West Port murders, or an authentic account of the atrocious murders committed by Burke and his associates; containing a full account of all the extraordinary circumstances connected with them. Also, a report of the trial of Burke and M'Dougal. With a description of the execution of Burke, his confessions, and memoirs of his accomplices, including the proceedings against Hare, &c.

  • Burke, William, 1792-1829.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: West Port murders, or an authentic account of the atrocious murders committed by Burke and his associates; containing a full account of all the extraordinary circumstances connected with them. Also, a report of the trial of Burke and M'Dougal. With a description of the execution of Burke, his confessions, and memoirs of his accomplices, including the proceedings against Hare, &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to trial, and take every other means in his power to have these atrocities probed and sifted to the bottom. Trial of William Burke and Helen M'Dougal. No trial in the memory of any man living has excited so deep, universal, and, we may almost add, appalling an interest as that of William Buuke and his female associate, Helen M'Dougal, which took place on Wednesday, 24th December, 1828. By the statements which from time to time appeared in the newspapers, public feeling had been worked up to the highest pitch of excitement, and the case, in so far as the miserable pannels were concerned, to a certain extent preju- diced by the natural abhorrence which the account of a new and unparalleled crime was calculated to excite. This, how- ever, is an evil inseparable from the freedom, activity, and enterprise of the press, which is necessarily compelled to lay hold of the events of the passing hour, more especially when these are of an extraordinary or unprecedented kind: But it was more than atoned for by many countervailing advan- tages of the greatest moment to the interests of the community; and, besides, we are satisfied that any prejudice or preposses- sion thus created, was anxiously and effectually excluded from the minds of the jury, by whom this singular case was tried, and that they were swayed by no consideration except a stem re- gard to the sanction of their oaths, the purity of justice, and the import of the evidence laid before them. At the same time, it was not so much to the accounts published in the news- papers, which merely embodied and gave greater currency to the statements circulating in society, as to the extraordinary, nay, unparalleled circumstances of the case, that the strong excitement of the public mind ought to be ascribed. These were without any precedent in the records of our oiminal practice, and, in fact, amounted to the realization of a nursery tale. The recent deplorable increase of crime has made us familiar with several new atrocities. Poisoning is now, it seems, rendered subsidiary to the commission of theft: stabbings, and attempts at assassination, are matters of almost every day occurrence : and murder has grown so familiar to us, that it has almost ceased to be viewed with that instinctive and inexpressible dread which the commission of the greatest crime against the laws of God and society used to excite. But the present was the first instance of murder alleged to have been perpetrated with the aforethought purpose and intent of selling the mur- dered body as a subject for dissection to anatomists : it was a new species of assassination, or murder for hire : and as such, c