William Burke (serial killer)
William Burke (* 1792 in Urney ( Strabane ) in County Tyrone , Ireland ; † January 28, 1829 in Edinburgh , Great Britain ) was a British serial killer who, together with William Hare, killed 16 people in Edinburgh in 1827 and 1828 in order to get them as Selling anatomical corpses.
biography
→ Main article: West Port murders
After working in various professions, Burke left his wife and two children in Ireland around 1817 and moved to Scotland to work as a navigator on the Union Canal . He took a mistress named Helen MacDougal and, in turn, changed professions frequently. Among other things, he worked as a weaver, baker and most recently as a cobbler. In 1827 he stayed in a cheap boarding house run by William Hare and Margaret "Maggie" Laird.
Based on Hare's testimony, Burke was found guilty, hanged to death , and publicly executed on January 28, 1829 . Subsequently, his body was by Alexander Monro III. Dissected in the anatomical room of Edinburgh University . Burke's actions inspired the gunsmith Clemishaw to invent the Clemishaw anti-corpse deterrent device . His death mask is kept in the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh , as is a wallet supposedly made from his skin. A notebook, the cover of which is said to be made from the same material, is kept by the Edinburgh police. His skeleton is now in the Edinburgh University Museum.
The term “ burking ” for Burke's method of killing found its way into the English language and has also become a technical term in German forensic medicine .
reception
In 2010, director John Landis filmed the story under the title Burke & Hare . Actor Simon Pegg took on the role of William Burke .
literature
- G. Macgregor: History of Burke and Hare and of the Resurrectionist Times. 1884.
- H. Douglas: Burke and Hare. 1973, ISBN 0-7091-3777-X .
- OD Edwards: Burke and Hare. 1993, ISBN 1-873644-25-6 .
- B. Bailey: Burke and Hare: The Year of the Ghouls. 2002, ISBN 1-84018-575-9 .
German-language literature
- Hans Pfeiffer : Der Zwang zur Serie - Serial Murderers without a Mask , Militzke Verlag, OA (1996), ISBN 3-86189-729-6 , pp. 16–36 ( online (pp. 7ff.)) , Accessed on May 30, 2014
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ So according to en: William Burke . The encyclopedia of serial killers calls the year 1818.
- ↑ http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/burkehare.aspx
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Burke, William |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British serial killer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1792 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Strabane , County Tyrone |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 28, 1829 |
| Place of death | Edinburgh |