Burke and Hare murders two men were hanged in December 1831 for the crime. A bill was quickly introduced into Parliament, and gained royal assent nine months later to become the Anatomy Act 1832. This Act authorised dissection on bodies from workhouses unclaimed after 48 hours, and ended the practice of anatomising as part of the death sentence for murder. The events of the West Port murders have made appearances in fiction. They are referred to in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1884 short story, "The Body Snatcher", and Marcel Schwob told their story in the last chapter of "Imaginary Lives" (1896), while the Edinburgh-based author
West End, Edinburgh West End, Edinburgh The West End () of Edinburgh, Scotland, forms a large part of the city centre. The West End boasts many of the city's arts venues, such as the Usher Hall, the Filmhouse, the Royal Lyceum and the Traverse Theatre. The Village hosts art festivals and crafts fairs. The northern half of the West End lies in Edinburgh's World Heritage Site, of which it makes up a fair proportion. As can be inferred by its inclusion in this, this area of the city contains many buildings of great architectural beauty, primarily long rows and crescents of Georgian terraced