Public dissections were quite a spectacle in the past. Surgeons would hold anatomical dissections in theaters and crowds would flock them just to get a glimpse of what exactly is inside the human body. We don’t hold such public spectacles nowadays since we have already done detailed studies of the human anatomy, and all of those have already been recorded in books. Furthermore, we have mannequins and models that can show which parts go where. But back then, just when the study of anatomy was a nascent subject, public anatomical dissections were the rage.
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In 19th century Scotland, there was a surgeon named Dr. Robert Knox who did such public dissections twice a day, which earned him a lot of money. However, due to a few hiccups, there was a shortage of corpses which he could use for his public displays. There were fewer criminals being hanged due to the 1823 Judgment of Death Act, and people were getting annoyed with the growing frequency of grave-robbing. So, two men found a way to bridge the gap between supply and demand.
William Burke and William Hare conspired to make a fortune from corpses which they sold to Dr. Knox. The first one was innocent enough. One of Burke’s tenants had died before paying rent of £4. So, they brought his dead body to Knox and got paid £8. The allure of money was quite tempting, and so they began their killing spree. Knox knew that the corpses he had been buying were obtained through illegal means, but asked no questions.
Everything seemed to go swimmingly for the pair until their hubris became their undoing. They were caught after Burke’s tenants found a fresh corpse in their room. They were reported to the police and they were sentenced to an end befitting the crimes they committed.
(Image credit: Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt/Wikimedia Commons)
Source: neatorama