This action on the part of the Lord Advocate was simply a formal way of making the public aware of the contents of the confession, the Lord Provost being the official representative of the citizens of Edinburgh. He, in his turn, sent the document to the newspapers for publication. Of course, when the people read it they would be initiated into the secrets of the conspiracy engaged in by Burke and Hare, and the Courant managers saw that it would forestall their confession, even though it was fuller in detail. There must have been a hasty consultation with Mr. Smith, for on Saturday, the 7th February, the two confessions appeared in that journal, accompanied by the following editorial note:—
“The interdict of the Sheriff on the publication of the confession and declaration of Burke, which has been for some time in our possession, having been withdrawn in consequence of a mutual compromise, we now publish this document, along with a declaration signed before the Sheriff, and sent by him to the Lord Provost for publication the day after he had pronounced an interdict against the Courant. It will be observed that the declaration before the Sheriff is dry and meagre in its details. The declaration which we publish is much fuller, and contains minute and striking circumstances which were never before laid before the public. The publication of this declaration and confession has been delayed by various proceedings; of which, however vexatious, we are not disposed to complain. The interdict of the Court of Justiciary being deemed essential to the ends of justice, we yielded an immediate and respectful obedience to this order. The first interdict by the Sheriff, at the instance of a private party, was granted as a matter of course; and that interdict, after our application to have it recalled, was continued by a well meant but erroneous judgment. However we might be disappointed by the decision, we did not conceive that we had any right to complain. But we certainly do complain, that, after the Sheriff had laid the declaration which we possessed under an interdict, he should, the very next day, have published, or sent for publication, another declaration. We complain of this the more, because the very ground on which he decided to continue the interdict against us was, that our interest would be less injured by delay than that of the other party by removing the interdict; and yet, in the face of this decision, he publishes a document which, for ought he knew, might be identically the same as ours, and by the publication of which our interest would not merely be injured, but utterly ruined. We certainly think that this is an extraordinary mode of procedure. A judge in the case first interdicts the publication of a certain confession or declaration, telling one of the parties that he cannot suffer much injury by the delay, and the very next day publishes a declaration by the same person, to the injury, perhaps to the utter destruction of any interest the party had in the matter at issue. We really think that the dangers of delay are here exemplified in a very instructive manner; for if we had known that the very paper, as we could judge, about which parties were at issue, would be published the next day by the Sheriff himself, how would this have strengthened our argument against the continuance of the interdict? Such are the facts of the case; considering them carefully, they certainly appear to be somewhat irregular; and the effect was certainly calculated to prejudice, nay, to ruin our interest, if the paper in the possession of the Sheriff had not been so meagre and unsatisfactory, compared with the declaration we publish.”
The Courant showed its annoyance at the turn affairs had taken, but while doing so it made every effort, and that successfully, to outstrip its contemporaries. Besides publishing the two confessions in full, it gave a fac simile of the note in Burke’s handwriting, appended to the document in their own possession, over which there had been so much dispute. There is one thing in favour of the Courant, or unofficial, confession, and that is the paper signed by Burke the night before his execution. He there testifies as to its accuracy, so far as he had had time to examine it. At the same time, in view of the many discrepancies between the two documents themselves, and what was brought out by subsequent investigation, it must be admitted that in many respects they are defective as records of the terrible series of crimes in which Burke and Hare participated.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Burke’s Confession before the Sheriff—A Record of the Murders—The Method—Complicity of the Women and the Doctors—Murderers but not Body-Snatchers.
The official confession of Burke was made in the condemned cell by the criminal on the 3rd of January, 1829, in the presence of Mr. George Tait, Sheriff-substitute; Mr. Archibald Scott, Procurator-fiscal; and Mr. Richard J. Moxey, assistant Sheriff-clerk. The following is a copy of the document:—
“Compeared William Burke, at present under sentence of death in the jail of Edinburgh, states that he never saw Hare till the Hallow-fair before last [November, 1827,] when he and Helen M‘Dougal met Hare’s wife, with whom he was previously acquainted, on the street; they had a dram, and he mentioned he had an intention to go to the west country to endeavour to get employment as a cobbler; but Hare’s wife suggested that they had a small room in their house which might suit him and M‘Dougal, and that he might follow his trade of a cobbler in Edinburgh; and he went to Hare’s house, and continued to live there, and got employment as a cobbler.
“An old pensioner, named Donald, lived in the house about Christmas, 1827; he was in bad health, and died a short time before his quarter’s pension was due: that he owed Hare £4; and a day or two after the pensioner’s death, Hare proposed that his body should be sold to the doctors, and that the declarant should get a share of the price. Declarant said it would be impossible to do it, because the man would be coming in with the coffin immediately; but after the body was put in the coffin, and the lid was nailed down, Hare started the lid with a chisel, and he and declarant took out the corpse and concealed it in the bed, and put tanner’s bark from behind the house into the coffin, and covered it with a sheet, and nailed down the lid of the coffin, and the coffin was then carried away for interment. That Hare did not appear to have been concerned in anything of the kind before, and seemed to be at a loss how to get the body disposed of; and he and Hare went in the evening to the yard of the College, and saw a person like a student there, and the declarant asked him if there were any of Dr. Monro’s men about, because he did not know there was any other way of disposing of a dead body—nor did Hare. The young man asked what they wanted with Dr. Monro, and the declarant told him that he had a subject to dispose of, and the young man referred him to Dr. Knox, No. 10 Surgeon’s Square; and they went there, and saw young gentlemen, whom he now knows to be Jones, Miller, and Ferguson, and told them that they had a subject to dispose of, but they did not ask how they had obtained it; and they told the declarant and Hare to come back when it was dark, and that they themselves would find a porter to carry it. Declarant and Hare went home and put the body into a sack, and carried it to Surgeon’s Square, and not knowing how to dispose of it, laid it down at the door of the cellar, and went up to the room, where the three young men saw them, and told them to bring up the body to the room, which they did; and they took the body out of the sack, and laid it on the dissecting table: That the shirt was on the body, but the young man asked no questions as to that; and the declarant and Hare, at their request, took off the shirt, and got £7 10s. Dr. Knox came in after the shirt was taken off, and looked at the body, and proposed they should get £7 10s., and authorized Jones to settle with them; and he asked no questions as to how the body had been obtained. Hare got £4 5s. and the declarant got £3 5s. Jones, &c., said that they would be glad to see them again when they had any other body to dispose of.
“Early last spring, 1828, a woman from Gilmerton came to Hare’s house as a nightly lodger,—Hare keeping seven beds for lodgers: That she was a stranger, and she and Hare became merry, and drank together; and next morning she was very ill in consequence of what she had got, and she sent for some drink, and she and Hare drank together, and she became very sick and vomited; and at that time she had not risen from bed, and Hare then said that they would try and smother her in order to dispose of her body to the doctors: That she was lying on her back in the bed, and quite insensible from drink, and Hare clapped his hand on her mouth and nose, and the declarant laid himself across her body, in order to prevent her making any disturbance—and she never stirred; and they took her out of bed and undressed her, and put her into a sheet; and they mentioned to Dr. Knox’s young men that they had another subject; and Mr. Miller sent a porter to meet them in the evening at the back of the Castle; and declarant and Hare carried the chest till they met the porter, and they accompanied the porter with the chest to Dr. Knox’s class-room, and Dr. Knox came in when they were there: the body was cold and stiff. Dr. Knox approved of its being so fresh, but did not ask any questions.