_Public Excitement at the West Port Murder--The Newspapers--Doubts as
to the Disappearance of Daft Jamie and Mary Paterson--The
Resurrectionists still at Work._
Of course the public knew nothing of what the authorities were doing or
had discovered, the examination of the prisoners before the sheriff being,
as is still the custom in Scotland, strictly private. The newspapers, as
we have seen, did little to satisfy the natural curiosity of the people,
but that was due probably to the fact that the police, finding themselves
on the eve of making a great discovery, chose rather to keep silent, and
deny the press information, than run the risk of having their movements
made known to parties whom it might be better should not be aware of them.
The _Edinburgh Evening Courant_, of 6th November, had, however, a very
circumstantial account of the murder of Mrs. Docherty, but it was hid away
among items of little importance. It was as follows:--
"EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCE.--FURTHER PARTICULARS.--We have used every
endeavour to collect the facts connected with this singular story. The
medical gentlemen who examined the body have not reported, so far as
we have heard, that death was occasioned by violence. There are
several contusions on the body, particularly one on the upper lip,
which was swollen and cut, a severe one on the back, one on the
scapula, and one or two on the limbs; none of these, however, are of a
nature sufficient to cause immediate death. The parties in custody,
two men and two women (their wives), and a young lad, give a very
contradictory account of the manner in which the old woman lost her
life. One of the men, not Burke, states that it was the lad who struck
her in the passage, and killed her. Burke, however, acknowledges being
a party to the disposing of the corpse. The lad's account of the story
is different from that of the others. He says he was in Burke's house
about seven o'clock on Friday evening, when the old woman was
represented to him as a fortune-teller, who for threepence would give
him some glimpse into futurity, and with this sum she was to pay for
her lodgings; but not having the money, his fortune was not told, and
he went away. The parties at this time were seemingly sober. He went
to the house about two o'clock on Saturday morning, when he found
Burke, his wife, and two other persons, in the house, seemingly the
worse of liquor. He sent for sixpence worth of whisky, which was
drunk; and soon after the whole party fell asleep. The old woman was
not present, but the lad thought nothing of that, believing she had
left the house. At a later hour in the morning a neighbour came in,
who had been in the house on the previous evening, and asked, what had
become of the fortune-teller? To this Burke's wife replied, that the
old woman had been behaving improperly, and she (Mrs. Burke) had
kicked her down stairs. Another neighbour saw the old woman joining in
the mirth, as late as eleven o'clock on the Friday night. The above
are the outlines of the statements that have reached us; we must,
however, admit that, from the secret manner in which the
investigations are conducted, it is impossible to obtain accurate
information. A great number of rumours have gone abroad of individuals
having of late disappeared in an unaccountable manner, but one of
them, however, a sort of half-witted lad, called 'Daft Jamie,' was
seen on Monday, not far from Lasswade, with a basket, selling
small-wares."
This notice makes one or two interesting discoveries, notably what
professes to be the drift of Hare's declaration, and that of the young
man, Broggan, who had also been arrested on a charge of complicity in the
murder. Another point is the manner in which Mrs. Docherty was presented
to Broggan, and some of the neighbours. But if the newspapers did not
devote much space to the "extraordinary occurrence," it was a topic which
moved the very heart of the people, and was on everybody's tongue. The
journals were too busy discussing the siege of Silistria, the proceedings
of politicians in London, or the state of Ireland; but the inhabitants of
Edinburgh, and, indeed, of broad Scotland, thought and talked of little
else but Burke and Hare and the resurrectionists. Before the time fixed
for the trial the newspapers discovered they had made a mistake, and at
last gave some degree of satisfaction to their readers by supplying a full
report of the case. It is somewhat amusing, however, to find the _Glasgow
Courier_ of 27th December, with this apologetic notice:--"In the absence
of any political news of importance we have devoted a considerable portion
of our paper of to-day in giving a full report of the trial, before the
High Court of Justiciary, of Burke and his wife for murder."
The public were strongly of opinion that to the machinations of Burke and
Hare could be traced the disappearance of Daft Jamie and Mary Paterson,
the latter especially, as she had been seen in Burke's company. The
authorities, also, pursued their inquiries in the same direction. On the
10th of November the two men and their wives were committed by the Sheriff
to stand their trial for the murder of Docherty, but Broggan was
liberated, his innocence being apparent. The doubt as to the disappearance
of Daft Jamie was deepened by a statement in an Edinburgh newspaper that
he had been seen in the Grassmarket after the apprehension of the accused
parties. This was repeated by several other prints, and the public mind
remained in suspense, though there was a suspicion, amounting almost to a
certainty, that Jamie had been the victim of foul play. At last the
_Observer_ and the _Weekly Chronicle_, who had been the most strenuous
advocates of the safety of the lad, were forced to admit that he was
amissing. Possibly the rumour that he had been identified in the
dissecting-room by some of the students had something to do with the
change. The _Observer_ announced that it had been "credibly informed that
this poor pauper," Daft Jamie, had really disappeared in a mysterious
manner, and that circumstances of a suspicious nature had transpired. The
_Chronicle_ was more elaborate in its explanation, stating that there were
two Daft Jamies, but that there was no doubt one of them had been made
away with.
While all this was going on there were other events connected with the
resurrectionist movement coming to the front. One of these was a terrible
contest which took place in a churchyard near Dublin. A woman of the name
of Ryan died, and was decently interred. Her relatives were afraid that
her remains would not be allowed to lie in the grave, as the
body-snatchers were then busy with the Irish burying-places. They
therefore joined to keep a watch for a time over her tomb. One night,
between eight and nine o'clock, two of the men were left sentry at the
grave, while the others went into a cabin in the vicinity, erected for the
use of watchers. These latter were not long seated when a knock was heard
at the door, and when it was opened they saw nearly a dozen armed men, who
declared their mission to be body-lifting, but who, with all courtesy,
stated that if the watchers would kindly point out where the body in which
they were specially interested lay, it would be passed over. The watchers,
however, intimated that, they would resist the uplifting of any body. A
desperate contest then took place, but the resurrectionists were at last
driven off. About two o'clock in the morning they returned, but again they
were defeated, it was thought, with loss of life, for more than one of
them was seen to fall.
It would be difficult to say whether it was this incident, or the general
plundering of Scotch churchyards, that led the _Edinburgh Weekly
Chronicle_ at this time to devote a leader to the question of the
importation of corpses for anatomical purposes to Scotland from Ireland.
This journal very soberly discussed the resurrectionist system, "its
advantages and the indispensability of it in the present state of the
law." The writer seriously objected to the "noodles of functionaries on
the banks of the Clyde," interfering with subjects when they were _in
transitu_, and pointed out that "for every Irish subject they seize they
insure the rifling of some Scotch grave." Very fine sentiment--the
resurrectionist system was good enough in Ireland, but immediately it
touched Scotland it was evil.
Two cases--one of them not without a touch of grim humour--came to light
in Edinburgh at this time, and furnished material for additional
commentary on the West Port tragedy. A resurrectionist, wishing to raise
the wind, waited on an Edinburgh lecturer, and stated that he had a
"subject" to dispose of, but he required two pounds ten shillings to meet
some immediate demands. The money was given him, and in a short time a box
was sent to the lecturer's rooms. To the infinite surprise of the
gentleman and his assistants, the trunk was found to be filled with
rubbish. Such tricks, it was said, were often played on anatomists; but
for all that, four individuals were apprehended in connection with this
fraud, and were sentenced by the police magistrate each to imprisonment
for two months. The other case illustrates the extraordinary boldness of
the resurrectionists, even at a time when the popular feeling was strong
against the miscreants apprehended for the murder of Docherty. A mulatto
of the name of Masareen, who kept a public house in the Grassmarket, died
on the autumn of 1828, and a month or so later his wife became unwell and
was taken to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where she died in the end of
November. On the day of her death her body was claimed by two men who
represented themselves as her relatives. It was given them, and they took
it away ostensibly for interment. Next morning her real relations
appeared, and the greatest consternation was caused by the discovery that
the Infirmary authorities had been duped by some very clever rogues. A
search was made, and after some trouble the body was found in a dissecting
room. It was taken back to the Infirmary, and was decently buried on the
1st of December.
In the newspapers at this time, also, there were stories about events
occurring outside the city, which helped to increase the general
excitement. In the _Courant_ for Monday, the 13th November, there was a
report of a case tried before the Middlesex Sessions on the Thursday
previous. Three men were then charged with having on the 13th of September
unlawfully broken open a vault in the church of Hendon, in which were some
dead bodies, and with having severed the head from one of them. The object
was rather strange. One of the prisoners was a surgeon, and the body which
had been mutilated was that of his mother. There was in his family a
hereditary disease, the causes and nature of which he wished to
investigate, in order to prevent its attacks on himself, and he was under
the impression that if he could obtain his mother's head for dissection,
he would be able to find out the information he desired. All the prisoners
were found guilty, and were severely punished. Another incident of a more
amusing kind was recorded at this time in the _Stirling Advertiser_. At
Doune Fair several special constables were on duty, and had the village
school-room assigned to them as a watch-house. While they were sitting
quietly talking to one another, a big burly Irishman, heavily laden with
whisky, fell in through the open door-way, and lay prone on the floor. He
was a most undesirable visitor, and it was evident that to attempt to
remove him by force might have rather serious results. Still he could not
be allowed to remain. One of the constables was a bit of a wag, and he
whispered to his companions that the man on the floor would make an
excellent subject for the doctors. They quickly entered into the spirit of
the jest, and the conversation turned on the question of how the
prospective subject was to be "despatched." Some recommended suffocation,
others stabbing. Meanwhile, the Irishman, who was not so tipsy as he
seemed, had overheard the discussion, carried on in a stage whisper, and
began to feel exceedingly uncomfortable. As the conspirators gradually
came to an agreement as to the method to be adopted, the intruder, who had
been carefully pulling himself together, suddenly jumped up, and went out
of the place, faster, if anything, than he entered, amid shouts of
laughter from the constables.
Under all the exciting circumstances of the time, it is not surprising
that the people should break out into riot at a very small matter. Between
nine and ten o'clock of the forenoon of Thursday the 11th of December, a
gig, occupied by two men of notoriously bad character, was driven at a
furious pace along the North Bridge of Edinburgh. Some one suggested that
the vehicle contained a corpse, and the story speedily gathered an immense
crowd. An attempt was made to seize the men, and the tumult became so
great that when the city watch interfered two of them and an old woman
were seriously injured. It was found, however, that the rumour as to the
contents of the gig was totally unfounded.