The short story mentions Burke and Hare, and the two body snatchers in the short story are stated to be worse. Body snatching was a serious issue in the Victorian period, and I was surprised the Burke and Hare case took place in the Romantic Period: the seriousness of body snatching was why the two fictional ones were portrayed as worse than Burke and Hare. Convicts and poor people were always supplied to hospitals in the days of Burke and Hare, it is just that because of the murders the red tape which reduced the use of such corpses was gotten rid of: unfortunately, this meant the marginalized were more exploited than before. Marie was a real person: she was based on a female victim whom Knox described as "You will never see a more well-preserved specimen" and one of the students at the dissection said "Dear God, I slept with this woman" - what makes it worse is that in those days an 18-year old was considered like a 15-year old. Marie inspired the female murder victim in "The Body Snatchers," but the murder victim in the story was "duly dissected" and no one recognized her despite her being well-known, she was not a prostitute in the story.
Social deprivation theory shows that Burke and Hare were motivated by utter disregard for a society which failed them, them growing up poor and looking for work in Greater Edinburgh, Scottish people HATING Irishmen. I believe Burke and Hare were already thieves and street thugs, possibly fatally wounding their victims, long before they accidentally discovered the dead lodger: violent criminals start targeting humans victims when the criminal is 13. Hare faded into obscurity, but he was the leader of the two and had the idea to become body snatchers in the first place; I am also surprised he was clean-shaven and that their maids helped them. Since the maids would have been poverty-stricken before they started working for Burke and Hare - since only the poorest maids would have considered working for Irishmen given the anti-Catholicism of the period - they would have been the most desperate i.e. the molls of street thugs. This is why Helen "M'Dougall" was also charged. Burke and Hare would have gotten away with it with Hare hadn't stupidly, albeit calmly, said the old woman had died of natural causes.
You also didn't mention the rhyme schoolboys sang at their private schoolground next to the University of Edinburgh, "Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief, Knox's the boy who buys the beef." Knox could hear it outside his office window high above the neighbouring private school, and it was sung every day for the rest of his life. Knox's reputation was permanently ruined by the case, but he is still seen as a pioneer in human biology. I am surprised to find out Knox often spent his time fishing in the woods. Also, the marginalized people Burke and Hare killed would have been Celtic Travellers, Romastani, Jews, non-heteronormatives, actors and actresses, runaways, street entertainers, and the physically disfigured, all of which were people no one cared about. By the way, who are the well-dressed men in one of the picture? Anyways, body snatching remained widespread and there was no outcry against it until towards the end of the late C.E. 19th century when the grave of a former president's mother was almost robbed. However, it was not banned until when a judge mistakenly remembered a case in which it was declared illegal.
The events likely inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's story "The Body Snatchers", which focus on some fictional counterparts to Burke and Hare.
The short story mentions Burke and Hare, and the two body snatchers in the short story are stated to be worse. Body snatching was a serious issue in the Victorian period, and I was surprised the Burke and Hare case took place in the Romantic Period: the seriousness of body snatching was why the two fictional ones were portrayed as worse than Burke and Hare. Convicts and poor people were always supplied to hospitals in the days of Burke and Hare, it is just that because of the murders the red tape which reduced the use of such corpses was gotten rid of: unfortunately, this meant the marginalized were more exploited than before. Marie was a real person: she was based on a female victim whom Knox described as "You will never see a more well-preserved specimen" and one of the students at the dissection said "Dear God, I slept with this woman" - what makes it worse is that in those days an 18-year old was considered like a 15-year old. Marie inspired the female murder victim in "The Body Snatchers," but the murder victim in the story was "duly dissected" and no one recognized her despite her being well-known, she was not a prostitute in the story.
Social deprivation theory shows that Burke and Hare were motivated by utter disregard for a society which failed them, them growing up poor and looking for work in Greater Edinburgh, Scottish people HATING Irishmen. I believe Burke and Hare were already thieves and street thugs, possibly fatally wounding their victims, long before they accidentally discovered the dead lodger: violent criminals start targeting humans victims when the criminal is 13. Hare faded into obscurity, but he was the leader of the two and had the idea to become body snatchers in the first place; I am also surprised he was clean-shaven and that their maids helped them. Since the maids would have been poverty-stricken before they started working for Burke and Hare - since only the poorest maids would have considered working for Irishmen given the anti-Catholicism of the period - they would have been the most desperate i.e. the molls of street thugs. This is why Helen "M'Dougall" was also charged. Burke and Hare would have gotten away with it with Hare hadn't stupidly, albeit calmly, said the old woman had died of natural causes.
You also didn't mention the rhyme schoolboys sang at their private schoolground next to the University of Edinburgh, "Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief, Knox's the boy who buys the beef." Knox could hear it outside his office window high above the neighbouring private school, and it was sung every day for the rest of his life. Knox's reputation was permanently ruined by the case, but he is still seen as a pioneer in human biology. I am surprised to find out Knox often spent his time fishing in the woods. Also, the marginalized people Burke and Hare killed would have been Celtic Travellers, Romastani, Jews, non-heteronormatives, actors and actresses, runaways, street entertainers, and the physically disfigured, all of which were people no one cared about. By the way, who are the well-dressed men in one of the picture? Anyways, body snatching remained widespread and there was no outcry against it until towards the end of the late C.E. 19th century when the grave of a former president's mother was almost robbed. However, it was not banned until when a judge mistakenly remembered a case in which it was declared illegal.