Jack the Ripper was—if you’ll excuse me—a distant second to
William Burke and William Hare of 19th century Edinburgh. Lisa Rosner, a professor of history, has
brought them and their world to life in THE ANATOMY MURDERS. (University of Pennsylvania
Press, $24.95) It was a widespread practice of the time to dig up corpses in
order to sell them to medical men for dissection. Burke and Hare, with
coldblooded ingenuity, realized they could simply skip the grave-digging, and
in an atrocious spree murdered 16 people and delivered them to the
anatomists—all in one year. Another crime novel? Not at all. This
is a remarkably researched and riveting story of the Irish migration to
Scotland, of the lives of Edinburgh’s ‘dangerous classes,’ of the medical
practices of the day, of the legal system and of Burke and Hare and their very
real victims. I am full of admiration for Professor Rosner. This is a
perfect book for a history buff with a slightly murderous heart. - Jeanie
Teare
