Burke & Hare: The Serial Killers Who Sold Bodies to Science

Murder fueled a black market for human bodies. In the 1820s, serial killers William Burke and William Hare sold their victims’ bodies to medical schools. How far did the anatomy trade reach, and how much did doctors really know? This episode exposes the Burke and Hare murders, the shadowy body trade, and the system that quietly rewarded killing in the name of science. To watch the podcast on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - Get instant access to 200+ bonus Audio episodes - Sign up here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

You can listen to Burke & Hare: The Serial Killers Who Sold Bodies to Science online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Burke & Hare: The Serial Killers Who Sold Bodies to Science is an episode from Theories of the Third Kind by Theories of the Third Kind.

This episode is 75:20 long.

This episode was published on Jan 16, 2026.

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