West Port murders, or an authentic account of the atrocious murders committed by Burke and his associates; containing a full account of all the extraordinary circumstances connected with them. Also, a report of the trial of Burke and M'Dougal. With a description of the execution of Burke, his confessions, and memoirs of his accomplices, including the proceedings against Hare, &c.

  • Burke, William, 1792-1829.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: West Port murders, or an authentic account of the atrocious murders committed by Burke and his associates; containing a full account of all the extraordinary circumstances connected with them. Also, a report of the trial of Burke and M'Dougal. With a description of the execution of Burke, his confessions, and memoirs of his accomplices, including the proceedings against Hare, &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    141/392 (page 125)
    Hare, who had been sent for, and who was a principal agent in this scene of villany, entered, and in the mean time Janet Brown, agitated seemingly, and alarmed by the appearance of violence, wished to leave the house, and to take her companion along with her. By this time it was about ten o'clock on Wednesday morning, and Paterson was asleep in one of the beds, totally unconscious of her approaching fate. The other girl went out, and was absent about twenty minutes. When she returned she asked for Paterson, and was told that she had left the house. By this time she was murdered. She came back in the after- noon in search of her, and received the same answer. Burke had availed himself of the short interval of twenty minutes, during which her companion Janet Brown was absent, to execute his horrid purpose when she was asleep, by stopping her breath; and that very afternoon, between five and six o'clock, her body was taken to the dissecting room and dis- posed of for L.8. The appearance of this body, which was quite fresh, which had not even begun to grow stiff, and of which the face was settled and pleasant, without any ex- pression of pain, awakened suspicions, and Burke was strictly questioned as to where he procured it. He easily framed some plausible excuse, that he had purchased it from the house where she died, which silenced all further sus- picion. JANET BROWN'S STATEMENT RELATIVE TO THE MURDER OF PATERSON. The following is the account of the circumstances con^ nected with the death of the unfortunate girl, Mary Pater- son, who was murdered in Constantine Burke's house, in Gibb's close Canongate, as given by her companion, Janet