The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-10-31
Murdered for Dissection.

YIN Lne ncelS OF CnC DOOy-SnaCCn1ng
excitement in this neighhorhood comes
a CHASTITY story from Connecticut, add
ing a new horror to this repulsive
species of crime. Last May, one Frank
Il. Bassett decoyed man, known as
Suffering jack" into an unoccupied
carriage factory, at East Bridgeport,
and murdered him. The body was then
stripped, placed in a barrel and taken
by the murderer to the Yale Medical
School, New Haven, where it was Of
fered for sale as ga subject" DIR. San
ford refused to purchase the cadaver,
because it was not accompanied with
certificate of its being procured in
proper manner. Bassett drove with the
barreled body to an unfrequented spot
on the river and rolled it over the bank.
A quarrel, the other day, between Bas-
sett and the woman with whom he
lived, furnished hint of the crime,
which, being followed up, led to the
discovery of the body last Sunday and
the arrest of the murderer.
Extraordinary rs Bassett's proceed
ing was, it is not without precedent.
Half y century ago, Great Britain was
intensely excited by the discovery, not
of a single crime of this kind, hut of a
whole series of murders for the sole OBJ
ject of providing subjects for dis
section. The facts were sufficiently
horrible, but current rumor exaggerated
them, until a large part of the popula-
ton were almost paralyZed with terror.
1t was generally believed that bands of
assassins were organized for the pur-
pose of providing subjects by muir
der. These were supposed TO lie in
wait ut nightfall for stray passer, who
was suddenly pounced upon, a cloth
covered with pitch clapped over his
mouth and nostrils, and when lie was
in this way sutfocated the body was
stripped, placed in Il bag and sold to
the doctors, who paid the money and
asked no questions. Hundreds of per-
sons were believed to have been dis
posed of in this way. The newspapers
published tie sensational rumors as
facts, and the "pitch-plaster' has
passed into history in connection with
these murders, and appears in most
books of reference where mention of
the matter is made, though no such ex-
pedient was actually employed. The
official reports of the trial of William
Burke, in 1928, and of John Bishop, in
1881, and the full confession of these
which caused the excitement.
William Burke, an Irishnan in Ed
inbursh, one evening called upon an
acquaintance named William Hare.
The latter was in trouble on account of
lodgcr, an old man, dying on his
hands. Burke suggested that as there
was a great demand for bodies for dis
section the body could be sold and the
money divided, together with what ef-
fects the ledger had left. There was
no difficulty in disposing of the /" stiff
to one DIR. Knox, who paid IS for it.
The ease with which this business was
transacted set Burke to thinking. The
market price for subjects was Is.
The regular way of procuring them was
grave robbing, which was an unpleas-
ant and risky proceeding. As no
bodies could be obtained unless by il
legal methods, with the exception of
persons dying by the hangman, sur
geons were not anxious to know how
the subjects came to them, and
hence asked no questions. Burke
thought that if poor and friendless
persons were put out of the way no.
body would be the wiser or worse of,
and he would be few pounds richer
with but little risk. Hare was taken
into partnership, and the two went to
work. Their method OF procedure was
the same in all cases. A poor, friend
less, hungry person-sometimes an old
man or boy, but generally woman
was found in the streets, seduced to the
house of Burke or Hare, under prom
Use of food and shelter, and stupetied
with drink. When thus helpless, one
of the murderers would lie upon the
body of the victim whilst the other
held the mouth and nostrils closed. In
this way the victim died of sutfocation
and there was no outward sign of vio-
lence. The business was carried on
successfully for about a year, and fiji
teen bodies were disposed Of to DR..
Knox for about Is apiece, when a
blunder brought the whole CHASTITY
story to light. An old woman named
Mary Docherty went into Il grocery to
beg. Burke was in the shop and asked
her name and where she was from. On
learning She was q stranger to Edin.
burgh, he said she was relative of his
mothers, took her home, gave her 3
meal, and in company with Hare and
some women had a carOuse for the pur.
pose of getting the intended victim
drunk. She proved tough ustomer,
and all hands got drunk together, the
carouse ending in a row which dis
turbed the neighbors. Next day an in
quisitive person saw dead body par.
TALLY concealed under bed. The re.
suit was the arrest of Burke on infor.
nation furnished by Hare. He was
tried, convicted and made q full con-
fession of fifteen murders, all commit.
ted in the same way. Burke was hung
in 1929, after giving new verb to the
English language, Ito burke,' being
to stille or suppress, as Burke stified
his victims.
Three years after the ''Burking'
sensation, excitement was renewed by
the arrest in London of a man named
John Bishop, for the murder of an
Italian boy and the disposition of his
body to the doctors. Bishop, after
conviction, confessed to three murders
fer the purpose of furnishing "sub-
jects." His method of procedure was
similar to that of Burke, except in the
manner of causing death. Two of his
victims were boys and one young
woman. Each was found friendless
and hungry in the streets, taken home,
stupefied with liquor, drugged with
laudanum, and whilst in this condition
tied to rope and let down into a well
to drown. When dead, the body was
taken up, hung by the heels to let the
water and liquor run out of the stom-
ach, packed in a box or barrel and sold
to the doctors. One body was yet
plant and scarcely cold when delivered
at the surgery. Both Burke and Bish-
op denied knowledge of any other
murders than those committed by
themselves, and of any other parties
operating in the same way.
The result of the excitement caused
by these revolving disclosures was the
passage of law in 1882, providing
that bodies of friendless persons dying
in the hOspitals. warehouses and other