164 HUMAN DISSECTION. ITS DRAMA AND STRUGGLE 



condition. When this state was reached, Hare placed his hands 

 over her mouth and nose to stop respiration, while Burke sprawled 

 over her body to prevent struggling. The woman was dead within 

 a few minutes. This body brought 10 pounds from Dr. Robert 

 Knox. This was a modification of the method used by the nurses, 

 Helen Torrence and Jean Waldie, in 1752, and was character- 

 ized by leaving no marks of violence on the victim. 



The body of Abigail Simpson was disposed of as follows: 

 students of Dr. Knox, present in his dissecting-room, were in- 

 formed that another subject was available for the anatomist. They, 

 in turn, relayed this news to the professor who arranged to send 

 a porter to meet Burke and Hare behind the Edinburgh castle, 

 which still stands well-preserved, at a specified hour during the 

 night. The body was carried to this spot in a chest by Burke and 

 Hare and from there it ^vas conveyed to the dissecting-room where 

 Dr. Knox met them to examine the body, which was by then cold 

 and stiff. He said he liked its freshness but made no interroga- 

 tions as to how it was obtained. 



Between February 12th and November 1st, 1828, an interval 

 of eight and one-half months, a total of fifteen additional murders 

 were committed by this pair and all reached the door of the ana- 

 tomical laboratory of Knox. This gives an indication of the 

 whetted appetites and vampirian thirst, of the assassins. The age 

 or sex of the victijiis did not matter in their standards. They were 

 made up of widows, orphans, streetwalkers and imbeciles. Only 

 a few more special incidents are described below, because each 

 murder was a replica of the first. 



One which attracted attention but was not suspected, ^vas 

 that of a young prostitute by name of Mary Patterson, who in 

 habited the streets of Edinburgh. She was treated by Burke and 

 Hare in the usual manner: enticed to the lodginghouse, plied 

 with drink and then smothered. Four hours later, she was lying 

 in the dissecting-room, her body having been sold to Knox. Al 

 though the corpse was already cold, rigor mortis had not yet set 

 in. The murderers were paid 8 pounds. At the time, the girl's 

 hair was in curlpapers; there were no disfigurements, and her 

 external appearance sii-^^csicd that she had not been buried. 

 Two of the students in tiie lab at the time thought they knew 



