In Reply to: Re: Daft Jimmy posted by Graham Cambray on March 04, 2009 at 14:52:
: : : What is the origin of 'worse than the murder of daft Jimmy'?
: : -------
: : A very limited contribution - it may be Scottish in origin. At http://www.scotland.com/forums/literature-film/12876-some-scottish-poetry.html
: : one Joan Green recalls the old phrase:
: : "Whit a commoshum. It wiz wurse thin the murdir o' daft Jimmy."
: : (GC)
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: A possible origin for this phrase might have been the murder of James Wilson by Burke and Hare - see http://www.edinburgh-royalmile.com/famous-scots/burke-and-hare.html among a host of other references. A children's entertainer, he appears to have been known in his day as "Daft Jamie" rather than "Daft Jimmy", however. This is a suggestion and nothing more. (GC)
It's a perfectly plausible one, however, given the huge notoriety of the "Burke and Hare" case. (VSD)