William Hare

William Hare was a 19th-century Irish-born coffin maker and grave robber involved in the infamous Burke and Hare murders in Edinburgh. Alongside partner William Burke, Hare murdered 16 people between 1827 and 1828 to sell their bodies for medical research, as fresh corpses were in high demand. Their crimes revealed the moral dilemmas in body procurement for medical science and led to the passing of the Anatomy Act in 1832, which regulated the supply of cadavers. Hare was caught, but unlike Burke, he testified against his partner and received immunity, later disappearing from public records.