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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    Cross-examined by Mr. Sohier. — My impression is, that there were pieces of bone in the cinders, which stuck to the side of the furnace : —I am sure, that there were ; and think that I saw them, before breaking the cinders off. I cannot be positive of the names of the officers who remained in charge of the College, Friday night ; think they were, Fuller, Rice, Starkweather, and Trenholm. When I speak of the block of teeth, I mean the same that I handed to Dr. Lewis. Winslow Lewis, Jr., sworn, — examined by Mr. Bemis. I am a practising physician in this city. I was called, on the Saturday afternoon succeeding Dr. Webster's arrest, to the Medical College, to examine some portions of a human body which had been found there. I found Dr. Martin Gay and Dr. Charles T. Jackson there. I was sent for, by Coroner Pratt. I think that I got there at three o'clock. I called on Dr. George H. Gay, and Dr. James W. Stone, to aid me in the matter; and also advised the co- operation of Professor Jeffries Wyman. We met next day, Sunday, in the morning. It was arranged, that Doctors, Gay, and Jackson, should make the necessary chemical investiga- tions ; Professor Wyman, should take charge of the bones, and the articles supposed to have spots of blood on them ; and Doctors Gay, Stone, and myself, should prepare a detailed re- port upon the fleshy portions of the body, which we particu- larly examined. We accordingly drew up such a report, and made it in writing, under oath, to the coroner's jury. [The report was here produced, and read to the jury, by Mr. Bemis, and explained by Dr. Lewis, as he proceeded, by means of a diagram prepared by Professor Wyman. The same diagram was used in connexion with Professor Wy- man's testimony. It was a drawing of the human skeleton, exhibiting, by means of various coloring, the parts of the body covered with flesh, the bones found in the furnace, and the absent parts not accounted for. Questions of expla- nation were also asked of Dr. Lewis, as he proceeded, by the counsel for the Government, in connection with different parts of the report.] REPORT OF MEDICAL COMMITTEE. Winslow Lewis, Jr., George H. Gay, and James W. Stone, — Having been directed to make a post-mortem exami- nation, at the Medical College, in North Grove street, at- tended to that duty, Dec. 2d, 1849, at ten o'clock, A. M., and examined five portions of a human subject, viz. : a thorax, a pelvis, two thighs, arid a left leg.