Bodysnatchers: A History of the Resurrectionists

184 pp. From 1740 to 1832, freshly buried corpses were dug up and surreptitiously hawked to surgeons and anatomists in London and Edinburgh to dissect for research and teaching purposes. The resurrection trade brought together Fellows of the Royal Society and slum-dwelling criminals in an unholy alliance. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the illicit trade had become one of London's most efficiently organized departments of crime, with gang-leader Ben Crouch securing a virtual monopoly of delivery to half the teaching hospitals. In Scotland, several surgeons of great eminence loved the adventure of association with desperadoes and willingly accompanied them on their nocturnal excavations. Not surprisingly, there was great public consternation about the activities of the bodysnatchers, but it was only when Burke and Hare introduce murder as a means of acquiring "subjects" that the authorities acted to eradicate the ghoulish practice. The first full and accurate accounts of murderers Helen Torrence and Jean Waldie, Bishop and Head and Eliza Ross. Includes 8 pages of black-and-white illustrations.