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Burke & Hare
At Christmastide, 1827, in a boarding house in Edinburgh’s West Port, an old army pensioner dies of natural causes. He owes the landlord £4 rent. Instead of burying the body, the landlord, William Hare, and his friend William Burke fill the coffin with bark and sell the corpse to Dr Robert Knox, an ambitious anatomist. They make a profit of £3.10s. After this encouraging outcome, Burke and Hare decide to suffocate another sickly tenant. So begins the criminal career of the most notorious double act in the history of serial murder. In this third edition of his acclaimed book, Owen Dudley Edwards lays bare the unvarnished, human story behind the infamous pair and vividly reconstructs the drama of their trial. We delve into their past, their personalities and the circumstances that led them to resort to murder as a money-making scheme. A new final chapter examines evidence that has come to light in recent years and reflects on the extraordinary power the story still has for present-day readers. Burke and Hare, poor Irish immigrants, became the central actors in a vortex of desperation and greed, of scientific rivalry, corruption and love. At the end of their dance of death, the shadow of the gallows looms.
440 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
55 people are currently reading
354 people want to read
About the author
Owen Dudley Edwards
67 books8 followersOwen Dudley Edwards is Reader in Commonwealth and American History at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. He is the general editor of the Oxford Sherlock Holmes series, and is a recognised expert on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, P. G. Wodehouse and Oscar Wilde, about each of whom he has written.
The son of Professor Robert Dudley Edwards, and brother to the Irish writer, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Owen Dudley Edwards attended Belvedere College, Dublin, University College, Dublin, and The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In 1966 he married Barbara Balbirnie Lee. They have three children.
The son of Professor Robert Dudley Edwards, and brother to the Irish writer, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Owen Dudley Edwards attended Belvedere College, Dublin, University College, Dublin, and The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In 1966 he married Barbara Balbirnie Lee. They have three children.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
August 6, 2022
Dry as dust doesn’t come near my opinion of this book. Far too wordy, and is an academic textbook in disguise as an interesting true crime read. Unless you enjoy facts, figures and endless legal discussions, don’t bother trying to read this book.
February 28, 2021
I think 3.5 for this often quite brilliant book. It's a serious and wide-ranging history, that does an impressive job of trying to give a complete and complex context to Burke and Hare's murders. It's probably at its best in the early chapters, placing the Irish migrant workers in their full historical, social, religious, economic context back in Ireland, in the military, on the canals, and in the communities where they settled. His advocacy and sympathy for Burke are illuminating and informed.
The book's problems, however, also stem from that same comprehensiveness. One of Edwards's aims is to dismantle the fictions and misinformation that have grown over the case like mould. He does an excellent job with explaining the reasons for some of this, not least in outlining what has gone missing from the record and why.
Unfortunately, though, this involves tackling the inelegant misrepresentations and skirting around clarity that formed so much of the court case. Because so many variant accounts of the murders - both those discussed in court and those deliberately suppressed from that discussion - circulated and proliferated from the very start, Edwards does not have the option of presenting a single received version of the story and then dismantling it item by item. His slightly clumsy choice, therefore, is not even to attempt this but to take (some) individual murders as they come into view during the proceedings. Thus, Daft Jamie's murder (excluded from the court's consideration) turns up in a chapter looking at the economics of immigrant life, while the conflicting accounts of Mary Docherty's murder - and, perhaps just as importantly, the interactions with the anatomists - are reserved for the lengthy examination of Burke's trial.
This is comprehensible, although it hardly makes the book easier to read. Where it becomes particularly difficult, however, is in Edwards's often fruitily rich prose style, with its echoes of some of the great moralising nineteenth-century historians (discussed well here). This is all well and good, and indeed eminently readable, when outlining the broad sweep background to the murderers' lives ('The three great events in the history of Western Europe since the birth of Christ were the Roman Empire, the Reformation and the Industrial Revolution, and Ireland missed them all'). It's much less successful in the fine details of the trial and the disputes that lay behind them. This is compounded by the adoption of a weirdly rhetorical style that is really unsatisfactory, with the court proceedings related in somewhat compressed legalese, followed by parentheses of arch observations presented almost as asides. The broader arguments are almost hidden at times in the density of the presentation.
The oratorical richness of the prose leaves no doubt that Edwards would be an utterly compelling lecturer on this topic, but it doesn't work quite so well on the page. Not least of the problems is that although everything is meticulously researched, he gives no direct references eg footnotes. This may not be a problem in a work of popular history, but it makes it difficult to follow some of the bold assertions. (He's particularly cavalier in his universalised references to 'the ballads' without any specific mentions). It also gives his strident and repeated defence of Helen MacDougal something of an impassioned summation to the jury rather than a documented argument.
That all becomes a little more baffling here in this third edition, where the final chapter /does/ contain specifically referenced quotations, usually from literary sources: this, it turns out, covers new material published since the previous edition, as he has left the invaluable 'Note on Sources' - which follows that last chapter - unchanged from that previous publication.
It's a little frustrating, because this is in so many ways the essential book on the subject, but the reader may well feel that they now have to go and read some of the inessential books on the subject to get a better handle on the arguments here.
The book's problems, however, also stem from that same comprehensiveness. One of Edwards's aims is to dismantle the fictions and misinformation that have grown over the case like mould. He does an excellent job with explaining the reasons for some of this, not least in outlining what has gone missing from the record and why.
Unfortunately, though, this involves tackling the inelegant misrepresentations and skirting around clarity that formed so much of the court case. Because so many variant accounts of the murders - both those discussed in court and those deliberately suppressed from that discussion - circulated and proliferated from the very start, Edwards does not have the option of presenting a single received version of the story and then dismantling it item by item. His slightly clumsy choice, therefore, is not even to attempt this but to take (some) individual murders as they come into view during the proceedings. Thus, Daft Jamie's murder (excluded from the court's consideration) turns up in a chapter looking at the economics of immigrant life, while the conflicting accounts of Mary Docherty's murder - and, perhaps just as importantly, the interactions with the anatomists - are reserved for the lengthy examination of Burke's trial.
This is comprehensible, although it hardly makes the book easier to read. Where it becomes particularly difficult, however, is in Edwards's often fruitily rich prose style, with its echoes of some of the great moralising nineteenth-century historians (discussed well here). This is all well and good, and indeed eminently readable, when outlining the broad sweep background to the murderers' lives ('The three great events in the history of Western Europe since the birth of Christ were the Roman Empire, the Reformation and the Industrial Revolution, and Ireland missed them all'). It's much less successful in the fine details of the trial and the disputes that lay behind them. This is compounded by the adoption of a weirdly rhetorical style that is really unsatisfactory, with the court proceedings related in somewhat compressed legalese, followed by parentheses of arch observations presented almost as asides. The broader arguments are almost hidden at times in the density of the presentation.
The oratorical richness of the prose leaves no doubt that Edwards would be an utterly compelling lecturer on this topic, but it doesn't work quite so well on the page. Not least of the problems is that although everything is meticulously researched, he gives no direct references eg footnotes. This may not be a problem in a work of popular history, but it makes it difficult to follow some of the bold assertions. (He's particularly cavalier in his universalised references to 'the ballads' without any specific mentions). It also gives his strident and repeated defence of Helen MacDougal something of an impassioned summation to the jury rather than a documented argument.
That all becomes a little more baffling here in this third edition, where the final chapter /does/ contain specifically referenced quotations, usually from literary sources: this, it turns out, covers new material published since the previous edition, as he has left the invaluable 'Note on Sources' - which follows that last chapter - unchanged from that previous publication.
It's a little frustrating, because this is in so many ways the essential book on the subject, but the reader may well feel that they now have to go and read some of the inessential books on the subject to get a better handle on the arguments here.
March 12, 2018
Burke and Hare is a non fiction book, digging in to sociological and criminological factors that set the scene for the crimes they committed. From Irish immigrants, to the body shortage in Scotland, the book takes a step back from the two of them and looks at society and time as a whole.
So that being said it’s a dry old read in some areas. A little more pizazz would have made the noteworthy.
So that being said it’s a dry old read in some areas. A little more pizazz would have made the noteworthy.
June 16, 2016
I really enjoyed this examination of the infamous serial killers William Burke and William Hare who provided corpses to Dr. Robert Knox of Old Donald in Scotland. By turns grim and funny, this (very dense) book takes you through the background of the killers and places them within the context of their time historically, culturally and politically. It's not necessarily a fast read, but it is a fascinating one.
July 25, 2017
The story of Burke and Hare demands a lurid and sensational presentation. They were mass murderers after all. Scholarly detatchment just doesn't cut it.
October 14, 2025
An interesting, well written and evidently well researched body of work by the author.
I will say the blurb is somewhat misleading and if this is your first foray into the lives of Burke and Hare, I don’t recommend this as your starting off point.
The book is written with the assumption the reader has some prior knowledge of these two men and their crimes - of which luckily I had - and is less of a biography and more of a commentary into how these mens’ lives would have been influenced and shaped by the sociopolitical and religious climate in 19th century Scotland.
It is this where my one criticism lies, in that at times it almost felt that because of certain situations these men would have experienced i.e. poverty, racism, sectarianism etc, that it leaned into a justification for their crimes. At the end of the day, we do not have any evidence to say (nor evidence for the contrary) that if these men were Scottish nationals who existed within upper society they wouldn’t have still committed the same crimes. Whether it was the author’s intention, it did raise my hackles as a woman, that a male author was looking at these two male murders through a sympathetic lens - though it should be mentioned that sexual violence or gender were not the drivers of the murders they committed.
However, I do understand that this novel wasn’t set out to be focused on the men and women that were Burke and Hare’s victims.
I did enjoy the author’s ’one liners’ and witty commentary about certain topics such as war and Irish oppression. One of which I thought was quite a clever point where the author states in relation to military, of which both Burke and Hare were part of, that we train these men as killing machines - that what encompasses a good and loyal soldier is their ability to kill the ‘enemy’, but when they are cast aside and no longer needed, and god forbid kill someone else, we have a habit of saying “…well not like that” as if we expect them to do anything but what they were trained for. It is a great commentary on the hypocrisy of war and bodily autonomy. The military is essentially the selling of your body in a different way.
Overall, I enjoyed the novel - some parts more so than others as at times we did get bogged down in the details. I would recommend this if you are interested in this case and time period.
I will say the blurb is somewhat misleading and if this is your first foray into the lives of Burke and Hare, I don’t recommend this as your starting off point.
The book is written with the assumption the reader has some prior knowledge of these two men and their crimes - of which luckily I had - and is less of a biography and more of a commentary into how these mens’ lives would have been influenced and shaped by the sociopolitical and religious climate in 19th century Scotland.
It is this where my one criticism lies, in that at times it almost felt that because of certain situations these men would have experienced i.e. poverty, racism, sectarianism etc, that it leaned into a justification for their crimes. At the end of the day, we do not have any evidence to say (nor evidence for the contrary) that if these men were Scottish nationals who existed within upper society they wouldn’t have still committed the same crimes. Whether it was the author’s intention, it did raise my hackles as a woman, that a male author was looking at these two male murders through a sympathetic lens - though it should be mentioned that sexual violence or gender were not the drivers of the murders they committed.
However, I do understand that this novel wasn’t set out to be focused on the men and women that were Burke and Hare’s victims.
I did enjoy the author’s ’one liners’ and witty commentary about certain topics such as war and Irish oppression. One of which I thought was quite a clever point where the author states in relation to military, of which both Burke and Hare were part of, that we train these men as killing machines - that what encompasses a good and loyal soldier is their ability to kill the ‘enemy’, but when they are cast aside and no longer needed, and god forbid kill someone else, we have a habit of saying “…well not like that” as if we expect them to do anything but what they were trained for. It is a great commentary on the hypocrisy of war and bodily autonomy. The military is essentially the selling of your body in a different way.
Overall, I enjoyed the novel - some parts more so than others as at times we did get bogged down in the details. I would recommend this if you are interested in this case and time period.
September 21, 2023
Burke & Hare by Owen Dudley Edwards takes a look at the infamous eponymous duo who murdered people in Edinburgh in the early 19th century, giving over their bodies to Robert Knox for dissection and “pocketing the fee”, to quote the Horrible Histories song on the subject.
The author does well to dismiss some long held falsehoods guised as facts—such as that they were Resurrectionists—but then stumbled in other areas. This is to be a look at Burke and Hare and their lives, but essentially nothing is known of either of them, though slightly more has come to us of Burke than Hare. Edwards then takes it upon himself to plug in gaps with his own plausible theories and suppositions, which isn’t really helpful because their lives could have been anything really, following the ordinary or something extraordinary; we simply haven’t a clue.
The next miss for me is that a big heft of this book faces the societal issues plaguing the people of the time; in fact, much of the book is given over to religion, and class, and sex for people as a whole, leaving Burke and Hare largely in the rear view mirror. That is all well and good in principle, but not what I anticipated when checking out the book.
The final stumble is the court case itself. The reader is hit with an onslaught of legal actions and terminology, and then buffeted afterward with various figures and their connections, which unless you’re trained in the high society people of the time or versed in Scottish famous notables, might be lost on you as it was on me.
Overall, it is EXCEEDINGLY dry. Do-not-read-near-open-flame-dry. It’s a shame because I found myself learning at least somewhat about Burke and finding him to indeed be charming and to possess something of a soul in his desperate (and happily successful!) bid to save his lover from the hangman’s knot. It’s just unfortunate it was buried beneath quite a lot of wordiness, like a nugget of gold hidden under a layer of silt.
The author does well to dismiss some long held falsehoods guised as facts—such as that they were Resurrectionists—but then stumbled in other areas. This is to be a look at Burke and Hare and their lives, but essentially nothing is known of either of them, though slightly more has come to us of Burke than Hare. Edwards then takes it upon himself to plug in gaps with his own plausible theories and suppositions, which isn’t really helpful because their lives could have been anything really, following the ordinary or something extraordinary; we simply haven’t a clue.
The next miss for me is that a big heft of this book faces the societal issues plaguing the people of the time; in fact, much of the book is given over to religion, and class, and sex for people as a whole, leaving Burke and Hare largely in the rear view mirror. That is all well and good in principle, but not what I anticipated when checking out the book.
The final stumble is the court case itself. The reader is hit with an onslaught of legal actions and terminology, and then buffeted afterward with various figures and their connections, which unless you’re trained in the high society people of the time or versed in Scottish famous notables, might be lost on you as it was on me.
Overall, it is EXCEEDINGLY dry. Do-not-read-near-open-flame-dry. It’s a shame because I found myself learning at least somewhat about Burke and finding him to indeed be charming and to possess something of a soul in his desperate (and happily successful!) bid to save his lover from the hangman’s knot. It’s just unfortunate it was buried beneath quite a lot of wordiness, like a nugget of gold hidden under a layer of silt.
January 22, 2023
This could have been a good book had the writer had a better editor. He clearly knows his stuff and really did the research, I wouldn't doubt that Owen Dudley Edwards knows more about this case than anyone else, including those alive at the time, but this does not excuse his poor writing, and his inability to decide which facts make a good and compelling story!
The first few chapters detailing the background of Burke, Hare and the rest, were very well put together, and this really began as a four star book. However, far, far, far too much of this book was given over to the court case, a lot of what took pages and pages to write could have been summed up in a sentence or two, and the long directly quoted passages from court documents etc would have done a lot better in several appendices.
I know a lot more about the case, and do feel convinced of the arguments which I feel Edwards was making, that Burke and Hare were products of their class, background, and age in which they lived. They were products of the Scottish Enlightenment as much as Hume or Smith or Scott. They made their best go at things and, though undoubtably not nice people (as they did kill 15 people between them) this book does give a better understanding of their motives and the situation which pushed them in this direction.
If it was only a little less dry, a little better edited and... well written by someone else, perhaps under tutelage of Edwards, then it would have been a good book. As it wasn't... it wasn't.
The first few chapters detailing the background of Burke, Hare and the rest, were very well put together, and this really began as a four star book. However, far, far, far too much of this book was given over to the court case, a lot of what took pages and pages to write could have been summed up in a sentence or two, and the long directly quoted passages from court documents etc would have done a lot better in several appendices.
I know a lot more about the case, and do feel convinced of the arguments which I feel Edwards was making, that Burke and Hare were products of their class, background, and age in which they lived. They were products of the Scottish Enlightenment as much as Hume or Smith or Scott. They made their best go at things and, though undoubtably not nice people (as they did kill 15 people between them) this book does give a better understanding of their motives and the situation which pushed them in this direction.
If it was only a little less dry, a little better edited and... well written by someone else, perhaps under tutelage of Edwards, then it would have been a good book. As it wasn't... it wasn't.
Read
May 24, 2021Took a while to read this, not because it's a tome, but because the subject matter is intense including details of the legal aspects of the case, which are fascinating but for me, were a difficult aspect to take on board and understand.
The times the book describe were in many ways worlds away from the present, where people were of more value dead than alive.....or are they so very different and this was the common theme i found myself returning to while reading the book.
Its a fascinating and well written insight into the life and times of Williams Burke and Hare and the events ascribed to them. Very strangely, it could be said, i found myself disliking Knox, the Doctor and the legal system at the time, more than the two murderers themselves. I still cannot quite get my head round the fact that Burke was the only one executed for these crimes, while others got away scot free.
If you are interested in historical real life crime, i could easily recommend reading this book
The times the book describe were in many ways worlds away from the present, where people were of more value dead than alive.....or are they so very different and this was the common theme i found myself returning to while reading the book.
Its a fascinating and well written insight into the life and times of Williams Burke and Hare and the events ascribed to them. Very strangely, it could be said, i found myself disliking Knox, the Doctor and the legal system at the time, more than the two murderers themselves. I still cannot quite get my head round the fact that Burke was the only one executed for these crimes, while others got away scot free.
If you are interested in historical real life crime, i could easily recommend reading this book
July 6, 2020
This is more academic text book than a book for general reading. I struggled with it and eventually had to put it aside, which is unusual for me. Whilst it is obviously very well researched and the author knows the subject well, I struggled to engage with it. Why, then, have I given it 4 stars. As an academic textbook it is brilliantly written. On balance, I cannot fault the author for my lack of understanding on what form the book would take.
November 28, 2021
I only gave this book 2 stars as I found it to be a painful read, it was so wordy and long drawn out, I just wish I had read the reviews before I purchased it. From the description on the back cover I thought I was in for a good read but from the first chapter I knew this wasn’t going to be the case. Never one to give up on a book and hoping it would get better I finished it but looking back now may be I should have stopped reading and saved myself hours of tedious torture.
November 7, 2024
More a 3.5 than 3.
Thorough, admirable and compelling research that unfortunately is often lost in dry, overly wordy, and hard to follow language (especially parenthetical asides). I also would have appreciated separate section headings, or at least a chart or graph, for the murders and individuals named — lawyers, family, neighbours, victims, etc. Definitely not a book to read for those unacquainted with Burke & Hare already.
Thorough, admirable and compelling research that unfortunately is often lost in dry, overly wordy, and hard to follow language (especially parenthetical asides). I also would have appreciated separate section headings, or at least a chart or graph, for the murders and individuals named — lawyers, family, neighbours, victims, etc. Definitely not a book to read for those unacquainted with Burke & Hare already.
April 4, 2021
DNF after 50 pages for two reasons. First, because it's boring, dry as the Sahara desert, and I don't fancy struggling over another 400 pages of it. Second, because I wanted to know about the *history* of Burke and Hare, not about the conjectures the author makes or his social commentary which is very influenced by what society is today and not what it was at the time.
May 4, 2025
In 1820's Edinburgh human cadavers are needed for medical science. Demand far outstrips supply. The robbing of graves is commonplace, but still more bodies are needed.
Enter Mr Burke and Mr Hare, entrepreneurs. Their solution to the problem is simple. Cut out the spadework, just ease the passing of a few people.
An early example of capitalism refining supply and demand.
Enter Mr Burke and Mr Hare, entrepreneurs. Their solution to the problem is simple. Cut out the spadework, just ease the passing of a few people.
An early example of capitalism refining supply and demand.
September 16, 2025
I hate to dnf a book but the writing in this is so inaccessible. Maybe I'm in the wrong but I just want a straightforward narrative of who these men were, how they met, what they did, and the aftermath of their crimes.
Read
August 27, 2021Did not enjoy.
September 18, 2023
Did not finish. Tedious
November 5, 2024
I really wanted to enjoy this but the writing style just wasn’t for me
November 20, 2024
So disappointed. This book promised so much and simply didn't deliver. I've read more enjoyable text books when I was at school than this book.
September 17, 2014
This one took me a long time to read.
March 30, 2025
Perfect for someone who loves to learn about history
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews