In the cold white winter of 1824 Sunderland heard the shouts of two men
selling their hot food, one short and stocky called William Burke the
other tall and slim named William Hare. The two men originally from
Ireland became well know body snatches who earned large sums of money
and spread terror across England and Scotland in the 19th century by
robbing graves. It has been said that Burke learnt his gruesome trade
while the pair were living in Sunderland and labouring on the
construction of a new pier at south dock.
Sunderland Church later to be known as Holy Trinity Church was a
particularly easy target for grave robbers, as it had nothing
surrounding it but sea and open land. As the night wore on and the mist
rolled in it provided the perfect cover for these notorious thieves as
they made off with the bodies. A decline in business in 1828 is said to
be the reason why Burke and Hare moved from Sunderland to Edinburgh. The
pair moved into lodgings where shortly afterwards one of the other
lodgers died, Burke and Hare sold the body to some surgeons who were
paying very good money for fresh bodies so they could learn their own
trade. This gave the gruesome twosome their next deadly idea.
They would get people drunk take them back to their lodgings and the
suffocate them, and while their bodies were still warm sell them to the
surgeons for a large some of money. They had murdered 16 people before
the police caught them and to save himself Hare turned King's evidence.
Burke on the other hand in front of a large crowd was hanged on 28th
January 1829. Although Burke and Hare had left Sunderland the grave
robbing continued but that's another story.
