London Burkers

London Burkers were a notorious group of body snatchers active in London during the early 19th century. Their name derives from their association with the infamous Burke and Hare murders in Edinburgh, Scotland, where victims were murdered and their bodies sold to medical schools for dissection. Unlike their Scottish counterparts, who killed to supply cadavers, the London Burkers primarily exhumed bodies from graves. However, they were implicated in several murders for the purpose of selling the bodies for anatomical research, blurring the lines between body snatching and outright murder.

Background

During the 19th century, the demand for cadavers in medical research and education significantly exceeded the legal supply, which was limited to the bodies of executed criminals. This discrepancy led to the rise of body snatching, a lucrative but illegal trade. The Anatomy Act 1832 was later introduced to address this issue by allowing unclaimed bodies and those donated by the deceased or their families to be used for medical research, effectively reducing the demand for illicitly obtained corpses.

The London Burkers

The most infamous members of the London Burkers were John Bishop, Thomas Williams, and James May. They operated primarily in the area around Bethnal Green, a district in the East End of London. The group was linked to several murders, most notably that of a 14-year-old boy named Carlo Ferrari, whom they drugged, murdered, and sold to the King's College School of Anatomy in November 1831.

Their method of operation often involved plying victims with alcohol or laudanum before suffocation or strangulation, thereby leaving the body without marks of violence and more valuable to anatomists. This method of murder was chillingly similar to that employed by Burke and Hare, leading to the moniker "London Burkers" for Bishop, Williams, and May.

Capture and Trial

The London Burkers' activities came to an end in December 1831 when suspicions about the source of a body they sold led to their arrest and trial. Bishop and Williams were found guilty of murder and were executed, while May was acquitted. The trial and subsequent executions were widely publicized, contributing to public outrage and debate about body snatching and the need for legal reform in the supply of cadavers for medical research.

Legacy

The activities of the London Burkers and the public reaction to their crimes played a significant role in the passage of the Anatomy Act 1832. This act helped to curb the practice of body snatching by providing a legitimate supply of cadavers to medical schools and contributed to the professionalization of anatomy and medical research. The story of the London Burkers remains a dark chapter in the history of medicine, highlighting the lengths to which individuals would go to profit from the demand for medical cadavers.