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

Chapter Eleven: All That Remains

Chapter 11 All That Remains Robert Knox The final cadaver was not dissected, but instead was buried on December 29, 1862, intact, in Brookwood Cemetery, in Surrey, England. In life it had belonged to Robert Knox, anatomist and public lecturer, most recently pathological anatomist to the Cancer Hospital at Brompton, London. It is an irony of nineteenth-century medical history that few anatomical lecturers chose to donate their own bodies to science, and though Knox had cited lack of cadavers as one of the “obstacles which impede the progress of anatomy in Great Britain” he chose a churchyard over the dissecting table for his own remains. He had been complaining, Henry Lonsdale said, “of the enfeebled action of the heart, and his inability to ascend a staircase,” and he came home from the hospital on the evening of December 9 “tired and exhausted.” Shortly after he went to bed “the noise of laboured breathing was heard proceeding from his room,” and he was found “apopleptic,” that is, suffering from some form of stroke. He never again regained consciousness, and he died on December 20, 1862. His wife, five of his six children, and his sister Mary had all predeceased him, leaving his son Edward, who lived with him, the only family member to attend his funeral. He had often spoken “of the heather and wild flowers blooming in great beauty” in Brookwood, and he was interred , as he had wished, “in some spot where the sun might shine longest on the green sod above his grave.” 246 Chapter 11 There is no question that the Burke and Hare murders ruined the career Knox had envisioned, branding him with a notoriety he could never escape. “Through the close and up the stair,” ran a popular song, But and ben wi’ Burke and Hare. Burke’s the butcher, Hare’s the thief, And Knox the boy who buys the beef. David Paterson was a key witness in the trial, and his evidence focused much unwelcome attention on Knox’s dissecting room practices. It was made abundantly clear that Burke had had an established relationship with Paterson and with Knox, for he called at Paterson’s house after midnight on October 31 to say “he had procured something for the doctor.” Paterson had seen Burke the next day, speaking to Dr. Knox, and Paterson “got orders from Dr. Knox if they brought any package, I was to take it from them.” When they brought the “package”—now known to be the murdered Madgy Docherty—Paterson had “previous orders to divide the money and give each a share.” Burke and Hare had been told to call back on Monday, after Knox had had a chance to examine the cadaver and decide what it was worth. “Did they frequently bring subjects that had not been interred?” defense counsel asked Paterson. “Frequently, my Lord,” responded Paterson. “I suppose they had not been interred.” The image of Knox, coolly examining the body of a murdered woman to judge its price, was captured in a widely reprinted set of caricatures by the lithographer R. H. Nimmo. One shows Knox in front of his lecture hall, examining a pig’s carcass, with the caption “The Lecturer, not quite pleased with his subject” and a quote from a cook book, “If you can get them when just killed, this is of great advantage.” The result of these disclosures, as the Caledonian Mercury put it, was that “the present impression on the minds of the People is that one gentleman stands in the same relation to Burke, that the murderers of Banquo did to Macbeth.”This slightly confused analogy equating Knox with Macbeth was printed as the caption for another of Nimmo’s caricatures. Still another made an even more graphic analogy between Knox and Richard III, indicating that Knox had commissioned the murders. Knox is depicted in his anatomical museum, holding a mask to his face and speaking to a ragged, barefoot Hare.There is a cranium on a table behind them and a set All That Remains 247 of tea chests off to the right. The dialogue is taken from Richard’s query to his page, concerning a man to carry out the murder of the princes: “Know’st thou not any, whom corrupting Gold Would tempt unto a close exploit of death?” “I know a discontented Irishman, Whose humble means match not his haughty mind. Gold...