biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1792–1829)
|
| biography:
| Murderer, born in Orrery, Ireland. With his partner, William Hare (c.1790–c.1860), born in Londonderry, he carried out a series of infamous murders in Edinburgh in the 1820s, with the aim of supplying dissection subjects to Dr Robert Knox, the anatomist. Hare, the more villainous of the two, turned king's evidence, and died a beggar in London in the 1860s; Burke was hanged, to the general satisfaction of the crowd. In his confession, Burke exonerated Knox from all knowledge of his crimes. The incident caused the Anatomy Act (1832) to be passed, which regulated the supply of bodies to medical schools. |
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