Burke and Hare Page 11

  ‘Yes; and I went and gave information at the police-office.’

  The porter, McCulloch, told how he had collected a box from Burke’s and taken it to 10 Surgeons’ Square. Cautious about implicating himself in a crime, he reluctantly admitted that he knew there was a dead body in it.

  ‘Did you see him put nothing in the box?’

  ‘The sheet.’

  ‘Did he take anything like the person of a human body?’

  ‘Yes; I think it was something like the person of a body.’

  Lord Meadowbank interrupted, ‘You have no doubt that it was a body, in short?’

  ‘No, my Lord.’

  McCulloch was followed by Sergeant Fisher, who described his part in the arrest and investigation. After explaining that he had gone to Burke’s house at Gray’s request, and found no body there, but had met Burke and McDougal coming upstairs, and had asked them to go back inside with him, he replied to Mr Alison’s question as to what had happened then.

  ‘I asked Burke what had become of his lodgers, and he said, that there was one of them, pointing to Gray; and that he had turned out him and his wife for their bad conduct.’

  ‘What took place then?’

  ‘I then asked them what had become of the little woman that had been there on the Friday, the day before; and he said that she was away; and I asked, when did she leave the house, and he said, about seven o’clock in the morning.’

  ‘Did he say anything about any other person being present when she went away?’

  ‘He said William Hare saw her go away. Then I asked, was there any other person saw her go away; and he said, in an insolent tone of voice, there were a number more. I then looked round the house to see if I could see any marks on the bed, and I saw the marks of blood on a number of things there; and I asked Mrs Burke, the pannel at the bar, how they came there; and she said that a woman had lain in there, about a fortnight before that time, and the bed had not been washed since.’

  ‘Well, what more?’

  ‘She said, as to the woman, she could find her; she knew her perfectly well, and that she lived in the Pleasance. She alluded to the little woman, that I had asked where she was; and she said, the woman can be found; she lives in the Pleasance; and she said she had seen her that night in the Vennel, and that she had apologised to her for her bad conduct the night previous. I asked her then what time the woman had left the house; and she said, seven o’clock at night. When I found them to vary, I thought the best way was to take them to the Police Office; and I told them that it was all personal spite, but that I must take them to the office, as I was sent down.’

  Fisher testified that he had heard them examined by the Superintendent, and that he went back to the house that night with the Superintendent and Dr Black, and found there a striped nightgown which they took away.

  ‘Did you find any blood?’

  ‘There was a quantity of blood amongst the straw under the bed.’

  ‘Did it appear to have recently come there?’

  ‘Yes, it appeared quite fresh.’

  ‘Now, next morning, did you go to Dr Knox’s premises in Surgeons’ Square?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Was there a person of the name of Paterson with you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did you get anything?’

  ‘Yes; we went down to the cellar, and he said “Here is the box, I do not know what is in it,” and we opened it, and found the body of a woman in it.’

  The Lord Justice-Clerk asked if the body was quite naked.

  ‘Quite naked,’ Fisher answered, and then explained, in reply to Mr Alison’s questions, how Gray had been sent for and identified the body before it was removed to the police office. The Lord Advocate asked Fisher if the body was shown to the prisoners.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What took place then?’

  ‘They all denied it.’

  ‘Denied what?’

  ‘Denied all knowledge of the body.’

  The Lord Justice-Clerk interrupted to ask if they denied ever having seen it at all.

  ‘Of ever having seen it,’ Fisher replied, ‘dead or alive.’

  In cross-examination, the Dean of Faculty asked Fisher if Hare denied all knowledge of it.

  ‘Yes; he said he never saw it, dead or alive.’

  ‘His wife the same, I suppose?’ said Mr Cockburn.

  ‘Yes.’

  Burke and McDougal had sat calmly and attentively throughout the proceedings thus far, sipping water and occasionally exchanging a word or two. Around four o’clock in the afternoon, Burke asked when they would be given dinner, and was told they must wait until six. When this hour came, they were given bread and soup and had to consume it in the dock while the trial continued.

  Outside, as darkness fell, large numbers of people hung around in the streets waiting for news, while inside the courtroom there was much excitement and anticipation as Sir William Rae called his star witness, William Hare. Every spectator seems to have been struck by this man’s loathsome appearance as the artificial light emphasised his hollow cheeks and sunken eyes. He stepped up to the witness box with a sinister smile on his face and took the oath.

  Lord Meadowbank addressed him first. If Hare spoke the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the transaction now under investigation, he could never afterwards be questioned in a court of justice. His Lordship meant, of course, about these particular matters, but did not say so. If Hare should deviate from the truth, however, or prevaricate in the slightest degree, the inevitable result would be the most ‘condign punishment’ that could be inflicted. It is open to question whether Hare understood ‘condign’. It may have crossed some minds that he was being threatened with the death penalty for contempt of court. Lord Boyle reminded him that he was here only in connection with the death of an elderly woman named Campbell or McGonegal.

  ‘T’ould woman, sir?’ Hare asked, and this was confirmed.

  Hare told the Court, in answer to Sir William Rae’s questions, that he was an Irish Catholic, had been in Scotland ten years and had known Burke about twelve months. He had seen Burke in Rymer’s on the morning of 31 October and Burke had told him that there was an old woman in his house he had got off the street and ‘he thought she would be a good shot to take to the doctors’.

  ‘What,’ asked the Lord Advocate, ‘did you understand by the word “shot” for the doctors; did you understand the meaning of it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What was it?’

  ‘That he was going to murder her.’

  After describing the drinking and merry-making of the evening, which led to a fight between himself and Burke, Hare was asked where the old person was at this time.

  ‘She was sitting at the fire, and she got up and desired Burke to sit down, and she said that she did not want to see Burke abused.’

  ‘Did she run out?’

  ‘Yes, she ran out twice to the entry, and cried out for the police.’

  ‘She went out twice to the passage?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What did she call out?’

  ‘It was either murder or police, I could not say which, but it was some of them.’

  ‘Well, how was she brought back again?’

  ‘It was Nelly McDougal that fetched her back.’

  ‘Both times?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did she then get any push, or fall over on the ground?’

  ‘Yes, she did; when we were struggling, I pushed her over a little stool.’

  ‘And you continued to struggle while she lay there?’

  ‘Yes; she raised herself on her elbow – she was not able to rise, being drunk – and called on Burke to be quiet.’

  Sir William asked Hare what Burke did after they had stopped fighting.

  ‘He stood on the floor; he then got stride-legs on the top of the woman on the floor, and she cried out a little, and he kept in her breath.’

  ‘Did he lay hims
elf down upon her?’

  ‘Yes, he pressed down her head with his breast.’

  ‘She gave a kind of cry, did she?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did she give that more than once?’

  ‘She moaned a little after the first cry.’

  ‘How did he apply his hand towards her?’

  ‘He put one hand under the nose, and the other under her chin, under her mouth.’

  ‘He stopped her breath, do you mean?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did he continue this for any length of time?’

  ‘I could not exactly say the time – ten or fifteen minutes.’

  ‘Did he say anything to you when this was going on?’

  ‘No, he said nothing.’

  ‘Did he then come off her?’

  ‘Yes, he got up off her.’

  ‘Did she appear dead then?’

  ‘Yes, she appeared dead a wee.’

  ‘Did she appear to be quite dead?’

  ‘She was not moving; I could not say whether she was dead or not.’

  ‘What did he do then?’

  ‘He put his hand across her mouth.’

  ‘Did he keep it there for any length of time?’

  ‘He kept it two or three minutes.’

  ‘Did she appear to be quite dead at that time?’

  ‘She was not moving.’

  ‘What was you doing all this time?’

  ‘I was sitting on the chair.’

  Hare said that Burke had stripped the body, doubled it up at the foot of the bed, tying the head to the feet, and covered it with a sheet and straw. Mrs Hare and McDougal had run out into the passage when they heard the first screech. Neither of them had attempted to save the woman. When Burke had covered the body, they had come in again and gone back to bed. Burke left, and in ten minutes came back with Mr Jones.

  ‘Was it not Mr Paterson?’

  ‘It was the doctor’s man.’

  After Hare had answered questions about the porter coming to collect the box and all of them going to Surgeons’ Square and Newington before being paid the £5, Henry Cockburn rose to cross-examine him:

  ‘Mr Hare, how long did you say you have been in Edinburgh?’

  ‘About ten years.’

  ‘What have you been employed at during all that time?’

  ‘Boatman and labourer.’

  ‘You have not been boatman all that time?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘On the canal.’

  ‘Have you been employed in any other way?’

  ‘I had a horse and cart, selling fish.’

  ‘Any other way?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Have you been engaged in supplying bodies to the doctors?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Have you been concerned in supplying the doctors with subjects upon other occasions than that you have mentioned?’

  ‘No – than what I have mentioned.’

  The Lord Advocate rose and objected to this line of questioning. Hare was removed from the court while Mr Cockburn attempted to justify his plot to discredit the witness. He said that he intended to ask Hare not only if he had supplied the doctors on other occasions, but if he had ever been concerned in murders besides this one.

  Lord Meadowbank incautiously declared that the question should not be put before Mr Cockburn had explained why he wished to put it, and Cockburn then launched into an eloquent defence of his line of questioning, saying that he maintained his right to test the credit of the witness ‘on as firm grounds as ever man maintained any proposition’. The witness may be privileged not to answer, he said, but that was no reason not to put the question, because he may choose to answer, and he may answer falsely and thus be contradicted. ‘This is so plain, that the idea of protecting a villainous witness, by not letting any question about his own iniquities be even put to him, humbly appears to us to be absolutely monstrous; and I know no authority for it in the law of Scotland.’ After arguing the point a little further, Mr Cockburn concluded, ‘We are so confident in our opinion of the legality of the question, that we wish it to be put on the record, in order that, if it be rejected, we may find our remedy where we can.’

  Mr Archibald Alison, for the Crown, said that the law of Scotland was different from the law of England in this respect, and quoted venerable authorities for the principle that ‘no one is to be rendered infamous or disgraced by his own testimony’, even though it may aid the defendant.

  The Dean of Faculty supported Mr Cockburn’s arguments and added that the intention was not to disqualify the witness but merely to test his credibility. The witness could answer the question affirmatively, in which case the fact would speak for itself. He could answer in the negative, which would be lying on oath, or he could refuse to answer at all, in which case the jury would draw their own conclusions.

  Lord Meadowbank, excusing himself for his premature judgement, said that his opinion had been confirmed rather than changed by what he had heard. ‘I, for one,’ he said, ‘must throw the law of England altogether out of the question. It is, I believe, in matters of this kind, diametrically opposed to ours.’ But he did not believe Scottish law to be inferior or less effectual for the administration of justice. ‘The object of our law has always been to get at the truth, and I suspect that it is best to be obtained by preventing witnesses being harassed in the way that would result from such questions as the present being held to be admissible.’ He still did not think the question should be put. Lord Mackenzie disagreed, and thought the question could be put so long as the witness was warned that he had no protection in law if he should incriminate himself in matters other than the one being tried, and that he could decline to answer the question if he wished.

  The Lord Justice-Clerk ruled that the question could be put, and after a few more brief exchanges, Hare was recalled and asked by Mr Cockburn if he had assisted in taking the body of the old woman to Surgeons’ Square. Hare answered ‘Yes.’

  ‘Were you ever concerned in carrying any other body to any surgeon?’

  ‘I never was concerned about any but the one that I mentioned.’

  The Lord Justice-Clerk then warned Hare that he was not bound to answer questions which might incriminate himself, for if he did, he was not under the Court’s protection. ‘If you have been concerned in raising dead bodies, it is illegal; and you are not bound to answer that question.’

  Mr Cockburn resumed by asking Hare how often he had seen bodies being taken to the doctors. Hare hesitated.

  ‘Do you decline answering that question?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Now, sir, I am going to ask this question, which you need not answer unless you please, was this of the old woman, the first murder that you have been concerned in?’

  Hare paused again.

  ‘Do you choose to answer or not to answer?’

  ‘Not to answer.’

  ‘I am going to ask another question, which you need not answer unless you like, was there murder committed in your house in the last October? Do you choose to answer that or not?’

  ‘Not answer that.’

  Hare proved to be a man of few words, especially for an Irishman. He confirmed that he understood by Burke’s phrase ‘a shot for the doctors’ that he meant to murder the old woman, but had no idea he was going to do it that night until he saw Burke fall on her after he and Burke had been fighting. He refused to answer questions about previous transactions with Knox, and denied that he had ever received any money from the doctor, though Burke might have given him some. It was Burke, not Paterson, he said, who gave him a share of the £5 paid for the old woman’s body.

  ‘Now, sir,’ Mr Cockburn continued, ‘when Burke was on top of this person, destroying her, where were you?’

  ‘I was sitting on the chair in the same room.’

  ‘How long was he dealing with her?’

  ‘I could not say how long.’

  ‘How long?’
/>
  ‘About ten minutes.’

  ‘And did you sit in the chair?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And did you sit ten minutes on that chair without stirring one hand to help her?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Hare said that the two women went out into the passage while the murder was taking place, but he saw it all happen.

  ‘You did not call murder or police?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Not a word?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Did you go to the police next day and give information?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘You did not do that, but you took the body to Surgeons’ Square?’

  ‘The porter did.’

  ‘You followed him?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And you took money for it?’

  ‘Part.’

  ‘And next day, in the police office, you denied that you knew anything about it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Hare vacated the witness box to make way for his wife, who appeared clutching her child, which had whooping cough. She used the wretched child’s attacks to give herself time to think about what she was saying, or recall what her husband had told her to say, for she had, as she told the court twice, ‘a very bad memory’. She said little more than to confirm what Hare had already said, in a voice that was sometimes difficult to hear above her child’s paroxysms of heaving coughs. After establishing her version of the time, place and those present on the night in question, the Lord Advocate asked her if there had been a quarrel between Burke and her husband. She said there had, and she had tried to stop it. The old woman had cried out ‘murder’ and then fallen on the ground when she was pushed.

  ‘Now, what more did you see?’

  ‘I saw Burke lying on the top of her, whether on her mouth or on her breast I could not say.’

  ‘Did she make a noise?’

  ‘I could not say; for Mrs McDougal and me flew out of the house, and did not stop in it.’

  When she came back, after perhaps a quarter of an hour, she did not see the old woman, and went to bed.

  ‘Seeing nothing of her, what did you suppose?’

  ‘I had a supposition that she had been murdered. I have seen such tricks before.’ Surprisingly, no one in court pounced on this last remark.

  The witness said McDougal had told her earlier that day that there was a ‘shot’ in the house, a woman Burke had brought in from some shop. Laird admitted that she had fetched a box from Rymer’s at Burke’s request, but he had told her he wanted it for old shoes.