Report of the case of John W. Webster, indicted for the murder of George Parkman, before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts : including the hearing on the petition for a writ of error, the prisoner's confessional statements and application for a commutation of sentence, and an appendix containing several interesting matters never before published / by George Bemis.

  • Webster, John White, 1793-1850.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the case of John W. Webster, indicted for the murder of George Parkman, before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts : including the hearing on the petition for a writ of error, the prisoner's confessional statements and application for a commutation of sentence, and an appendix containing several interesting matters never before published / by George Bemis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    In the morning of Friday, I made the fire in Dr. Webster's back room, and after it, I took the brush broom and swept up the brick floor, took the dust-pan, and threw the dirt into the fire. As I set the broom behind the door, I saw a sledge- hammer there. The door was the one leading from the back room, up stairs, to the laboratory below, and is at the head of the stairs. [The locality was pointed out to the jury upon the model of the College, by the witness.] I should think that the sledge, was one which had been left there by the masons, when they worked there, a year before. It was a mason's sledge, with a handle two feet long, and weighing some six or seven pounds. Both faces were rounded, like an orange cut in halves. Its usual place was the laboratory below ; and I had never seen it anywhere else. It had always been kept there. To a Juror. — The round face was manufactured so ; not made round, by use. Resumes. — I took and carried Ihe sledge down stairs into the laboratory, and set it up against the box where Dr. Web- ster makes his gases. [Points out the place on the model.] I have never seen anything of the sledge since. I have hunt- ed the building all over, but cannot find it. I do not recollect anything else in particular, connected with Dr. Webster or Dr. Parkman, on that day, (Friday,) un- til about a quarter before two, P. M. After I had eaten my dinner, I was standing in the front entry, looking out of the front door. This was as near a quarter of two, as I can re- collect. When I testified before the coroner's inquest, I thought it was half-past one ; but I recollect that I examin- ed the tickets for Dr. Holmes's lecture-room, which made it a little later. I saw Dr. Parkman coming towards the College. He was then in North Grove street, about abreast of Fruit street. He was walking very fast. I then went into Dr. Ware's lecture- room, laid down on the settee nearest the front door, waiting for Dr. Holmes's lecture to close, to attend to clearing his table. During that time, I did not hear any one go in or out of Dr. Webster's room. The door of Dr. Ware's room always shuts itself; it has a spring on the top; so, has Dr. Webster's. I stayed on the settee, till it wanted a few minutes of two o'clock, when I went up to Dr. Holmes's room. I always go there before the lecture is out, to lock up the doors, and help the Doctor clear away his table. After I had put away the things in Dr. Holmes's room, I came down and locked the