Selling Bodies For Dissection: The Killings Of Burke & Hare

Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney investigate the case of Scotland’s most notorious serial killers, Burke and Hare.

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Join Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney on the dark streets of Edinburgh as they investigate the infamous nineteenth century case of Burke and Hare: Scotland’s most notorious serial killers.

William Burke and William Hare murdered for money, killing in cold blood at least 16 times, so that they could sell the bodies of their victims to the anatomist table.

Anthony follows the story of their horrific crimes right up to Edinburgh’s high society, to the medical establishment so bent on scientific progress it fuelled a clandestine trade in bodies.

Maddy examines the evidence we have about the victims' lives, the poor and itinerant people who made their livings in Edinburgh’s crowded Old Town. Those unlucky people who tragically crossed Burke and Hare’s murderous path were targeted because of their isolation… but there was always more to their stories…

The murders could only go on for so long… and Burke and Hare’s downfall, trial and the public execution of Burke caused a media storm. The killings made headlines and haunted the public in Edinburgh and across the world.

Anthony and Maddy consider the unanswered questions of the case: how much did flamboyant Doctor Knox, who bought the bodies, know about where they had come from, how complicit were the men’s partners in their crimes… and what happened to William Hare.



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