"No," responded the witness, "but I saw them doing it."

"It is now my duty," interposed the Lord Justice Clerk, addressing Hare, "to state to you, in reference to a question in writing, to be put to you, that you are not bound to make any answer to it so as to criminate yourself. If you do answer it, and if you criminate yourself, you are not under the protection of the court. If you have been concerned in raising dead bodies, it is illegal; and you are not bound to answer that question."

"Now, Hare," said Mr. c.o.c.kburn, after he had repeated the judge's warning, "you told me a little ago that you had been concerned in furnishing one subject to the doctors, and you had seen them doing it--how often have you seen them doing it?"

The witness thought a moment, and then declined to answer the question.

"Was this of the old woman the first murder that you had been concerned in? Do you choose to answer or not?"

"Not to answer," replied Hare, after a minute's consideration.

"Was there murder committed in your house in the last October?" persisted Mr. c.o.c.kburn.

"Not to answer that," was all the reply Hare would give.

The rest of the cross-examination was confined chiefly to the murder of Docherty, but Hare's original evidence was in no way shaken by it, and he was removed from court still in custody.

If Hare's appearance created interest in court, that of his wife caused quite as much. She was ushered into the witness-box carrying her infant child in her arms. The poor creature was suffering from whooping-cough, and every now and then its "kinks" interrupted the examination, sometimes very opportunely, when the questions put required a little consideration on the part of the witness. Mrs. Hare's evidence contained only one point calling for special notice. That was when, after relating how she ran out of the house when she saw Burke get upon Docherty, and returned to the house and did not see the woman, she was asked--"Seeing nothing of her, what did you suppose?" Her answer was--"I had a supposition that she had been murdered. _I have seen such tricks before._" This hint was not followed up. But the remarkable fact about her whole testimony was that it corroborated, with exception of one or two points, that of her husband.

There can be no doubt that they had conned their story together before they were apprehended--for it was not likely they would have an opportunity of making it up while they were in custody. Be that as it may, their evidence was wonderfully alike.

The evidence of the police surgeon and of the medical men who made an examination of the body, was next taken up, and it all tended to show that death had been caused by suffocation or strangulation, the result of violence and not of intoxication. The reading of the prisoners'

declarations concluded the case for the prosecution, and no evidence was brought forward for the defence.

CHAPTER XXII.

_The Trial--Speeches of Counsel--Mr. c.o.c.kburn's Opinion of Hare--The Verdict of the Jury._

Without any delay, on the reading of the declarations, the Lord Advocate at once commenced his address to the jury, and the public feeling is fully reflected in the following remarks made by him at the outset:--"This is one of the most extraordinary and novel subjects of trial that has ever been brought before this or any other court, and has created in the public mind the greatest anxiety and alarm. I am not surprised at this excitement, because the offences charged are of so atrocious a description, that human nature shudders and revolts at it; and the belief that such crimes as are here charged have been committed among us, even in a single instance, is calculated to produce terror and dismay. This excitement naturally arises from the detestation of the a.s.sa.s.sins' deeds, and from veneration of the ashes of the dead. But I am bound to say, that whatever may have occasioned this general excitement, or raised it to the degree which exists, it has not originated in any improper disclosures, on the part of those official persons, who have been entrusted with the investigations connected with these crimes; for there never was a case in which the public officers to whom such inquiries are confided, displayed greater secrecy, circ.u.mspection, and ability. It is my duty to endeavour to remove that alarm which prevails out of doors, and to afford all the protection which the law can give to the community against the perpetration of such crimes, by bringing the parties implicated to trial; and I trust it will tend to tranquilize the public mind, when I declare I am determined to do so. I cannot allow any collateral considerations, connected with the promotion of science, to influence me in this course; and I am fully determined that everything in my power shall be done to bring to light and punishment those deeds of darkness which have so deeply affected the public mind." Having reviewed the evidence in the case, his lordship turned to the question of the admissibility and reliability of the testimony given by Hare. He pointed out that it would have been impossible to make out a case against the accused without the a.s.sistance of some of the individuals connected with the crimes; and argued that an acquittal, after a trial on the evidence brought before the magisterial inquiry, would probably have sent the accused parties back to their former practices, whatever they were, with increased encouragement and confidence. The public would have remained entirely ignorant of the extent to which such crimes had been carried by these persons; whether these four individuals comprehended the whole gang, or if there were others connected with them, or whether similar gangs did not exist in other places. Such a state of ignorance appeared to him altogether inconsistent with the security of the public; and he considered a knowledge of these matters indispensible, and as being of infinitely more public importance than any punishment which could be inflicted on the offenders. He did not think that such information was too dearly purchased by admitting some of these individuals to give evidence, and he was persuaded the country, when this matter came to be calmly considered, would support him in the propriety of the choice he had made. He admitted that by availing himself of such information he necessarily excluded the possibility of bringing these witnesses to trial for any offence in which they had so acknowledged a partic.i.p.ation. This, in the then state of excited feeling, might be regarded as unjust, but on that account the exercise of sound judgment was all the more required of him. The testimony given by these witnesses, his lordship contended, was thoroughly credible. Hare especially appeared to speak the truth; but he also pointed out that there was independent evidence which corroborated in part the statements made by these persons.

He concluded his task by demanding at the hands of the jury, "in name of the country, a verdict of guilty against both these prisoners at the bar."

The speech for the Crown was listened to with intense interest, and no wonder, for in addition to the importance of the issues at stake, it was acknowledged to be one of the best and most eloquent ever delivered by Sir William Rae.

The speech by the Dean of Faculty was more laboured and less spontaneous than that of the Lord Advocate. He felt himself beset with difficulties, especially the prejudice against his client, Burke, which was raised by the motive alleged in the indictment. "The motive for committing the offence which is here ascribed to the prisoner," he said, "involves in it a peculiar practice or employment which may be in itself a crime, though it is not necessarily criminal; but whether it implies public criminality or not, it involves in it a purpose which is revolting to the feelings of the generality of mankind, and calculated, almost above every other thing, to produce a prejudice in the minds of those who come to consider the case itself. For need I say that, when it is imputed to the prisoner that his object was to procure what they are pleased to call subjects for dissection, the very statement of such an occupation, stamps a degree of infamy on the individual engaged in it, and you are apt to set it down in the very commencement of the inquiry, that he is a person capable of any turpitude, and to imagine that to prove him guilty of any crime, however enormous, requires less evidence than that which you would consider indispensible to the conviction of any other person." He implored the jury to cast any such prejudice aside, and to consider the case solely upon the merits of the evidence adduced. This he proceeded to a.n.a.lyse, making, as a matter of course, the most of the discrepancies and inconsistencies, and he sought to impress upon the jury that the whole of the case for the prosecution depended on the evidence of _socii criminis_--the alleged accomplices in the deed charged. He asked them if they could put the smallest faith in the testimony of Hare and his wife, who had nothing to restrain them from telling the most deliberate series of falsehoods for the purpose of fixing the guilt of the murder on the prisoners, and extricating themselves from the condition in which they stood. Hare, when asked if he had ever committed other murders, had declined to answer the question, yet this was the person who gave evidence before them, not with a paltry money motive, but with the tremendous motive of securing himself from an ignominious death. Let them change the position of parties, and suppose that Hare was at the bar, and Burke in the witness-box. He did not know what case they might get from Burke and M'Dougal, but nothing could hinder them, as witnesses, from making out as clear a case against Hare and his wife, totally transposing the facts, and exhibiting the transaction as altogether the reverse of what Hare said it was. "What,"

exclaimed the learned Dean, "if that ruffian who comes before you, according to his own account, with his hands steeped in the blood of his fellow creatures, breathing nothing but death and slaughter; what if that cold-blooded, acknowledged villain, should have determined to consummate his villany, by making the prisoners at the bar the last victims to his selfishness and cruelty? Do you think that he is incapable of it?"

Mr. Henry c.o.c.kburn, for M'Dougal, confined himself almost entirely to the credibility of Hare and his wife. "Hare," he said, "not only acknowledged his partic.i.p.ation in this offence, but he admitted circ.u.mstances which aggravated even the guilt of murder. He confessed that he had sat coolly within two feet of the body of this wretched old woman while she was expiring under the slow and brutal suffering to which his a.s.sociate was subjecting her. He sat there, according to his own account, about ten minutes, during which her dying agonies lasted, without raising a hand or a cry to save her. We who only hear this told, shudder, and yet we are asked to believe the man who could sit by and see it. Nor was this the only scene of the kind in which they had been engaged. The woman acknowledged that she '_had seen other tricks of this kind before_.' The man was asked about his accession on other occasions, but at every question he availed himself of his privilege, and virtually confessed _by declining to answer_." "The prosecutor," continued the learned counsel, "seemed to think that they gave their evidence in a credible manner, and that there was nothing in their appearance beyond what was to be expected in any great criminal, to impair the probability of their story. I entirely differ from this; and I am perfectly satisfied that so do you. A couple of such witnesses, in point of mere external manner and appearance, never did my eyes behold. Hare was a squalid wretch, in whom the habits of his disgusting trade, want, and profligacy, seem to have been long operating in order to produce a monster whose will as well as his poverty will consent to the perpetration of the direst crimes. The Lord Advocate's back was to the woman, else he would not have professed to have seen nothing revolting in her appearance. I never saw a face in which the lines of profligacy were more distinctly marked. Even the miserable child in her arms, instead of casting one ray of maternal softness into her countenance, seemed at every attack [of hooping-cough] to fire her with intense anger and impatience, till at length the infant was plainly used merely as an instrument of delaying or evading whatever question it was inconvenient for her to answer." Having dealt with the question of corroboration, Mr. c.o.c.kburn remarked:--"The simple and rational view for a jury to take is that these indispensible witnesses are deserving of _no_ faith in any case; and that the idea is shocking of believing them, to the effect of convicting in a case that is capital. The prosecutor talks of their being sworn! What is perjury to a murderer! The breaking of an oath to him who has broken into the 'b.l.o.o.d.y house of life!'" In concluding, he called for a verdict of not proven:--"Let the public rage as it pleases.

It is the privilege and the glory of juries always to hold the balance the more steadily, the more that the storm of prejudice is up. The time will come when these prejudices will die away."

The Lord Justice-Clerk then summed up, carefully going over the evidence to the jury, and emphasising those points which he thought deserving of their attention.

The jury retired to consider their verdict at half-past eight o'clock on the morning of Thursday, 25th December--Christmas day--the trial having continued from ten o'clock the previous forenoon. Burke seemed to consider a conviction certain not only in his own case but also in that of M'Dougal, for he is said to have given her directions how to conduct herself, and told her to observe how he behaved when sentence was being p.r.o.nounced. After an absence of fifty minutes the jury returned to court, and the chancellor or foreman, Mr. John M'Fie, a Leith merchant, gave, _viva voce_, the following as the verdict:--

"The jury find the pannel, William Burke, guilty of the third charge in the indictment; and find the indictment not proven against the pannel, Helen M'Dougal."

The audience applauded the finding of the jury, and the news was quickly conveyed to the enormous crowd outside in Parliament Square, who cheered to the echo. Burke remained cool, and turning to his companion he remarked,--"Nellie, you're out of the sc.r.a.pe." The Lord Justice-Clerk then thanked the jury for the unwearied pains and attention they had bestowed on the case, and said it must be satisfactory to them to know that in the opinion of the court their verdict appeared to be well founded. It was afterwards reported that the jury had considerable difficulty in coming to a decision, and that the verdict they gave in was something of the nature of a compromise. An old legal maxim has it that a wife acts under the constraint of her husband, and it was believed to be in view of this that the jury found the charge against M'Dougal not proven.

CHAPTER XXIII.

_The Last Stage of the Trial--Burke Sentenced to Death--The Scene in Court--M'Dougal Discharged--Duration of the Trial._

The last stage of a long trial had now been reached. After the verdict against Burke there was only one course open to the judges, but still the attention of the audience was given most earnestly to the proceedings.

Burke seemed callous, for he had felt certain of the doom that was about to be p.r.o.nounced upon him. The Lord Advocate moved for the judgment of the court, and the Lord Justice-Clerk called upon Lord Meadowbank to propose the sentence.

Having briefly reviewed the facts of the case, as brought out in the evidence, Lord Meadowbank proceeded:--"Your lordships will, I believe, in vain search through both the real and the fabulous histories of crime for anything at all approaching this cold, hypocritical, calculating, and b.l.o.o.d.y murder. Be a.s.sured, however, that I do not state this either for exciting prejudices against the individual at the bar, or for harrowing up the feelings with which, I trust, he is now impressed. But really, when a system of such a nature is thus developed, and when the actors in this system are thus exhibited, it appears to me that your lordships are bound, for the sake of public justice, to express the feelings which you entertain of one of the most terrific and one of the most monstrous delineations of human depravity that has ever been brought under your consideration. Nor can your lordships forget the glowing observations which were made from the bar in one of the addresses on behalf of the prisoners, upon the causes, which, it is said, have in some measure led to the establishment of this atrocious system. These alone, in my humble opinion, seem to require that your lordships should state roundly that with such matters, and with matters of science, we, sitting in such places, and deciding on such questions as that before us, have nothing to do. It is our duty to administer the law as handed down to us by our ancestors, and enacted by the legislature. But G.o.d forbid that it should ever be conceived that the claims of speculation, or the claims of science, should ever give countenance, to such awful atrocities as the present, or should lead your lordships, or the people of this country, to contemplate such crimes with apathy or indifference. With respect to the case before us, your lordships are aware that the only sentence we can p.r.o.nounce is the sentence of death. The highest law has said--'Thou shalt not kill,--thou shalt do no murder;' and in like manner, the law of Scotland has declared, that the man guilty of deliberate and premeditated murder shall suffer death. The conscience of the prisoner must have told him, when he perpetrated this foul and deliberate murder, and alike violating the law of G.o.d, and the law of man, he thereby forfeited his life to the laws of his country. Now that detection has followed, therefore, the result cannot be by him unexpected; and I have therefore only further to suggest to your lordships, that the prisoner be detained in the tolbooth of Edinburgh, till the 28th day of January next, when he shall suffer death on a gibbet by the hands of the common executioner, and his body thereafter given for dissection."

Lord Mackenzie concurred, saying that the punishment proposed by Lord Meadowbank was the only one that could be p.r.o.nounced.

The Lord Justice-Clerk then a.s.sumed the black cap, and addressing Burke, who had risen from his seat to receive sentence, said:--"William Burke, you now stand convicted, by the verdict of a most respectable jury of your country, of the atrocious murder charged against you in this indictment, upon evidence which carried conviction to the mind of every man that heard it, in establishing your guilt in that offence. I agree so completely with my brother on my right hand, who has so fully and eloquently described the nature of your offence, that I will not occupy the time of the court in commenting any further than by saying that one of a blacker description, more atrocious in point of cool-blooded deliberation and systematic arrangement, and where the motives were so comparatively base, never was exhibited in the annals of this or of any other court of justice. I have no intention of detaining this audience by repeating what has been so well expressed by my brother; my duty is of a different nature, for if ever it was clear beyond the possibility of a doubt that the sentence of a criminal court will be carried into execution in any case, yours is that one, and you may rest a.s.sured that you have now no other duty to perform on earth but to prepare in the most suitable manner to appear before the throne of Almighty G.o.d to answer for this crime, and for every other you have been guilty of during your life. The necessity of repressing offences of this most extraordinary and alarming description, precludes the possibility of your entertaining the slightest hope that there will be any alteration upon your sentence. In regard to your case, the only doubt which the court entertains of your offence, and which the violated laws of the country entertain respecting it, is whether your body should not be exhibited in chains, in order to deter others from the like crimes in time coming. But taking into consideration that the public eye would be offended by so dismal an exhibition, I am disposed to agree that your sentence shall be put into execution in the usual way, but unaccompanied by the statutory attendant of the punishment of the crime of murder--viz., that your body should be publicly dissected and anatomised, and I trust that if it ever is customary to preserve skeletons, yours will be preserved, in order that posterity may keep in remembrance your atrocious crimes. I would entreat you to betake yourself immediately to a thorough repentance, and to humble yourself in the sight of Almighty G.o.d. Call instantly to your aid the ministers of religion of whatever persuasion you are; avail yourself from this hour forward of their instructions, so that you may be brought in a suitable manner urgently to implore pardon from an offended G.o.d. I need not allude to any other case than that which has occupied your attention these many hours. You are conscious in your own mind whether the other charges which were exhibited against you yesterday were such as might be established against you or not. I refer to them merely for the purpose of again recommending you to devote the few days that you are on the earth, to imploring forgiveness from Almighty G.o.d."

The sentence was formally recorded in the books of the court, with the addition that the place of execution was specified as in the Lawnmarket of Edinburgh, and the body of the deceased was ordered to be delivered to Dr.

Alexander Monro, Professor of Anatomy in the University of Edinburgh, to be by him publicly dissected and anatomised.

The Lord Justice-Clerk then turned to Helen M'Dougal and said:--"The jury have found the libel against you _not proven_; they have not p.r.o.nounced you _not guilty_ of the crime of murder charged against you in this indictment. You know whether you have been in the commission of this atrocious crime. I leave it to your own conscience to draw the proper conclusion. I hope and trust that you will betake yourself to a new line of life, diametrically opposite from that which you have led for a number of years." An interlocutor of dismissal was p.r.o.nounced, and M'Dougal was free from the pains of the law, though she had still to fear the fury of an unappeased public.

The _Edinburgh Evening Courant_ of Sat.u.r.day, 27th December, thus described the appearance of the prisoners when the Lord Justice-Clerk addressed them:--"The scene was altogether awful and impressive. The prisoner stood up with unshaken firmness. Not a muscle of his features was discomposed during the solemn address of the Lord Justice-Clerk consigning him to his doom. The female prisoner was much agitated, and was drowned in tears during the whole course of the melancholy procedure."

The trial was thus concluded, the court having sat, with certain intervals for refreshment, from ten o'clock in the forenoon of Wednesday, the 24th of January, until nearly ten o'clock next morning. Burke, it has been seen, was cool and collected, his mind having been made up before the judicial proceedings began as to how they were likely to end. About four o'clock on Wednesday afternoon he asked one of the jailors near him when dinner would be provided, and on being informed that the court would not adjourn for that meal until about six o'clock, he begged to be given a biscuit or two, as he was afraid he would lose his appet.i.te before the dinner hour. M'Dougal, however, was not so calm, and during the whole course of the trial manifested an amount of anxiety as to her position not shown by her companion.

CHAPTER XXIV.

_The Interest in the Trial--Public Feeling as to the Remit--Press Opinions--Attack on Dr. Knox's House._

The news of the result of the trial spread rapidly. All the Edinburgh newspapers gave lengthened reports of the proceedings--putting the "affairs of State" to a side for once--and in those cases where the usual publication day of a journal was on the Thursday, the day on which the trial closed, second editions containing the verdict and sentence were issued. The _Evening Courant_ was at the pains to obtain statistics of the circulation of the newspapers. Between the Thursday morning and Sat.u.r.day night it was calculated that not fewer than 8000 extra copies were sold, representing a money value of nearly 240. This was certainly surprising when the high price charged for the journals is taken into account, and is a testimony to the intense interest taken in the trial by the people at large.

The result of the trial was received with mingled feelings. The liveliest satisfaction was felt at the conviction of Burke; but the dismissal of M'Dougal, and the probable escape of Hare and his wife through having become informers, caused a great amount of discontent. The evidence given by the two princ.i.p.al witnesses showed that they were as much guilty of the offence as Burke himself, and an impression began to get abroad that Hare was after all the leading spirit in the conspiracy, and that he had, as the counsel for the defence had suggested, made Burke his last victim.

This strong dislike, or rather detestation, to Hare did not, however, have a compensating effect by producing sympathy for Burke--the popular mind was too deeply convinced of his guilt to think that he other than fully deserved the doom that had been p.r.o.nounced upon him. And the peculiar feature of the matter was this, that while there was no need for the Lord Advocate proceeding further against Burke in respect of the first and second charges on the indictment, since he had been condemned on the third, the great ma.s.s of the people p.r.o.nounced an unmistakable verdict of guilty against him for the murder of Daft Jamie; and the _Courant_ shortly after the trial deepened the impression by stating that it was Burke himself who enticed the poor natural into his den, though there is every reason to believe that this was a mistake. The disappearance and cruel fate of that unfortunate lad had perhaps more to do with the "prejudice,"

as it was called at the trial, against the two prisoners and their accomplices than any other item in the case.

The _Caledonian Mercury_ of Thursday, the 25th December, the day on which sentence was pa.s.sed, had the following among other comments on the proceedings of the previous twenty-four hours:--

"No trial in the memory of any man now living has excited so deep, universal and (we may also add) appalling an interest as that of William Burke and his female a.s.sociate. By the statements which have from time appeared in the newspapers, public feeling has been worked up to its highest pitch of excitement, and the case, in so far as the miserable pannels were concerned, prejudiced by the natural abhorrence which the account of a new and unparalleled crime is calculated to excite.... At the same time, it is not so much to the accounts published in the newspapers which merely embodied and gave greater currency to the statements circulating in Society, as to the extraordinary, nay, unparalleled circ.u.mstances of the case, that the strong excitement of the public mind must be ascribed. These are without any precedent in the records of our criminal practice, and, in fact, amount to the realization of a nursery tale. The recent deplorable increase of crime has made us familiar with several new atrocities: poisoning is now, it seems, rendered subsidiary to the commission of theft: stabbing, and attempts at a.s.sa.s.sination, are matters of almost everyday occurrence; and murder has grown so familiar to us, that it has almost ceased to be viewed with that instinctive and inexpressible dread which the commission of the greatest crime against the laws of G.o.d and society used to excite. But the present is the first instance of murder alleged to have been perpetrated with aforethought purpose and intent of selling the murdered body as a subject of dissection to anatomists; it is a new species of a.s.sa.s.sination, or murder for hire; and as such, no less than from the general horror felt by the people of this country at the process, from ministering to which the reward was expected, it was certainly calculated to make a deep impression on the public mind, and to awaken feelings of strong and appalling interest in the time of the trial. Of the extent to which this had taken place, it was easy to judge from what was everywhere observable on Monday and Tuesday.

The approaching trial formed the universal topic of conversation, and all sorts of speculations and conjectures were afloat as to the circ.u.mstances likely to be disclosed in the course of it, and the various results to which it would eventually lead. As the day drew near, the interest deepened; and it was easy to see that the common people shared strongly in the general excitement. The coming trial they expected to disclose something which they had often dreamed of or imagined, or heard recounted around an evening's fire, like a raw-head-and-b.l.o.o.d.y bones story, but which they never, in their sober judgment, either feared or believed to be possible; and they looked forward to it with corresponding but indescribable emotions. In short, all cla.s.ses partic.i.p.ated more or less in a common feeling respecting the case of this unhappy man and his a.s.sociate; all expected fearful disclosures; none, we are convinced, wished for anything but justice."

This was the expectation of the public, but it was, unfortunately, not altogether realised. True, the mystery attending the murder of Mrs.

Docherty had been cleared up, but owing to the legal objections nothing had been said as to how Mary Paterson and Daft Jamie met their death. This had operated against a proper disclosure in more ways than one. The limitation of the indictment confined the informer's evidence, one-sided though it undoubtedly was, to one crime, and prevented it being given in the case of the others; and, further, that limitation did away with the necessity of calling Dr. Knox and the other medical men whose names were on the list of witnesses, and who were supposed to be mixed up in the transaction. "Where are the Doctors?" was the question when the trial closed without any appearance of them; and it was repeated out of court with threatening emphasis. In the case which went to trial, and on which Burke was condemned, there was really no need for them. The body had been recovered and identified; there was no doubt as to the murder; the whole subject of inquiry was--By whom was it committed? Had the other charges in the indictment gone to the knowledge of an a.s.size, the evidence of the doctors and their a.s.sistants would have been required, for they, and they only, could have spoken to the appearance and probable ident.i.ty of subjects supplied to them about certain dates, and supposed to be the bodies of the unfortunate victims of the persons placed at the bar. Then, they would have been indispensible; as it was, they were not needed, with the result that public curiosity had only been whetted, not satisfied. And a circ.u.mstance that helped to make this feeling all the more intense was that the indictment, in so far as it related to the first two charges, seemed to have been framed on information supplied by Hare; while the fact that the Lord Advocate made them part of the libel, and intimated the production of certain articles belonging to the two victims, gave more than reasonable ground for the a.s.sumption that he was convinced he had a good case, otherwise he would not have sought to lay it before a jury.

This fact, combined with the natural thirst for legal vengeance, gave the public hope that the officers for the Crown would be able to put Hare and his wife upon their trial for some crime other than any that were mentioned in the indictment, but in the same series, and that by this means the whole plot, with all relating to it, would be laid bare.

All these circ.u.mstances caused a strong feeling of discontent among every cla.s.s of the community, but especially among the lower orders, who seemed to think their lives menaced by criminals of the stamp of Burke and Hare.