The Anatomy Murders, Lisa Rosner
The Anatomy Murders, Lisa Rosner
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The Anatomy Murders
Being the True and Spectacular History of Edinburgh's Notorious Burke and Hare and of the Man of Science Who Abetted Them in the Commission of Their Most Heinous Crimes

Author: Lisa Rosner

Narrator: Kirsten Potter

Unabridged: 12 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/08/2022

Synopsis

On Halloween night 1828, in the West Port district of Edinburgh, Scotland, a woman sometimes known as Madgy Docherty was last seen in the company of William Burke and William Hare. Days later, police discovered her remains in the surgery of the prominent anatomist Dr. Robert Knox. Docherty was the final victim of the most atrocious murder spree of the century, outflanking even Jack the Ripper's. Together with their accomplices, Burke and Hare would be accused of killing sixteen people over the course of twelve months in order to sell the corpses as "subjects" for dissection. The ensuing criminal investigation into the "Anatomy Murders" raised troubling questions about the common practices by which medical men obtained cadavers, the lives of the poor in Edinburgh's back alleys, and the ability of the police to protect the public from cold-blooded murder.

Famous among true crime aficionados, Burke and Hare were the first serial killers to capture media attention, yet The Anatomy Murders is the first book to situate their story against the social and cultural forces that were bringing early nineteenth-century Britain into modernity. In Lisa Rosner's deft treatment, each of the murder victims, from the beautiful, doomed Mary Paterson to the unfortunate "Daft Jamie," opens a window on a different aspect of this world in transition.

About Lisa Rosner

Lisa Rosner is distinguished professor of history at Stockton University and the author of The Anatomy Murders and Vaccination and Its Critics.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Chrissie on July 02, 2024

This is an in depth account of the crimes of Burke and Hare, the surgeon who abetted them, and more. Burke and Hare are notorious in the 19th Century for being grave robbers, or "resurrectionists" as they were called at the time. Unfortunately, they decided it was quicker to speed things up, and cut......more

Goodreads review by Katherine on September 13, 2017

[library] Up the close & down the stair / But & ben wi' Burke & Hare / Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief / And Knox the boy that buys the beef. --Anonymous doggerel Like anyone who's interested in criminological historiography (such a mouthful, but it means what I want to mean), I am fascinated by......more

Goodreads review by Devon on March 20, 2021

An engaging and in-depth analysis of the famous Burke and Hare murders that highlights the cultural, social, economic, political, and medical context that allowed for a flourishing illegal body trade via grave robbing, for a high demand for cadavers for anatomical study, and for Burke and Hare to ta......more

Goodreads review by Christie on March 30, 2018

This book sounded interesting to me since I enjoy True Crime and medical history. I had come across Burke and Hare in a few books that I had read, but never knew a great deal about their crimes or what happened to them after the crimes were discovered. This book was a great mix of true crime, medica......more

Goodreads review by Stephanie on October 22, 2019

There were multiple chapters in this that were clearly there to provide "context" but were in reality totally unnecessary. They only barely connected to the book by a questionable loop back to Burke and Hare in the last sentence of the chapter.......more

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