Edinburgh Phrenological Society It was denounced as an attack on faith and morals... read today, it must be regarded as really rather more orthodox in its teaching than some of the lucubrations of the Dean of St Paul's and the Bishop of Durham". Phrenologists from the Society applied their methods to the Burke and Hare murders in Edinburgh. Over the course of ten months in 1828, Burke and Hare murdered sixteen people and sold the bodies for dissection in anatomy lectures. Burke was executed on 28 January 1829, while Hare turned King's evidence; Burke was publicly dissected by Professor Monro the next day,
What the Night Knows John goes to visit Billy; Billy indicates that the reason he killed them was because of “Ruin”. As John is leaving, Billy’s countenance changes and he begins saying “help me”. John begins to investigate the murders, and finds that there are a number of similarities between the murders committed by Billy, and murders committed by Alton Turner Blackwood some 20 years previously. Alton Blackwood killed John’s entire family. The two families were murdered in almost exactly the same way. John’s family (his wife Nicolette, and his children Zach, Naomi, and Minette), begin to be haunted by dreams, sounds in the