Deadlier Than the Male by Douglas Skelton

Author:Douglas Skelton
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781845029319
Publisher: Black & White Publishing
Published: 2011-04-28T04:00:00+00:00

It was an ironic twist in the tale, considering the way Burke had made his most recent living. But the judge had another comment to make, opining that, if it was ever customary for the skeletons of murderers to be kept after dissection, then he hoped Burke's would be one ‘in order that posterity may keep in remembrance of your atrocious crimes’.

The Edinburgh Tolbooth had been demolished in 1817 so Burke was taken first to Calton Jail and then, in preparation for his final public appearance, to the lock-up house in Libberton's Wynd. He made two confessions during this time, admitting sixteen murders but claiming William Hare had more to do with them than he had stated in court. He also removed any blame from his lover, Helen McDougall, and, to an extent, from Maggie Laird. However, there can be little doubt that both women knew exactly what was going on – if not at first, then certainly as the death tally rose. They had stood outside the room in Gibb's Close while their husbands finished off poor Mary Paterson and they had sat at the table drinking as her body cooled on a bed behind a curtain. Maggie Laird had helped lure Daft Jamie and others to their doom. Helen McDougall had remained silent when her ex-partner's cousin, Ann McDougall, disappeared. They had both waited with the deaf-mute Glasgow lad while the men slaughtered his grandmother and then they had allowed him to be led away to his own certain death. They had both been present when Burke and Hare plied poor Mrs Docherty with drink, although they had fled as the murder began. Helen had tried to buy the Grays’ silence when they found the corpse of Ann McDougall and Maggie had attempted to calm them down. They had lied to the police over the night's events. Maggie Laird had admitted in court that she had ‘seen such tricks before’ after supposing Mrs Docherty had been murdered.

But, guilty or innocent, on Wednesday 28 January 1829, it was only Burke who paid the price for their collective misdeeds. The gallows itself was constructed in the Lawnmarket, not far from the lock-up house. The event was to be quite a spectacle. Signs were posted on windows on the tall buildings overlooking the execution site advertising an uninterrupted vantage point from which to witness the hanging. Despite fees being set as high as a guinea, there was a huge demand for places. Sir Walter Scott found himself such a window at 423 High Street to watch the show. The streets below were full of people – as many as 25,000, it has been estimated – and, as Burke was led on to the platform, a great wave of revulsion rose from their throats. This tide of hatred was not just aimed at the man on the scaffold but also towards the two men deemed by public indignation to be just as guilty – William Hare and Robert Knox. However, they had to be satisfied with just one hanging.

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