INSPECTION OF COFFINS.
ANNUAL RITE FOR 68 YEARS. LONDON, Aug. 12. Recalling the days of Burko and Flare, the body-snatchers, an annual rite was observed at the parish churcliyard at Sutton, Surrey. After prayers a tomb was opened and seven coffins inspected in accordance with the will of the daughters of James Gibson, who so ordered to prevent rifling of the tomb.
Local residents were angry that, for the first time, they were not allowed to enter the tomb, claiming the right, as in past years, one saying that he had entered annually for 68 years. Gibsoii died in 1777.
Central figures in one of the most celebrated eases in British criminal history, Burko and Hare first robbed graves, then committed murder to provide bodies for surgical dissection. A great scandal grew round the case when it came to Court, for it was found that there had been little if any investigation by those who received the bodies as to when or in what circumstances they had been obtained.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MS19370814.2.132
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Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 218, 14 August 1937, Page 10
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169INSPECTION OF COFFINS. Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 218, 14 August 1937, Page 10
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