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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    several pieces of human flesh. The water from the sink was running down and spattering over them. I asked Trenholm and Littlefield to go in, and pass out what they could find. We got a board, and they passed out three or four pieces of a body, —a pelvis, a thigh and a leg. I asked Dr. Bigelow, as a matter of form, if these were parts of a human body ; and he said, yes. I then asked, if they were from a dissecting-room. He said, it was not the place for them. I asked Littlefield, if there was any entrance to this place except through the privy-hole above, and the aper- ture in the wall through which we had drawn the parts; and he said, no. While we were down there, we heard some one overhead, and hurried out, saying, he is overhead, or, that is Web- ster. We came out upon the cellar-floor, through the trap- door, and did not see anybody. Dr. Bigelow went into Mr. Littlefield's rooms, and I went into the store-room connected with the laboratory, with my revolver in my hand, while the other officers went into the laboratory to search for Dr. Web- ster, or whoever it might be. I remained where I was, till the other officers returned, and said, that they could not find any one ; — they had searched the lecture-room all under the seats, and could not find him. We then all went into the laboratory. I went near the furnace, whence the bones were taken, and recollect hearing the cover stir, and seeing something in Col. Clapp's hands. I looked at it, and saw that it was a cinder or piece of slag, with a bone in it. 1 also saw some other one of the party have something of the kind in his hands. I told them not to touch anything, but to leave all as it was, till the things should be taken possession of, by or- der of Court. I then sent officers, Clapp, Spurr, and Stark- weather, over to Cambridge, to arrest Professor Webster, and bring him into town. I have had charge of the bones found in the furnace in the laboratory, and also of various other things, which I here pro- duce and identify. [Here Mr. Tukey produced a box con- taining the bones found in the furnace, which had been examined and assorted by Professor Wyman, as afterwards explained by him in his testimony; also, the knife with the silver sheath, called the yataghan, — a knife, with a silver han- dle four or five inches long, and a slender blade some eight or ten inches in length, slightly curved, and sharply tapering towards the point.]