Dressed to kill: Burke trial gown found after 200 years

IT is a relic of one of the darkest tales from Scotland’s horrible history.

Now, almost 200 years after the trial of one of Edinburgh’s most infamous villains, the gown worn by the man who passed judgement on William Burke has been discovered after lying forgotten in a trunk for decades.

The robe, which belonged to David Boyle who rose to become Lord Justice General of Scotland, was found locked in a store cupboard at Kelburn Castle, in Ayrshire, the ancestral seat still occupied by the Boyle family, Earls of Glasgow since the 18th century.

The garment, made from wool and lined with silk with an ermine trim, was found along with a suit, both of which are believed to be the same items which feature in a portrait of Boyle by Scots artist Henry ­Raeburn.

Patrick Boyle, the current Earl and great, great, great, great, great, great nephew of David, said the items, which have been dated and authenticated, are among the most significant in the family’s 800-year history. He plans to put them on display following a £2.4 million upgrade of the castle and its surrounding estate in Fairlie, near Largs, which were opened to the public in 1986.

David Boyle was the presiding judge at the trial of the infamous West Port Murders, a series of barbaric slayings committed in 19th-century Edinburgh by Burke and Hare who murdered 17 people and sold the corpses to provide material for dissection at Edinburgh Medical College.

The two Irish immigrants sold their victims’ bodies to Dr Robert Knox, a private anatomy lecturer.

Lord Glasgow, a Liberal Democrat peer, said: “The Burke and Hare murders are among the most notorious crimes to have been committed in Scotland.

“To have a relic so closely ­associated with the case is a significant find which adds to Kelburn’s importance as a central place in the nation’s history.”

Burke and Hare lured mainly unsuspecting travellers to Hare’s lodgings where they plied them with alcohol before suffocating them.

The trial heard how Hare restricted their victims’ breathing by covering their mouth and nose while Burke compressed their chest with his burly frame to ensure their corpses remained undamaged.

After weeks of interrogation, Hare was offered immunity to turn King’s evidence against Burke, which he eagerly took. Burke’s trial was presided over by Boyle, then Lord Justice Clerk and an advocate of “ardent and zealous” temper, who earned the nickname The Black Man.

In his summing up, Boyle recorded that Burke’s crimes were and “atrocious, cold-blooded, deliberate and systematic preparation for murder, and the motives so paltry”, that they were “unexampled in the annals of the country”.

Hare’s testimony led to Burke’s death sentence in December 1828. He was hanged on 28 January 1829, after which he was publicly dissected at Edinburgh Medical College.

The dissecting professor, Alexander Monro, dipped his quill pen into Burke’s blood and wrote “This is written with the blood of Wm Burke, who was hanged at Edinburgh. This blood was taken from his head”.

His skeleton and death mask are displayed at the University of Edinburgh’s Anatomical Museum. Items made from his tanned skin are displayed at Surgeon’s Hall in Edinburgh’s Nicolson Street and at The Police Information Centre in Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.