Killer's Features Captured - 180 years on

Edinburgh's Old Town was scandalized in the late 1820s by a spate of murderers which were committed by two Irishmen who had moved to the Scottish capital in search of work. The names of the deadly duo? William Burke and William Hare.

Bijan Moghbel, a former student on Dundee University's MSc Forensic Art course, has captured William Burke's image in colour and 3D. Mr Moghbel took measurements for the notorious killer's head from life and death masks preserved at the Museum of Anatomy at Edinburgh University.

Mr Moghbel told the Scotsman newspaper that: "I am more interested in the facial reconstruction and depiction aspect of the course, rather than the police forensics side of it, which is why I chose this as my project... The depiction was completed using Burke's death mask as reference, and I conducted research on early 19th century costumes and men's hairstyles to improve the accuracy of the depiction."

The first known victim of Burke and Hare did not die at their hands. When one of Hare’s lodgers known simply as ‘Donald’ passed away, owing Hare £4, Burke and Hare removed the corpse from the coffin and replaced it with bark. They then sold the cadaver to an Edinburgh University anatomist, Robert Knox, for dissection, for the sum of £7 10s.

Impressed by the rewards for supplying corpses to Knox (for cadavers were in short supply as only the bodies of executed murderers were legally available for dissection), turned their hands to murder early in 1828.

It is believed that the pair killed at least fifteen people who lived in the Grassmarket and in the West Bow areas of Edinburgh's Old Town. Burke and Hare's final victim had their life artificially curtailed on 31st October, 1828.

William Burke was charged with the murders of Mary Paterson, James Wilson and Mrs Docherty at a trial which began on 23rd December, 1828. Hare provided king’s evidence in return for his freedom. Burke was condemned to death.

Incredibly, Hare got off 'scot free' which is where the term is said to originate from.

Visitors to the Scottish capital can hear more about Burke and Hare, public executions and more with the Old and New Towns, audio downloadable walking tour. Unlike a regular guided tour, listeners to a Walk Talk Tour Edinburgh travel guide have the freedom to stop, start and listen again to any part of their commentary. To hear an audio sample from the tour please click here.

Customers can buy one tour and get a second free by entering the following promotional code in the shopping basket page: BI123.