Crime & punishment > Whinny Park murder

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THE MEDICAL CERTIFICATE.
After the body was disinterred from its temporary
grave, it was taken to the house, and washed, for the in¬
spection of the medical gentlemen. The appearances of
violence, and those circumstances which seemed to indi¬
cate the length of time it had been in the ground, were
observed by them: and to give a better idea of these
we subjoin the certificate which they signed, anil which
forms part of the evidence.
Cupar Fife, 27th July, 1830.
On the evening of the 24th instant, we, by order of the
SheritF-Substitute of Fife, proceeded to Whinny Park,
near Monimail, in the parish of Monimail. county of Fife,
to examine the dead body of a man which had been dis¬
covered that afternoon buried in a garden.
On our arrival at the place, we found the body still
under ground, which we got carefully disinterred and
carried to an adjoining house; where, after removing the
body clothes, with which it was buried, we made our
inspection.
The body appeared to have been dead four or five
weeks; the putrefactive process having made consider¬
able progress throughout the whole of it.
There is a wound of the scalp, on the fore part of the
right side of the head, measuring an inch and a half in
length, and an inch and a quarter in breadth; wdth a
corresponding fracture of the anterior part of the right
parietal bone: the fractured portions being driven into
the brain, and lodged within its substance.
On the back part of the left side of the head, a little
above and behind the ear, there is another wound, about
an inch in circuinference, exposing a fracture and depres¬
sion of the subjacentjgemnoral bone, two inches in
length; part of whichjw detached and beaten into the
brain.
There is likewise a superficial ragged wound, about
three quarters of an inch in circumference, over the su¬
perior portion of the occipital bone; but it is slight, and
does not penetrate beyond the integuments or skin.