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
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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![Saturday morning, (the next day.) Mrs. Parkman sent for me, and I went in and found her in great distress, from the absence of her husband, who had not been home since yes- terday. I went from the house directly to his brother's, the Rev. Dr. Francis Parkman, (also my brother-in-law,) and in- formed him of the Doctor's absence, and thence to Mr. Ed- ward Blake's office in Court street, my nephew, to concert means for making inquiries for him. There was some sus- picion on our minds, at first, in regard to a man Avho had been punished for stealing from the Doctor's house; and we sent to the attorney who had defended him, and found that that man was away from the city, and had not been in it recently. We then went to the City Marshal's, between ten and twelve o'clock, and engaged him to have inquiries made through the police. That evening, an advertisement was inserted in the newspapers by my direction, giving notice of the Doctor's disappearance. I offered a reward subsequently, of $3,000, for information in regard to him, and one of $1,000, for the discovery of his body. I do n't remember the days on which they were advertised. During the whole week succeeding, I was consulted, and took an active interest in the investiga- tions. 1 knew of the discovery of the remains, on the night of the 30th of November; have seen them since they were arranged and put together. [The Attorney General having here asked the witness, whose body, in his opinion, the remains constituted apart of ? and objection having been made by the counsel for the defence, to the question being answered, the Court inti- mated that the inquiry would be proper, if put in the shape, what appearances, if any, did the witness observe, showing a resemblance to any person ? — antecedent to the statement of his opinion.] I saw appearances about these remains, which induced me to believe them to belong to the body of Dr. George Parkman. These were principally the color and kind of hair, on his breast and leg, which exactly corresponded with what I had seen. The hair upon his breast, I had seen previously; but that on his leg, I had seen in November last ; not a great while before his disappearance. He came to my house early one morning, — a cold morning, —without any sur- tout; and to my remark, that he was n't dressed warm enough, he replied, that he had not on even drawers, and pulled up his pantaloons to show it. I have seen him open his breast in such a way as to show how much it was covered with hair, before. I could not identify the leg, so well from the complexion of the hair, as the breast. The form, size, and](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21163194_0065.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
