Mortsafes: After The Anatomy Act
On 1 August 1832, Britain passed the Anatomy Act in an attempt to address the shortage of bodies available…
On 1 August 1832, Britain passed the Anatomy Act in an attempt to address the shortage of bodies available…
Body snatching prevention doesn’t come more sturdy than a mortsafe. Iron cages placed over graves to protect your loved ones from the resurrection men.
Burke & Hare’s last victim was Margaret Docherty, an old woman from Ireland who was in Edinburgh helplessly looking for her son, Michael when she met William Burke.
Burking is the murder method used by Edinburgh murderers Burke and Hare. It’s a term used to describe suffocation and was widely used by the press in the 19th century to describe all manner of attempted assaults.
Someone once said to me ” a season for body snatching, who knew”, and I agree, not many do,…
Before the demand from anatomy schools for fresh cadavers grew to such an extent that body snatching became a…
Body snatching in and around Aberdeen was rife at the beginning of the 19th century and anatomy students targeting…
If you’re interested in the macabre story of the now infamous murderers Burke and Hare, you’ll know that William Burke…
Being a body snatcher came with a few fundamental rules. It wasn’t just about digging up a cadaver and…
Long before Burke and Hare had perfected the subtle art of Burking, two women from Edinburgh were doing just…
How and when did a body snatcher know that a cadaver for available for the taking? Covering the more usual methods of procurement, this post sheds some light on how body snatchers found their latest ‘subjects’.
The penalties for stealing a dead body in Britain in the mid-1800s varied dramatically.
Find out about the Top 5 punishments issued in Britain during the 1800s – ranging from imprisonment to full-blown transportation.
Notwithstanding an already arduous journey; one that involved jostling, the consistent rumbling of wheels, and the potential threat of…
I am delighted to welcome the wonderful ladies from All Things Georgian as my first guest bloggers. When I…
Someone had to supply cadavers to the anatomy schools of Edinburgh beofre Burke and Hare came on the scene. It’s time to meet Edinburgh’s real body snatchers
Come across an iron cage in the middle of a churchyard and you’d be forgiven for wondering what it…
By the early 1800s, professional resurrection men or body snatchers were starting to appear within our parishes. People were…
To say that the poorer members of Georgian society were at a disadvantage when it came to protecting their…
The sad tale of Hannah Heesom who was snatched from her grave on New Year’s Eve 1828.
Cholera, a watch house and a shipping tragedy known to the locals as ‘Black Friday’ – Read the sad history of Eyemouth , a small fishing town in the Borders