West Port Murders: Or an Authentic Account of the Atrocious Murders Committed by Burke and His Associates; Containing a Full Account of All the Extraordinary Circumstances Connected With Them. Also, a Report of the Trial of Burke and M'Dougal. With a Description of the Execution of Burke, His Confessions, and Memoirs of His Accomplices, Including the Proceedings Against Hare, &c.Anonymous
History
West Port Murders: Or an Authentic Account of the Atrocious Murders Committed by Burke and His Associates; Containing a Full Account of All the Extraordinary Circumstances Connected With Them. Also, a Report of the Trial of Burke and M'Dougal. With a Description of the Execution of Burke, His Confessions, and Memoirs of His Accomplices, Including the Proceedings Against Hare, &c.
Q. You lived in the same passage with the prisoners in October last? A.
Yes.
Q. Do you remember being at Connaway’s house on the 31st October, about
two in the afternoon? A. Yes.
Q. Do you recollect seeing the prisoner Burke in the passage? A. Yes.
Q. Was he alone? A. A little woman was following him, they went into
Burke’s house.
Q. Did you see Hare that evening? A. Yes.
Q. Did he go into Burke’s house? A. Yes.
Q. Did you go in there? A. Yes.
Q. Whom did you see? A. I saw Hare and his wife and Burke, and the
little woman.
Q. At that time were they merry? A. Yes.
Q. You were not long there? A. About twenty minutes.
Q. Did you get any spirits? A. Yes.
Q. At what hour did you go to bed? A. About half-past nine; sometime
after I heard a noise of dancing and merriment.
Q. Did you hear any singing? A. No, Sir.
Q. Fighting and scuffling? A. There was a great noise.
Q. Did you distinguish any particular voice? A. No.
Q. Did the noise last long? A. Yes. The next morning Mrs Burke came
into my house to borrow a pair of bellows, and asked me if I heard
Burke and Hare fighting in the night time.
Q. Any more about the fighting? A. I asked her then what she had done
with the little woman? She said, she kicked her out of the door,
because she had been using too much freedom with William, (meaning
Burke.)
Q. Did she go after that? A. Yes, that was about eight. She afterwards
returned about nine to borrow a dram glass, and asked me to come into
her house.
Q. Did you go? A. Yes, and saw Hare there and Burke and M‘Dougal; and a
man of the name of Broggan.
Q. Did Gray and his wife come in before you left? A. Yes, and Mrs
Connaway.
Q. Did you remark any thing particular? A. Yes, Burke took a bottle of
spirits, and sprinkled it about the bed and room; he said, because none
of them would drink it.
Q. Was there a good deal of straw lying at the foot of the bed?
A. Yes. This took place on the Saturday morning, and Burke was
apprehended that night.
Q. Did you see Mrs Connaway at Burke’s house? A. Yes.
Q. Did you go to the Police Office on Sunday? A. Yes, and was shewn the
body of the little woman I saw at Burke’s on Friday night.
_Cross-Examined._
Q. Was the straw that was near the bed there before? A. Yes.
Q. Was it in use? A. Yes, it had been used for some time as a bed for
Gray and his wife.
HUGH ALSTON _Examined_.
Q. Do you live in the same land with Burke? A. Yes, I live in the flat
above the shop, and he lives in the flat below the shop.
Q. Did you hear any noise on the night of the 31st October when going
home? A. Yes, I heard some going along the passage between eleven and
twelve that night.
Q. Tell us what you heard? A. I heard two men quarrelling; but what
particularly attracted my attention was, the cry of murder from a
woman. I went down a part of the stair towards Burke’s house.
Q. Do you know Connaway’s door? A. Yes.
Q. Did you go so far as that? A. Yes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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