Burke And Hare

William Burke it is my name, I stand condemned alone.
I left my native Ireland in the county of Tyrone.
And o'er to Scotland I did sail employment for to find;
No thought of cruel murder was then into my mind.

At Edinburgh trade was slack, no work there could I find;
And so I took the road again, to Glasgow was inclined;
But stopping at the Westgate to find refreshment there,
O cursed be the evil hour I met with William Hare!

With flattering words he greeted me and said, good fortune smiled;
He treated me to food and drink and I was soon beguiled;
He said: "There's riches to be had and fortune's to be made,
For (an)atomists have need of us so join me in that trade.

Hare he kept a lodging-house wherein a man had died,
His death went unreported and of burial was denied
We put the dead man in a cart and through the streets did ride.
And Robert Knox, the atomist, the dead man he did buy.

To rob the new dug graves by night it was not our intent;
To be taken by the nightwatch or by spies was not our bent.
The plan belonged to William Hare, and so the plot was laid,
He said that murder's safer than the resurrection trade.

Two women they were in the plot, the wife of William Hare,
The other called McDougal, and travellers they did snare;
They lured them to the lodging house and when they'd drunken deep,
Hare and me, we smothered them as they lay fast asleep.

At first in fear and dread I was, but later grew more bold,
In nine short months we killed fifteen and then their bodies sold.
The doctors did not question us, but quickly paid our fee,
The price they paid, it prospered us, both William Hare and me.

But soon our crimes they were found out, in jail we were confined,
And cruel guilt it tore my heart and much despairs my mind;
And Hare, who first ensnared me and led me far astray
Has turned King's evidence on me and sworn my life away

Jim Carroll