Arizona republican., 1914-05-08
TRIAL OF WILLIAM BURKE

One of the most remarkable mur- derers in the annals of English crime was William Burke. an 1rishman, who seems to have been a vagabond from his birth. When he was 26 years of age he left his home and went to Scotland as a laborer Little is heard of him in his new home until in 1927, when he took up lodg- ings with William Hare, in Edin- burgh. In this house, on November 29 of that year, there died an old pensioner named Donald, and Burke and Hare, who even at that time seem to have formed a partnership in crime, instead of giving the body geon, for the purpose of dissection. So large a sum so easily procured proved sadly ominous
 Hare. from the evidence that was brought out, appears to have been the more evil of the two men. He suggested to Burke a further stroke of business, namely, that they would nveigle unknown and obscure way farers into the lodging house and kill them.
 During the ensuing months, they. assisted by their wives, murdered at least fifteen persons, their meth ods being to invite the victims into various houses, make them drunk. and then suffocate them in such a manner that no signs of violence appeared on their bodies. The bodies of all of these victims they sold at a good figure to pr KnoX's school of anatomy.
 But the end of it all had to come. On October 31, 1928, Burke, having home of his own, enticed into his house an old woman called Margery Campbell and disposed of the body | in the usual manner. But the sus- picions of the neighbors having been aroused, the police were communi cated with and the corpse was found | in a box in the cellar of Dr. Knox S
  1 for this murder in the high court of justiciary at Edinburgh, on De- cember 24, 1928, when William Hare, l the partner in his crime, being ad- mitted to kings evidence, his guilt was clearly proved and he was hanged on January 2S, 1929, while the witnesses cried out, Burke ! h ,rlrn Burke meaning to choke and is derived from this celebrated mur- derer.
 1 The house in which Burke commit ted the murder was in an obscure part of Edinburgh, well calculated | from it's situation for their bloody traffic. In this place Burke carried on trade of cobbling, and here, oc- casionally, took place meetings of the most vicious of both sexes, danc- ing and midnight brawls-and screams were so frequently heard during the night that the neighbors at last, paid little attention to the nuisance and were with reluctance aroused from their beds by the cries of the old woman, whose death brought the murderers to justice.
 So much wrought up were the people when the crimes of the | Burkes were exposed that the police were given a temporary reinforce ment of upward of three hundred men. At the trial no less than fifty i've witnesses gave testimony. The trial was presided over by Rt Hon David Boyle. Lord Justice Clerk Lord Pitmily, Lord Meadowbank and Lord Mackenzie At it's conclusion the jury retired for fifty minutes and brought in a verdict of guilty against William Burke, but found the indictment not proven against Helen McDougal, who had been living with Burke as is wife
 The following is the sentence as passed; Tn respect to the verdict just rendered, I order that the sait William Burke be carried from the bar back to the Tolbooth of Edin- burgh. there to be detained and to bf