In the dark streets of early 19th-century Britain, a single word would chill the blood of every man and woman. “Burker! Burker!” — the cry echoed through the foggy street and alleys, a warning and a curse. The word derived from Edinburgh’s infamous murderers Burke and Hare, who sold bodies to surgeons for dissection. But London had its own Burkers.
The Bethnal Green Gang
The Bethnal Green Gang included a Covent Garden porter and an unemployed butcher known as Black Eyed Jack. These resurrection men exhumed freshly buried bodies and sold them to the surgeons of St Bartholomew’s Hospital. At the time, medical schools could only legally dissect the bodies of executed criminals. But as the demand for cadavers grew, a black market in corpses thrived. A newly buried body could fetch £10 — when a workman earned less than a pound a week.
Defending the Dead
Terrified families went to extraordinary lengths to protect their loved ones. The wealthy commissioned triple coffins, stone vaults, and iron mortsafes — cages designed to keep the dead underground. The poor did what they could: graves filled with heavy stones, or night watches in churchyards.
At St Sepulchre’s Church near Smithfield, a watchtower was built next to the graveyard, where men stood guard over fresh burials. The tower still stands today — a lasting reminder of the bone diggers’ trade.
Sick Notes and the Dark Side of Medicine
We first told this graverobbers story in our award-nominated podcast Extraordinary Stories of Britain, in the episode Sick Notes — exploring the strange and unsettling history of medicine.
This year, for Halloween, we delve deeper into that macabre world with a dramatisation: “Diary of a Grave Robber”
The Borough Gang and Joseph Naples
This story follows The Borough Gang, another group of London graverobbers. One of these “bonediggers”, Joseph Naples, kept a detailed diary of the gang’s grim activities. This is the only surviving account written by a resurrection man and is preserved at the Royal College of Surgeons in London.
Naples was the son of a respectable printer. After deserting the Navy, he took work as a gravedigger — but was lured into the trade of the dead. Based on Naples’ own words and contemporary court reports, our Halloween episode brings his story to life: from his time in Nelson’s Navy, to grim deeds in the Borough Gang and dealings with the “bonecutters” of London — including the renowned surgeon Sir Astley Cooper, who mentored Naples.
And finally, we recount the bizarre twist of fate that led Joseph Naples to end his life at Guy’s Hospital.
Listen to our Halloween graverobbers story, “Diary of a Resurrectionist,” at www.storiesofbritain.com.
Part of Extraordinary Stories of Britain — where the past is anything but dead.
About the author
Marc Zakian is a London Blue Badge Guide. He is also a writer, journalist and podcaster at “Extraordinary Stories of Britain”.
Meet Marc here
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