Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
18th out of 58 books
—
27 voters
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
by
Lisa Rosner
"Up the close and down the stair,
Up and down with Burke and Hare.
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief,
Knox the man who buys the beef."
--anonymous children's songOn 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...more
Up and down with Burke and Hare.
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief,
Knox the man who buys the beef."
--anonymous children's songOn 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...more
Hardcover, 328 pages
Published
October 6th 2009
by University of Pennsylvania Press
(first published 2009)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
188)
Rather than a titillating true-crime thriller about the crimes committed by Edinburgh bodysnatchers Burke and Hare, this book presents an examination of the murders from a socioeconomic perspective. The deaths are presented briefly in the beginning of each chapter, and the subsequent pages are devoted to explaining the socioeconomic aspects that led to a)Burke and Hare committing the crimes, b)the victims being reported missing or not depending on how friendless they were, and c)why the anatomis...more
This is a thoughtful and thorough examination of the murderers Burke and Hare, their relationship with the anatomist Knox, and the Edinburgh in which they lived. It is well-written and clearly well researched.
I was a little confused by the citation system used by the author: there are not footnotes or endnotes indicated in the text itself, instead the notes at the end are preceded by a page number and the beginning of the sentence. This may make the text more accessible to the non-scholarly read...more
I was a little confused by the citation system used by the author: there are not footnotes or endnotes indicated in the text itself, instead the notes at the end are preceded by a page number and the beginning of the sentence. This may make the text more accessible to the non-scholarly read...more
A fascinating snapshot of a time in history when a person was literally worth more dead than alive. This book provides an in-depth look at early anatomical research, forensics, and politics at the same time that it provides all of the details of one of the most notorious criminal teams in world history.
It was a little to dense to enjoy as a story. The coverage of Burke & Hare seemed quite secondary or minor and was used as a jumping off to discuss resurrectionists, medical history and Scottish/UK criminal justice history as a whole. Burke & Hare were lost in all the facts and details. I feel its necessary for me to pick up a different book to get a good view of this tale.
In 1828 Edinburgh, Burke and Hare determined to profit from the rivalry between the University and freelance anatomy lecturers to sell cadavers...and under Scottish law, it was illegal only to dig one up, not to just run across them. And if you get the transient residents of your boarding house drunk and kneel on their chests, you "discover" a nearly inexhaustible supply!
Dissection (tee-hee) of the crimes of the notorious Burke and Hare. I know I don't need to explain who they are. This puts the murders in the social history context and tells us about the infamous duo, the medical professionals and the victims. I found it mostly interesting but it did drag in parts
A little tedious but some intersting look at this crime.
May 15, 2013
Quite Reader
marked it as to-read
May 12, 2013
Cathy
marked it as to-read
May 09, 2013
Annette Alexander
marked it as to-read
May 07, 2013
Nita
marked it as to-read
May 07, 2013
Halimah
marked it as to-read
May 01, 2013
Steve Foster
added it
Apr 25, 2013
Zack Reagin
marked it as to-read
Apr 20, 2013
Julia
marked it as to-read
Apr 16, 2013
Anjanette
marked it as to-read
Apr 12, 2013
Sravanti Balaga
marked it as to-read
Mar 26, 2013
Chelsea DeAngio
marked it as to-read
Mar 23, 2013
NeonGladiators
marked it as to-read
Mar 20, 2013
Amanda Sailors
marked it as to-read
Mar 18, 2013
Ford
marked it as to-read
Mar 04, 2013
Catherine Ambrose
marked it as to-read
Feb 28, 2013
Emanuela Mateas
marked it as to-read
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
