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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![but the words are very distinct. The words was, the, ''if, occur frequently ; there is a capital ''E; the letter w, larger than the other letters, is very striking to my eye; the words be, but,' are very strikii'g. The word '-Boston is like all the rest. The letter was not written with a pen. I speak positively, as it could not be done with one. It wasdone with something soft; the top of the letters shows this. It was not done with a brush. It could not be done with a pen, as there is no evidence that the marks are stronger in any one place than another. There is about the letters something show ing the marks of very fine fibres, finer than a hair. About the tops of tlie w's and '-i's there are marks of those fibres. There is no dot over the i. [Witness was asked if he had tiied any experiments to prove how this letter may have been written, but the an ewer was objected to The purpose of the government was to show that the small plate colored black, and the small stick with cotton tied upon one end of it, found in Dr. Webster's room.i, had haa something to do with the production of this letter The Chief Justice decided tliat the evidence to be elicited, was clearly not admissible, and the subject was passed over. The note dated January 22d, 1847, was handed to the witness.] I should think the word Paid, written over the face of the note, was in the defendant's hand-writing. On the Cunningham meniorandum I find evidence of the same hand-writing; also on thetwosmall memoranda found in the pocket book. The erasures upon tlie large notes could not have been made with a pen : there are traces of the same fibres that I iiave before spoken of. Oross-Examined. I have seen the papers before. I have seen other anonymous letters. The letter addressed to Mr. lukey was written in haste. The Civis letter is not greatly disguised. If it wasshown to me I should not pretend to say it was in a disguised hand. I observed that three letters in the Civis letter were dissimilar to Dr. Webster's hand. I could say that the other letters were similar, though not all. I can say of the Civis letter that with the exception of two or three letters, it is in Dr. Webster's ordinary hand vvriting. The letters are similar, all but the ones which I have mentioned — I may mention that the letter d is uniformly curved to the left. I could not say that the excepted letters are always formed in the same way; they bear a general agreement with each other. The letter d is generally curved to the left—there may be exceptions. The peculi- arity of the Civis letter is, that the letters''a are closed at the top. I don't recollect of seeing these same letters closed in Doctor Webster's genuine handwriting. There is no attempt on the face of the Civis letter, looking at it alone, to disguise the hand-writing. At first eight I should not say that it was disguised. Without something to compare writing with, 1 don't pretend to say whether writing is disguised. I take some genuine hand-writing to compare what is pronounced a simulated hand. At first sight of the '' Civis letter my impression was it was Dr. Webster's hand-writing. The letter sign- ed Dart has no general resemblance to Dr. Webster's hand-writing. The letter t small; letters o, r, a, were made similar at first, but altered afterwards; the letter w, small w.'and f, I may mention were simi- lar. Judging this letter by itself, I could not say that it was a natural hand ; for every thing about it is unnatu- ral. I judge the letter to be a disguised hand, and that it is Dr. Webster's hand, from the resemblance I have traced tn the letters as above. The letter not written with a pen I think. I mentioned the word was as resembling Dr. Webster's writing — The letter w in watch, the words if and on, the and the word Boston, bear the same appearance as Dr. Webster's hand-writing. These are the words which brought me to the conclusion that the letter was written by Dr. Webster. I could tell if I had the instrument before me. I could tell if it would make such marks as this let- ter bears. My own opinion is positive as to this letter, that it was written by Dr. Webster. I can only say that the letter, taken as a whole, and the peculiarities I have Sointed out, leads me to believe that it was written by ir. Webster. To the Court. My opinion is that the letter was written by the same person as the others. Resumed. I have seen two hands apparently alike but which had e.<!seutial ditferences, nevertheless I have prob- ably examined a dozen times writing not written with a pen. George G. Smith called and sworn. I am an engraver. Have given considerable attention to penmanship. Have known Dr. Webster many years; have seen his signa- tures to notes in past years, but more recently to Diplo- mas which I have seen incidentally. I think that I have a general acquaintance with Dr. Webster's sis^nature so that I could recognise it. As an engraver I have been obliged to notice the peculiarties of hand-writing, espe- cially when engraving /«<: similes, and have been called into Court fiequently to testify. [Witness examined the Civis, and other letters, and Stated that he had before examined them.] I am compelled to say, from the attention which I have given to the subject, that the Civis letter is in Prof. Webster's handwriting. I am very sorry to say that I am quite confident of this. In the Dart letter 1 find certain l^eculiarities which resemble Prof. Webster's hand- writing, though I am not so confident of this as of the other letter. 1 should think that it might be his, but I ciinnot speak of it with any decree of confidence. I have no doubt that the envelope and enclosure were written by the same hand. The erasure looks as if it might be made with a finger— part of it with a finger, but no portion of the erasure was made with a pen. Of the East Cambridge letter I should speak with only the same degree of confidence as of the other. There are peculiarities about it, but not sufficient- ly strong to make it clear that the letter is in Dr. Web- ster's handwriting. It was not written with a pen or a brush. The appearance is not that of a brush or a pen.— It looks as if done with some soft instrument, from the peculiar manner in which the shading is done. I think I can discover the marks of fibres. The erasures on the two notes I think could not have been made with a pen. I have examined the checks. Cross ExuTTiined. The erasures on the notes were not done with an ordinary pen. It is possible that a pen might be made to make the strokes, but I don't kiiow. I cannot feel confident in saying so. As to the fibres, if there had been cotton in the ink they might have been caused by this. In the Civis letter there is great simi- larity to Dr. Webster's handwriting—in the termination of the letter 'd, throwing it to the left, that is, the let- ter terminating the wOrd. He almost invariably makes it in this form; in the middle of a word he does not write the d in this man- ner. I trace a further resemblance in the character &. A certain character about the whole letter which it is dif- ficult to explain, leads me to think that the letter was written by Dr. Webster. The d in the middle is dif- ferent from the d terminating a word. It is a dis- guised hand beyond a doubt, and I think that hand is Dr. Webster's. I cannot conceive that the writing could be Dr. Web- ster's written in haste and with no atti'mpt to dipgnise it. Tile letter d bears the strongest resemblance to the genuine hand. It has two airs about it—a disguised air, and a similar air. [M.r. Bemis here read the three anony- mous letters addressed to Marshal Tukey, copies of which we give below.] November 26th, 1849. Francis Tdket,—Dear Sir—You will find Dr. Parkj man murdered on Brookline heights Yours truly, M-. Captain of the Dart. Dr Parkman was took on Bord ship herculun and this is all I dare to say as I shal be kelld Est Cambrige one of the men [On the second page:] give me his Watch but I was fraid to keep it and throwd it In the water right side the road to the long biige to Boston Boston, Nov'r 31, '49. Mr. Tukey, Dear Sir, I have been considerably interested in the recent affair of Dr. Parkman, and I think I can recommend means, the adoption of which miarht result in bringing to light some of the mysteries connected with the disappearance of the afore mentioned gentleman. In the first place, with regard to the searching of houses, &c., I would recommend that particular attention be paid to the appearance of cellar floors; do they present the appearance of having been recently dug into and cov- ered up again; or might not the part of the cel- lar where he was buried have been covered by the pil- ing of wood? Secondly, have the out-houses and necessa- ries been carefully examined; have they been raked suf- ficiently ? Probably his body was cut up and placed in a stout bag, containing heavy weights, & thrown off one of the bridges,—perhaps Craigie's. And I would recommend the firing of cannon from some of these bridges, and trom various parts of the harbor & river, in order to cause the parts of the body to rise to the surfiice of the water. This, I think, will be the last resort, & it should be done effectually. And I recommend that the cellars of the houses in East Cambridge be examined. Yours respectfully, CIVIS. Fisher A. Boswell called and sworn.—I am a resident of Grafton, in Worcester County; am a physician. At- tended the course of Medical lectures here in winter of 1847 ai,d 1848 Knew Dr. Parkman by sight. I also know Mr. Littlefield, janitor. He was janitor uhilf I was there. I had occasion to go to the College on the 2.3d of November in my usual way ; it was nearer 2 than 1^ P. M. I went from Cambridge street, up Blossom to Kruit, and to College Court. 1 went up the ea.-^t stairs and found the door ajar I opened it and looked in. Find](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21083629_0041.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
