_The "Courant" Confession of Burke--Details of the Crimes--Burke's
Account of His Life--The Criminals and Dr. Knox._
In the following pages is the _Courant_ confession of Burke, about which
there was so much difficulty and heartburning. It goes more into detail
than the official document, and it is interesting to know that the words
and sentences in italic were written in by Burke himself. The date on
which it was made will be seen at the end to have been 21st January, 1829,
a week before the execution:--
"Abigail Simpson was murdered on the 12th February, 1828, on the forenoon
of the day. She resided in Gilmerton, near Edinburgh; has a daughter
living there. She used to sell salt and camstone. She was decoyed in by
Hare and his wife on the afternoon of the 11th February, and he gave her
some whisky to drink. She had one shilling and sixpence and a can of
kitchen-fee. Hare's wife gave her one shilling and sixpence for it; she
drank it all with them. She then said she had a daughter. Hare said he was
a single man and would marry her, and get all the money amongst them. They
then proposed to her to stay all night, which she did, as she was so
drunk she could not go home; and in the morning was vomiting. They then
gave her some porter and whisky, and made her so drunk that she fell
asleep on the bed. Hare then laid hold of her mouth and nose, and
prevented her from breathing. Burke held her hands and feet till she was
dead. She made very little resistance, and when it was convenient they
carried her to Dr. Knox's dissecting-rooms in Surgeon Square, and got ten
pounds for her. She had on a drab mantle, a white-grounded cotton shawl
and blue spots on it. Hare took all her clothes and went out with them;
said he was going to put them into the canal. She said she was a pensioner
of Sir John Hay's. (Perhaps this should be Sir John Hope).
"The next was an Englishman, a native of Cheshire, and a lodger of Hare's.
They murdered him in the same manner as the other. He _was_ ill with _the_
jaundice at the same time. He was very tall; had black hair, brown
whiskers, mixed with grey hairs. He used to sell spunks in Edinburgh; was
about forty years of age. Did not know his name. _Sold to Dr. Knox for
£10._
"The next was an old woman who lodged with Hare for one night, but does
not know her name. She was murdered in the same manner as above. _Sold to
Dr. Knox for £10._ The old woman was decoyed into the house by Mrs. Hare
in the forenoon from the street, when Hare was working at the boats at the
canal. She gave her whisky, and put her to bed three times. At last she
was so drunk that she fell asleep; and when Hare came home to his dinner,
he put part of the bed-tick on her mouth and nose, and when he came home
at night she was dead. Burke at this time was mending shoes; and Hare and
Burke took the clothes off her, and put her body into a tea-box. Took her
to Knox's that night.
"The next was Mary Paterson, who was murdered in Burke's brother's house
in the Canongate, in the month of April last, by Burke and Hare, in the
forenoon. She was put into a tea-box, and carried to Dr. Knox's
dissecting-rooms in the afternoon of the same day; and got £8 for her
body. She had twopence-halfpenny, which she held fast in her hand.
Declares that the girl Paterson was only four hours dead till she was in
Knox's dissecting-rooms; but she was not dissected at that time, for she
was three months in whisky before she was dissected. She was warm when
Burke cut the hair off her head; and Knox brought a Mr. ----, a painter,
to look at her, she was so handsome a figure, and well shaped in body and
limbs. One of the students said she was like a girl he had seen in the
Canongate as one pea is like to another. They desired Burke to cut off her
hair; one of the students gave a pair of scissors for that purpose.
"In June last, an old woman and a dumb boy, her grandson, from Glasgow,
came to Hare's, and were both murdered at the _dead_ hour of night, when
the woman was in bed. Burke and Hare murdered her in the same way as they
did the others. They took off the bed-clothes and tick, stripped off her
clothes, and laid her on the bottom of the bed, and then put on the
bed-tick and bed-clothes on the top of her; and they then came and took
_the boy_ in their arms and carried him ben to the room, and murdered him
in the same manner, and _laid_ him alongside of his grandmother. They lay
for the space of an hour; they then put them into a herring barrel. The
barrel was perfectly dry; there was no brine in it. They carried them to
the stable till next day; they put the barrel into Hare's cart, and Hare's
horse was yoked in it; but the horse would not drag the cart one foot past
the Meal-market; and they got a porter with a hurley, and put the barrel
on it. Hare and the porter went, to Surgeon Square with it. Burke went
before them, as he was afraid something would happen, as the horse would
not draw them. When they came to Dr. Knox's dissecting rooms, Burke
carried the barrel in his arms. The students and them had hard work to get
them out, being so stiff and cold. They received £16 for them both. Hare
was taken in by the horse he bought that refused drawing the corpse to
Surgeon Square, and they shot it in the tan-yard. He had two large holes
in his shoulder stuffed with cotton, and covered over with a piece of
another horse's skin to prevent them being discovered.
"Joseph, the miller by trade, and a lodger of Hare's. He had once been
possessed of a good deal of money. He was connected by marriage with some
of the Carron company. Burke and Hare murdered him by pressing a pillow
on his mouth and nose till he was dead. He was then carried to Dr. Knox's
in Surgeon Square. They got £10 for him.
"Burke and Helen M'Dougal were on a visit seeing their friends near
Falkirk. This was the time a procession was made round a stone in that
neighbourhood; thinks it was the anniversary of the battle of Bannockburn.
When he was away, Hare fell in with a woman drunk in the street at the
West Port. He took her into his house and murdered her himself, and sold
her to Dr. Knox's assistants for £8. When Burke went away he knew Hare was
in want of money; his things were all in pawn; but when he came back,
found him have plenty of money. Burke asked him if he had been doing any
business. He said he had been doing nothing. Burke did not believe him,
and went to Dr. Knox, who told him that Hare had brought a subject. Hare
then confessed what he had done.
"A cinder-gatherer; _Burke_ thinks her name was Effy. She was in the habit
of selling small pieces of leather to him (_as he was a cobbler_), she
gathered about the coach-works. He took her into Hare's stable, and gave
her whisky to drink till she was drunk; she then lay down among some straw
and fell asleep. They then laid a cloth over her. Burke and Hare murdered
her as they _did the_ others. She was then carried to Dr. Knox's, Surgeon
Square, and sold for £10.
"Andrew Williamson, a policeman, and his neighbour, were dragging a drunk
woman to the West Port watch-house. They found her sitting on a stair.
Burke said, 'Let the woman go to her lodgings.' They said they did not
know where she lodged. Burke then said he would take her to her lodgings.
They then gave her to his charge. He then took her to Hare's house. Burke
and Hare murdered her that night the same way as they did the others. They
carried her to Dr. Knox's in Surgeon Square, and got £10.
"Burke being asked, did the policemen know him when they gave him this
drunk woman into his charge? He said he had a good character with the
police; or if they had known that there were four murderers living in one
house they would have visited them oftener.
"James Wilson, commonly _called_ Daft Jamie. Hare's _wife_ brought him in
from the street into her house. Burke was at the time getting a dram in
Rymer's shop. He saw her take Jamie off the street, bare-headed and
bare-footed. After she got him into her house, and left him with Hare, she
came to Rymer's shop for a pennyworth of butter, and Burke was standing at
the counter. She asked him for a dram; and in drinking it she stamped him
on the foot. He knew immediately what she wanted him for, and he then went
after her. When in the house she said, you have come too late, for the
drink is all done; and Jamie had the cup in his hand. He had never seen
him before to his knowledge. They then proposed to send for another half
mutchkin, which they did, and urged him to drink; she took a little with
them. They then invited him ben to the little room, and advised him to sit
down upon the bed. Hare's wife then went out, and locked the outer door,
and put the key below the door. There were none in the room but themselves
three. Jamie sat down upon the bed. He then lay down upon the bed, and
Hare lay down at his back, his head raised up and resting upon his left
hand. Burke was sitting at the foreside of the bed. When they had lain
there for some time, Hare threw his body on the top of Jamie, pressed his
hand on his mouth, and held his nose with the other. Hare and him fell off
the bed and struggled. Burke then held his hands and feet. They never
quitted their grip till he was dead. He never got up nor cried any. When
he was dead Hare felt his pockets, and took out a brass snuff-box and a
copper snuff-spoon. He gave the spoon to Burke, and kept the box to
himself. Sometime after, he said he threw away the box in the tan-yard;
and the brass-box that was libelled against Burke in the Sheriff's office
was Burke's own box. It was after breakfast Jamie was enticed in, and he
was murdered by twelve o'clock in the day. Burke declares, that Mrs. Hare
led poor Jamie in as a dumb lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep to the
shearers; and he was always very anxious making inquiries for his mother,
and was told she would be there immediately. He does not think he drank
above one glass of whisky all the time. He was then put into a closet that
Hare kept clothes in; and they carried him to Dr. Knox's, in Surgeon
Square, that afternoon, and got £10 for him. Burke gave Daft Jamie's
clothes to his brother's children; they were almost naked; and when he
untied the bundle they were like to quarrel about them. The clothes of the
other murdered persons were generally destroyed, to prevent detection.
"Ann M'Dougal, a cousin of Helen M'Dougal's former husband. She was a
young woman, and married, and had come on a visit to see them. Hare and
Burke gave her whisky till she was drunk, and when in bed and asleep,
Burke told Hare that he would have most to do with her, as she being a
distant friend, he did not like to begin first on her. Hare murdered her
by stopping her breath, and Burke assisted him the same way as the others.
One of Dr. Knox's assistants, _Paterson_, gave them a fine trunk to put
her into. It was in the afternoon when she was done. It was in John
Broggan's house; and when Broggan came home from his work he saw the
trunk, and made inquiries about it, as he knew they had no trunks there.
Burke then gave him two or three drams, as there was always plenty of
whisky going at these times, to make him quiet. Hare and Burke then gave
him £1 10s. each, as he was back in his rent, for to pay it, and he left
Edinburgh a few days after. They then carried her to Surgeon Square as
soon as Broggan went out of the house, and got £10 for her. Hare was
cautioner for Broggan's rent, being £3, and Hare and Burke gave him that
sum. Broggan went off in a few days, and the rent is not paid yet. They
gave him the money that he might not come against them for the murder of
Ann M'Dougal, that he saw in the trunk, that was murdered in his house.
Hare thought that the rent would fall upon him, and if he could get Burke
to pay the half of it, it would be so much the better; and proposed this
to Burke, and he agreed to it, as they were glad to get him out of the
way. Broggan's wife is a cousin of Burke's. They thought he went to
Glasgow, but are not sure.
"Mrs. Haldane, a stout old woman, who had a daughter transported last
summer from the Calton Jail for fourteen years, and has another daughter
married to ----, in the High Street. She was a lodger of Hare's. She went
into Hare's stable; the door was left open, and she being drunk, and
falling asleep among some straw, Hare and Burke murdered her the same way
as they did the others, and kept the body all night in the stable, and
took her to Dr. Knox's next day. She had but one tooth in her mouth, and
that was a very large one in front.
"A young woman, a daughter of Mrs. Haldane, of the name of Peggy Haldane,
was drunk, and sleeping in Broggan's house, was murdered by Burke himself,
in the forenoon. Hare had no hand in it. She was taken to Dr. Knox's in
the afternoon in a tea-box, and £8 got for her. She was so drunk at the
time that he thinks she was not sensible of her death, as she made no
resistance whatever. She and her mother were both lodgers of Hare's, and
they were both of idle habits, and much given to drinking. This was the
only murder that Burke committed by himself, but what Hare was connected
with. She was laid with her face downwards, and he pressed her down, and
she was soon suffocated.
"There was a Mrs. Hostler washing in John Broggan's, and she came back
next day to finish up the clothes, and when done, Hare and Burke gave her
some whisky to drink, which made her drunk. This was in the daytime. She
then went to bed. Mrs. Broggan was out at the time. Hare and Burke
murdered her in the same way as they did the others, and put her in a box,
and set her in the coal-house in the passage, and carried her off to Dr.
Knox's in the afternoon of the same day, and got £8 for her. Broggan's
wife was out of the house at the time the murder was committed. Mrs.
Hostler had ninepence-halfpenny in her hand, which they could scarcely get
out of it after she was dead, so firmly was it grasped.
"The woman Campbell or Docherty was murdered on the 31st October last, and
she was the last one. Burke declares that Hare perjured himself on his
trial, when giving evidence against him, as the woman Campbell or Docherty
lay down among some straw at the bed-side, and Hare laid hold of her mouth
and nose, and pressed her throat, and Burke assisted him in it, till she
was dead. Hare was not sitting on a chair at the time, as he said in
court. There were seven shillings in the woman's pocket, which were
divided between Hare and Burke.
"That was the whole of them--sixteen in whole; nine were murdered in
Hare's house, and four in John Broggan's; two in Hare's stable, and one in
Burke's brother's house in the Canongate. Burke declares that five of them
were murdered in Hare's room that has the iron bolt in the inside of it.
Burke did not know the days nor the months the different murders were
committed, nor all their names. They were generally in a state of
intoxication at those times, and paid little attention to them; but they
were all from 12th February till 1st November, 1828; but he thinks Dr.
Knox will know by the dates of paying him the money for them. He was never
concerned with any other person but Hare in those matters, and was never a
resurrectionist, and never dealt in dead bodies but what he murdered. He
was urged by Hare's wife to murder Helen M'Dougal, the woman he lived
with. The plan was, that he was to go to the country for a few weeks, and
then write to Hare that she had died and was buried, and he was to tell
this to deceive the neighbours; but he would not agree to it. The reason
was, they could not trust to her, as she was a Scotch woman. Helen
M'Dougal was not present when these murders were committed; she might have
a suspicion of what was doing, but did not see them done. Hare was always
the most anxious about them, and could sleep well at night after
committing a murder; but Burke repented often of the crime, and could not
sleep without a bottle of whisky by his bed-side, and a twopenny candle to
burn all night beside him; when he awoke he would take a draught of the
bottle--sometimes half a bottle at a draught--and that would make him
sleep. They had a great many pointed out for murder, but were disappointed
of them by some means or other; they were always in a drunken state when
they committed those murders, and when they got the money for them while
it lasted. When done, they would pawn their clothes, and would take them
out as soon as they got a subject. When they first began this murdering
system, they always took them to Dr. Knox's after dark; but being so
successful, they went in the day-time, and grew more bold. When they
carried the girl Paterson to Knox's, there were a great many boys in the
High School Yards, who followed Burke and the man that carried her,
crying, 'They are carrying a corpse;' but they got her safe delivered.
They often said to one another that no person could find them out, no one
being present at the murders but themselves two; and that they might as
well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb. They made it their business to look
out for persons to decoy into their homes to murder them. Burke declares,
when they kept the mouth and nose shut a very few minutes, they could make
no resistance, but would convulse and make a rumbling noise in their
bellies for some time; after they ceased crying and making resistance,
they left them to die of themselves: but their bodies would often move
afterwards, and for some time they would have long breathings before life
went away. Burke declares that it was God's providence that put a stop to
their murdering career, or he does not know how far they might have gone
with it, even to attack people on the streets, as they were so successful,
and always met with a ready market: that when they delivered a body they
were always told to get more. Hare was always with him when he went with a
subject, and also when he got the money. Burke declares, that Hare and him
had a plan made up, that Burke and a man were to go to Glasgow or Ireland,
and try the same there, and to forward them to Hare, and he was to give
them to Dr. Knox. Hare's wife always got £1 of Burke's share, for the use
of the house, of all that were murdered in their house; for if the price
received was £10, Hare got £6, and Burke got only £4; but Burke did not
give her the £1 for Daft Jamie, for which Hare's wife would not speak to
him for three weeks. They could get nothing done during the harvest time,
and also after harvest, as Hare's house was so full of lodgers. In Hare's
house were eight beds for lodgers; they paid 3d. each; and two, and
sometimes three, slept in a bed; and during harvest they gave up their own
bed when throng. Burke declares they went under the name of resurrection
men in the West Port, where they lived, but not murderers. When they
wanted money, they would say they would go and look for a shot; that was
the name they gave them when they wanted to murder any person. They
entered into a contract with Dr. Knox and his assistants that they were to
get £10 in winter, and £8 in summer, for as many subjects as they could
bring to them.
"Old Donald, a pensioner, who lodged in Hare's house, and died of a
dropsy, was the first subject they sold. After he was put into the coffin
and the lid put on, Hare unscrewed the nails and Burke lifted the body
out. Hare filled the coffin with bark from the tanyard, and put a sheet
over the bark, and it was buried in the West Churchyard. The coffin was
furnished by the parish. Hare and Burke took him to the College first;
they saw a man there, and asked for Dr. Monro, or any of his men; the man
asked what they wanted, or had they a subject; they said they had. He then
ordered them to call at ten o'clock at Dr. Knox's, in Surgeon Square, and
he would take it from them, which they did. They got £7 10s. for him. That
was the only subject they sold that they did not murder; and getting that
high price made them try the murdering for subjects.
"Burke is thirty-six years of age; was born in the parish of Orrey, County
Tyrone; served seven years in the army, most of that time as an officer's
servant in the Donegal Militia; he was married at Ballinha, in the county
of Mayo, when in the army, but left his wife and two children in Ireland.
She would not come to Scotland with him. He has often wrote to her, but
got no answer; he came to Scotland to work at the Union Canal, and wrought
there while it lasted; he resided for about two years in Peebles, and
worked as a labourer. He wrought as weaver for eighteen months, and as a
baker for five months; he learned to mend shoes, as a cobbler, with a man
he lodged with in Leith; and he has lived with Helen M'Dougal for about
ten years, until he and she were confined in the Calton Jail, on the
charge of murdering the woman of the name of Docherty or Campbell, and
both were tried before the High Court of Justiciary in December last.
Helen M'Dougal's charge was found not proven, and Burke found guilty, and
sentenced to suffer death on the 28th January.
[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF BURKE'S ADDITION TO THE "COURANT" CONFESSION]
"Declares, that Hare's servant girl could give information respecting the
murders done in Hare's house, if she likes. She came to him at Whitsunday
last, went to harvest, and returned back to him when the harvest was over.
She remained until he was confined along with his wife in the Calton Jail.
She then sold twenty-one of his swine for £3, and absconded. She was
gathering potatoes in a field that day Daft Jamie was murdered; she saw
his clothes in the house when she came home at night. Her name is
Elizabeth M'Guier or Mair. Their wives saw that people came into their
houses at night, and went to bed as lodgers, but did not see them in the
morning, nor did they make any inquiries after them. They certainly knew
what became of them, although Burke and Hare pretended to the contrary.
Hare's wife often helped Burke and Hare to pack the murdered bodies into
the boxes. Helen M'Dougal never did, nor saw them done; Burke never durst
let her know; he used to smuggle and drink, and get better victuals
unknown to her; he told her he bought dead bodies, and sold them to
doctors, and that was the way they got the name of resurrection-men.
"_Burk deaclars that Docter Knox never incoureged him, nither taught or
incoreged him to murder any person, nether any of his asistents, that
worthy gentleman Mr. Fergeson was the only man that ever mentioned any
thing about the bodies, He inquired where we got that yong woman
Paterson._
(_Sined_) "_WILLIAM BURK, prisner._"
"_Condemned Cell, January 21, 1829._"