Citation Needed - The Burke and Hare Murders

Episode Date: October 20, 2021

The Burke and Hare murders were a series of 16 killings committed over a period of about ten months in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were undertaken by William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses to Robert Knox for dissection at his anatomy lectures. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here.  Be sure to check our website for more details.

And so I said, you don't need to slice it. I just want the ham. Just give me the ham. And what did she say? Oh, you know, I have to get the manager and blah, blah, blah, blah, but exactly. We gotta stop going there. Yeah, but that's giving them what they want.

Yeah, but I want as the ham. Thank you. Ha ha! Dude, come on, really? All over my shirt. Wow, I gotta say usually we die at like, like the end of the intro skip rather than the beginning because Eli doesn't know how to write buttons.

Okay, first of all, dying is a button, Cecil. Okay, lots of great comments, you say. It is like the example of lazy writing. Right, seconds, seconds, I killed Tom because it fits the theme of this week's episode. It's about body snatching and murder. It's all totally on topic. Well, sure Eli, Burkin hair weren't the good guys in the story.

They were murderers. They're the bad guys. Oh, they are. Yeah, man. They're the bad guys. Yeah. It's easy. Oh, besides, dude, we already kill Cecil with this show every week, you know, just little by little and on the inside.

Yeah, you know what, that's fair. Let's go do the show. Let's do the show. That's the spirit. I really am tired. Very tired. What'd you say, buddy? Nothing. So let's go. Let's do the podcast. Hello and welcome! The citation needed, the podcast where we choose to subject, read a single article about it on Wikipedia, and pretend we're experts. Because this is the internet, that's how it works now. I'm Eli Bosnick and I'll be dissecting this evening's story, but I'll need some dead weight.

First up, three men whose many friends and loved ones would desperately search for them everywhere if they were to go missing, even for just a few hours. Tom, Cecil and Noah. I just wanna point out that it's fiends, it's many fiends and loved ones. So I wrote a joke for fiends. I wrote a joke for fiends, not friends.

So I have a selection of fiends, a fiend folio, if you will. Welcome to our world, Cecil. To be fair, like they would only be looking at me for like, you know, Netflix passwords and shit. And also joining us tonight. He is here. Great. Yeah. Oh, I missed this for a month. This is all great. Patrons love that. In so many ways, you are heath's family. Oh, remember the other bit. That's really digging on it. You care whether or not he lives or dies by donating his little is a dollar. My life is very bleak. This is fun. If you'd like to learn how to join their ranks, be sure to stick around till the end of the show. And with that out of the way, tell us, Tom, what person place thing concept, phenomenon or event? Well, we'll be talking about today. Today, we will be talking about

the Burke and Haram murders and Noah, you dissected this story. I ran out. Yeah, real quick, super quick. I got another one. I got, are you ready to spill your guts? Okay. Well, you know what? That's the least abusive thing I've done to my guts in a long fucking time. Yes, I am right. All right. So what were the Burke and hair murders?

They were the byproducts of an atomist's offering to pay cash money for corpses and a couple guys deciding that digging them up was a whole big thing. All right, and this is a no-a essay. So what paleolithic era does our story have? There's just one. Well, the first murder was the era. Okay, so murder began with Katie. No questions doesn't even make sense. The mic is out of here. So, you're going to start in a city that knows a little something about dead people, Edinburgh, Scotland. See, back in the early 1800s, anatomy was just coming into its own as a science and one of the leading European centers for the study was in Scotland's capital. Up to that point, any effort to dissect a cadaver was seen as satanic,

but in the light of the scientific revolution, some people were slowly starting to come around to the idea that seeing how we worked might have some value. Oh, man, I'll tell you what I hear you about Edinburgh. When we were there, we absolutely died on that. Yep, sure did. Yeah, but that's a death nobody wanted to die. No, of course, just because the leading lights of science could see the benefits of human dissection doesn't mean they could convince the culture at large. A lot of people back then still believed in bodily resurrection. That's the Christian concept that after Christ returned your actual dead body is going to rise up and live on.

Now somehow they'd reconcile the fact of decomposition with that belief, but they couldn't reconcile it with the idea that your heart and brain would be in different jars. So if the general population is still horrified by the concept, of course, that means that the politicians had to at least pretend to be horrified by it too. So for the longest time, the only bodies anybody was allowed to poke around in were the corpses of executed prisoners. only bodies, anybody was allowed to poke around in where the corpses of executed prisoners. In fact, that was actually kind of seen as an extra postmortem punishment that the state could need out to criminals.

Satan gets a rapture gift of all the criminals to torture forever and he's like, oh man, some assembly required. To the sun. You see this is why I hate trying to torture the Swedes. The Camlocks,'re all right. I have an extra pinky. What is one of the things I'm supposed to do with an extra pinky?

I need an anal wrench. His hacks wrench is cursed. Even as prodigious as the British were in terms of executions back then, it was nowhere near enough to keep up with the demand from surgical schools. So by 1828, the year our grizzly tail takes place, the list of acceptable bodies for dissection had expanded to include executed criminals, people who died in prison other than executions, people who died by suicide, regardless of where, abandoned children and orphans.

Okay, quick note, that's a weird list. Right. A weird list of things. Also, how are the abandoned jobs and not worth? Yeah, I can't imagine what list that go like things you shouldn't profit from. But of course, even that expansive list was done enough for cities like Edinburgh. It had become one of the most prestigious centers for anatomical study in the world. So every budding surgeon wanted to be able to say that they studied there. That meant that there was really strong demand for dead bodies, you know, above and beyond what there would be in another city that size. And there were also a whole bunch of them just lying around in cemeteries. And there was also capitalism.

Yeah, I was a new profession called Resurrection Man, or as we would dub them today, a grave robbers. So with a quick reminder not to take legal advice from a podcast, I should point out that the stealing of corpses was kind of legally ambiguous thing back then. So it was illegal to disturb a grave, and it was illegal to take possessions from a grave, but the corpse itself didn't belong to it. So it was illegal to disturb it. Well, so it's like, you couldn't attempt it.

Come on. That's exactly what they were trying to avoid. They didn't want a situation where you could sell like your mother-in-law's cadaver to researchers because you didn't want her hounding you in the post-apocalyptic paradise. So if you could snatch a body without having to dig it up and you left all the possessions behind, you hadn't actually committed a crime. And you could just quietly and reasonably.

Exactly. Exactly. And possession of a corpse wasn't a crime either. What was the tendency of life? People to suddenly become corpses and the infrequency of the bring out your dead wagon back then. So it was one of those illicitrails that was super easy to get away. Oh, hey, officer, yeah, no, I brought these from home. These are mine.

I'm all my brother. Oh, yeah. I'm all my problem. Yeah. Yeah. No, of course, just because you could do it in a quasi legal way didn't mean that people did. Instead, they just dug up coffins. Or actually, they would just dig down until some of the coffin was revealed.

And then they would smash through it and yank the corpse out of the hole. Well, yeah, cause I mean coffins don't bend. You don't want to pull the whole fucking thing out. And stealing that might have been illegal. So, and one unboxing videos would have been interesting back in the day.

Right? We didn't camera came too late. Of course, you couldn't just go digging up any old corpse. You might think a corpse is a corpse. Of course, of course. Of course, Of course, is the

And the more decomposed they are, the less useful they are to anatomists. So what the anatomists needed were fresh corpses. That's going to be important later pinning that. Now, they also tended to be the easiest ones to assume too, because the dirt hadn't settled in as much. And I love this macabre little details I found on Wikipedia. Apparently dead people were seasonal, like lobsters.

They were worth eight pounds in the summer when it was warmer when they would decompose faster, but 10 pounds in the winter when an atomist could store them longer. Okay, so in the winter, Robert, especially in the winter, Robert's were just like hovering next to funerals, like a fucking Starbucks table when it's busy. All right, so needless to say, grieving families

were not a huge fan of these new body snatching practices. But yeah, by the 1820s, it had become so prevalent in Edinburgh that there were literal marches in the streets and protests. Graveyard started to employ night watchmen and built watchtowers, many of which are still standing. And the bereave started to buy huge stone slabs that could be like set over top of the grave or these devices called mort safes, which are big-ass iron cages that are buried deep into the ground or brown to the grave. By the way, many of those also still stand,

which is creepy as ever, love and fuck, if you don't know why they're there, because it's a prison built around a dead guy. Yeah. By the way, fun fact, photos of mortzafes are often used as proof of the existence of vampires. Yep. Oh my God.

There's all these two. Yeah. Zombies vampires pretty regular. Okay, so ultimately, everybody have fun with that? I feel like, I don't know. No, that's pretty regular. Okay, so ultimately everybody I found with that. I feel like that's a very fun fact, especially this close to Halloween. Yeah. Now ultimately, every day they were doing to impede the efforts of Grey robbers had the effect of impeding the efforts of Grey robbers. And that became a big problem for an atomists in the area, most notably Dr. Robert Knox.

Now, we actually have to take a quick diversion here to introduce this enigmatic character to the story. Knox was a young surgeon who had already made quite a name for himself by 1828, about with smallpox as a child that left him blind in one eye and badly disfigured. But that didn't stop him from becoming one of the top surgeons in the world. At a time when most of that shit was still done by Barbers and Butchers. It served as an army physician for the British

during the Battle of Waterloo and in Southern Africa. And though his involvement in the story kind of overshadows everything else he did in a historical sense had it not been for that. He would be on the very short list for the title of Father of Modern Anatomy. So Knox was one of Edinburgh's most prestigious purchaser of posthumous people. And like most of the folks procuring bodies for dissection, he wasn't super scrupulous

when it came to chain of custody. Folks would just show up with a dirty shovel in one hand and a cadaver in the other and say, yeah, I just found this person who died in prison and or from a suicide. And Knox would fork over his eight to 10 pounds depending on the season, which by the way, that's the equivalent of over a thousand dollars today, even on the low end. Okay. Just a quick reminder, people were hunting orphans like goddamn velociraptors in this city at this point.

Okay. Maybe it's just me, but I would rub the fuck out of some graves for a thousand bucks. That is the perfect crime if you're in love. Obviously, it doesn't matter. Right. Good money. And you're helping science. It's actually a good crime.

So that's where things stand in 1828. There's a high demand for fresh human bodies from people who are accustomed to not asking a lot of questions and it's getting harder and harder to dig them up. And given what a fucked up species homo sapien is, that was a perfect recipe. For murder. Alright, well, no just ruin phase two of my plan, so while I stare bitterly at him,

we're gonna take a break for a little something we like to call apropos of nothing. Dr. Knox. Yes, Jenkins. What is it? I'm afraid there's some unpleasant rumors going about. About me? Yes, sir. See, you ain't too careful when it comes to kitting your cadavers.

Absurd, I work with only the finest proctor of the human body. One moment. Hello. Hey, you the nox guy. Mm-hmm. So, uh, what do you give me for this bag of dead kids? Uh, that depends on how many kids there are in the bag. Like, total or pieces?

Uh, total. Total, uh, like, two, uh, three, it. I'm gonna say three. Oh, there you go, then, it, I'm gonna say three. Oh, there you go then, 18 pound. Fuck yeah, nice deal. Good evening. Sorry, sir. Yes, Jack.

I think, I think that might be the kind of thing people are talking about. You just bought a bag of dead children from a stranger. But, it what? He's not a stranger. Well, he's not a stranger. Well, he's not? Hey! Hey!

No, Revons! We're not doing Revons! No! What's your name? My name? Yes. It... Steve... Steve? Jenkins?

That's Steve. All on the up and up that. Yes, sir. And Jenkins? Yes, sir. And Jenkins. Yes, sir? Maybe don't go out that entrance. Steve seems kind of... ...lingery.

Thank you, sir. No, I'm not. It's fine. You can come out here. I'm not lingering. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, description of it. Yes, you can. Come right out. He's got the bag. Come out right now. All right, when we last left off, the market solution was murdering people again! Again! Yeah? It's just happened so often you would think sometimes the market solution would not be... Not exactly that. Murdering people.

Anyway, it would happen later. Sorry. All right. So, it's time to meet our murderer and chief William Burke. Of course, these are the Burke and hair murders and we're going to meet hair as well, but he's definitely the Robin DeBurgs Batman or I guess the Otis to his Lex Luthor, they're bad guys. So you're saying they were fucking.

We get it. Batman's a bad guy. That's not what I was saying. Thank you. And just to make this a bit more formal, they're, they're both named William. So you have to kind of go with last names here. So William Burke was born into a well-to-do family in Ireland in 1792. And there were six of them. He was born into one of them. He married young, but then he had an argument with his father-in-law over who owned what land and he got so pissed the abandoned

his family and moved to scusas. Yep, that's a pretty bad argument apparently. Eventually he remarried, settled down as a cobbler and I love this bizarre detail the wiki bio offers up. Apparently he was quote, known locally as an industrious and goody-humored man who often entertained his clients by singing and dancing on their doorstep while applying his trade. And quote, cobbling. Yeah, yeah, seems like dancing wouldn't be real conducive to cobbling. But yeah, it also points out that he was called seldom seen without a Bible, end quote. And I think both of those factoids are offered up in the vein of, can you believe this guy was a vicious murderer? But I feel like a Bible thumber who dances while he fixes shoes is the first guy I would

look to with those started showing up at that, right? It's also weird that a cobbler would team up for murders. I figure he'd be a soul killer. Oh, soul. Okay, but that's why he was a cobbler who saves your soul. See, soul. Oh, I got a cobbler. I got a cobbler.

Blueberry cobbler. Nope. it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got of his origins, the best a wiki can do is to say that he was probably born in county arma, county, london, dairy, or annuvery. And those are all in Ireland, though, so I'm mispronouncing all of them, I'm sure. Hair was apparently way more the murdery type. So the wiki quotes one source that describes hair as quote, illiterate and uncouth, a lean, quarrelsome, violent, and amoral character with discars from old wounds about his head and brow. And quote, and the same source also throws up a bit of shade on hair's wife, describing

her as a quote, hard, featured, and debauched, verigo. And quote, verigo, that's a word I'm not familiar with. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right either. It just means an ill-tempered, domineering woman or a heroic female warrior. Although I'm sure to the people of the day, those meanings weren't worth purchasing. Yeah. So in 1827, hair on this lodging house

where Burke and his second wife were living and among his other lodgers was a guy named Donald who had the temerity to die while his rent was still in a rear. Specifically, he owed hair four pounds, which at the time of his demise, as we've already seen, was a fairly large sum of money, about 500 bucks or so. So he bitches about his financial loss to his buddy Burke, who tells him that an atomists up in Edinburgh were paying at least double that amount for fresh corpses. So the he's stage of fake funeral.

They secreted the body out of the coffin before they buried it, and they replaced it with tree bark, a lot, and he's getting the idol. And then they headed to the big city. Oh man, I hope they walked with them, like with the dead guy, like he was a giant puppet. That would be amazing. We just did produce it.

Amazing. Yeah. Now, okay, my favorite aspect of this entire story giant puppet. We just amazing. We just amazing. It's amazing. Yeah. No, okay. My favorite aspect of this entire story probably is the fact that these guys didn't know anyone in particular that wanted to. That's amazing. Yeah, that's amazing. Like the general sense that the science folks up there bought.

So apparently they spent the whole evening going around town with like a State you want to buy a portion? We got two yes So but eventually a medical student pointed him towards Noxus place So he buys the body for seven pounds ten shillings hair gets his background plus five shillings and Burke gets the remainder for schlep and Donald's wreaking Down Edinburgh's many lovely hills But as they're leaving one of Knox's assistants says hey man We hope we'll see you again when you have another to dispose of

Now no doubt he assumed they were great Not a broken hair took it at all All right. It definitely feels like they're going to start murdering adults, cutting them in half and selling them as two. Like a fucking moneypile on dinner and stretch. They just taped extra faces on one. That's really going to happen.

Wait, half length. Surprise or crosswise. Keith, I was assuming height wise here. I was thinking X-axis and then you put a, I don't know why, because it's dumb. Now that I think about it, but I was thinking, if you do it X-axis,

then you can just kind of like show it to them, and decided like that's two guys. So yeah. I'm a sad, very often twin 20. My vision was. Okay. So from this point, the chronology gets a little tricky. Burke would later offer up to contradictory confessions, neither of which agreed with hairs. So we don't actually know who their first victim was. It was definitely one of Harris lodgers, but it could have been a Miller named Joseph, assault seller named Abigail Simpson or an unnamed English matchstick salesman. It could have been any of them. Yep. This is a normal three death week.

Fairly in me. You know, that's how they obviously call three. That's so very clear. No, no, they killed all three. We just don't know which they killed the first. Yeah. Okay. But what they all didn't agree on is that the first victim actually got super, super sick and was probably going to die anyway. Hair started worrying that a potentially infectious lodger might be bad for business. So they got the good, the victim good and shit faced. Then hair held a pillow over their face while Burke by far the larger of the two men laid down on the victims chest. This was obviously to keep them from thrashing about too much, but also as a secondary means of suffocation in case anything slip past the pillow. Man, my pillow backstory makes a lot more sense now. So this method of suffocation, though usually without the pillow,

would become the pair's MO over the next year or so, well, 15 more people fell victim to their murder spirit. So that's what you said it was like a thousand pounds at time. Yeah. That's like a, that's like a kind of old Nissan Sanctum. Slipp between the two of them. Like killing 15 people. That's pretty dear. Right, yeah. You have the back of a Nissan Sanford, Smith between the two of them, like killing 15 people. It's pretty, right.

Yeah. You have the back of a Nissan Sanford. Right. Which way would you cut it? Which way would you cut it though, Heath? Would you cut it X or Y? I go Y. Okay.

Sorry. All right. So take headlines to it. The consensus of the panelists that they should have killed more people apparently. Okay. So that's always my, That's always my vote. No matter what I say, we're doing. I mean, my consensus is to turn a real profit.

If you got to break a few ways, know what you got to break a few ways. Exactly. Exactly. Now, I should point out that not all of the 16 ultimate victims were people that actually stayed at the lodging house. At a certain point, they would just start meeting people on the street, being super friendly, getting a real drunk, and then saying, Hey, no worries, we got a bed right back here where you can sleep that off. At one point, Harry even got a victim delivered

by the local police, a constable found a woman to drunk to stand up and he's helping her back to her lodgings and hair steps in and says, Oh, you she can sleep it off at my place. Oh, Mr. Ghoulish border. You want to take this black out drunk girl back to your place? Well, it's getting, oh, don't out 30. Let's do it a second. Right, yes. Yeah, what are you gonna do, send dog the bounty hunter after me?

Oh, okay. Okay, listening in the back logs, that's a reference. The time we let a Mickey Rourke character find a girls murderer because our cop suck and everything is hell now. Yep. I know you forgot. This still don't know about the back of stuff. make the work character find a girl's murderer because our cop suck and everything is hell now. Yep. I know you forgot to know about the back of stuff. Right.

Exactly. Now, so after a dozen or so of these murders, though, the partnership started to get a bit rocky. Birken's wife had left the visit her dad in June. And when they came back, hair had new clothes and fewer deaths. So Birken accused him of killing somebody without it. Right. Now hair denied the accusation, but Burke just checked with Knox and sure enough, turned out that hair had sold him some dead lady like the weak. Right. So this

led to an argument between the two, which led to a fist fight, which led to Burke moving out of the lodging house. But it somehow didn't stop them from continuing to murder people together. Wait, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Just like stopping in the middle of murder stuff. I wish I could have a list of that.

Really wish. You know what I'm saying? We agreed that we would both go to all of them. We would take a time out. We can do this after they stopped brushing. No, no, no. One of their later victims was an in law of burks and apparently, uh, hairs Vera go wife strongly suggested that they kill burks wife do since,

you know, you can't trust Scottish women. I just, I just like that they could keep it professional, you know, you hate to see drama. Paraguay. Now, of course, eventually though, they started to get sloppy. Yeah, they're just stopping people in the street. Pardon me, Miss, can you smell this pillow? It smells weird. It just smells weird. Does this smell like a barrier facing? So their penultimate victim was actually a well-known beggar who walked

with a distinctive limp because of a deformity in his feet. He was known locally as Draft Jamie. Since 1820, Scott's weren't super woke about mental disabilities, but he was the kind of person that basically everybody in town knew. So when Knox's assistant saw the body, they were like, hey, isn't that Draft Jamie? But their final victim was even worse. Like basically, they let the whole lodging house see them partying up with her before they killed her

and then they acted all suspicious as hell when the lodgers wanted to, you know, go to their rooms. Then they just left the dead body sitting in a pile of straw at the foot of their bed and some half ass attempt to cover up until they got around to selling her. So, of course, the suspicious borders discovered the body a straw at the foot of their bed and some half-ass attempt to cover up until they got around to selling her. So, of course, the suspicious borders discovered the body and went to the cops. Now Birkenhare realized that they'd been discovered in time to dispose of the body, but

they just sort of shoved her bloody clothes and shit under the bed. So when the cops showed up, they found plenty of evidence of the murder. And since there was a pretty short list of guys that would buy a still warm cadaver, even in Edinburgh, it didn't take them long to find the body. And when they did, Knox had zero incentive not to say, yeah, I bought this one from Burke and a hair. Well, yeah, and Knox had just bought her. So she probably still had her tags on her and everything. Right. Yeah, exactly. What is your return?

All right. So naturally Burke, hair and hair is the way for all the rest of this point. They give some conflicting testimony. Medical examiners are brought into examin the victim, and though they say she probably died for suffocation due to the method that they used, it couldn't be medically proven at that point in history. And apparently the cops didn't think they had enough evidence to ensure a conviction so they ultimately decided to offer hair immunity if he would turn King's evidence and rat out Burke. And apparently the law, by the way, wouldn't allow him to testify against his wife so that amount of do immunity for her too. But Burke and his wife were both charged with multiple counts of murder.

I like medically proven. Okay, well, looks like she definitely died. That is, that's for sure. Can't tell how though mystery of science. Well, also we do have a nice chuck roast on sale for 899 a pound. Or we give you a quick shave for two fifths. Medicine. Yeah, I get it.

I mean, we found her bloody clothes in the apartment, but you can't make a lady tattle on her husband, so that's as good as we're I get it. I mean, we found her bloody clothes in the apartment, but you can't make a lady tattle on her husband. So that's as good as we're going to get policing. Yeah. I just got a little. Why can't? Why would you not be a lot of. I think honestly, it's because so many people would testify against their wife just because they hated her, you know. So, so another person who escaped any legal ramifications whatsoever from this event was Dr. Robert Knox, who told police that he thought Bergen here just, you know, watched all the lodging houses of the poor people and hovered over terminally ill people like

voters. And while this is at least plausible, it's all but impossible to believe Knox didn't know what was going on. Okay, so in addition to his assistance, repeatedly pointing out how warm the body's burk and hair delivered seem to be, there was also a fact inserted into the wiki that is all but an admission of guilt if it's true. When they saw Daff Jamie's corpse,

a bunch of the students recognized him, Knox lied and assured them that it couldn't be anybody they knew. But when story started circulating soon after that, that Daff Jamie was missing, students recognized him, up Knox lied and assured them that it couldn't be anybody they knew. But when story started circulating as soon after that, that daft Jamie was missing, Knox moved that body to the front of the deception line and then cut off his distinctive mischaping feet. All right, class. Today we're going to learn about face, smashing doctors. All right, first up, remember every

dissection begins with cutting off the corpses, tattletail, feet, everybody's. Let's all go in there. Let me incinerator. Yeah. Now, of course, just because the cops forgave Knox his part and the crime didn't mean that the public had to. The newspapers had a field day with the story at all, but universally blamed Knox. Many of them painting them as a criminal mastermind behind the whole or deal, which is actually probably pretty fucking accurate, but knocks avoided even having to testify at the trial. Now, the trial itself took place on Christmas Eve of 1928. And yes, it all took place in one day.

I will cross the midnight line that the proceedings didn't wrap up until 3 a.m. but they did it all in sitting. Um, ultimately Burke's wife was found not proven, which is their way of saying, yeah, we don't think you're innocent, but we can't convict you. Burke, on the other hand, was found guilty and sentenced to be executed after which, of course, his body was turned over to local anatomists for dissection. That's excellent. And if you had to summarize what you learned in one sentence, what would it be?

Apparently our trip to Edinburgh could have been worse. We said, I'm so excited. So I just needed to agree to this very, sure. Are you ready for the quiz? I think I am. All right, no, which of the following is the best name for Burke and Hares murder gang? A, dismembers of the beat, La Corpse on the street, or C, the crypt. So very clearly it's gotta be C. So it's gotta be C. that's great. Well, I'm not, so it could revisit that one. All right, what's the theme song of this story?

Noah, a, take my breath away. That's a, that's a, give me, that's a, give me, B, Abra Kadaver, C, Cut Footloose, D, X, Fixi, A, Days of Week, D. Good. Kills to pay the bills. All right, all right. Um, this is a tough one. I'm going to have to go with P. Abercadafer. Oh, I am not sure. Okay. Let's go on. That's good. Yeah. I carcass the girl. All right. Noah, what great play depicts the events of the Birken hair murders a

Mother courage Mother courage Pillow man The tone of very boy Edward Hawke fine Don't worry You're gonna bring it home would see you're gonna bring it home with this one. I love it See you're gonna bring home it's a feet scar named this guy here Oh

So does it work Stretching like a good I'm gonna go with All right, the race one's gonna be tough. Yeah, I know. It was anything. Oh, I'm crying. I'm crying. Oh, it's so good. I was so funny. I know this was going to be a tough one. Convicting knocks for wrongdoing would be next to impossible. After all, he only created the economic incentive structure that all but guaranteed this would happen, then turn it intentionally blind eye to the desk all around him and help cover it up. No, he started piling up. Oh, no.

What do we call that now? Hey, the Purdue Farmer story. Hey. Oh, you could have this list could be so much longer. No. But I'm going to go, I appreciate you keeping it easy with me. I'll go, hey, the Purdue Farmer story. Oh, all right.

Well, the NFL. All right, well, need the NFL. Yeah, all right. See capitalism. That's right. Capitalism. All right, Noah, looks like nobody stumped you so you are this week's winner. Awesome. I would like a Cecil essay next week. Yes. All right. Well, for Tom, Noah, Cecil and he, I'm Eli Bosnick. Thank you for hanging out with us today. We'll be back next week. And by then, Cecil will be an expert on something else.

Between now and then you can check out our various podcasts, which statistically speaking you already listened to, but hey, if you don't, you should start. And if you'd like to help keep this show going, you can make a per episode donation at patreon.com, slash citation pod, or leave a suffice star review everywhere you can. And if you'd like to get in touch with us, check out past episodes, connect to the Sun Social Media or check the show notes, be sure to check out citation pod dot com. All right, here you go, Dr. Knox, got another fresh one for you. Yes, Steve. There's just one problem.

Oh, it's problem? What's that? Oh, that is my assistant. Jank it. You're just talk No, that's not who's not. Yes, that's me. Ah, shit in the martina All right, what do you say five pounds? Three pounds. Yeah, I three pounds nice. He went a great assistant. He's the worst. Yeah, three pounds nice. He won a great assist. He's the worst. Yeah.