Here are the lyrics as given in the book which was edited by Sheila Douglas: and it also gives the singer as Angus Russell of Kilwinning! So maybe he sang it differently on different occasions? Quite a lot of differences. Note that it loses half a verse compared with the version above

BURKE AND HARE

For the help o' folk in Medical School
Word is pit aroon
That a body nae mair than ten days cold
Can fetch ye a guid ten pound.
Oh sad it is, but true to say
In our wicked warld o' greed
A man's worth nothing when alive
But plenty when he's deid.

chorus
They went up the close an doon the stair
A but and ben with Burke an Hare.
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief
Knox is the man wha buys the beef.

so in the dark o' mony a nicht
When a' guid folk are sleepin',
Alang the dyke an through the kirkyaird
There cam twa shadows creepin'.
An mony a corpse that's stark and cauld
An safely laid away,
Ne'er thinking it wis no the last
It had seen the licht o' day.

Chorus

But no content wi howkin deid -
A ploy that aye gets harder -
They cast their een on living folk
An' start committin' murder.
But Reekie toon can sleep at last
The twa sall hunt nae mair:
It's the gallows-tree for William Burke
And a pauper's grave for Hare

Chorus