nn
n
n
n
n True to his resolve, James Gray went to the policenstation, where he gave a statement to Sergeant-Major John Fisher, who wasninclined to think that Gray simply wanted some sort of revenge on his formernlandlord with these outlandish claims but went to Burke’s house anyway.
n
n
n
nBurkenbluffed and blustered – Gray and his wife were such bad tenants that he hadnbeen forced to evict them, he said, and the old woman had left early in thenmorning at around about seven or so, under a cloud, also guilty of bad conduct.nThe blood traces found in the room had, said McDougal, been left anfortnight ago by another tenant and she hadn’t cleaned to room since and as fornthe old Irishwoman, why she had been sent away in the early evening, maybenabout sevenish. This twelve-hour discrepancy in their stories aroused Fisher’sninstincts, and he arrested them, just to be on the safe side, although he stillnthought Gray was up to mischief.
n
n
n
 |
| Plans of the Houses in West Port |
n
n
n
nFisher, a superintendent and a police surgeonnreturned to Burke’s den later in the evening and found more blood in the strawnand a bedgown apparently belonging to the missing Docherty. On the Sundaynmorning, Fisher went to Knox’s premises at Surgeon’s Square and discovered thenbody in the tea chest; Gray was fetched and identified it as that of Mary Docherty,nso Fisher immediately had the Hares taken into police custody and placed innseparate cells. Two police surgeons and an independent witness examinednDocherty’s body and found that she had died by violent means. The initialnstatements of Burke and McDougal contained enough inconsistencies asnto warrant further investigation.
n
n
n
 |
| William Burke |
n
n
n
nBurke was re-examined by Sheriff Tate onnNovember 10th and gave a different account of what had occurred,nsaying that Mrs Docherty had indeed been invited, to read some fortunes, and itnbeing Hallowe’en had stayed for a drink but after he and Hare had startednfighting she disappeared only to be found hiding in the straw pile by the bed.nShe had something like vomit coming from her mouth and was dead, so he and Harenthought to get rid of the body by taking it to Dr Knox’s school, and thenstiffening body had had to be forced into the tea chest, causing a bit ofndamage to it. Helen McDougal was also re-examined on the same day,nbut this time she said Docherty had been invited round but started demandingntea be made, asking for salt, and other requests to the extent that she wasnsuch a nuisance as to be throw out by the shoulders.
n
n
n
n
n
 |
| Edinburgh Sheriff Court House |
n
n
n
nThe Lord Advocate wasnworried that the evidence was insufficient to make the case stick in court, andnthought the Gray’s evidence was at best circumstantial, and other courtnofficials feared that there could be a serious miscarriage of justice. Thingsnchanged when Hare, ever wily and cunning, offered to turn King’s Evidence, andnprovide all the information in return for freedom from prosecution for his wifenand himself. The Edinburgh Evening Courant of December 6thnreported that William Burke and his ‘wife’ (as she was called) were going tonstand trial for the murders of Mary Docherty (also called Campbell), Daft JamienWilson and Mary Paterson. Two days later a citation was issued, requiring Burkenand McDougal to appear before the High Court of Justiciary innEdinburgh at ten o’clock in the morning of December 24th 1828.
n
n
n
 |
| Helen McDougal |
n
n
n
nMassed crowds of interested citizens gathered early in the morning in order tonwitness the trials, so many that three hundred police reinforcements werencalled in, and Burke and McDougal were moved from the city tollboothnto the cells below the High Court in Parliament Square. The doors of the courtroomnwere opened at nine o’clock and it was immediately filled to capacity. Fortynminutes later, Burke and McDougal were brought up from the cells andnplaced in the dock, and at ten minutes past ten the four judges took theirnseats.
n
n
n
 |
| Edinburgh – High Court – Parliament Square |
n
n
n
nThe Crown and the defence were represented by the best men at thenScottish bar, and soon long and learned legal arguments were entered into.nThere were doubts about precedence, possible errors in the libels and problemsnwith prejudice, but after sifting through the case law and whatever else it isnthat consumes so much of the time of lawyers, a plea of Not Guilty was enterednfor both prisoners and a jury of fifteen (as required in Scotland) was swornnin. The murder of Mary Docherty was examined first, with neighbours and friendsncalled as witnesses, identifying her, her clothing and her whereabouts prior tonher disappearance. The shop boy from Rymer’s remembered her and Burke together,nand that Burke had returned later to buy a tea chest very like the one found atnDr Knox’s cellar. Mrs Connoway, a neighbour, had seen Docherty at Burke’s housenand been present when the drinking and dancing had started, recalling that thenold woman had hurt her feet while dancing. Mrs Law, another neighbour,nremembered the noise of ‘shuffling or fighting’. All this was interestingnenough, but then David Paterson, Knox’s porter, took the stand.
n
n
n
nHe had, hensaid, gone to house of Burke at Hallowe’en and seen Burke and Hare and theirnwives there, and was shown a place where there would be a ‘subject’ ready fornhim. He had taken possession of a body in a chest, paid an instalment andnpromised the remainder at a later time. He often bought the bodies of thenunclaimed poor, he said, and had thought Burke and Hare to be agents acting onnbehalf of others in this trade. That such a trade went on in Edinburgh came asna surprise to many of the Scottish public, but another class of persons wasnvery familiar with it.
n
n
n
 |
| William Hare |
n
n
n
n Then the informer William Hare was sworn in, causing ansensation in court, and was reminded that if he answered truthfully and fullynhe would be immune to future prosecutions, but if he lied or prevaricated nonsuch immunity would be offered. In answer to the Lord Advocate, Hare said henhad met Burke on October 31st and taken a gill with him. Burke hadntold him about an old woman who he thought would be a good ‘shot’ for thendoctors, by which he took him to mean he intended to murder her. He told hownthe woman had fallen over a stool and how Burke had sat astride her, one handnunder her nose and the other under her chin, and had pressed down on her headnwith his breast for about ten or fifteen minutes, until she was dead. Hare hadnsat on a chair and watched, he said. Burke stripped the body, doubled it up andntied the feet to the head.
n
n
n
 |
| Burke sat on a chair and watched |
n
n
n
nThere was then some legal disputation and Hare wasnremoved from the court for a while. On his return, he was reminded that he neednnot answer certain questions if those answers might incriminate him, and henrefused to reply to questions about any other murders. Mrs Hare was callednnext, causing even more of a sensation when she arrived carrying an infant,nwhich was suffering from whooping cough, its ‘kinks’ interrupting proceedingsnand happening at very opportune moments when ‘awkward’ questions were put tonthe mother. But when she was asked about what she thought had happened tonDocherty when she was out of the room, she said she thought that she had beennmurdered, adding that, ‘I have seen such tricks before.’ The prosecutionndid not pick up on this hint at the time, and there followed medical evidence,nwhich confirmed that Docherty had died from strangulation or suffocation andnnot from alcohol poisoning.
n
n
n
 |
| Mrs Hare and Child |
n
n
n
nThe Lord Advocate then addressed the jury,nbeginning by saying,
n
n
n
n“This is one of the most extra-ordinary and novelnsubjects of trial that has ever been brought before this or any other court,nand has created in the public mind the greatest anxiety and alarm. I am notnsurprised at this excitement, because the offences charged are of so atrociousna description, that human nature shudders and revolts at it; and the beliefnthat such crimes as are here charged have been committed among us, even in ansingle instance, is calculated to produce terror and dismay. This excitementnnaturally arises from the detestation of the assassins’ deeds, and fromnveneration of the ashes of the dead.”n
n
n
nThe Dean of Faculty made a more laboured speech, andnMr Henry Cockburn, counsel for McDougal, confined his summarynlargely to the behaviour of William Hare, who had sat idly by for over tennminutes and watched the murder, without intervention or alarm, and thentestimony of Mrs Hare, who had ‘seen such tricks before’, and hadnstooped to bringing her own sick child into the courtroom,
n
n
n
n“… till at length the infant was plainly used merelynas an instrument of delaying or evading whatever question it was inconvenientnfor her to answer.”n
n
n
nThenLord Justice-Clerk finally summed up, giving guidance to the jurors, who thennretired to consider their verdicts at half past eight on the morning ofnChristmas Day.
n
n
n
nTomorrow, the Verdict …
