The body snatchers: corpse and effect - University of Cambridge

: The most infamous case involved Burke and Hare in Edinburgh (1828), who shifted from exhumation to murder to meet the demand for "fresh" subjects. 2. Literary: Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Body Snatcher"

: Legislation at the time restricted the legal supply of cadavers to executed criminals, which was insufficient for the growing number of medical students.

Published in 1884, this Gothic short story was directly inspired by the Burke and Hare murders.