KILL GHOST STREETS OF ROGUE FREE

KILL GHOST STREETS OF ROGUE FREE

Once caught, Hare testified against Burke, and Hare walked free – as did Knox. And thus began a 10 month spree in which 16 innocent people – mostly women – were killed for profit by the deadly duo. The victim was suffocated, and the men received £10 for their efforts. They thought that a guest with a fever could put off other potential guests from staying, so they killed two birds with one stone (or rather, killed one lodger with one pillow).

You may imagine, then, Burke and Hare’s delight when a couple of months later, another lodger became unwell. (Pointless fact: he actually was blind in one eye.) He paid them well, and extended an open invitation for more bodies whenever they had “another to dispose of”. There was quite a shortage of cadavers, due to strict guidelines about how they could be obtained, so Knox turned a blind eye and bought the body. Robert Knox, a local lecturer in anatomy who was always in need of fresh bodies to dissect in front of his eager students. Turning to his friend William Burke for advice, they decided to sell the corpse to Dr. When one of his guests suddenly died, he had two problems on his hands: a dead body and a guest too dead to pay his bill.

In 1827, William Hare was renting out his lodgings. In 19th century, this rotten pair were the most infamous killers in Auld Reekie children even sang nursery rhymes warning, “Burke’s the butcher, Hare’s the thief, Knox the boy that buys the beef.” That’s the song, but what’s the story?

Centuries of terrible events including “witch” burnings, mass murders, hangings and more… It’s all here, in this potted history of dangerous, dodgy, haunted Edinburgh. Every city has skeletons in its closet, but when it comes to grisly secrets, it’s hard to rival the gruesome history of Edinburgh.

Kill ghost streets of rogue