Macabre evidence

The use of anatomical models in Victorian courts

Crime history often leads me down unexpected and rather obscure paths, as I investigate the sometimes seemingly insignificant details of historical homicides. When I was researching the tragic case of Martha Bilborough, who died at the hands of a fake doctor while undergoing an illegal abortion in 1858, I noted, at the end of the trial, that an anatomical model was produced in court.

This discovery took me into the fascinating, and often gruesome, world of Joseph Thornton Woodhead, who ran several anatomy museums in the north of England and whose models had provided the key evidence in the Bilborough case. In a strange twist, his controversial collections were themselves investigated by an undercover detective, which threatened to close his unusual business once and for all.