logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2024
41m 47s

The Edinburgh Body Snatchers: Murder at ...

Pushkin Industries
About this episode

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 episode of Cautionary Tales - recorded live at the Podcast Show in London - true crime meets economics. Tim Harford's hair-raising story explores a question: what makes some markets acceptable, and others repugnant?

For a full list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Yesterday
The Dunning Canoe-ger Effect
When John Darwin walks into a shop in London, it causes an instant stir. After all, John Darwin has been dead for five years. He claims to have amnesia, but everyone - from the police and the media to his insurance company - suspects he is lying. No one can prove a thing, until a ... Show More
39m 22s
Jun 11
Presenting...This is History: A Dynasty to Die For
This episode comes to you from the new series of This is History, the podcast which tells the story of the Plantagenet Dynasty. Historian Dan Jones takes you through 300 years of calamities, wars and rebellions that marked the end of the Middle Ages and the rise of the Tudor Dyna ... Show More
33m 23s
Jun 5
How Civilizations Die - with Paul Cooper
As Governor of Britannia, Magnus Maximus has a huge army at his disposal, which is just what he needs to secure the Roman imperial throne. But perhaps the impressive general should have looked into the past before focusing on his future. Tim is joined by Paul Cooper, host of Fall ... Show More
41m 10s
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2024
Corpse Medicine: Eating Egyptian Mummies
<p>A skull a day! People ate people in the name of medicine across Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. Charles II kept powdered skull in a bag on his belt and mummified corpses were the greatest cure of all... but why? Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney visit the apothecary wit ... Show More
35m 20s
May 2025
Spring-Heeled Jack: Terror of Victorian London
<p>The grimy streets of Victorian London were stalked by a shadowy menace: Spring-Heeled Jack! He had glowing eyes and blue flames came out his mouth. He had claws, wings. He had a tail. He had smart boots. He had literal springs in his heels. Confusing...who was Spring-Heeled Ja ... Show More
35m 42s
Dec 2024
Edinburgh
How was Edinburgh transformed from an ancient defensive site on top of a volcanic crag into a major centre of power, faith, commerce, and learning? In this second of our two festive bonus episodes, travel writer and history buff Paul Bloomfield is joined by historian Rosemary Gor ... Show More
38m 47s
Jul 2024
William Burke and William Hare
<p>William Burke and William Hare were killers who murdered victims in the city of Edinburgh and sold the bodies to an anatomist who needed cadavers for lessons. They killed at least sixteen people in one year, but their greed made them reckless, and they were ultimately caught.& ... Show More
1h 8m
Nov 2024
English Village Sacrificed to Plague (Part 2)
<p>(Part 2/2) They could've run, but they stayed. In 1665 plague arrived in the idyllic English village of Eyam. What followed was a story of suffering and self-sacrifice.</p><br><p>Maddy tells Anthony the story. Today's episode takes you to the heart of the plague village and it ... Show More
42m 37s
Mar 2025
The Servants' Revenge: Arsenic & a Poisoned Pint of Beer
<p>Why did two servants living in Plymouth, England, poison their whole household in 1675? How did they sneak arsenic into the food? And what on earth is pottage?</p><br><p>Today Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney talk to Dr Blessin Adams, author of "<em>Thou Savage Woman: female ... Show More
51m 51s
Jan 2025
Clown Masks And Crocodile Tears - Part 1
<p><br></p><p>The discovery of a woman's body in a rural Warwickshire layby in September 1994 was the start of what would become to detectives one of the most complex investigations in Warwickshire Police history, and would ultimately lead them to a cold and calculating killer.</ ... Show More
1h 3m
Jun 2025
Shakespeare's Family: New Discoveries
<p>Did the women in Shakespeare’s life—his wife, sister, and daughters—shape his story more than we realise? Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr. Matthew Steggle to hear how new digital tools and rediscovered manuscripts uncover surprising evidence about Shakespeare’s fa ... Show More
40m 48s
May 2024
Postmortem, Ep. 4: The anatomy lab
<p>As haunting as the Harvard morgue scandal is, you don't have to go back very far in history to find practices for sourcing bodies that would be shocking today. Reporter Ally Jarmanning finds that for more than a century, medical schools relied on grave robbing and body snatchi ... Show More
23m 47s
Oct 2025
Witches of Cornwall
From the spookiest corner of the British isles, comes two stories of witches. Stories of fairies and magical powers, of skeletons and haunted history. Our guest is the manager of Bodmin Jail in Cornwall - Jess Marlton - https://www.bodminjail.org/.This episode was edited by Tom D ... Show More
44m 3s