#9 being made into a purse

In the otherwise completely uninteresting Lothian Police Museum on Edinburgh's High street, there is a grim little item at display: a tiny purse made out of human skin. This is not the result of a crime, but the result of the punishment of a criminal that was part of an infamous serial killer duo called Burke and Hare. Mister Burke and Mister Hare were two Irishmen, who came over to work in construction in the 1820s'. In their lodging-house was a great deal of foreigners doing exactly the same. One night they were confronted with the sudden death of a house mate of theirs, while drinking with him. When faced with their duty to send the corpse of the poor soul back to its family in Ireland, Burke and Hare found a much more profitable solution. They sold the body to the local medical college who had a constant yet unofficial demand for bodies to study the human anatomy. With this one transaction they made more then a worker normally did in a year and so the two decided to make a good business out of this. They hung around their accommodation for more cases of illness and death, but their fellow lodgers just wouldn't suffer from mortal illness. They decided to become one themselves. A good night of drinking with the generous Burke and Hare would quite often lead for the victim to be pinned down to the ground by Hare, while Burk would hold the nose and mouth shut until death arrived. Till now this way of killing is known as "burking". Burke and Hare made a small fortune with producing bodies for the thriving medical research, especially a famous physician by the name of Robert Knox. The numbers do vary, but at least 15 people had their very last drink with the killers. Their killing spree came to an abrupt halt, when they tried to kill an sturdy Irish woman, who resisted so hard that they had to bludgeon her to death. Their next door neighbours found the unsellable corpse under a bed and the police arrested the murderers swiftly. However, due to a lack of evidence, the lord advocate decided to offer Hare immunity if he would make a complete testimony against Burke. Hare agreed to this without hesitating and so Burke was send to the gallows shortly after. His execution was attended by more then 30,000 people and his body was then publicly dissected in the medical college. Several pieces of Burke started to circulate as trophies around Edinburgh and so did our wonderful little purse, that a man of refined taste had made to store his business cards.