credit, if they gave a true account of the transaction of which they
spoke. He admitted they were not placed in the same situation with
persons against whom no suspicion existed; but it was the duty of
the jury to sift their evidence, and in as far as it was corroborated
by good evidence, it was entitled to such a measure of credibility as
they in their consciences thought it merited. They had been told of the
Hares being connected with other murders. With what murders they might
be chargeable, he did not know; but to a certainty, they could not be
libelled on either of the charges contained in the libel now under
trial, and which had not been sent to the jury. It was, therefore,
unfounded in law to say, that these two persons were liable to be tried
for the two murders contained in the indictment. These individuals, who
were under the protection of the Court, had been called as accomplices,
in the same manner as associates in robbery, wilful fire-raising,
and other capital crimes. With respect to M‘Dougal, his Lordship was
understood to express his opinion, that if the evidence was to be
believed, she had been an accessory before the commission of the crime,
during its commission, and after it was committed; and, upon the whole,
he considered the libel as made out against both.
The Jury then retired at half-past eight o’clock to consider their
verdict, and after an absence of fifty minutes, returned into Court and
gave in the following verdict by their chancellor, WILLIAM MACFIE,
ESQ.
VERDICT.
The jury find the pannel, William Burke, guilty of the third charge in
the indictment, and find the indictment not proven against the pannel
Helen M‘Dougal.
The Lords assoilzie the pannel, Helen M‘Dougal, simpliciter, and
dismiss her from the bar.
The LORD ADVOCATE having moved for the sentence of the Court,
Lord MEADOWBANK bank gave his opinion nearly in the following
terms:
My Lords, after a trial of unexampled length--protracted to nearly
twenty-four hours--a trial in which the minds of your Lordships have
been exerted to the uttermost, it would be improper in me to detain
the Court with commenting on the circumstances of this most atrocious
case; and I feel that it is quite impossible for any one who has
attended to the proceedings on this trial, to think that we have any
thing left to do, but to go through with the distressing duty which
is now fallen to your Lordships to perform. But it is impossible,
in considering the whole circumstances of this distressing case,
not to advert to that extraordinary--that most unexampled, and that
atrocious system, which every one must feel has been developed by
the evidence that has been brought forward. I am sure, and I speak
in the presence of your Lordships, who can correct me if I am wrong,
that in the whole history of the country--I may say, in the history
of civilized society--nothing has ever been exhibited that is, in any
respect, parallel to this case. Murders have been committed before
now; crimes of all descriptions have unhappily been too common; but we
had flattered ourselves that our county was, in a great measure, free
from the stigma of any great or heinous atrocity committed within its
bounds. That there should have been found, therefore, not one but many
leagued and combined together, in order to sacrifice their unoffending
fellow-creatures, for the wretched purpose of disposing of their
bodies, is, to the last degree, humiliating. The very announcement of
such a system is sufficient to raise ideas of horror which it would
be vain to search for words adequately to express. When I take a view
of the other features of this case, it exhibits a picture of iniquity
which the greatest stretch of imagination can hardly take in, yet
it was so clearly brought in proof, that, I am sure, it must carry
conviction to every one who heard the evidence. It is proved that the
prisoner, in going up the street after some of his usual avocations in
the morning, fell in with the poor unprotected old woman, with whom, it
is quite clear, that he was perfectly unacquainted before. Now began
his arrangements for ensnaring his victim. With the immediate feeling
upon him of the object which he had in view, he claims kindred with
her by a fictitious name; and by pretences of kindness endeavours to
gain on her affections. He entices her into his own house, and there
continued his friendship to her, insomuch that she expressed gratitude
to Mrs. Connoway for the kindness with which he had treated her. He
thus contrives so far to attain his object, that she seems to have
opened her affection and confidence to him--she looked to him for
protection--she felt he had dealt kindly with her--she refused to
enter the house until he entered with her. She did enter with him.
A struggle, or pretended struggle, ensued; and, when I recollect
that the moment she fell that struggle ended, I cannot rationally
entertain a doubt that it was feigned, and got up for the purpose of
entrapping her, and throwing her off her guard. What did the individual
to whom she looked for protection now do? She is thrown down, and he,
with the atrocity of a demon, instantly throws himself upon her, and
extinguishes life in a few moments. I do not state this with any view
whatever of exciting the feelings, or aggravating indignation against
the unhappy prisoner, but really when such a system of crime, in
which there are many actors, is developed in the midst of this great
metropolis, I cannot resist stating the impression which it has made
upon my mind as one of the most monstrous exhibitions of atrocity ever
disclosed in the annals of criminal jurisprudence in this or any other
country. Sitting as I do in this place, there is little occasion to
advert to certain matters that were pointed at, and eloquently pointed
at, in the course of the defence. I will only observe, that with
matters of science we have nothing to do. We have nothing to do but to
administer the law as handed down to us, and God forbid that the claims
of science, or of philosophy, or of speculation of any kind, shall
prevent us from feeling the horror which such offences are naturally
calculated to excite. With respect to the issue to the prisoner, your
Lordships are aware that that issue must be death. The highest law has
said, “Thou shalt not kill--thou shalt do no murder;” and the law of
this country says, that he who commits murder shall suffer death. The
prisoner must have considered that he was committing the high crime of
murder. In his breast, as in the breast of every one, must be implanted
that feeling, that murder was the most heinous of crimes. There is no
doubt that it is the duty of the Court to pronounce sentence on the
prisoner; and I now suggest that he be detained in the Tolbooth of
Edinburgh, and that he suffer death on the scaffold on the 28th day of
January next, and his body be given for dissection.
Lord MACKENZIE expressed his concurrence.
The LORD JUSTICE CLERK then addressed the prisoner nearly as
follows:--William Burke, you now stand convicted by the verdict of
an intelligent and respectable Jury, of the atrocious murder charged
against you in the indictment, upon evidence which could not leave a
doubt of your guilt on the mind of any one who heard it. I so fully
concur in the view which has been so eloquently given by my learned
brother, of the nature of the offence, that I will not occupy the
time of the Court with commenting on it. A crime more atrocious, a
more cold-blooded, deliberate, and systematic preparation for murder,
and the motive so paltry, was really unexampled in the annals of the
country. It is now my duty to inform you, that if ever it was clear
beyond all possibility of a doubt, that the sentence would in any case
be carried into full execution, this is the case. You may rest assured
that you have no chance of pardon; and I now would solemnly warn you to
prepare your mind in the most suitable manner to appear in a very short
time before the throne of Almighty God, to answer for this crime, and
for every other with which you stand chargeable in your own conscience.
The necessity of repressing crimes of this nature precludes the
possibility of your entertaining the slightest hope of a remission of
your sentence. The only doubt I have in my mind is, whether to satisfy
the violated laws of your country and the voice of public indignation,
your body ought not to be exhibited in chains, to bleach in the winds,
in order to deter others from the commission of similar offences. But,
taking into consideration that the public eye would be offended by so
dismal a spectacle, I am willing to accede to a more lenient execution
of your sentence, and that your body should be publicly dissected. I
trust that if it is ever customary to preserve skeletons, yours will
be preserved, in order that posterity may keep in remembrance your
atrocious crimes. I earnestly advise you to lose no time in humbling
yourself in the sight of God, and that you will seek the aid of the
ministers of religion, to whatever profession you may belong. The
present charges having been fully established against you, it is my
duty to inform you that you have but a few days to remain on the earth.
His Lordship then pronounced, with due solemnity, the sentence of the
law, which was recorded in the following terms:
SENTENCE.
The Lord Justice Clerk and Lords Commissioners of Justiciary, in
respect of the verdict before recorded, decern and adjudge the said
William Burke, pannel, to be carried from the bar back to the Tolbooth
of Edinburgh, therein to be detained, and to be fed on bread and
water only, in terms of an act of Parliament passed in the 25th year
of the reign of His Majesty King George the Second, entitled “an
Act for preventing the horrid crime of murder,” until Wednesday the
twenty-eighth day of January next to come, and upon that day to be
taken furth of the said tolbooth to the common place of execution in
the Lawnmarket of Edinburgh, and then and there, between the hours of
eight and ten o’clock before noon of the said day, to be hanged by the
neck by the hands of the common executioner upon a gibbet until he be
dead, and his body thereafter to be delivered to Dr. Alexander Munro,
Professor of Anatomy in the University of Edinburgh, to be by him
publicly dissected and anatomized, in terms of the said act, and ordain
all his moveable goods and gear to be escheat and inbrought to His
Majesty’s use, which is pronounced for doom.
(Signed) D. BOYLE,
A. MACONOCHIE,
J. H. MACKENZIE.
Counsel for the Crown, the LORD ADVOCATE, ROBERT DUNDAS, Esq.,
ARCHIBALD ALISON, Esq., and ALEXANDER WOOD, Esq., Advocate Deputies,
JAMES TYTLER, Esq., Crown Agent.
Counsel for Burke, Sir JAMES W. MONCRIEFF, Bart., Dean of Faculty,
PATRICK ROBERTSON, MARK NAPIER, and DAVID MILNE, Esqrs.
Counsel for M‘Dougal, HENRY COCKBURN, DUNCAN M‘NEIL, HUGH BRUCE, and
GEORGE PATTON, Esqrs.
Agent for both pannels, JAMES BEVERIDGE, Esq. W. S. one of the agents
for the poor.
We understand that the learned counsel above named, all very handsomely
gave their services to the prisoners gratuitously.
* * * * *
Having thus given a faithful account of the judicial proceedings
in this important trial, it will not, we trust, be an unacceptable
supplement if we subjoin some particulars connected with it, which
might indeed have been interwoven in the progress of the foregoing
report, but which would have only incumbered the technical details that
are, of course, most interesting. To these particulars we may add
such other facts connected with the nefarious system of murder which
had been organized among us as have transpired since the trial; and
in an affair which has excited the most extraordinary sensation ever
perhaps known in Scotland, in reference to crimes of a private nature,
it seems desirable not only to give a complete and connected account of
them, but to collect and embody along with it, in a single record, the
various expressions of public feeling, as these have come forth through
the press in all parts of the country.
* * * * *
From the whole evidence there appears scarce the shadow of a doubt
that Helen M‘Dougal was equally involved with the other in this scheme
of systematic murder. She did not put forth her hands because this
was not the part which she was best fitted to perform; but that she
was privy to what was about to take place is clearly made out, by her
reluctance to part with the woman Campbell, evidently from the fear
of losing her prey; and that she was an accessary after appears from
what she said to the Grays, that if they would conceal what they saw,
it would be worth to them L.10 a week. This is proved by the testimony
of those witnesses, which is above all challenge. That it should have
been necessary to set at liberty a wretch of this description, stained
with such foul crimes, to begin anew her career of iniquity, cannot be
sufficiently regretted.
[Illustration: HELEN M‘DOUGAL
as she appeared at the Bar,
taken in Court
_Published by Thomas Ireland Jun^r, Edin^r._]
We may mention also as a singular instance of the obliquity of the
human understanding, or at least of the effect produced upon some
by the Dean of Faculty’s powerful speech for Burke, that two of the
Jury by whom he was tried were of opinion that the Prosecutor had not
made out his case against that unhappy man, and consequently were
for returning a verdict of Not Proven in his case as well as that of
M‘Dougal. No one who attended to the evidence as it was led, or who has
examined it since, has been able to discover upon what ground such a
verdict was returned even in the case of the female pannel; but had the
opinion of these two gentlemen prevailed, and the charges against Burke
been found not proven, Justice might have thrown away her balance and
broken her sword, and the Prosecutor might well have despaired of ever
again obtaining a verdict upon a charge of murder. Happily nothing so
utterly monstrous as this occurred. Justice has received one victim,
but she will not be satisfied with this solitary sacrifice. Others
yet remain to be claimed, whose hands are dyed in blood, and whose
criminality is not either in law or in morality inferior to that of the
unhappy man whose days are numbered, and who is doomed to expiate his
manifold crimes on the scaffold.
The intense sensation which has been excited among all classes by this
extraordinary case, far exceeds what we have ever witnessed on any
former occasion. The story, when it was first rumoured, created the
deepest agitation. But it was treated by many as an idle tale, framed
to feed the vulgar appetite for the marvellous, and too horrible to be
believed. Nor need we wonder that the most credulous should have been
startled by the recital of such atrocious cruelty, which far surpasses
any thing that is usually found in the records of crime. The offence of
murder, dreadful as it is, is unhappily too familiar in our criminal
proceedings; but such an artfully contrived and deliberate scheme,
such a systematic traffic in blood, was certainly never before heard
of in this country. It is a new passage in our domestic history; it is
entirely out of the ordinary range of iniquity; and stands by itself,
a solitary monument of villany, such as would almost seem to mark an
extinction in the heart of all those social sympathies which bind man
to his fellow-men, and even of that light of conscience which awes the
most hardened, by the fear of final retribution. In works of fiction,
no doubt, where the writer, to produce effect, borrows the aid of his
imagination, we have accounts of such deeds, perpetrated, perhaps, in
the secret chambers of some secluded castle, or in the deep recesses of
some lone and sequestered haunt. But the striking and awful peculiarity
of the present case is, that we have laid open, not in the high-wrought
scenes of romance, but in the sober records of judicial inquiry, a
den of murderers in the very bosom of civilized society, in the heart
of our populous city, amid the haunts of business and the bustle of
ordinary life, who have been, if we may so speak, living on their
fellow-creatures as their natural prey. Words would fail to convey an
idea of the sensation that was excited in the Court as in the progress
of the trial the horrid details of this conspiracy were gradually
unfolded; the craft by which the unhappy woman was lured to her
destruction; the artful preparations for the bloody tragedy; and the
cool decision and ferocity with which, when the fitting time was come,
the murderer sprung upon his victim and extinguished life in a few
moments. At every new view of this unhappy story, it assumes a deeper
dye. What a fearful character does it present of cunning and violence,
the true ingredients of villany! From first to last we see the same
master spirit of iniquity at work to contrive and to execute. We see
no doubt, no wavering, no compunctious visitings of the conscience,
nor any soft relenting; but a stern deliberation of purpose, that is
truly diabolical; and it is fearful to reflect, that a person capable
of such crimes should have been so long haunting our streets, mixing in
society, and coolly selecting subjects for his sanguinary trade.
Among the other peculiarities of the present case, we may remark, that
such acts of savage atrocity are rather out of place in so civilized
a community as that in which we live. They are not in unison with the
moral tone of society. Crimes of violence are the natural product of
barbarism. They grow up to frightful maturity in that congenial soil;
and all savage communities are accordingly distinguished by cruelty,
and the most profligate indifference to human life. As mankind improve,
and as knowledge is diffused, those crimes disappear, and are succeeded
by others sufficiently odious, no doubt, but still of a less atrocious
nature. The same process by which we cultivate the intellectual
faculties would seem also to open the heart to more humane sentiments
and to more kindly feelings. But however we may improve society and
diffuse instruction, there is still a vast expanse of ignorance,
poverty, and vice, which we may lessen by active efforts, but which we
cannot altogether remove, and it is in this intellectual desert, if
we may so speak, where nothing that is humane, enlightened, or moral,
ever springs up to refresh the eye, that crimes are produced. Under
the influence of ignorance all the best affections of the human heart
wither and lie dead; and it is chiefly from those who are within its
sphere, that the ranks of crime are recruited; and that, occasionally,
such wretches arise as Burke or Hare, or their female associates, who
distance all competitors in iniquity, and shock the feelings of the
age by their enormous crimes. It will generally be found that these
criminals are not only wicked and immoral, but that they are uneducated
and grossly ignorant; living, no doubt, in a civilized community, and
with certain habits of civilization that they cannot avoid, but still
in respect to mental cultivation, scarcely, if at all, raised above the
level of savages. Hence the vast importance to society of spreading
knowledge, of bringing all ranks under some process of mental tuition,
and of establishing schools where instruction and morality, for they
go together, are retailed at a cheap rate. It is only in this way that
we can ensure the decrease of crimes; and more especially of such
atrocious crimes as have been recently perpetrated.
In the course of this trial, some allusion was made to the interests
of science, to which, in the impressive address of Lord Meadowbank,
previous to passing sentence, there is a conclusive reply, and we would
only remark, that the more this subject is agitated, the greater will
be the prejudice excited; nor can any law be made that would be of
the least service. The subject, involving as it does so many critical
considerations, is far too delicate to be touched by act of Parliament;
besides, that the popular ferment, that would thereby be raised,
would multiply the present difficulties tenfold. We cannot possibly
comprehend how Parliament could interfere in this matter, or how any
act could be framed to make that legal which is at present illegal.
Science, in short, may be injured, but it cannot possibly be benefited
by any public agitation of the subject.
* * * * *
During the whole course of the trial Burke maintained the most
perfect self-possession and tranquillity, even when some parts of the
evidence that made others shudder came out against him. He conversed
occasionally with M‘Dougal, and more than once we saw him smile at such
parts of the testimonies as probably appeared to him not to be “the
whole truth.”
In the course of his trial we understand that Burke, about four
o’clock, asked when he would get dinner, and being informed it would
be about six, he begged that he might have a biscuit or two, as he
would lose his appetite before that time. Both pannels ate bread and
soup heartily; and although they displayed no external marks of inward
emotion, they frequently, especially the woman, took copious draughts
of water.
Before the jury retired, and during the time they were enclosed, Burke
endeavoured to prepare the mind of M‘Dougal for her fate, as, from
the address of the Lord Justice Clerk, he supposed she would be found
guilty; in the view of which he gave her directions how she should
conduct herself, desiring her to look at and observe him when the Lord
Justice Clerk was pronouncing sentence. When the jury returned with
their verdict, they mentioned first that they found the libel against
M‘Dougal Not Proven. He was immediately heard coolly to exclaim,
“Nelly, you are out of the scrape.” After the Lord Justice Clerk’s
address to him he was very anxious that permission should be given to
M‘Dougal to remain a day or two in the Lock-up-house, for her personal
protection.
The advocates for the Crown and the pannels spoke in their addresses
to the jury nearly six hours; and, altogether, the trial was one of
the most interesting we ever witnessed, by the horrors which the
investigation disclosed, by the intense interest which pervaded the
whole assemblage, and by the picturesque and singular appearance of
the scene. This was not a little heightened by the expedient to which
the greater part of the audience were obliged to resort for self
preservation against the inclemency of the weather. By orders from the
Court a large window was thrown open as far as it could be done, and a
current of cold damp air beat, for twenty-four hours, upon the heads
of the whole audience. How far this was necessary or considerate we
presume not to say; and we trust no fatal consequences will ensue; but
we must be permitted to express a hope that some plan will be adopted
for preventing a repetition of a similar occurrence--such an occurrence
as last winter, on Mrs. Smith’s trial, endangered the life of one of
our most valuable and esteemed advocates. In the present instance, the
greater part of the audience being Advocates and Writers to the Signet
in their gowns, these were wrapped round their heads, and, intermingled
with various coloured handkerchiefs in every shade and form of drapery,
which gave to the visages that were inshrouded under them, such a
grim and grisly aspect as assimilated them to a college of monks or
inquisitors, or characters imagined in tales of romance,--grouped and
contrasted most fantastically with the costume of the bench and crowded
bar engaged in the trial.