Burker Tales, Burker Stories noun plural stories about body snatchers: Many a sleepless night I spent after a whiles round a campfire listening to ghost stories and Burker tales (stories of body-snatchers). 20-. Compare burker etymology: derived from William Burke of Burke and Hare the nineteeth-century body snatchers, also known as The West Porter Murderers, who often targeted the Traveller community as their victims; attested by JS |