The trial of Prof. John W. Webster, indicted for the murder of Dr. George Parkman, at the Medical college (North Grove street) on the 23d of November, 1849 : Supreme judicial court, before Chief Justice Shaw, and Associate Justices Wilde, Dewey, and Metcalf. Counsel for the government, Attorney General J.H. Clifford, and George Bemis, esq. Counsel for the defence, Hon. Pliny Merrick, and E.D. Sohier, esq. / Reported for Boston journal.
- Webster, John White, 1793-1850
- Date:
- 1850
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The trial of Prof. John W. Webster, indicted for the murder of Dr. George Parkman, at the Medical college (North Grove street) on the 23d of November, 1849 : Supreme judicial court, before Chief Justice Shaw, and Associate Justices Wilde, Dewey, and Metcalf. Counsel for the government, Attorney General J.H. Clifford, and George Bemis, esq. Counsel for the defence, Hon. Pliny Merrick, and E.D. Sohier, esq. / Reported for Boston journal. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![me for on Tuesday; he wanted a lump as large as my head. It is nothing unusual for him to have it. I have procured it for him every vrinter. At 2 o'clock P. M. the Court adjourned. AFTERNOON SIITING. The Court and Jury came in at 3^ o'clock. EPHaAM LiiTTiEFiELD. Examination Resumed.—I was in the cellar in the forenoon of Thanksgiving Day, Thurs- day, for the purpose of getting the grape vines out of the cellar, as the children liad picked them ofi' and scattered them all over the house. In the afternoon 1 went to work at the walls—to dig holes through the walls that led un- der Dr. Webster's privy. I should think that it was about 8 o'clock. I wanted to get under there to see if anything was there, to satisfy myself and the public, as whenever I was out of the College some one would say Dr. ParK- man is in the Medical College, and will De found there if ever found anywhere. 1 never could go out of the build- ing without hearing such remarks. ^All the other parts of the building had been searched, »nd if nothiug should be Ibund in the privy, I could con- yince the public that Dr. Parkman had not met foul play in the College. I went down the front scuttle, with a lamp, to the back side of the building, wheie Mr. Fuller and I went the Tuesday before. Tiie tools I used were a hatchet and mortising chisel. I worked an hour or an hour and a half, but found I could not make much pro- gress with the tools I had. I got out two courses of brick and then gave up the job tor the night. Nothing further occurred on that day. I was out that night until I o'clock the next moruiug, at a ball at Cochituate Hall, given by a Division of the Sons of Temperance. There were twen- ty dances, and I danced eighteen out of twenty. On Fri- fool of you this lime. Says she, two gentlemen called here and I thought one was Dr. Webster, but they proved to be Mr. Kingsley and Mr. Starkweather. They rang the bell and called for you. I went out and talked with them on the front steps. Mr. Kingsley asked me what private place there was that had not been searched. I told him where the place was, and Mr. Kingsley said, '' Let us go into his room. I told him it was locked up, and we could not enter. They then went away. J saw Mr. Trenholm, police offi- cer, and being well acquainted with him, I told him whaS I was doing,and that I should get through in twenty min- utes or half an hour, and if he would come back I would tell him the result. As 1 was going into my shed I met my wife, and she said, ■' You have just saved your bacon, as Dr. Webster has just passed in. I stood talking with Mr. Trenholm some time until Dr. Webster came out, which was a little before 4 o'clock. He came out into the shed and spoke to both of us. He said that an Irishman had offered to change a $20 bill, on the Cambridge side of the bridge, to pay his toll of one cent. They Thought it was an extraordinary thing for an Irishman to have a $20 bill, and so they kept it. He said the Marshal had been to him to ascertain if he knew to whom he had paid such a bill. He said he could not swear as to that, and then he went oil. I left Mr. Trenholm; he was to come back in 20 minutes or haif an hour. I went under the building again, requesting my wife to keep a close watch on the door. I took the crowbar and knocked the bigness of the hole right through. I did not use the chisel and hammer. I had drilled a hole with a crowbar before 1 went up. There are five courses of brick in the wall. I had trouble with my light, as the air drew strongly through the hole. I managed to get the light and my head into the hole, when day I got up a little before 9 o'clock. BIy wife called me 11 was not disturbed with the draft. I then held my light a little before 8, and wanted me to finish digging through | forward, and the first thing which I saw was the pelvis the walls. I did not get up when she called me. of a man, and two parts of a leg. The water was running We were at breakfast, and Dr. Webster came into the down on these remains from the sink. I knew it was no kitchen. He came in and took a paper up. Says he there any more news ?—do you hear anything further ot Dr. Parkman? He said that he had just come from Dr. Henchman's apothecary shop. Dr. Henchman said a|womau had seen a large bundle put into a cab, that she had taken the number of the cab, that they had found the cab,and it was all covered over with blood. I said that thete were so many flying reports about Dr. Parkman that we did not know what to believe. Dr. Webster then went up stairs. Some men were employed by me to bring some busts from Dr. Ware's lecture room into the anatomical room. They were put underneath the seats, which were raised considerably above the floor. Dr. Henry J. Bige- low was there. [The witness pointed out upon the model the localities.] I asked Dr. Bigelow if he knew there was suspicion about Dr. Webster. As near as I can recollect, he said that he did. I told Dr. Henry J. Bigelow that I had commenced digging through the wall, and I understood him to say go ahead with it. I told Dr. Bigelowall about Dr. Webster's keeping his doors shut from me. I under- Btood Dr. Bigelow to tell me to go ahead. In a few min- utes I went into the Demonstrator's room, and there found Dr. J. B. S. Jackson alone, at work. He is a Pro- fessor. I told Dr. Jackson that I was digging through the wall, and he said, Mr. Littlefield, I feel dreadfully about this, and do you go through that wall before you Bleep to-night. He did not give me any directions about Becrecy. He asked me if I found anything, what I intend- ed to do. I told him I should go to Dr. Holmes. Says he, don't you go there, but do you go to old Dr. Bige- low, in Summer street, and then come and tell me. If I am not at home, leave your name on my slate and I Bhall understand it. In the afternoon, about 2 o'clock, I went and asked Mr. Leonard Fuller if he could lend me a crowbar. He said he could, and went and got it, and asked me what I wanted to do with it. I told him I wanted to dig a hole in a brick wall to carry a lead pipe, to let the water pass in. He replied, '• I guess you do. He said no more, and I took the crowbar and left. He spoke in humor. I suppose he suspected what I was doing. I went to the house and locked every door, so that Dr. Webster and no one else could get in. Dropped the latch of the front door, put my wife to watch the doors,and to let no one in unless she saw who it was; it is a dead latch upon the front door. I told her if Dr. Webster came to the door not to let him unless she went into the kitchen and gave four raps on the floor to warn me; if anybody else came, not to disturb me. I went down under the building and went to work; probably 1 worked half an hour. I blistered my hands with the crowbar, and went to the kitchen and got a pair of thick gloves to put on, and went down again; worked a spell longer, and findin I could not make much pro- gress with the crowbar,! went to Mr. Fuller and got a cold chisel and a hammer. Both Fullers were present, and appeared disposed to accommodate me. I went to work again and got along pretty rapidly. I got out 3^^ courses the length of the wall. Soon I heard a running and a rap four times upon the floor, and I came up as Boon as I could from under the building. When I got up into the entry, I met my wife, and she said I have made a place tor these things. I went ujj and told my wife I was going down to Dr. Bigelow's; I told her what I had dis- covered. I locked the cellar door and took the key in my pocket, so that no one could get down until I returned.— My wife spoke to me first when I came up, after I discor- ered the remains. [The Counsel for Government proposed to ask witness what was his own condition and appearance when he came up after the discovery of the reniauis, which led his wife to ask him what was the matter. The Counsel for defence objected, and witness was allowed simply to state his condition.] 1 was very much afiected. I locked the door and went as soon as I could to Dr. Jacob Bigelow, Summer street. He was not at home; the girl came to the door, and I told her to ask Mrs. Bigelow if she knew where the Dr. was, as I wished to see him very much. Mrs. Bigelow came to the door, called me by name, and asked me what the matter was. I then went right down to Dr. Henry J. Bigelow, in Chanoey Place. I found him in, and told him what I had discovered. He told me to come along with him to R. G. Shaw, Jr.'s, in Summer street- We went clown to Mr. Shaw's; went into his study, and there found Mr. Shaw. I did not call at Dr. Jackson's until after I had beeii to Mr. Shaw's. The Marshal came in to Mr. Shaw's, and I told him the same thing that I had told the others. The Marshal told me to go right back to the College, and he would soon be there. I went to Dr. J. B. S. Jackson, wrote my name on the slate, and then went to the College, and got there before any of the other parties. I found Mr. Trenholm, and he told me that he had been down and made some discoveries. The Marshal got there in ten or fifteen minutes after I got home. Dr. Bigelow also got here. Mr. Clapp came before them, I believe. The hole was about half way between the plastering and the round. The aperture is about 18 inches one way, and perhaps 10 or 12 inches the other. The dirt was thrown up a foot more on the east side than on the west side.— From the laboratory floor to the ground was about a foot deeper than from the cellar floor to the ground. Any thing from the privy hole might fall right down on one side. The remains were a little on one side of the hole leaning rather to the sea-wall than to a line let fall per- pendicularly from the hole. [The witness explained to the jury, by means of a dia- gram of the lower part of the Medical College, the posi- tion of the walls, privy, and remains.] There was no aperture through which anything could flow in or out with the tide. The water flows into the vault in consequence of the walls being strained by the pressure of Dr. Webster's coal Sometimes the water re- mained in the vault, five or six feet deep, alter the tide had fallen. My wife got a key and let Mr. Trenholm into the cellar, so that he could get at the remains. Alter the remains had been brought out, I went, with others, into the laboratory, and towards the furnace. I put my hand into the furnace, and took out a piece of bone. I don't recollect whether I went in Dr. Webster's private room before he came or not. Mr. Trenholm was ordered by the Marshal to watch until the party should bring Dr. Webster. The front door bell rung and I went out of the shed door](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21083629_0025.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
