Robert Knox regular basis. After 16 more transactions, in what became known as the West Port Murders, on 2 November 1828 Burke and Hare were caught, and the whole city convulsed with titillated horror, fed by ballads, broadsides and newspapers, at the terrible deeds of the pair. Hare turned King's evidence, and Burke was hanged, dissected and displayed. Knox was not prosecuted, which outraged many in Edinburgh. His house was attacked by a mob of 'the lowest rabble of the Old Town,' and windows were broken. A committee of the Royal Society of Edinburgh exonerated him on the grounds that he had
West Port, Edinburgh the main street through the western part of the burgh of Portsburgh - a burgh of barony from 1649 to 1856. The name "West Port" originally referred only to the gate itself, but was used for the entire length of the street leading away from the gate in maps from around 1837 onwards. "Wester Portsburgh" still appeared as the name of the street on maps as late as 1831. "Portsburgh" can also be seen as the name for the same street in a map from 1836. However, this does not serve to distinguish it from the eastern part of Portsburgh