The History of Burke and Hare, and of the Resurrectionist Times / A Fragment from the Criminal Annals of Scotland

by George Mac Gregor

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 circumstantial 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 passage, 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 Saturday 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 Lasswade, 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 space 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 Grassmarket 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 circumstances 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-snatchers 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 passed 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, wishing 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 shillings 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 assistants, 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 illustrates 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 Grassmarket, 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.