117. Murder

To burke is to kill by strangulation, a word taken from the name of a 19th century murderer. In Anglo-Saxon England, a killing could be settled with payment through the wergild, a sum paid by the offender to the victim's family. In France, a petty criminal would go on to become one of the first figures to resemble a modern detective. 

Alongside these histories, this episode explores the origins of words such as assassin, scelerate, culprit, trucidate and lucre. 

Transition sound by https://audionautix.com 

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zvrsydm#zhxbcmn 

https://biomedical-sciences.ed.ac.uk/anatomy/anatomical-museum/collection/people/burke 

https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/eugene-francois-vidocq-and-the-birth-of-the-detective/ 

https://blog.oup.com/2015/08/word-etymology-culprit/ 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/content/articles/2006/04/11/local_heroes_doctor_william_palmer_feature.shtml