Scholar of the Strange and Mysterious
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Professor Hex
Scholar of the Strange and Mysterious
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting



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Friday, December 02, 2005

Buried secrets of the city murder dolls 
CAREFULLY and gently, the cotton swab is run over the mysterious tiny wooden doll. Skilfully handled by the DNA expert, it is placed back into the equally small hand-carved coffin in which it was secreted on Arthur's Seat almost two centuries ago in the midst of an infamous killing spree.

Two serial killers were on the loose, their tally 17 murders. And it seems that in the midst of the horror, someone was secretly carving tiny effigies - one for each victim - and burying them quietly in a cave in the extinct volcano in the centre of Edinburgh.

The question is, who? And why?


Wow.

It is around 170 years since 17 minute figures in coffins were first found by schoolboys out rabbiting on Arthur's Seat back in 1836, prompting fears that they were related to witchcraft.

But it wasn't until the 1990s, decades after the dolls were bought and displayed at the Royal Museum of Scotland, that experts suggested that the 17 dolls in fact represented the 17 victims of the infamous Burke and Hare - murders for which Burke was hanged after Hare turned Queen's evidence to save his own life.



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