Q. Did you go between them? A. Yes.
Q. Did the old woman cry murder? A. Yes.
Q. Did she get a push? A. Yes.
Q. You saw Burke on the top of the old woman? A. Yes.
Q. Did you see him long there? A. No; for M‘Dougal and I ran out of the
room into the passage, and stopped there upwards of a quarter of an
hour.
Q. When you returned, did you see the old woman?
A. No.
Q. Did you ask after her? A. No. I had my suspicion.
Q. What, that she was murdered? A. Yes.
Q. Did you two lie down in the bed? A. Not immediately.
Q. Where were you when Burke was lying on the old woman? A. I thought,
before, I was in the bed, but I think now I was between the door and
the bed.
Q. How many minutes was he on her? A. Not many.
Q. Where was M‘Dougal? A. I don’t exactly know.
Q. Which went first out at the door? A. It was I.
Q. Were you both alarmed? A. Yes, Sir.
Q. You say you suspected what was doing? A. Yes, Sir.
Q. Had you any previous reason of suspicion of the act about to be
committed on the old woman?
A. I had seen a little trick of it done before. I suspected when I saw
him lying on her, and Nelly M‘Dougal told me something.
Q. Just tell us what she said?
A. She came to our house, and said there was a shot in the house; and
I asked her what she was, and she said, Burke fetched her in out of a
shop.
Q. How did you know it was a woman? A. She told me.
Q. Did she say they intended to make away with the woman?
A. No. But I understood from the word _shot_ they were to do it.
Q. Why did you understand that?
A. Because I heard that word made use of before to express the
determination of murdering others.
Q. Were they pressing drink on the woman? A. Yes.
Q. Was she much the worse of it? A. Rather.
Q. You remained there all night? A. Yes, until 5 o’clock. I was lying
in bed when Mr. Paterson came in, but I did not hear what he said.
Q. Did you know where the body was put? A. Yes, at the head of the bed.
Q. Did Burke ask you to go out and get a box? A. Yes. He said he had
purchased one for to put old shoes in. I went for the box and a porter
came and carried it. I afterwards followed with M‘Dougal, our husbands,
towards Newington, for fear they should quarrel or get drunk.
Q. What answer did you make to her about this shot? A. I said nothing.
Q. Had you and M‘Dougal any talk about it on your way to Newington? A.
No.
Q. Did she feel sorry for it? A. No.
Q. What were you speaking of while you were in the passage? A. Perhaps
I said it might be the same thing with her and I.
Q. Do you mean that you might be murdered? A. Yes.
Q. Why did you not go into the woman Connaway’s? A. Because I left my
home three times before; and it is not natural for a woman to go and
inform on her husband.
Q. You mention the old woman went out at the door? A. No, Sir, she
never went out of the inside door.
Q. Was it after she came back from the door she fell down? A. I believe
she got a push.
Q. Was it very soon after that that Burke lay down on her? A. Yes.
Q. What was he doing when you run out? A. Burke was lying on her chest.
Q. Why did you go out? A. I did not like to see her murdered.
Q. Was your fear created in consequence of M‘Dougal having told you she
was a shot? A. No. I had no thoughts of it at the time.
By the COURT.--On the oath you have now taken, did you suppose she was
to be murdered that night? A. No, I did not.
_Mrs. Hare Cross-examined by the_ DEAN OF FACULTY.
Q. Was it instantly after the old woman was pushed down that he got on
the top of her? A. Yes.
Q. There’s a door at the outer side of the passage? A. Yes.
Q. How is it fastened? A. I don’t know.
Q. When you were in the passage did any one knock at that door? A. Not
that I heard.
Q. When you were in the passage did you hear the old woman cry? A. No,
Sir.
Q. When you returned in, you went to bed? A. Yes, Sir.
Q. There was a young man of the name of Broggan came in? A. Yes, and we
had a dram.
Q. Who? A. All of us.
Q. Then you got up to have it? A. Yes.
Q. Did you go to bed again? A. No.
Q. Was M‘Dougal in bed? A. No; Broggan, M‘Dougal, and I lay down upon
the floor.
Q. Was there any more fighting? A. Yes; Burke took the stick and struck
Hare, and M‘Dougal interfered and said she would not have Hare treated
in that manner.
By the COURT.--You had a bed in your own house, why did you not go home
to it, and take your husband along with you? A. I did all I could, but
he would not come.
Dr. BLACK, _Examined_.
Q. You saw a woman’s body at the Police Office? A. Yes.
Q. Did you examine it? A. Yes.
Q. Were there any marks on the body? A. None.
Q. Were there any on the face? A. Yes, there was blood.
Q. What appearance had the face? A. It was much swollen.
Q. Any thing remarkable about the eyes? A. They were swollen and the
face black.
Q. Did you think that she came by her death by violence? A. My private
opinion was that she had, but I could not give a decided medical
opinion on the subject.
Q. What was your opinion the moment you saw her? A. I formed the
conclusion that she came by her death with violence.
By the DEAN OF FACULTY.--Q. Have you any medical diploma? A. No; but I
am a regularly bred surgeon, and have been surgeon to the police for
twenty years.
Q. Did you go with the police to the house of Burke?
A. Yes.
Q. What did you see there? A. The thing I took particular notice of
was, from fourteen to sixteen ounces of blood mixed with saliva, and
having been told the woman had lain in that place, I was able to judge
it came from the mouth and nose.
Q. Do you mean now to state you have formed a medical opinion in regard
to the body? A. I am really afraid to hazard an opinion.
By the COURT.--Q. Were the appearances you have seen on people brought
into the police-office who have been suffocated from drink like this
case? A. Yes.
Q. If you had seen this body lying in the place where you saw the
saliva and blood, would you have hesitated in your opinion? A. I have
seen several corpses that died by suffocation, and taking the entire
circumstances into view, I think the appearances identical.
By the DEAN OF FACULTY.--Q. Have you had any case of simple
suffocation lately? A. No.
Q. Were the symptoms here the same, or nearly the same, as in cases
of suffocation from drink? A. The eyes were nearly started from the
sockets.
By the LORD ADVOCATE.--Q. Have you seen such saliva and blood in cases
of drink, unless some injury was done?
A. No.
DR. CHRISTISON, _Examined_.
Q. Did you see the body of an elderly female at the police-office at
the commencement of November? A. Yes. I saw and minutely examined a
body there on the 2d and 3d of November.
Q. Did you perceive any marks of violence on it? A. Yes.
Q. Describe what you saw to the Court and Jury?
A. I saw several contusions on the legs and the elbows, one on the
loin, one on the right shoulder blade, a very small one on the inside
of the upper lip, and two upon the head; one on the back part of the
left side of the head, and another upon the fore part of the right
side. I also found pale lividity of the features generally, and dark
lividity of the lips; great redness (from vascularity) of the whites of
the eyes; an almost total want of lividity on almost every other part
of the body except the face; and roughing of the scarf-skin or cuticle
under the chin and over the upper part of the throat. Internally, I
found a general fluidity of the blood, and an accumulation of it in the
right cavities of the heart. In the middle of the neck, I found the
ligaments connecting posterior parts of the vertebræ torn, and blood
effused among the spinal muscles, near the laceration, and into the
cavities of the spinal muscles. I found no sign of natural disease,
except a very slight incipient disorder of the liver. All the other
organs of the head, the chest, and the belly, were unusually sound. I
forgot to mention a small patch of blood on the left cheek, and also a
very slight contusion over the left eye.
Q. Did you consider that those contusions could be produced after death?
A. No; but the injury of the spine and other appearances described
might have been caused as well after death as before it. An injury
properly applied eighteen hours after death, would, I think, cause
the same appearances. Cramming into a box or chest like that shown
might have caused these appearances. Strangulation or smothering,
or throttling, is consistent with what has been described, but
particularly throttling or applying the hand under the throat, and
throwing the head backward, would prevent the access of air. I found
unequivocal proof of violence, in the contusions dispersed throughout
the body, and in no signs of disease being visible. I beg to add,
from the woman being seen so recently alive and well, from the blood
under the bed, as well as the appearances already mentioned, death by
violence is extremely probable. If the woman had met her death by the
prisoners at the bar, the appearances were such as would correspond
with these circumstances. The appearances in some cases of suffocation
would be similar to those in the present instance. The appearance of
blood from the mouth or nose after death may be produced by any species
of suffocation. Directly or indirectly, death by intoxication must
physiologically be occasioned by suffocation.
By Mr. COCKBURN.--Q. Did the appearances found on the body justify only
a suspicion? A. Coupled with the circumstances mentioned they amount to
a probability.
By the COURT.--Q. Did you open the stomach?
A. Yes, my Lord.
Q. Describe the contents. A. I found half-digested porridge, but no
smell of whisky or of any narcotic. The smell is not a necessary
circumstance even in cases of intoxication where a person was said to
have died of continuous intoxication. At least I know of a reported
case where a person was said to have died from constant intoxication,
without any smell having been found in the stomach, though it was found
in the brain and other parts of the body, but I also know a similar
case where the stomach, on being opened, gave out the effluvia of
whisky.
This closed the case for the prosecution.
The declarations of the pannels were then read.
DECLARATION OF BURKE.
_At Edinburgh the 3d November 1828._
In presence of GEORGE TAIT, Esq. Sheriff-Substitute of
Edinburghshire,
Compeared William Burke, at present in custody, who being examined,
declares that he is 36 years of age, and he was born in Ireland, and
he came to Scotland about 10 years ago: That he is a shoemaker, and he
has lived for rather more than a year in the West Port, and about two
months ago he went to the house in the West Port in which he at present
lives; but he does not know the name of the entry; and the prisoner,
Helen M‘Dougal, has lived with him for about ten years; but she is not
married to him. Declares, that he at first lodged in his present house
with a man named John Brogan, but Brogan went away about ten days ago,
and the declarant now lodges in the house by himself. Declares, that
James Gray and his wife and child came to lodge with the declarant
about a week ago. Declares, that on the night of Thursday last, the
30th of October, no person was in the declarant’s house, except Helen
M‘Dougal, Gray, and his wife. Declares, that on the morning of Friday
last he rose about 7 o’clock and immediately began to his work, by
mending a pair of shoes: That M‘Dougal rose about 9 o’clock. Declares,
that Gray rose about 6 o’clock and went out: That Gray’s wife rose
soon afterwards and lighted the fire, and the declarant then rose as
before mentioned. Declares, that he went out about 9 o’clock to get
some tobacco, and he returned in a few minutes, and they all four
breakfasted together about 10 o’clock, and the women were occupied
through the day in washing and dressing, and sorting about the house;
and Gray was going out and in, and the declarant was working; and
declares that on Friday evening he told Gray that he and his wife must
go to the other lodging, because he could not afford to support them
any longer, as they did not pay for the provisions which they used, and
they went away; and the declarant accompanied them to Hare’s house, to
which he recommended them. Declares, that he thinks Gray and his wife
went away about 5 o’clock. Declares, that about an hour afterwards,
when he was standing at the mouth of the entry, a man came forward to
him dressed in a great coat, the cape of which was much up about his
face: That he never saw that man before, and does not know his name:
That the man asked if the declarant knew where he could get a pair
of shoes mended, and the declarant, being a shoemaker, took him home
with him, and got off the man’s shoes and gave him an old pair in the
meantime: That while the declarant was mending the shoes the man walked
about the room, and made some remarks about the house being a quiet
place, and said that he had a box which he wished to leave there for a
short time, and the declarant consented: That the man went out, and in
a few minutes returned with a box, which he laid down upon the floor
near the bed, which was behind the declarant, who was sitting near the
window, with his face to it: That the declarant heard the man unroping
the box, and then making a sound as if he were covering something
with straw, and the declarant looked round, and saw him pushing the
box towards the bottom of the bed, where there was some straw on the
floor, but he did not observe any thing else than the box: That the man
then got on his shoes, paid the declarant a sixpence, and went away:
That the declarant immediately rose to see what was in the box, and he
looked under the bed and saw a dead body among the straw, but he could
not observe whether it was a man or a woman: That soon afterwards the
man came back, and declarant said it was wrong for him to have brought
that there, and told him to put it back into the box, and take it away:
That the man said that he would come back in a little and do it, and
then went away, but he did not return till Saturday evening about 6
o’clock, and when he did not return on Friday night, the declarant took
the box into the entry, but allowed the body to remain under the bed.
Declares, that on Saturday morning, about ten o’clock, he went out to
the shop of a Mr. Rymer, in the West Port, and when he was there, a
woman came to the door begging, whom he had never seen before: That the
people in the shop refused to give her any thing, and the declarant,
discovering from her dialect that she came from Ireland, asked her from
what part of it she came, she said it was from Inesomen, which is a
small town in the north of Ireland, and he then asked her name, and she
said that it was Mary Dougherty, and the declarant remarked, that his
mother’s name was Dougherty, and that she came from the same part of
Ireland, and that, therefore, they might perhaps be distant relations;
and as she said that she had not broken her fast for twenty-four
hours, if she would come home with him, he would give her breakfast,
at which time the only persons in the house were Helen M‘Dougal, Gray
and his wife: That she sat by the fire till about three o’clock in
the afternoon smoking a pipe, the declarant going out and getting a
dram, because it was Halloween, and they all five partook of the dram
sitting by the fireside. Declares, that at three o’clock Mary Dougherty
said, that she would go to the New Town to beg some provisions for
herself, and she went away accordingly. Declares, that he thinks Helen
M‘Dougal was in the house when Mary Dougherty went away, but he does
not remember whether Gray or his wife were in the house, and does
not remember of any other person being in the house. Declares, that
a few minutes before Mary Dougherty went away, William Hare’s wife
came into the house, but went away into the house of a neighbour, John
Connoway, immediately before Dougherty, went away, and he thinks that
Hare’s wife, or Connoway’s wife, may have seen Dougherty go away,
and Mary Dougherty never returned. Declares, that Helen M‘Dougal and
Gray’s wife then washed the floor, and cleaned out the house: That
there was no particular reason for doing so farther than to have it
clean upon the Saturday night, according to their practice; and the
declarant continued at his work: That soon afterwards Gray and his wife
went away, and Helen M‘Dougal went to Connoway’s house, leaving the
Declarant by himself, and the Declarant had not mentioned to any person
about the dead body, and no suspicion that it had been discovered.
Declares, that about 6 o’clock in the evening, while he was still
alone, the man who had brought the body came, accompanied by a Porter
whom the declarant knows by sight, and whose stance is at some where
about the head of the Cowgate, or the foot of the Candlemaker-Row, and
whose Christian name he thinks is John: That the man said he had come
to take away the body, and the declarant told him the box was in the
entry, and the Porter took it in, and the man and the Porter took the
body, and put it into the box and roped it, and the porter carried
it away. Declares, that when the man came with the porter he said he
would give the declarant two guineas for the trouble he had in keeping
the body, and proposed to take the body to Surgeons’ Square to dispose
of it to any person who would take it; and the declarant mentioned
David Paterson as a person who had some connexion with the surgeons,
and went to Paterson and took him to Surgeons’ Square, where he found
the man and the porter waiting with the box containing the body: That
the body was delivered, and Paterson paid a certain number of pounds
to the man, and £2, 10s. to the declarant: That he then went straight
home, and was informed by some of the neighbours that a report had been
raised of a dead body having been found in the house, and in particular
by Connoway’s wife, who told him that a policeman had been searching
his house, and he then went out in search of a policeman, and he met
Finlay and other policemen in the passage, and he told them who he was,
and they went with him to the house and found nothing there, and they
took him to the police office. Declares, that he yesterday saw in the
police office the dead body of a woman, and he thinks it is the dead
body which was below the bed, but it has no likeness to Mary Dougherty,
who is not nearly so tall: And being interrogated whether the man who
brought the body and afterwards came with the porter is William Hare,
declares that he is. And being interrogated, declares that he does
not know of any person who saw that Hare had any concern in bringing
the body or in taking it away; and being interrogated, declares that
the porter’s name is John M‘Culloch, and declares that the box in
which the body was contained was a tea-chest; and being specially
interrogated, declares that the woman above referred to, of the name
of Mary Dougherty, was not in his house on Friday, and he never to
his knowledge saw her till Saturday morning at 10 o’clock: That she
promised him to return on the same evening, but she did not, and he
does not know what may have become of her. And being interrogated,
declares that he sprinkled some whisky about the house on Saturday,
to prevent any smell from the dead body. Declares, that Hare did not
tell him, nor did he ask where he got the body. Declares, that he
did not observe whether there was any blood upon the body. And being
specially interrogated, declares, that he had no concern in doing harm
to the woman before referred to, of the name of Mary Dougherty, or to
the woman whose body was brought to the house, and he does not know of
any other person being concerned in doing so. Declares, that Dougherty
was dressed in a dark gown; and being shown a coarse linen sheet, a
pillow case, a dark printed cotton gown, and a red striped bed-gown,
to which a label is affixed, and signed by the declarant and Sheriff,
as relative hereto, declares, that the sheet and pillow-slip are his,
and he knows nothing about the dark gown and bed-gown: That the blood
upon the pillow-slip was occasioned by his having struck Helen M‘Dougal
upon the nose, as is known to Gray and his wife; and the blood upon the
sheet is occasioned by the state in which Helen M‘Dougal was at the
time, and is known to Gray’s wife. All which is truth.
ARCHD. SCOTT. WM. BURKE.
A. M‘LUCAS. (Signed) G. TAIT.
A. MACLEAN.
_At Edinburgh, the 10th day of November 1828._
In presence of GEORGE TAIT, Esquire, Sheriff-Substitute
of Edinburghshire.