The Invention of Murder (69 page)

58
even into Europe:
John and Clodagh McCormick and John Phillips,
The Victorian Marionette Theatre
(Iowa City, University of Iowa Press, 2004), p.49.
surviving Corder lived: Mayhew, London Labour, vol. 3, p.139; The Times, 29 February 1844, p.4; McCormick, Victorian Marionette Theatre, p.121.
lunatics, and ghosts:
G.A. Sala,
The Seven Sons of Mammon
(London, Tinsley Brothers, 1862), vol. 2, pp.22–3.

59
‘respectable’ fiction:
John Sutherland,
Victorian Novelists and Publishers
(Chicago, Chicago University Press, 1976), p.5.
much more blood: Cited in Elizabeth James and Helen R. Smith, Penny Dreadfuls and Boys’ Adventures: The Barry Ono Collection of Victorian Popular Literature in the British Library (London, British Library, 1998), p.xvi.

60
the treacherous chair: Henry Mayhew, London Labour, vol. 1, p.25.
highwayman from grief: Maria Martin [sic]; or, The Red Barn Tragedy
(London, J. Johnson, n.d.), Bodleian Library, John Johnson Collection, c.412.
shortly after the trial:
H.G. Hibbert,
A Playgoer’s Memories
(London, Grant Richards, 1920), p.86.
I am her murderer:
Cited by Curtis,
Authentic and Faithful…,
pp.212–19. 62
some dancing:
For the various productions of
Maria Marten:
Cheltenham production:
Theatrical Observer,
October 1828, p.481; Weymouth and Wales productions: Malcolm Morley, in a preface to a play by Eric Jones-Evans,
Mr Crummles Presents: The Red Barn
Murder, or, The Gipsy’s Curse
(Southampton, G.F. Wilson, 1966), pp.x-xi; Hull: Gilbert B. Cross,
Next Week – East Lynne: Domestic Drama in Performance, 1820–1874
(Lewisburg, Bucknell University Press, 1977), p.51; James Lee onstage:
Observer,
28 July 1867, p.7; Swansea text: reprinted in Michael Kilgarriff, ed.,
The Golden Age of Melodrama: Twelve 19th Century Melodramas
(London, Wolfe, 1974), pp.204–5, 215ff; Manchester production:
Manchester Guardian,
6 August 1895; text, Lionel Ellis and George Comer, ‘The Red Barn’, unpublished playscript, for performance at the Theatre Royal, Birkenhead, April 1872, Lord Chamberlain’s Plays, BL Add MSS 53497 (I).
64 the recognizable bits first: ‘The Echo of Surgeons Square’, Letter to the Lord Advocate, Disclosing the Accomplices, Secrets, and Other Facts Relative to the Late Murders; with a correct account of the manner in which the anatomical schools are supplied with subjects (Edinburgh, 132 High Street, 1829), p.18.

66
Hare’s wife! Burke her:
‘An Account of the Liberation of Hare, the Murderer, From the Gaol at Edinburgh …’ (Gateshead, Stephenson, [1828]), Bodleian Library, Harding, B9/4.254.
reported me one of the visitors: Guy Mannering, or, The Astrologer
([1815], Edinburgh, Adam & Charles Black, 1854), pp.297–8. Sir Walter Scott,
The Letters of Sir Walter Scott, 1828–1831,
ed. H.J.C. Grierson (London, Constable, 1936), vol. 9, pp.72, 102–3.
where they conflicted:
Ibid., vol. 9, p.133.

67
honour them for it:
The details of Burke and Hare’s crimes and trial are compiled from:
Aberdeen Journal,
31 December 1828, 7, 14, 21, 28 January, 4, 11, 25 February 1829;
Bell’s Life,
4 January, 1 February 1829;
Caledonian Mercury,
29 December 1828, 1, 8, 12 January 1829;
John Bull,
5 January 1829;
Morning Chronicle,
29, 30 December 1828, 1, 3, 5, 14, 26 January, 10 February 1829;
The Times,
22 November, 29, 30 December 1828, 1,3, 8, 17 January, 2 February 1829. The many contemporaneous publications include: [David Paterson?],
Letter to the Lord Advocate, Disclosing the Accomplices, Secrets, and Other Facts Relative to the Late Murders…
(Edinburgh, n.p., 1829); [Anon.], ‘Confession of Burk’ [sic] (Newcastle, W. ?Boag, [1829]); [Anon.],
The Official Confessions of William
Burke, Executed at Edinburgh For Murder
…
(Edinburgh, Stillie’s Library, 1829); [Anon.],
Trial of William Burke and Helen McDougal, Before the High Court of Justiciary … For the Murder of Margery Campbell, or Docherty. Taken in Short Hand by Mr. John Macnee, Writer
(Edinburgh, Robert Buchanan, 1829); [Anon.],
The West Port Murders. Characters Of Burk [sic], Hare, and Dr. Knox.
From the ‘Noctes Ambrosianae’,
Blackwood’s Magazine
for March 1829 (Edinburgh, R. Menzies, [1829]).

68
shaven off his body:
Cited in William Roughead,
Burke and Hare
(2nd edn, London, William Hodge, 1948), p.66.

69
pious thoughts for all: Anon., The Murderers of the Close, p.iii and passim. winna be Knoxed: Aberdeen Journal, ‘Mansie Wauch’s Dream’, 25 February 1829.

70
student goes mad:
René-Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt,
Alice, ou, Les Fossoyeurs écossais
(Paris, ‘Chez les auteurs’, 1829); first performed Théâtre de la Gaité, October 1829. The translations are my own. The published edition names the authors on the title page as Charles Desnoyer and B. Edan, but all subsequent studies refer to the author as Pixérécourt, with no co-authors; [Anon.], ‘The Victim. A True Story. By a Medical Student’,
New Monthly Magazine,
32, 132, December 1831, pp.571–6.
sold to the doctors:
Robert L. Mack,
Wonderful and Surprising History of Sweeney Todd: The Life and Times of an Urban Legend
(London, Continuum, 2007), p.41. Mack links this to the case of the Italian boy, Carlo Ferrari, and the ‘London burkers’, Williams and Bishop.
to tour further: Examiner,
2 October 1831, pp.634–5.

71
hardly any parallels:
Cited in Kate Berridge,
Waxing Mythical: The Life and Legend of Mme Tussaud
(London, John Murray, 2006), p.240. Advertisement giving date of display,
Liverpool Mercury,
13 February 1829.
BAND WILL PLAY EVERY EVENING: Bristol Mercury, 6 September 1831, p.1. in Curtain Road: H. Chance Newton, Crime and the Drama, or, Dark Deeds Dramatized (London, Stanley Paul, 1927), p.61; E.L. Blanchard, ‘Vanished Theatres’, Era Almanack,
1877, pp.88–92; theatre listings, ‘The Theatres of the County of London, 1850–1950; A Directory and Bibliography of Theatres, Music Halls and Pleasure Gardens’ (PhD thesis, Fellowship of the Library Association, 1966).

72
the story of Burke and Hare: G.A. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, With Some London Scenes they Shine Upon (London, Chapman & Hall, 1859), p.346; Alexander Leighton, The Court of Cacus, or, The Story of Burke and Hare (London, Houlston & Wright, 1861).
student love, Duncan Grahame: [David Pae], Mary Paterson; or, The Fatal Error. A Story of the Burke and Hare Murders (London, Fred. Farrah, 1866).

73
daft Jemmy:
Advertisement,
Illustrated Police News,
10 August 1867, p.4; advertisements,
Era,
24 February 1867, 22 March 1874, 11 October 1890, 24 September 1892.
the burkers’ victims:
Hugh Douglas,
Burke and Hare
(London, New English Library, 1974), pp.165–6.
killed in a brawl:
Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘My Friend the Murderer’, first published in
London Society,
Christmas Number, 1882.

74
long-dissected corpses:
Robert Louis Stevenson, ‘The Body Snatcher’, in
The Complete Short Stores: Centenary Edition,
ed. Ian Bell (Edinburgh, Mainstream, 1993), pp.419–35; first published in the
Pall Mall Gazette
Christmas extra, no. 13, London, 1884.
carrying their own coffins: Katherine Linehan, ed., Robert Louis Stevenson: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Performance Adaptations, Criticism (New York, W. W. Norton, 2003), p.121; Robert Louis Stevenson, The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, eds. Bradford A. Booth and Ernest Mehew (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1995), vol. 5, p.35n.

75
insurance money: James McGovan, Solved Mysteries: or, Revelations of a City Detective (2nd edn, Edinburgh, John Menzies, 1888), p.287ff.
shake of the head: [R.S. Surtees], Hillingdon Hall, or, The Cockney Squire; A Tale of Country Life (London, Henry Colburn, 1845), vol. 1, pp.191–2. buys the beef Cited in Roughead, Burke and Hare, pp.7–8.

76
property, individual safety:
‘Code des Délits et des Peines’, 1795; cited in Clive Emsley,
Policing and its Context, 1750–1870
(Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1983), together with the derivation of the word ‘police’, p.2.
in their Language: Cited in Palmer, Police and Protest, p.69. than by ministers: Cited in Ousby, Bloodhounds of Heaven, pp.7–8.

77
eighteen ounces:
Cited in John Wilkes,
The London Police in the Nineteenth Century
(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1977), p.15.
prevention of crime: Cited in King, The Development of Modern Police History, pp.50–51.

79
1,790for drunkenness:
G. Belton Cobb,
The First Detectives and the Early Career of Richard Mayne, Commissioner of Police
(London, Faber, 1957), p.56. For the outline of the development of the new police in these paragraphs, I have relied on: David Taylor,
Crime, Policing and Punishment in England, 1730–1914
(Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1998); Robert D. Storch, ‘The Policeman as Domestic Missionary: Urban Discipline and Popular Culture in Northern England, 1850–1880’,
Journal of Social History,
9, 4, 1976, pp.481–509; Emsley,
Policing and its Context;
Palmer,
Police and Protest;
J.J. Tobias,
Nineteenth-century Crime: Prevention and Punishment
(Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1972); and John Styles, ‘The Emergence of the Police: Explaining Police Reform in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century England’,
British Journal of Criminology,
27, 1987, pp.15–22.
not the public’s view:
The account of the incident is taken from King,
Development of Modern Police History,
p.56; and David A. Campion, ‘“Policing the Peelers”: Parliament, the Public, and the Metropolitan Police, 1829–33’, in Matthew Cragoe and Antony Taylor, eds.,
London Politics, 1760–1914
(Basingstoke, Palgrave, 2005), pp.46ff.

80
upon speedy promotion: Robert Cruikshank, Cruikshank v. the New Police, Showing the Great Utility of that Military Body, Their Employment, &c. (London, W. Kidd, [1833]), pp.7, 30ff.

81
a large round stick:
The transcripts for the inquest appear in
Bell’s Life,
21, 28 July 1833;
Morning Chronicle,
17, 20, 22 July 1833;
Observer,
14, 21, 28 July 1833.

83
lack of proper supervision:
Parliamentary Papers, 627, xiii, 407: ‘Report from the Select Committee on the Petition of Frederick Young and Others’, 1833.
Justifiable Homicide: Taylor, New Police, p.99.

84
publicized government rewards: Babington, House in Bow Street, p.169.

85
but later reprieved:
The inquest and trial reports appear in the
Derby Mercury,
12, 26 January 1831, 14 May 1834, 11, 13 August 1834,
Manchester Guardian,
8 January 1831, 9 August 1834;
Morning Chronicle,
7, 8, 11 January 1831, 26 April 1834, 13 August 1834;
The Times,
10 January 1831, 9, 11 August 1834.
trial transcript: Morning Chronicle,
‘The Murder of Mr. Ashton’, 13 August 1834.

86
the Spinners’ Union:
Mrs [Elizabeth] Stone,
William Langshawe, the Cotton Lord
(London, Richard Bentley, 1842), vol. 1, p.116, vol. 2, pp.159–60, 303–7.

87
cobbler’s constant companion:
Charles Dickens,
Bleak House,
ed. Norman Page ([1853], Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1985), p.797; Andrew Forrester,
The Female Detective
(London, Ward & Lock, [1864?]), pp.154–5.
who forgives him:
Elizabeth Gaskell,
Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life,
ed. Stephen Gill ([1848], Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1970).

88
benevolence and charity: Observer, 5 November 1848, p.3; Manchester Guardian, 28 February 1849.
Red Lights full up: Jim Davis, ed., The Britannia Diaries, 1863–1875: Selections from the Diaries of Frederick C. Wilton (London, Society for Theatre Research, 1992), pp.38–9.

89
Vampire Trap!:
Ibid., p.191.
is anyway dead:
Anon., ‘Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life’, unpublished playscript, for performance at the Victoria Theatre, June 1850, Lord Chamberlain’s Plays, BL Add MSS 43028 (16) ff.474–514; Thompson Townsend, ‘Mary Barton, or, The Weavers’ Distress’, unpublished playscript, for performance at the Grecian Theatre, October 1861, Lord Chamberlain’s Plays, BL Add MSS 53008 (K).

90
a signal:
Dion Boucicault,
The Long Strike
(New York, Samuel French, [1870]), first performed at the Lyceum Theatre, London, 1866 [the name on the title page of this edition appears as ‘Baucicault’], Act IV, sc. I, stage directions, pp.81–2.