Scenes
Burke and Hare - The West Port Murders
I have put together the imagining of some scenes from the screenplay to capture the mood and feel.
Burke and Hare meet with priest to arrange burial of Old Donald but intend to remove his body from the coffin.
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Priest
"Our Lord never intended we should be treated like specimens in a jar."
Burke and Hare pull cart with a tea chest containing a body through the dark streets.
Dr. Knox and Professor Munro discuss the appropriation of bodies at a gentlemens' club.
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"Without 'subjects' there would be no advancements in medicine and we'd still be in the Dark Ages."
Provost William Allan shows Johnson the newspaper. He reads from it. Describing the body snatchers as the "dregs of degradation" and "there is no crime they will not commit."
Andrew Merrilees appears from out of the shadows to meet Archibald Johnson.
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"It takes a brave man to venture this way in the dark of night."
Dr. Knox's sisters, Mary and Jessie, meet Sir Walter Scott at a charity bazaar.
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Mary Knox
"Oh the man is a genius. His writings are so inspiring!"
A victim wails in terror as Hare approaches.
Mary Paterson talks to Archibald Johnson in tavern.
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"This room is filled with scoundrels and thieves at every turn."
A child with a devil mask and cloak appears on the other side of the shop door in the street. The child stands still and looks in, then runs on down the street.
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Mrs Docherty
"It's Halloween. You can't move for the wee buggers."
Daft Jamie Wilson is enticed with an apple from Margaret Hare.
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"Here. A soldier can't march on an empty stomach."
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Dr. Knox makes payment to Hare for a 'subject'.
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"..similar payments are guaranteed should you happen upon other subjects."
Archibald Johnson enters the slums to find Janet Brown. Crossing a courtyard, children run past, dressed for Hallloween.
In the middle of the night Mrs Connoway is awoken by a scream of "murder!".
Hare hides in the cellar with a tea chest containing a body.
Sgt. Fisher confronts Burke in the lodgings.
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"This isn't over."
Scientist James Clerk Maxwell takes a photograph of Burke. "Have you ever seen anything like this?" whispers a watching police officer.
Hare is questioned at the trial, as he provides King's Evidence.
