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n Burke and Hare were notnbody snatchers, nor were they resurrection men. They were anatomical murderers.nThey brought fresh meat to the table. The real resurrectionists opened upngraves and stole the bodies, and although they tried to find the recently departed,nthe meat they provided was not quite so fresh. To give you some idea about thenpremium of freshness, Robert Knox paid twelve guineas for a body in winter butnthe price dropped to eight guineas in summer when things were, shall we say, anlittle gamier.
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| Resurrection Men |
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nThese boys had their own tricks of the trade too – woodennspades, for example, to cut down on the noise, and they tended to work inngangs, providing them with more keen eyes to keep a lookout, more willing handsnto make the digging easier, and more big lads if the watchmen or the grievingnrelatives showed up and took exception to their nocturnal excavations. One suchngang operated in London in the 1820s and 30s, and according to one member theyndisinterred between 500 and 1,000 bodies over a twelve-year period. JohnnBishop, Thomas Williams, and James May worked from a base in Shoreditch,nselling bodies to the London teaching hospitals (notably St Bartholomew’s, StnThomas’s and King’s College), and on the morning of Saturday November 5thn1831, the gang presented themselves at the gate of King’s College asking ifnthey ‘needed anything’, which was the tacit code that they had a bodynfor sale. They had a ‘subject’ available, for which they were asking twelvenguineas.
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| A Dissection in Progress |
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nThe porter, William Hill, brought Mr Richard Partridge, the anatomyndemonstrator, who told the pair that the College didn’t need a ‘subject’ atnpresent but after a little negotiating he offered them nine guineas for itnanyway. Williams and James Shields, a hired porter, carried a hamper containingnthe body into another room, but the porter smelled a rat, thinking the bodynlooked too fresh and certainly not from a grave, so he re-called Mr Partridge.nPartridge began to examine the body and found there were wounds to the head andnbreast and that all the teeth had been removed and so, with admirable presencenof mind, he called in thirty of his students (one of whom he quietly dispatchednto the Covent Garden station-house) and kept the men talking, asking, fornexample, how they had come by the ‘subject’. It had, they replied, come from anward at Guy’s Hospital. Partridge kept the questions coming and stalled furthernby saying that he was waiting for change for a £50 note to come back, untilnConstable Broderick, PC 47 of F Division, finally arrived.
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| Bishop, Williams and May |
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nShields and Williamsncut up rough and threatened to throw the officer into the boiling water vat innthe corner of the dissecting room but Partridge’s conveniently assemblednstudent contingent had other thoughts on the matter and when policenreinforcements arrived, all four men were taken into custody. A runner was sentnto Guy’s, where he was told Bishop had tried to sell the body there but hadnbeen told that the ‘subject’ was not wanted, so he had asked if he could leavenit there until that afternoon, when he returned and took it away. All fournsuspects were taken to Covent Garden police station (May – also known as ‘JacknStirabout’ – had to be dragged there on all fours, with his frock coat pullednup over his head), they were all the worse for drink; when Inspector Rogersnasked Bishop who he was, Bishop replied, “I am a bloody body snatcher.”
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| The House & Garden of Bishop & Williams |
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nThey gave their address as 3 Nova Scotia Gardens, Bethnal Green, and PC JosephnHiggins was sent there, where he found such tools as body snatchers mightnemploy in their grisly trade. On the following day, Partridge, with othernProfessors of Anatomy made a fuller examination of the body and came to thenconclusion that the cause of death was foul play – a blow to the back of thenneck and then the head had been twisted until the neck had broken. The stomachnwas full of an unidentifiable food and the faint smell of rum was detected. Ancoroner’s jury delivered the verdict on Tuesday November 8th, wasnthat the body had died by, “Wilful murder against some person or personsnunknown,” although Bishop, Williams and May were mentioned as being likelynto be involved, and they were remanded in custody by Mr Minshull, the sittingnmagistrate at Bow Street police station, who ordered the institution of ancriminal investigation.
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| Fortune of War Public House |
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nOn November 18th, witnesses appearednbefore the magistrate and testified that Bishop, Williams and May had been seenntogether at the Fortune of War public house in Smithfield (a notorious haunt ofnknown body snatchers) on Friday November 4th, and Bishop had takennfrom his pocket a handkerchief, in which were seen human teeth, some with partsnof the gums still attached, and into which he poured water, to wash the teeth.nOn the next day, the 5th, Shields had been hired by the other threenand they had gone away, bearing a hamper. Superintendent Joseph Sadler Thomasnhad tracked the teeth down to a dentist, Mr Mills, who testified that Bishopnhad brought twelve teeth to him on the morning of November 5th,nasking a guinea for them (human teeth, especially sets, were in demand for thenmanufacture of dentures), but Mills was unhappy with the condition of thenteeth, one of which was chipped and others had gums and jawbone still attached,nso Bishop settled on a price of twelve shillings. He also told Mills that thenteeth had come from “… a lad about fourteen or fifteen years of age.”
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| Hnadbill about Bishop & Williams – the Burkers |
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nPCnHiggins had returned to Bishop’s house and made another search, finding morentools and a chisel. He then went to May’s lodgings in New Kent Road, where henfound screws and a bloodstained bradawl, together with a pair of breeches withnblood on them. Mr Mills, the dentist, was re-called and he said that tools likenthese were sometimes used by grave robbers to remove teeth from bodies. Thenpolice had handbills printed offering a reward for information and had postednthem around Shoreditch; Bishop had seen one of the bills on a notice board innthe police station, and had been heard to mutter to May, “It was the bloodnthat sold us.” Another witness, an eleven-year-old girl called Martha King,ngave evidence that she had seen a little boy with a cage of white mice sittingnnear to Nova Scotia Gardens on the Thursday afternoon. The examination wasnconcluded and the prisoners remanded further.
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| The Front of Bishop’s House |
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nThe following day, November 19th,nSuperintendent Thomas took PC Higgins and PC James Wadey back to Nova ScotianGardens and began to probe the garden of Bishop’s house with an iron rod. Thenrod met resistance and the policemen began to dig, finding a blue jacket, anpair of black trousers and a small shirt, and a yard to one side, under ashesnand cinders and about a foot down, they also found a blue short coat, a pair ofngrey trousers with braces and a comb in the pocket, a shirt that had been tornndown the front and a man’s drab-striped waistcoat that had been taken in down thenback to make it fit a boy – it had bloodstains on the collar and shoulders. Inna room in Bishop’s house, Thomas also found a brown, hairy cap. When news ofnthe discoveries got out, a mob formed in Nova Scotia Gardens, threatening tontear the houses down in an act of vengeance, but the strong police presencenprevented this, and in a very strange compromise, the curious were admitted tonthe house in return for a small fee, and many thousands took advantage of thenarrangement.
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| Spectators visit Nova Scotia Gardens |
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nSuperintendent Thomas returned the next day and extended hisnsearch to the adjoining house, (No 2), which had once belonged to Williams andnhis wife, sifting through the garden soil but finding nothing. He had thencesspit drained, again finding nothing, but hidden in the privy a bundle wasnfound. It was feared at first that this was the body of a child, but after itnhad been opened and cleaned, it was discovered to be women’s clothing – old,nworn and bloodstained, and cut down the front as if they had been torn to stripnthem from a body.
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nThis new evidence was presented to the Bow Street magistratenon Friday November 25th 1831, together with more statements fromnrespondents to police handbills, including those of three ladies; Mrs Lowe, herndaughter Mrs Mayo and their friend Mrs Hitchwell. The curiosity of these ladiesnhad been aroused by the description of the clothing found in the privy, andnthey had gone to Bow Street, where they had been shown the items and hadninstantly recognised them as belonging to Mrs Frances Pigburn, the forty-year-oldnsister of Mrs Lowe. Indeed, Mrs Hitchwell had even made some of them with hernown hand, and had identical items herself, which she produced. Mrs Pigburn hadngone out alone on October 15th and had intended to stay at a MrnCampion’s house but there had been no room available there, so she had left andngone on to look for another berth. She had not been seen alive since.
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| Newgate Prison |
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nA furthernwarrant was issued for the detention of Bishop, Williams and May on thensuspicion of murdering Mrs Pigburn. Bishop, Williams and May then made furthernstatements, with Bishop saying he had disinterred the body from a grave, Maynrambling on about conflicting details and Williams, basically, saying that allnhe had done was a bit of heavy lifting for his mates. The examination was thennconcluded, with the decision that Bishop, Williams and May should be taken tonNewgate prison to await trial, and that Shields was only a hired porter who wasninnocent of the crimes being investigated, and as such he was released.
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