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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    me by name, and asked me what the matter was. I then went directly down to Dr. Henry J. Bigelow*s. in Channcey-place. I found him in, and told him what I had discovered. He told me to come along with him, to Mr. Robprt G. Shaw, Jr.'s, in Summer street. We went down 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 been 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's, 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 seen the remains. The Marshal, and Dr. Bigelow, got there in ten or fifteen minutes after I got home. Mr. Clapp came before them, I believe. The hole was about half-way between the floor and the ground. The aperture is about eighteen inches one way, and perhaps ten or twelve inches the other. From the privy-hole down to the ground, is a distance of some eight or nine feet. These remains were not found directly under the privy- hole, but had fallen outwards, towards the outer, or northern wall. The dirt had been thrown away from the walls, to keep it from pressing on them, and the trench is wide enough for two men to walk abreast in. [The witness here explain- ed to the Court and the jury, by means of the diagram of the basement-story of the College, the position of the walls, privy-hole, and remains.] There was no aperture, through which anything could flow in or out with the tide. The tide, however, penetrates the walls, and fills up the trench. The water flows into the vault, in consequence of the walls being strained by the pres- sure of Dr. Webster's coal. Sometimes the water remains in the vault, five or six feet deep, after the tide has fallen. To the Attorney General—Mr. Trenholm was able to get down the trap-door, while I was gone, from my wife's finding another key to the front cellar. The noise heard, when we were down under the laboratory, and when the Marshal took out his revolver, was made by my wife, and by the children running over the floor, overhead. I did not know it. however, till several days after. To Mr. Bemis, again. — Before Dr. Webster was brought down to the College, that evening, Mr. Tukey, Mr. Tren- holm, and myself, went into the laboratory, and uncovered the furnace. I put my hand into the furnace, and took out