A POPULAR VERDICT. 549 



The api^etite of the vampires was now sharply whetted, aiul tliey 

 entered systematically upon the work of murder. Vagrants, street- 

 walkers, and imbeciles, were allured on various pretexts to the house 

 of Hare, made dead drunk, and suffocated. Emboldened by tlieir suc- 

 cesses, they began to pursue their thuggish practices even in daylight. 

 A woman named Docherty was stifled, and her body left half-exposed 

 under some straw was seen by two lodgers, who notified the police. 

 Thirteen victims had been secured in eleven months, and all taken to 

 the same place and sold. The prisoners were tried December 24, 

 1828, when Hare, the blackest of the villains, was let off by turning 

 " state's evidence," and Burke was convicted, hanged, and dissected. 



Tlie effect produced upon the public by this horrible disclosure is 

 indescribable. A new and unheard-of crime, that of "Burkino-." was 

 added to the list of atrocities of which human fiends are capable. As- 

 tonishment and terror spread through the community. Households 

 gathered their members within-doors before dusk; workmen walked 

 home from their night's toil in groups, as if in fear of being waylaid. 

 The facts were appalling enough ; but a thousand exaggerations and 

 inventions filled the air, and intensified the universal excitement. 



It could hardly be expected that public feeling, under such circum- 

 stances, would be restrained within the bounds of reason, but it went 

 to the most outrageous excesses. Those who were loudest in their 

 execrations of Hare and Burke, were themselves guilty of conduct 

 almost as atrocious, which was nothing less than the endeavor to 

 fasten the turpitude of these crimes upon the parties at the Medical 

 School who received the bodies. They were accused of being in col- 

 lusion with Hare and Burke, of conniving at their villainy, and paying 

 them the wages of murder. Dr. Knox, who was at the head of the 

 establishment, was held responsible, and accused of being the prime 

 mover of the dark transactions. 



Yet Dr. Knox never saw Burke and Hare but twice during the whole 

 time that they were bringing subjects to the institution, and never had 

 any thing whatever to do with them. The subjects were received in 

 the usual way by persons in charge of the dissecting-room, and they 

 constituted less than one-sixth of the regular supply of the establish- 

 ment. Moreover, the practice of obtaining subjects in the way they 

 were alleged to come had been long pursued. Tramps, vagabonds, 

 beggars, and worthless, homeless creatures of all sorts were dying in 

 the hovels, dens, cellars, and gutters, with nobody to claim them, and 

 even their relatives, if they had any, would often sell their bodies for a 

 few bottles of whiskey. It was frequently necessary in crowded lodg- 

 ings to have bodies promptly removed, and there was a regular busi- 

 ness done with the medical colleges in smuggling this class of subjects 

 into their rooms. Hare and Burke were therefore doing nothing ap- 

 parently unusual or that in itself excited suspicion. The porter of 

 the establishment received the bodies, deposited them in the mor- 



