S3 Ep19: The Resurrectionists: Murder for Profit

Crimes of the Centuries

Amber Hunt and Audioboom

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 31 July 2023

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 18th- and 19th-century England, doctors employed grave robbers - or "resurrectionists" - to unearth bodies for anatomical research. Unwilling to wait for bodies to present themselves via natural causes, William Burke and William Hare took their own dark and illegal twist on the job. In today's episode, we explore how the grave robbers' role shifted from exhuming bodies after death to obtaining them through premeditated murder.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from the Obsessed Network exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking that they change laws, change society, or even
0:14.5	earn the label crime of the century.
0:18.5	But the stories that made headlines and decades passed aren't necessarily remembered today.
0:25.1	I'm Amber Hunt, a journalist and author, and in each episode of this show, I'll examine
0:30.2	a case that's maybe lesser known today, but was huge when it happened.
0:36.7	This is crimes of the centuries.
0:50.1	When they were asked about it later, the killers weren't entirely sure who had been their
0:54.7	first victim.
0:56.4	One of the duo was certain it had been a gentleman named Joseph.
1:00.1	He couldn't be bothered to remember Joe's last name.
1:03.7	The other was just as sure that victim number one had been Abigail Simpson, a guest at a
1:08.6	lodging house who sold salt and camstone on the street.
1:12.8	Whichever it was, the victim's stories had been similar.
1:16.2	Each had been a guest at William Hare's lodging house, and each had been vulnerable in their
1:20.7	own way.
1:22.1	Abigail was a street vendor, prone to drink and excess, Joseph was clearly ill when checking
1:27.9	in and, according to his killers, seemed close to death already.
1:32.8	No matter the order, their demise was much the same too.
1:36.9	The victim was plied with alcohol, sat upon, and smothered.
1:41.3	When Hare, in his partner William Burke, hauled the corpse to a friendly doctor who paid
1:46.4	good dough for dead bodies, without asking for their origin stories.
1:51.4	The doctor was content to assume that Burke and Hare were just run of the mill early 19th
	...

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