In August 1700, two young boys were murdered in open countryside less than half a mile from Edinburgh Castle, killed in broad daylight by the man entrusted with their education. The killer was Thomas Hunter, a theology graduate who had once been expected to have a promising future in the church. When he was captured within minutes of the murders, his clothing still bore the blood of his victims, and the law that would decide his fate was as grim as the crime itself. Thomas Hunter was born in the county of Fife in the 1670s.

His father was a prosperous farmer who ensured that his son received an excellent education. Scotland at the time had one of the most advanced education systems in Europe. Following the Reformation, the Church of Scotland placed great importance on literacy so that people could read the Bible for themselves, and parish schools had become common across much of the country. Boys from wealthier families could continue their education at grammar schools before attending one of Scotland’s universities, where students studied a broad classical curriculum including Latin, Greek, philosophy, and logic before specializing in subjects such as law, medicine, or theology.

Thomas Hunter followed this path. He studied the classics at the University of St. Andrews, where he graduated with a Master of Arts degree, and then continued his studies in theology, making very good progress. His tutors commented that they believed he had a promising future in the church.

It was common for young men training for the ministry to serve as tutors or chaplains in wealthy households, educating their employers’ children while carrying out religious duties, earning a living and gaining valuable experience until they could obtain a parish of their own. Such appointments were often difficult to secure, as they depended on vacancies, influential patrons, and favorable recommendations from senior church members. As a result, many aspiring ministers spent several years in private service before beginning their careers. In 1698, Thomas entered the household of Mr.

Gordon, a highly respected Edinburgh merchant and one of the city’s bailies, a senior civic officer who helped govern the city and administered local justice. The Gordon household was large and prosperous, including Mr. and Mrs. Gordon, their two young sons, their young daughter, a maid, business clerks, and domestic servants.

Thomas was entrusted with the education of the two boys, providing them with a classical education considered essential for children from a wealthy family. He carried out his duties well and earned the confidence and respect of the family, who regarded him as an intelligent and capable young man with an excellent character. During this time, Thomas began a relationship with one of the domestic servants. The pair managed to keep their involvement hidden for some time, though rumors and gossip circulated among the other servants.

One day, while Mr. and Mrs. Gordon were away visiting friends, Thomas and the servant girl met together in his bedroom. On this particular day, they were careless enough to leave the door unlocked.

Without warning, the Gordon children entered the room and discovered the pair together in circumstances that left no doubt about the nature of their relationship. At first, neither Thomas nor the servant believed there was any serious cause for concern. The eldest boy was not yet ten years old, and they assumed the children were too young to understand what they had witnessed or to repeat it. They were mistaken.

That evening at supper, the children innocently spoke about what they had seen. Their description was enough to leave Mr. and Mrs. Gordon in no doubt about what had taken place.

The consequences were immediate for the young servant, who was ordered to leave the household the following day. Thomas, however, was treated with surprising leniency. Rather than dismissing him, Mr. Gordon allowed him to remain after he offered an apology, claiming his actions had been the result of youthful foolishness, expressing great regret, and promising that such conduct would never happen again.

The Gordons accepted his apology, and Thomas remained in his position of trust. Privately, however, he did not accept responsibility for his own actions. Instead, he blamed the children for revealing the affair and exposing him to shame and embarrassment. His resentment became focused on the young witnesses whose innocent honesty had brought his misconduct to light.

Over time, the resentment grew into a deep and bitter desire for revenge, developing into a carefully considered plan. Whenever the weather was pleasant, Thomas would take the two boys into the fields for about an hour before dinner, and their sister would often accompany them. Because this had become such a normal part of daily life, the family had no reason to suspect anything was wrong. In August 1700, circumstances unexpectedly changed.

The Gordon family was staying at their country residence just outside Edinburgh when Mr. and Mrs. Gordon received an invitation to dine in the city. Mrs.

Gordon wished for all three children to accompany them, but her husband decided otherwise, and they took only their daughter. That afternoon, with the weather favorable, Thomas took the boys into the fields as he had done many times before. To anyone watching, it appeared to be an ordinary walk between a tutor and his pupils. After a while, Thomas sat down on the grass as though taking a rest while the children wandered nearby, happily catching butterflies and gathering wildflowers, unaware of the danger they faced.

Thomas then took out a penknife and called the boys over. Instead of speaking to them as their tutor, he reminded them of the day they had discovered him with the servant and accused them of bringing shame upon him by telling their parents what they had seen. He told them that he intended to kill them. Terrified, the boys tried to escape, but Thomas pursued them, caught them both, forced them to the ground, and restrained one child while he attacked the other with his penknife.

After murdering the first boy, he carried out the same terrible act upon the other. Given the location and the time of day, it was unlikely that such a crime could have been carried out without being witnessed, and this proved to be the case. A gentleman walking on Castle Hill had a clear view of what was happening. Horrified, he raised the alarm, gathered several other people, and they hurried towards the scene, where they discovered the two young boys lying dead.

Thomas had made his way towards a nearby river, and some of the group pursued him, seizing him just as he reached the water’s edge. A messenger was dispatched to inform Mr. and Mrs. Gordon, who were preparing to dine with friends in Edinburgh.

The news was devastating. The two children they had entrusted to Thomas’s care had been brutally murdered by the very man they had welcomed into their home and trusted as their tutor. Scottish law contained an ancient and rarely used provision for cases where a murderer was captured with unmistakable evidence of their crime. It declared that if a murderer was taken with the blood of the murdered person on his clothes, he should be prosecuted in the sheriff’s courts and executed within three days after the commission of the fact.

Although this law was not always enforced to its full extent, Thomas Hunter’s crime was considered so shocking and brutal that the authorities decided there would be no delay and no leniency. When questioned, Thomas claimed that he had intended to die by his own hand after the killings, saying he had gone to the river intending to throw himself into the water, but a crowd had discovered him before he could carry out his plan. He was taken into custody and brought to prison, where he was chained to the floor throughout the night to prevent any attempt to escape. The following day, the sheriff summoned a jury to hear the case.

When Thomas appeared before the court, he did not deny his guilt. He pleaded guilty to the murders. Yet even in these final proceedings, he displayed no sign of remorse. According to reports of the time, his only expressed sorrow was that he had not also killed Mr.

Gordon’s daughter along with her two brothers. With his guilt admitted, the sheriff passed an exceptionally severe sentence. The following day, Thomas Hunter was to be taken back to the very place where the murders had been committed, and there his execution would take place. Hanging alone was not to be the punishment.

The sheriff instructed that before Thomas was executed, his right hand, the hand that had carried out the murders, was to be removed with a hatchet. Only after this brutal act had been carried out would he then be hanged. Even after death, there would be no ordinary burial. His body was to remain suspended in chains between Edinburgh and Leith as a permanent warning.

The knife used in the murders was to be placed through the severed hand, which would then be fixed above the wooden structure supporting his remains. On the 22nd of August, 1700, Thomas Hunter was executed exactly as the sheriff had ordered. Many people witnessed the execution, a grim reminder of the severity of punishment that awaited those who committed the most violent crimes. The spectacle caused continued distress to Mr.

Gordon. The road between Edinburgh and Leith was one he frequently traveled, and each time he passed the hanging remains of the man who had murdered his sons, the memory of their deaths was brought back to him. Unable to endure the sight any longer, Mr. Gordon petitioned the sheriff for the body to be removed and placed elsewhere.

His request was granted, and within a few days the body was taken down and rehung near the small village of Broughton on the outskirts of Edinburgh. It was another detail that ensured Thomas Hunter’s name would be remembered with particular horror. Just before he was executed, he made a statement that shocked everyone present when he calmly said, There is no God. I do not believe there is any, or if there is, I hold him in defiance.

To many of his contemporaries, these words were almost as disturbing as the crimes he committed. Thomas Hunter had spent years studying theology and had once appeared destined for a career as a minister of the church. Yet the man who had prepared to preach the Christian faith ended his life with a public rejection of the very beliefs he had once studied to defend.

His final words, combined with the brutality of his crimes, ensured that his name remained associated with horror for generations afterwards.