 In the 1980s, he created a number of images inspired by both real-life and fictional serial-killers, including Jack the Ripper, Ed Gein and Hannibal Lecter.According to Malcolm Yorke, he visited the scenes of the Whitechapel murders which "still exuded a scent of evil, or 'agony traces' as he called them".In 1991, Burman won the Hunting Group / "The Observer" award with his painting 'Manac Es', inspired by the Whitechapel murders as fictionalised in Iain Sinclair's first novel 'White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings'.