1-153-691 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

William Hare, murderer and body snatcher. Hare (1790-1860) was an accomplice of William Burke (1792-1829) in a series of at least 15 murders and the stealing of corpses to supply bodies for dissection by Edinburgh medical students and anatomists. When the two were arrested, Hare turned King's Evidence. As a result, Burke was hanged, but Hare was allowed to live. Their actions were the basis of the plot for James Bridie's (Osborne Henry Mavor) (1888-1951) play The Anatomist, published in 1931. From a contemporary coloured print