested that the vehicle contained a corpse, and the story speedily gathered an immense crowd. An attempt was made to seize the men, and the tumult became so great that when the city watch interfered two of them and an old woman were seriously injured. It was found, however, that the rumour as to the contents of the gig was totally unfounded.

CHAPTER XIX.

_Burke and M'Dougal amend their Account of the Murder--The Prosecution in a Difficulty--Hare turns King's Evidence--The Indictment, against Burke and M'Dougal._

While these events were transpiring outside, the authorities were labouring anxiously in the preparation of the case against the accused parties. This was no easy matter. It was beset with technical difficulties which it was not likely the public, in its then excited and unreasoning state, would take into its consideration, and the Crown officials sought, if possible, to avoid any miscarriage of justice.

On the 10th of November Burke was again examined in private before Sheriff Tait, and emitted a second declaration. His statement of a week before having been read over to him, he declared it to be incorrect in several particulars. He then proceeded to point out that the events he had previously described as having taken place on the Sat.u.r.day really took place on the Friday. As to what occurred in the evening he was, however, a little more truthful, even at the expense of absolutely contradicting himself. In the evening they had some dram-drinking, "because it was Hallowe'en," and pretty late in the night he and Hare differed, and rose to fight. When they were separated by M'Dougal and Mrs. Hare they sat down by the fire together to have another dram, and then they missed Mary Docherty. They asked the two women what had become of her, but they did not know. Burke and Hare searched for her through the house. They looked among the straw of the shake-down bed on the floor, at the bottom of the standing bed, thinking she might have crept there during the struggle, and then they found her among the straw, lying against the wall, partly on her back and partly on her side. Her face was turned up, and there was something of the nature of vomiting, but not b.l.o.o.d.y, coming from her mouth. After waiting for a few minutes they concluded, though the body was warm, that the woman was dead. M'Dougal and Hare's wife immediately left the house without saying anything, and Burke supposed they did this "because they did not wish to see the dead body." After a while the men stripped the corpse, and laid it among the straw, and it was then proposed that it should be sold to the surgeons. The rest of the declaration was taken up with an account of what actually took place on the Sat.u.r.day, for Burke, having furnished an account of how the woman met her death, seemed to think that he was free after that to tell the truth as to the subsequent events. He denied having caused Docherty's death, and gave it as his opinion that she had been suffocated by laying herself down among the straw in a state of intoxication. "No violence," he continued, "was done to the woman when she was in life, but a good deal of force was necessary to get the body into the chest, as it was stiff; and in particular, they had to bend the head forward, and to one side, which may have hurt the neck a little; but he thinks that no force was used, such as could have hurt any part of the back at all." The one redeeming feature of the declaration is that Burke stated "that a young man named John Broggan had no concern in the matter; that Broggan came into the house on Sat.u.r.day forenoon, as he thinks, while the body was in the house, but did not know of its being there."

On the same day--the 10th of November--Helen M'Dougal was subjected to a further examination by the Sheriff. She adhered to her former declaration, and in answer to a question she stated that between three and four o'clock on Friday afternoon the old woman insisted on having salt to wash herself with, and became otherwise very troublesome, calling for tea different times. At last M'Dougal told her she would not be tormented with her any longer, and thrust her out at the door by the shoulders, and she never saw her afterwards.

These were the declarations, and although they were sufficiently contradictory in themselves, and were in many respects directly opposed to the stories told in the ones made on the 3rd November, the Lord Advocate was still in a difficulty. There was, of course, the evidence of the Grays and of the neighbours, but it was entirely circ.u.mstantial, and might fail to convict. Hare, ever wily and cunning, as we have seen, at last saw how matters stood, and responded to an offer to turn King's evidence, on the condition of being given an a.s.surance that his wife and himself would be safe from any prosecution. This was a way out of the difficulty which the Lord Advocate, after consideration, was glad to accept, as the only one possible; and the _Evening Courant_ of the 29th November was able to announce to the public that one of the parties implicated in the West Port murder had given such information as would lead to the apprehension of three or four other individuals. This, of course, was scarcely correct; but the _Observer_ put it right by stating that Hare had agreed to turn King's evidence. In its issue of the 6th December the _Courant_ stated that Burke and M'Dougal--"his wife" she is called--had been committed for trial for the murder of Mrs. Campbell or Docherty, Daft Jamie, and Mary Paterson. "The manner in which the murders were committed," says this enterprising journal, "has been described to us, and some statements have also been communicated as to other individuals supposed to have shared a similar fate; but as the whole will probably be laid before the public in the course of the trials that will take place, we decline, for the present, to publish further particulars."

On the 8th of December--two days later--a citation was served on Burke and M'Dougal, "charging them to appear before the High Court of Justiciary, to be held at Edinburgh, on Wednesday, the 24th of December, at ten o'clock forenoon, to underlie the law for the crime of murder." As the form and matter of the indictment are interesting in themselves, and as they gave rise to a long and important discussion at the trial, it is proper that it should be quoted:--

"WILLIAM BURKE and HELEN M'DOUGAL, both present prisoners in the tolbooth of Edinburgh, you are both and each of you indicted and accused at the instance of Sir William Rae of St. Catherine's, Baronet, his Majesty's Advocate for his Majesty's interest: that _albeit_ by the laws of this and of every other well-governed realm, MURDER is a crime of an heinous nature, and severely punishable, _yet true it is and of verity_ that you the said William Burke and Helen M'Dougal are both and each, or one or other of you, guilty of the said crime, actors or actor, or art and part: _In so far as_, on one or other of the days between the 7th and the 16th days of April, 1828, or on one or other of the days of that month, or of March immediately preceding, or of May immediately following, within the house in Gibb's Close, Canongate, Edinburgh, then and now or lately in the occupation of Constantine Burke, then and now or lately scavenger in the employment of the Edinburgh Police Establishment, you the said William Burke did wickedly and feloniously place or lay your body or person, or part thereof, over or upon the breast, or person, and face of Mary Paterson or Mitch.e.l.l, then, or recently before that time, or formerly, residing with Isabella Burnet or Worthington, then and now or lately residing in Leith Street, in or near Edinburgh, when she, the said Mary Paterson or Mitch.e.l.l was lying in the said house in a state of intoxication, and did, by the pressure thereof, and by covering her mouth and nose with your body or person, and forcibly compressing her throat with your hands, and forcibly keeping her down, notwithstanding her resistance, or in some other way to the prosecutor unknown, preventing her from breathing, suffocate or strangle her; and the said Mary Paterson or Mitch.e.l.l was thus by the said means, or part thereof, or by some other means or violence, the particulars of which are to the prosecutor unknown, wickedly bereaved of life, and murdered by you the said William Burke; and this you did with the wicked aforethought intent of disposing of, or selling the body of the said Mary Paterson or Mitch.e.l.l, when so murdered, to a physician or surgeon, or some person in the employment of a physician or surgeon, as a subject for dissection, or with some other wicked and felonious intent or purpose to the prosecutor unknown. (2.) FURTHER, on one or other of the days between the 5th and 26th days of October 1828, or on one or other of the days of that month, or of September immediately preceding, or of November immediately following, within the house situated in Tanner's Close, Portsburgh, or Wester Portsburgh, in or near Edinburgh, then or now or lately in the occupation of William Haire or Hare, then or now or lately labourer, you the said William Burke did wickedly and feloniously attack and a.s.sault James Wilson, commonly called or known by the name of Daft Jamie, then or lately residing in the house of James Downie, then and now or lately residing in Stevenlaw's Close, High Street, Edinburgh, and did leap or throw yourself upon him, when the said James Wilson was lying in the said house, and he having sprung up you did struggle with him and did bring him to the ground, and you did place or lay your body or person or part thereof, over or upon the person or body and face of the said James Wilson, and did, by the pressure thereof, and by covering his mouth and nose with your person or body, and forcibly keeping him down, and compressing his mouth, nose, and throat, notwithstanding every resistance on his part, and thereby, or in some other manner to the prosecutor unknown, preventing him from breathing, suffocate or strangle him; and the said James Wilson was thus, by the said means, or part thereof, or by some other means or violence, the particulars of which are to the prosecutor unknown, wickedly bereaved of life and murdered by you the said William Burke; and this you did with the wicked aforethought intent--[the intent specified in the same language as under the first minor charge]. (3.) FURTHER, on Friday the 31st day of October, 1828, or on one or other of the days of that month, or of September immediately preceding, or of November immediately following, within the house then or lately occupied by you the said William Burke, situated in that street of Portsburgh or Wester Portsburgh, in or near Edinburgh, which runs from the Gra.s.smarket of Edinburgh to Main Point, in or near Edinburgh, and on the north side of the said street, and having an access thereto by a trance or pa.s.sage entering from the street last above libelled, and having also an entrance from a court or back court on the north thereof, the name of which is to the prosecutor unknown, you the said William Burke and Helen M'Dougal did, both and each, or one or other of you, wickedly and feloniously place or lay your bodies or persons, or part thereof, or the body or person, or part thereof, of one or other of you, over or upon the person or body and face of Madgy or Margery, or Mary M'Gonegal or Duffie, or Campbell, or Docherty, then or lately residing in the house of Roderick Stewart or Steuart, then and now or lately labourer, and then and now or lately residing in the Pleasance, in or near Edinburgh, when she the said Madgy or Margery, or Mary M'Gonegal or Duffie, or Campbell, or Docherty, was lying on the ground, and did, by the pressure thereof, and by covering her mouth and the rest of her face with your bodies or persons, or the body or person of one or other of you, and by grasping her by the throat, and keeping her mouth and nostrils shut with your hands, and thereby, in some other way to the prosecutor unknown, preventing her from breathing, suffocate or strangle her; and the said Madgy or Margery, or Mary M'Gonegal or Duffie, or Campbell, or Docherty, was thus by the said means, or part thereof, or by some other means or violence, the particulars of which are to the prosecutor unknown, wickedly bereaved of life, and murdered by you the said William Burke and you the said Helen M'Dougal, or one or other of you, and this you both and each, or one or other of you, did with the wicked aforethought intent--[the intent specified in the same language as under the first and second minor charges]. And you the said William Burke, having been taken before George Tait, Esq., sheriff-subst.i.tute of the s.h.i.+re of Edinburgh, you did, in his presence, emit and subscribe five several declarations, of the dates respectively following, viz.:--the 3rd, 10th, 19th, and 29th days of November, and 4th day of December, 1828; and you the said Helen M'Dougal having been taken before the said sheriff-subst.i.tute, you did, in his presence, at Edinburgh, emit two several declarations, one upon the 3rd, and another, upon the 10th days of November, 1828; which declarations were each of them respectively subscribed in your presence by the said sheriff-subst.i.tute, you having declared you could not write: which declarations having to be used in evidence against each of you by whom the same were respectively emitted; as also the skirt of a gown, as also a petticoat, as also a snuff-box, and a snuff-spoon; a black coat, a black waistcoat, a pair of moleskin trowsers, and a cotton handkerchief or neckcloth, to all of which sealed labels are now attached, being to be used in evidence against you the said William Burke; as also a coa.r.s.e linen sheet, a coa.r.s.e pillow-case, a dark printed cotton gown, a red striped bed-gown, to which a sealed label is now attached; as also a wooden box; as also a plan ent.i.tled 'Plan of Houses in Wester Portsburgh and places adjacent,' and bearing to be dated 'Edinburgh, 20th November 1828,'

and to be signed by James Braidwood, 22, Society; being all to be used in evidence against both and each of you the said William Burke and Helen M'Dougal, at your trial, will, for that purpose, be in due time lodged in the hands of the Clerk of the High Court of Justiciary, before which you are to be tried, that you may have an opportunity of seeing the same; _all which_, or part thereof, being found proven by the verdict of an a.s.size, or admitted by the respective judicial confessions of the said William Burke and Helen M'Dougal, before the Lord Justice-General, Lord Justice-Clerk, and Lords Commissioners of Justiciary--you, the said William Burke and Helen M'Dougal _ought_ to be punished with the pains of law, to deter others from committing the like crimes in all time coming."

The list of witnesses attached to this very formidable doc.u.ment showed the names of fifty-five persons; and there was, also, a list of forty-five persons called for the jury from the city of Edinburgh, town of Leith, and counties of Edinburgh, Linlithgow and Haddington.