Up the close and down the stair,
But and ben with Burke and Hare,
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief,
Knox the boy that buys the beef.

The Resurrection Men were founded by current members Burke and Hare.

Hare was an American intellectual, who studied history with a passion and who had a strange facination with the lives of serial killers. He had come to Scotland to research the antics of the famous body-snatchers Burke and Hare. The Burke and Hare of the historical record were what was called "resurrection men," for they would dig up freshly buried bodies in order to take the body to the local Univeristy so that the medical professors would have bodies to dissect. At the time (the early 1800s), dissection of corpses wasn't very well accepted, so had to be done kind of covertly. Burke and Hare decided that digging up graves was too much trouble, so they soon turned to murder in order to acquire new bodies to sell to Dr. Knox, their man buyer. They were eventually caught, with Hare turning on Burke and testifying against him. Burke was hanged and then his corpse was given to Edinburgh University for dissection. Hare was given his freedom for his testimony.

It was while in Edinburgh that Hare met the man would would soon be called "Burke." His birth name was William McDougal and he was quite the physical specimen. When he walked into the pub where Hare was having his dinner, many eyes turned towards him. After McDougal set himself down at the bar and ordered his pint of stout, three of the more drunk men decided to test their fighting abilities. The couldn't have picked the wrong man. McDougal single-handedly wiped them out, but didn't count on the forth drunk who had just returned from the bathroom only to see his friends getting whipped by a giant of a man. This man pulled out a knife and was slowly creeping up behind McDougal. That was his last memory, for Hare had gotten out of his chair and, fueled by bloodlust brought on from watching the fight, finished off the forth drunk. It was his first recorded kill. Hare found from that experience that murder and killing could bring around a glorious feeling inside him. McDougal and Hare made their escape. From that point on, Hare and McDougal would start a trail of bodies of the people who were trying to track them down from the bar incident. They finally became so adept at their killings that they had made a name for themselves and decided to take on mercenary work. By this point, McDougal had taken the name "Burke" and they called themselves the Resurrection Men

The Resurrection Men are now expaning and bringing in new members. In order to give themselves a psychological edge, the members take on the names of famous serial killers, such as the first "expansion" member, Gacy. He had already been using clown paint to gain an edge on his victims, so the name of Gacy was fitting.

One can spot the Resurrection Men by the destinctive red leather gloves worn by all members. These gloves symbolize the ungodly amount of blood that these men have on their hands.

Cobra Commander heard of these men through his arms-supplier, Destro. After staging a meeting with Burke and Hare, the Commander hired them on the spot. Anyone who is willing to emulate and honor cold-blooded killers by taking on their names has got to be a good aquaintance for Cobra.