Burke’s Skin

Burke’s Skin is one of the top Body Parts with Stories to Tell. William Burke and William Hare are still among Scotland's most infamous murderers despite their murdering spree occurring almost 200 years ago. Burke and Hare started out as body snatchers, stealing fresh bodies to sell for anatomical dissections, but later realized it was quicker and more profitable to just make the corpses themselves. Before being discovered, they killed 16 people. When they were, Hare turned state's evidence and revealed his companion in return for immunity.

On January 28, 1829, William Burke was executed by hanging in front of a sizable throng that numbered in the tens of thousands. Burke received a public dissection as part of his sentence, and the Edinburgh Medical School's anatomical museum now houses his preserved skeleton. Strangest of all, though, was the excision of Burke's skin, which was eventually applied to a book to create a binding known as anthropodermic bibliopegy.