This illustration by Hablot Knight Browne depicts the act of exhumation and the callous nature the men committing the crimes possessed. This specific depiction is of John Holmes and Peter Williams who were punished for their participation in the theft of twenty bodies with the intention to sell in 1777 (The Newgate Calander). This predecessor to the crimes that inspired Stevenson's "The Body-Snatcher" is an example of how the court system and the public despised resurrectionists from the very beginning.