The crime seems to have caught the public interest to an extraordinary degree; a crowd of thirty thousand turned up to watch the hangings, and a play "The Italian Boy" (featuring the original story of the Italian beggar and his white mice) was later put on at Shoreditch. Partridge's involvement placed him in the public eye at a young age, and the case seems to have made a strong impression on him; he is said to have often included the tale in his lectures. The public outcry about the case put pressure on the government which led to the passing of the Anatomy Act of 1832; the act had been presented in 1829, following the Burke and Hare case, but was defeated. By permitting the bodies of paupers unclaimed by relatives to be supplied to medical schools for dissection, the act did away with the trade of the Resurrectionists.