When a tenant at their boarding house died in 1827, William Burke and William Hare found a way to make some extra money: selling bodies to a medical school. But to keep it up, they’d need a fresh supply of dead bodies — and those were hard to come by. Naturally, at least.
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Oct 12
Lizzie Borden Took an Axe...Or Did She?
Lizzie Borden took an ax and gave her mother 40 whacks… The popular schoolyard rhyme has withstood the test of time, despite it getting a few details wrong. Over 130 years later, we still don’t really know who killed Andrew and Abby Borden. Lizzie was acquitted, and yet most peop ... Show More
48m 19s
Oct 5
Secret Agent Scam: The Lies, Lives, and Wives of Will Jordan
For nearly twenty years, a charming con man poses as a globe-trotting CIA operative, seducing women and draining their savings in the name of “classified missions”—until one wife uncovers his lies and helps bring down the man she thought she would share her life with. Sources for ... Show More
45m 35s
Oct 2024
The Edinburgh Body Snatchers: Murder at Halloween
In 1827, Edinburgh, Scotland was a world centre for anatomical study, but there was a shortage of cadavers for medical students to dissect. Two men, William Burke and William Hare, spotted a grim business opportunity. They began sourcing bodies - by any means possible... In this ... Show More
41m 47s
Feb 2021
“Killing for Corpses" William Burke and William Hare Pt. 1
In 19th-century Edinburgh, two men on the hunt for money found a lucrative industry: grave robbing. But the infamous Burke and Hare didn’t want to dig up corpses. Instead, they delivered death to the gullible, and brought the bodies to one high-paying professor. Learn more about ... Show More
46m 55s
Feb 2024
Grave Robbers Turned Murderers: The Sinister Story of Burke and Hare
The Burke and Hare case was a scandalous episode in 19th-century Edinburgh where William Burke and William Hare, two Irish immigrants, resorted to murder to supply fresh corpses to medical schools. Operating in the early 1820s, they targeted vulnerable individuals, including trav ... Show More
35m 34s
Jun 2025
Ep.130 - Burke & Hare, Serial Killers That Sold Their Victims
Burke and Hare were two of the maddest lads you'll ever hear of. Two Irish fellas who moved to bonnie Scotland, they were real bastards. At first selling the body of a man who died for some sweet moola, then the moola was so good, why not make a few dead bodies of their own? Rese ... Show More
1h 4m
Jul 2023
27: Harvard’s Dirty Secret: Bejeweled Skulls and Grave Robbing
The manager of Harvard's Medical school was just indicted for selling human remains to oddities shops, but the history of Harvard's involvement in black market corpse dealings goes back over 250 years. Let's travel through the morgue, past the skeletons found in Harvard's walls, ... Show More
27m 23s
<p>In the first of two episodes, Zachary Crockett digs into the strange and discomfiting history of cadavers, and the industry that has emerged around them.</p><p> </p><p>RESOURCES:</p><ul><li>"<a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/grave-robbing-giving-own-body-134022080.html">From ... Show More
