The first witness called for the Crown was James Braidwood, a builder, and master of the Edinburgh fire brigade, who attested the correctness of the plan of the houses in Wester Portsburgh prepared for use in the trial, and which has been reproduced in this volume. He was followed by Mary Stewart, in whose house, in the Pleasance, Mrs. Docherty’s son resided, and in which that unfortunate woman had slept the night before the murder. She remembered the circumstances well. The old woman was in good health when she last saw her in life, but she had no difficulty in recognising the body in the Police Office on the Sunday following. Further, she identified the clothing found in Burke’s house, and produced in court, as having belonged to the deceased. Charles M‘Lachlan, a lodger, corroborated this testimony. The shop-boy of Rymer, the grocer in the West Port, in whose premises Burke met Docherty, described what took place between them on the memorable Friday morning, and also mentioned the purchase by Burke on the Saturday of a tea-chest similar to the one in which the body had been conveyed to Knox’s rooms. But the relationship between the prisoners and Docherty was brought out by a neighbour, Mrs. Connoway, who related that she had seen the old woman in their house during the day, and that it had been explained to her by M‘Dougal that the stranger was a friend of Burke. Later in the evening the old woman was in her house, when they were joined by Hare and his wife and the two prisoners. A dram was going round, and they began to be merry, until at last some of them took to dancing. In the course of this Docherty hurt her feet. The company afterwards returned to Burke’s house, and Mrs. Connoway went to bed, but heard no noise or disturbance during the night. Next day she went in to see M‘Dougal, and, missing the stranger, she asked what had become of her, when she was told that “Burke and her had been ower friendly together, and she [M‘Dougal] had turned her out of doors: that she had kicked her out of the house.” The evidence of Mrs. Law, another neighbour, was similar in effect, with the addition that in the course of the night she had heard the noise of “shuffling or fighting” proceed from the house of the prisoners. More to the point, however, was the testimony of Hugh Alston, a grocer, residing in the same property. Between eleven and twelve o’clock on the night of Friday, the 31st October, while going along the passage that led from his house to the street, he heard a noise proceeding from Burke’s house. The sound was as if two men were quarrelling, but what most attracted his attention was a woman’s voice calling “murder.” He went towards the door and listened, and he heard the two men making a great noise as if wrangling or quarreling. This continued for a few minutes, and then he heard something give a cry—a sound which seemed to proceed from a person or animal being strangled. After this remarkable sound had ceased he again heard a female voice cry “murder,” and there was a knocking on the floor of the house. As he was afraid of fire, Alston went to look for a policeman. Not finding one he returned to his old stance, but the noise by this time had ceased. When he heard next night of the body having been found in the house the whole incident of the previous evening came back to him.

Interesting as all this evidence was, the testimony of David Paterson, “keeper of the museum belonging to Dr. Knox,” as bearing on what was termed “the complicity of the doctors,” attracted more attention. This witness gave an account of how, about midnight, Burke called on him and took him to his house in Portsburgh, to point out that he had a subject for him. He identified Burke, M‘Dougal, and Hare and his wife as being in the house while he was there, and he further stated that he had seen them the night after, when he paid the two men an instalment of the price of the body. He was examined at some length as to the appearance of the body when he gave it up to the police, and said the marks and the look of the face indicated that death had been caused by suffocation or strangulation, while the general appearance showed that the corpse had never been interred. He knew Burke and Hare, and had often had dealings with them for bodies. There were, he knew, people in the town who sold bodies that had never been interred; and he had known gentlemen who had attended poor patients, and who, on their death, gave a note of their place of abode, and this in turn was handed to men such as he supposed Burke and Hare to be, to get the bodies. This was startling information to the bulk of the people of Scotland, but, as has been shown in some of the early chapters of this work, it was nothing new to a certain class of the population of Edinburgh and other towns. The succeeding witnesses were Broggan, Mr. and Mrs. Gray, and Fisher the detective, but as their evidence has been embodied in the account of the murder itself, it need not be repeated here.

Plan of Houses in Wester Portsburgh.

[Larger Image]

Prepared for use at the Trial of Burke & McDougal.
For Explanatory Key See [Page XII].

William Hare was next brought forward, and his appearance caused quite a sensation in court. It was known that on his evidence and that of his wife the case for the Crown principally rested, and “expectation stood on tiptoe” to hear the account he would give of the foul transaction in which he was a prominent actor. His position as an informer was peculiar, and Lord Meadowbank cautioned him “that whatever share you may have had in the transaction, if you now speak the truth, you can never afterwards be questioned in a court of justice,” but if he should prevaricate he might be assured that the result would be condign punishment. The Lord Justice Clerk further informed him that he was called as a witness regarding the death of Docherty, and in reply to this he asked—“T’ ould woman, sir?” He was then put on oath, being sworn on a New Testament having on it a representation of the cross, a mode only adopted in Scotland when the witness belongs to the Roman Catholic Church. In answer to the Lord Advocate he said he had known Burke for about a year. On the 31st October he had a gill with Burke, and the latter then told him that in his house there was an old woman whom he had taken off the street, and who would be a good shot to take to the doctors. From this word shot he understood that Burke intended murdering her. His evidence of the events up to the time of the quarrel about eleven o’clock was quite consistent with all that has already been related, but his account of the actual murder is worthy of reproduction. Having described the fight, during which the woman tumbled over the stool, he said, in answer to the Lord Advocate:—

He [Burke] stood on the floor;—he then got stride-legs on the top of the woman on the floor, and she cried out a little, and he kept in her breath.

Did he lay himself down upon her? Yes; he pressed down her head with his breast.

She gave a kind of a cry, did she? Yes.