Reply #4: Bodysnatching used to be quite common in Europe [View All]

[T_i_B]

Here is an example, it is the infamous Burke and Hare, who did not stop at those already dead.

http://www.highlanderweb.co.uk/burkhare.htm

Ever aware of a market to meet, Burke and Hare set themselves up as procurers of human bodies to satisfy the demand of Edinburgh's medical schools.

Originally the two would dig up the graves of the recently departed in the dead of night, steal the body and then sell it for cash to a doctor for use during anatomy demonstrations. Sounds like hard work and Burke and Hare must have thought so, too, because they decided there was no need to go digging. The two entrepreneurs started murdering people in Edinburghs old town and selling the cadavers of the victims to the medical schools on an 'ask no questions basis.'