Burke and Hare: The West Port Murder - How Grave Robbers Became Serial Killers
They Walk Among Us - UK True Crime
They Walk Among Us
4.5 • 6.8K Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
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Summary
In 1828, the poorest residents of Edinburgh vanished. Their bodies were sold to anatomists. When Margaret Docherty's body was found hidden in straw, it revealed that Burke and Hare, two Irish immigrants, had become serial killers. This historic true crime case exposed how Edinburgh's medical school created a market for fresh corpses... (Part 1 of 2).
*** LISTENER CAUTION IS ADVISED ***
This episode was researched and written by Eileen Macfarlane.
Edited by Joel Porter at Dot Dot Dot Productions.
Script editing, additional writing, illustrations and production direction by Rosanna Fitton
Narration, additional audio editing and mixing, and script editing by Benjamin Fitton.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode contains distressing themes, |
| 0:11.3 | profanity and descriptions of violence. |
| 0:15.2 | This podcast is intended for a mature audience. |
| 0:19.5 | Listener caution is advised. |
| 0:26.6 | Well-known locals were vanishing from the odorous streets of Edinburgh. The poorest in the |
| 0:33.0 | city living transient lives were disappearing, but news of their absence often went unnoticed. |
| 0:40.2 | The rich on the other side of North Bridge knew where the missing had gone. |
| 0:45.2 | Their bodies now worth more in death than in life were sold off for public dissection and |
| 0:50.7 | laid bare before curious medical students. |
| 0:55.8 | Welcome to Season 11, Episode 1 of They Walk Among Us, |
| 1:01.0 | a podcast dedicated to UK True Crime. |
| 1:05.8 | This is part one of a two-part case. |
| 1:09.6 | The second installment will be available in four days. |
| 1:20.1 | By the 1820s, the areas on each side of the North Bridge in Edinburgh were worlds apart. |
| 1:27.1 | The old town in the south was built in medieval |
| 1:30.1 | times, with narrow alleys snaking between high-rise tenement blocks that house the city's poor. |
| 1:37.4 | Dense smoke wafted over the old town, drifting up from open fires and market stalls. The narrow streets were known as wines, |
| 1:47.0 | and on dry days they would be drenched with the contents of chamber pots |
| 1:51.1 | emptied by locals from tenement windows. |
| 1:54.8 | Because the old town was built on the ridge of an extinct volcano, |
| 1:58.4 | the sewage drained into the lower areas, but the smell still |
| 2:02.5 | lingered. The uniformity of the new town was a stark contrast to the crowded streets of the old town. |
... |
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