Burke & Hare's Serial Killing Dissection Business
After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal
History Hit
4.7 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 28 May 2026
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What did Ancient Egyptians discover while dissecting bodies? What did the first medieval dissecting manual say? Who were the serial killers who supplied 19th century surgeons with bodies in Edinburgh?
Joining Anthony today as a special guest co-host is Cat Irving, Human Remains Conservator at Surgeons’ Hall in Edinburgh, to take us back through this bloody history.
Edited by Anna Brant and Tim Arstall. Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Senior Producer is Freddy Chick.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | 16 people were murdered in Edinburgh in the year 1828 by the infamous serial killing duo William Burke and William Hare. |
| 0:13.9 | They intoxicated and smothered their victims, preying on the underclass of the city. |
| 0:19.8 | Burke and Hare killed in order to supply corpses to the anatomy table of Dr. Robert Knox. |
| 0:26.4 | So yes, they were serial killers. |
| 0:28.8 | But what about Dr. Knox and the other mighty medical minds of Edinburgh at this time? |
| 0:33.2 | How responsible were they? |
| 0:35.5 | Did they turn a blind eye to the horror beneath their noses |
| 0:39.4 | as they strove towards fame and glory? |
| 0:43.3 | Well, I can think of no one better to help answer these questions |
| 0:46.7 | than the one and only Cat Irving Human Remains Conservator |
| 0:50.2 | at the Surgeon's Hall Museum in Edinburgh. |
| 1:15.7 | Music at the Surgeon's Hall Museum in Edinburgh. Okay, hello, welcome to After Dark. I am Kat. |
| 1:24.4 | And I'm Anthony. And today we are talking about, well, it's an episode that combines both of our interests and knowledge. And we've worked on some of this before in a documentary we did for |
| 1:28.4 | After Dark on the Edinburgh murders. Burke and Hair. Spoiler, you're going to be hearing a little |
| 1:33.5 | bit about serial killers and body snatchers. They weren't body snatchers. They were serial killers. |
| 1:39.6 | But of course, as Maddie is horse wrangling in the outback of Australia, I'm sure you knew that that's what she was doing. |
| 1:47.5 | Yeah, 100% legitimate explanation there. |
| 1:50.1 | We have our guest co-host for this month, which is Kat Irving. |
| 1:54.3 | And Kat, of course, is the human remains conservator at Surgeons Hall in Edinburgh. |
| 1:58.0 | That is a great time. |
| 1:59.2 | Do you ever like when you're writing your job, |
| 2:01.4 | like when a form says job title and you're like human remains conservator, are people like, |
... |
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