- Joined
- Oct 17, 2001
- Messages
- 592
Every time I visit Chambers Steet Museum in Edinburgh , I make a point of having a look at these . They were 17 tiny coffins , each containing a small figure , and were found buried on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh back in the 1936 . If I recall correctly , thes coffins also formed part of the plot of Ian Rankin's novel The Falls . Today I read this article in The Mail on Sunday :
The programme is called Murder Dolls and will be broadcast on the National Geographic channel on Dec 5 at 9pm.
DNA Key to the Murder Dolls
Genetic testing of DNA from one of Scotland's most infamous serial killers could solve one of the country's most baffling mysteries.
Nobody has ever been able to discover who made and hid a macabre collection of wooden dolls in coffins , discovered in 1936 by children playing on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh.
Clothes worn by the staff were dated back to the 1820s-and led to speculation that the murderer William Burke made a doll to represent each of his victims.
Now DNA has been recovered from Burke's skeleton to compare with samples taken from the dolls- and the results will be revealed in a new TV documentary.
The 17 small , carved figures , found tucked away in ledges under a grassy knoll , are now kept at the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
Museum curator George Dalgleish said:'I can't over-emphasize how unique these dolls are. There is absolutely nothing around to which they compare.Someone bothered to create them and buried them in a special way. I would love to know why.'
A tiny fragment of bone has been removed from the heel of William Burke , hanged in 1829 for a spate of murders committed in the name of medical science and whose skeleton is kept under lock and key at Edinburgh University.
Analysis of the DNA took months but experts are so impressed with the clear results they acquired from such old material that the techniques could be applied to many unsolved murders from the 19th century.
Burke , along with William Hare , murdered a string of people in Edinburgh in the 1820s to satisfy the demand from the medical profession for newly dead corpses.
The two Irish labourers lured their victims to their room in the West Port area of the city , where they suffocated them in a way that did not leave marks on their bodies.
They then sold the bodies on to surgeons at £10 a corpse. In all , they committed 17 murders - which could correspond to the 17 dolls.Burke and Hare were eventually caught at the end of 1828. Hare testified against Burke to save his own life and his partner in crime was hanged in January 1829.
But it would be another 107 years before the discovery of the dolls in the coffins , their eyes all painted wide-open. At the time , Burke was rumoured to be the creator of the tiny carvings which became known as the Murder Dolls.
Police paperas revealed how the killer had shown dreadful remorse for his crimes and it was suggested he had carefully carved the dolls and placed them one at a time in the Arthur's Seat hiding-place as some sort of cleansing ritual.
The museum called in DNA expert Mike Barber whose forensic skills are normally used to solve more recent crimes.
Mr Barber , who is based at the DNA science centre in Yorkshire , said:'The fact we got such clear DNA results from such old material is going to be a huge help in the future.We just didn't think it was possible'.
The programme is called Murder Dolls and will be broadcast on the National Geographic channel on Dec 5 at 9pm.