DOCSLIB.ORG

Parkman-Webster Murder Case

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Parkman-Webster Murder Case Parkman-Webster Murder Case riday, November 23, 184 9 Dr . George Parkman a wealthy Beacon Hill businessman and FMassachusetts General Hospital benefactor disappeared. Days later a dismembered body was found at the Medical Colleg e on North Grove Street in the West End. The news spread quickly, igniting sensationalism in the press which touched both the upper crust and the working class . More so , when the head of the Medical College chem istry department , Dr. John White Webster, was arrested and charged with the murder much of the city looked on in disbelief. he trial was a public spectacle; over 60,000 people were ushered in and out of the courtroom T every 10-minu tes during the twe lve days of proceedings. Many of the characters in the real life drama were Harvard men , from the Supreme Court Justice who presided over the trial , to the President of the college who was cal led as a character witness for the defendant. Press from all over America and as far away as London (Times) wou ld cover the tr ial . assachusetts law wou ld bar Dr . Webster from testifying on his own behalf. Instead, he re­ Mcorded his story while in his cell at the jail on Leverett Street; a two-hundred-page defense PORTRAIT OF JOHN W. WEBSTER. his coun se l never considered. oft he of 8 4 Edgar Allen Poe pub- 8 4 l7Boston undergoe an lege, Ephraim Littlefie ld first heard replied, had; last Friday, about 1 8 lishes The Murders in 1 84 If unwanted 'soc ial rev­ of Dr. Parkman's disappearance on half-past one. He was coming right to­ the Rue Morgue (1841) in Graham's olution" in 1847 with the arrival of Saturday afternoon. (* Shaw was the wards the College." The janitor then Magazine, followed by The Mystery 37,000 Irish Catholics escaping the grandfather of the famed colonel of began to suspect that Dr. Webster of Marie Roget (1842) and The 'potato famine' in Ireland making 54th Massachusetts Regiment) kn ew a lot mor e as to the where­ Purloined Letter (1844) . The new it the third most popu lated city in abouts of Dr. Parkman. liter ary genre captured the publics' America. attention through the mind of the main character, C. Auguste Dupin who combined a formidable inte llect with creative imagination to so lve a series of mysteries; Poe calls the process ratiocination. "Newspape rs create a sensation .. [rather[ than to further the cause of truth." - Dupin ;.: Collection November 23 Wealthy Beacon Hill businessman and Massachusetts General Hospit al benefactor Dr. image George Parkman disappears. Earlier The Blake-Tuckerman House in that day, Dr. John White Webster, Bowdoin Square; built by Charles Monday, November 26 head of the chemistry department Bulfinch for Samuel Parkman's two Robert Gould Shaw took an ad out at the Medical College, visited Dr. daughters' c. 18 15. Parkman the elder in the Hera ld and printed 28,000 Parkman's home to set up an after­ passed his wealth on to his son George. handbi lls offering a $3000 reward if noon appointment at his lab to dis­ the missing man was found alive, or cuss a debt that Webster had owed if harmed, the perpetrators are found to Parkman. and convicted. Dr. Samuel Parkman paid a visit to Dr. Webster in his labo­ ratory; a short time later Mr. Parkman Blake showed up to see Dr. Webster at half past ten o'clock. The Medical Poe image courtesy oft he LIbrary of Congress College is searched at noon for a second time by Charles M. Kingsley 8 4 6 New Medical College (renta l agent). Constable Charles 1 8 4 designed by Gridley B. Starkweather, Littefield the jani­ J.F. Bryant opens on North Grove tor and Dr. Frederick S. Ainsworth Street; he later designs the Cha rles Courtesy of the Boston Public (Anatomist ) at noon. "Littlefield, we Street Jail (c.1851) on land made have come to look round the college. over the Charles River mudflats oft Nom1a11 B. Sunday, November 25 Public We cannot trace Dr. Parkman any ­ which was purchased by the city A missing person broadside was where, but here." from Dr. George Parkman. posted around the cit y, promting Saturday, November 24 Dr. Webster to pay a visit to Dr. Dr. Parkman 's nephew Samuel Parkman 's brother Francis Parkman Parkman Blake and Robert Gou ld to inform him of the meeting they Shaw* his brother-in-law notif y City had at two o'clock on the afternoon Marshal Franci s Tuke y and place of his disappearance. Dr. Webster an advert isemen t in the newspa­ ran into Ephraim Littlefield, the jan­ per. The neighborhood around the itor on North Grove Street near the Medical College where Dr. Parkman Medical College and asked him , "Mr. was belie ved to ha ve been last seen Littlefield, did you see Dr. Parkman, Courtesy of the Boston Public LIbrary was searched . The janitor of the col- the latter part oflast week?"Littlefield .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • How a Harvard Doctor's Sordid Murder Launched Modern Forensic Anthropology
    How A Harvard Doctor's Sordid Murder Launched Modern Forensic Anthropology Aug 26, 2016 https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2016/08/26/how‐a‐harvard‐doctors‐sordid‐murder‐launched‐modern‐forensic‐anthropology/#6e1dd3e9be9f The history of modern forensic anthropology is a bit murky. As an applied science rather than a "pure" one, forensics was shunned for decades, its findings inadmissible in court. But the 19th century murder of a Harvard Medical School doctor launched the field, revolutionized law in the process, and began our longstanding fascination with TV shows like CSI and Bones. The story starts just before Thanksgiving in 1849, when Dr. George Parkman went missing. Parkman was from a wealthy Boston family, an old‐timey Doogie Howser who entered Harvard at age 15. He went to medical school in Scotland, returning after the War of 1812. Parkman donated some land in Boston to Harvard Medical College so that the school could relocate from Cambridge. He was also well‐known for lending money from his considerable fortune and for walking around town to collect on those debts. Left: Dr. George Parkman. Right: Dr. John Webster. Images from: Trial of Professor John W. Webster, for the murder of Doctor George Parkman. Reported exclusively for the N.Y. Daily Globe (1850). Images in the public domain, via NIH National Library of Medicine. A professor of chemistry and geology at Harvard, John White Webster, was one of those debtors. He had been having financial problems, requiring him to give up his family's Cambridge mansion. Webster's salary as a lecturer at Harvard simply didn't cover his grandiose lifestyle.
    [Show full text]
  • Lemuel Shaw, Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court Of
    This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com AT 15' Fl LEMUEL SHAW I EMUEL SHAW CHIFF jl STIC h OF THE SUPREME Jli>I«'RL <.OlRT OF MAS Wlf .SfcTTb i a 30- 1 {'('• o BY FREDERIC HATHAWAY tHASH BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 1 9 1 8 LEMUEL SHAW CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS 1830-1860 BY FREDERIC HATHAWAY CHASE BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY (Sbe Slibttfibe $rrtf Cambribgc 1918 COPYRIGHT, I9lS, BY FREDERIC HATHAWAY CHASE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published March iqiS 279304 PREFACE It is doubtful if the country has ever seen a more brilliant group of lawyers than was found in Boston during the first half of the last century. None but a man of grand proportions could have emerged into prominence to stand with them. Webster, Choate, Story, Benjamin R. Curtis, Jeremiah Mason, the Hoars, Dana, Otis, and Caleb Cushing were among them. Of the lives and careers of all of these, full and adequate records have been written. But of him who was first their associate, and later their judge, the greatest legal figure of them all, only meagre accounts survive. It is in the hope of sup plying this deficiency, to some extent, that the following pages are presented. It may be thought that too great space has been given to a description of Shaw's forbears and early surroundings; but it is suggested that much in his character and later life is thus explained.
    [Show full text]
  • George Parkman Dr
    MORDRE WOL OUT July 7, Monday [1851]: ... With a certain wariness, but not without a slight shudder at the danger oftentimes, I perceive how near I had come to admitting into my mind the details of some trivial affair, as a case at court– And I am astonished to observe how willing men are to lumber their minds with such rubbish –to permit idle rumors tales incidents even of an insignificant kind –to intrude upon what should be the sacred ground of the thoughts Shall the temple of our thought be a public arena where the most trivial affair of the market & the gossip of the teatable is discussed –a dusty noisy trivial place –or shall it be a quarter of heaven itself –a place consecrated to the service of the gods –a hypaethral temple. I find it so difficult to dispose of the few facts which to me are significant that I hesitate to burden my mind with the most insignificant which only a divine mind could illustrate. Such is for the most part the news –in newspapers & conversation. It is important to preserve the mind’s chastity in this respect Think of admitting the details of a single case at the criminal court into the mind –to stalk profanely through its very sanctum sanctorum for an hour –aye for many hours– –to make a very bar-room of your mind’s inmost apartment –as if for a moment the dust of the street had occupied you –aye the very street itself with all its travel passed through your very mind of minds –your thoughts shrine –with all its filth & bustle [possibly “hustle”]– Would it not be an intellectual suicide? By all manner of boards & traps threatening the extreme penalty of the divine law excluding trespassers from these grounds it behoves us to preserve the purity & sanctity of the mind.
    [Show full text]
  • ETHER in VOGUE: Nathan Cooley Keep and William Morton by Walter C
    M ASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL BICENTENNIAL 1811-2011 “KEEP-ing” ETHER in VOGUE: Nathan Cooley Keep and William Morton By Walter C. Guralnick, DMD, and Leonard B. Kaban, DMD, MD This paper was presented originally at the 150th celebration of the first demonstration of ether anesthesia, Massachusetts General Hospital . For anyone connected with dentistry, celebrating the demonstration in 1846 by Boston dentist William Morton, is a memorable event. It is especially meaningful for those of us gathered here this evening in the historical Ether Dome. Particularly interesting in the Ether story is the role of Nathan Cooley Keep, an anesthesiologist and the first Dean of the Harvard Dental School. Furthermore, it will be enlightening to trace the estimable record of dentists and oral and maxillofacial surgeons in the administration of ambulatory anesthesia, a continuum of Morton’s watershed demonstration. Nathan Cooley Keep, who received an M.D. degree from the Harvard Medical School in 1827, was the leading dental practitioner of his era in Boston. He was born in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, a suburb of Springfield, in 1800. As a child, he was noted to have extraordinary mechanical skill. This ability was explained by The Historical and Genealogical Register (April 1878), in its memorial minute upon Dr. Keep’s death, as being inherited from his father who had “great ingenuity and mechanical skill.” Keep’s admirable humane qualities and his biological curiosity were also noted and ascribed to his mother, in the same document which stated: “… his own knowledge of disease; his fertility in suggesting relief in the sick room and his willingness and ability to lend personal help in relieving suffering in all forms, were a kind of natural inheritance from his mother.” Because of his skill with tools, young Keep was apprenticed at the age of 15 to a New Jersey jeweler.
    [Show full text]
  • The Winslows of Boston
    Winslow Family Memorial, Volume IV FAMILY MEMORIAL The Winslows of Boston Isaac Winslow Margaret Catherine Winslow IN FIVE VOLUMES VOLUME IV Boston, Massachusetts 1837?-1873? TRANSCRIBED AND EDITED BY ROBERT NEWSOM UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE 2009-10 Not to be reproduced without permission of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts Winslow Family Memorial, Volume IV Editorial material Copyright © 2010 Robert Walker Newsom ___________________________________ All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this work, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced without permission from the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts. Not to be reproduced without permission of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts Winslow Family Memorial, Volume IV A NOTE ON MARGARET’S PORTION OF THE MANUSCRIPT AND ITS TRANSCRIPTION AS PREVIOUSLY NOTED (ABOVE, III, 72 n.) MARGARET began her own journal prior to her father’s death and her decision to continue his Memorial. So there is some overlap between their portions. And her first entries in her journal are sparse, interrupted by a period of four years’ invalidism, and somewhat uncertain in their purpose or direction. There is also in these opening pages a great deal of material already treated by her father. But after her father’s death, and presumably after she had not only completed the twenty-four blank leaves that were left in it at his death, she also wrote an additional twenty pages before moving over to the present bound volumes, which I shall refer to as volumes four and five.* She does not paginate her own pages. I have supplied page numbers on the manuscript itself and entered these in outlined text boxes at the tops of the transcribed pages.
    [Show full text]
  • An Aristocrat's Killing
    OPEN BOOK T An Aristocrat’s E Summer at the Beach L For 42 summers, George Howe Colt ’76 repaired to the four-story, 11-bedroom ark of E a summer house his great-grandfather Ned Atkinson built on a Cape Cod peninsula in 1903. Now the members of the extended family who own the romantic, Killing V run-down place have decided they must sell it. Colt goes there with his family for I one last August. The sadness of impending change—but wait, may change be ome homicides just won’t die. The S tempered?—pervades his charming memoir, The Big House: A Century in the Life of an 1849 murder and dismemberment of American Summer Home (Scribner, $25). His evocative tale will resonate with all Boston Brahmin George Parkman, I who have loved a summer home, of whatever dimensions, as the following passage A.B. 1809, a compulsive, disagreeable, O may suggest. and embittered landlord and N Smoneylender (who had failed in a medical ow many Boston Brahmins Williamsburg, the Big House is to be career) still roils the imaginations of histo- does it take to screw in a light- preserved intact, uncontaminated either rians. Simon Schama, a onetime Harvard bulb? Ten: one to put in the by throwing anything out or by will- history professor now teaching at Colum- new bulb, and nine to remi- ingly introducing anything new. Any bia, exercised the crafts of both history nisce about how great the old change is likely the result of serendipity: and fiction in Dead Certainties, his 1991 book Hone was.
    [Show full text]
  • Calculated for the Use of the State Of
    i: m^4- 3n.3M31 H41 A " REGISTER, AND FOR 1835. ALSO CITY OFFICERS IN BOSTON, AND OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION. BOSTON: JAMES LORING, 132 WASHINGTON STREET. — ECLIPSES IN 1835. Tliere will be bvt two Eclipses this year of the Sun, and one of the Monty and a Transit of Mercury, as follows, viz.— I. The first will be of the Sun, May, 27th day, 8h. 48m. evening, invisible. II. The second will be of the Moon, June, 10th day, 6h. Im. eve- ning, invisible. III. The third will be of the Sun, November, 26th day, 5h. 46m. morning, invisible. The Transit of the Planet Mercury, over the Sun's Disk, will take place, November, 7th day, partly visible, as follows, viz. Transit begins Oh. 46m. "^ Mercury wholly entered on the Sun...O 49 / Mo=n *imtx Nearest the Sun's centre 3 21 V^t^n®^®"' Sun's lowest limb sets 4 42 C Transit ends 5 56 j ^ Nearest approach to the Sun's centre, 5m. 34sec. ^fCr The Compiler of the Register has endeavoured to be accurate in all the statements and names which it contains ; but when the difficulties in such a compilation are considered, and the constant changes which are occurring, by new elections, deaths, &c. it is seen at once to be impossible to attain perfect accuracy. He therefore distinctly states, that he declines this responsibleness, and only pre- sents information to the best of his knowledge. 3)7,3 M3 Mil A INDEX. Academy of Music ... 165 Convention of Cong. Min. 123 Agricultural Society ..
    [Show full text]
  • Story of the First Identification in Forensic Dentistry Endorsed by the American Justice System
    8 Global Journal of Anthropology Research, 2014, 1, 8-11 Story of the First Identification in Forensic Dentistry Endorsed by the American Justice System Xavier Riaud* 145, route de Vannes, 44800 Saint Herblain – France Abstract: In 1849, Webster killed Parkman. The latter’s body was never found but his dental prostheses were discovered and later identified. Webster was arrested and prosecuted for murder. The analysis of the dental prostheses carried out by Parkman’s personal dentist positively identified the prostheses, resulting in Webster being condemned to death. This was the first case of identification in forensic dentistry, which was endorsed by the American courts. Keywords: Forensic dentistry, History, Justice. George Parkman was born in 1790. He studied The victim’s identity was proved thanks to the false medicine at Harvard Medical College in 1813. He teeth. During the trial, Parkman’s dentist, Dr Nathan C. travelled throughout Europe to deepen his knowledge Keep (1800-1875) and his assistant Dr Lester Noble, and gain new skills [4]. He discovered a profoundly proved that two pieces of evidence (a block of mineral humanistic medicine working with pioneers of the teeth and part of a marked set) were the remains of subject who devoted as much time to their patients’ dentures made and fitted by keep him self [2]. These well-being as to therapeutics. Upon his arrival home, two elements were perfectly matched to a plaster cast he began to put into practice everything he had learned of the deceased’s mandible that the practitioner had in Europe. However, in Boston, he came up against the kept in his office and on which could be read « Dr Geo medical lobby, which was reluctant to break away from Parkman 1846 » written by Noble.
    [Show full text]
  • Calculated for the Use of the State Of
    A'' jV'i'fV-'*; . ea-i:i)j;di:f!;;^"o::i^:^^ 317.3H3i H41 A ARCHfVrS REGISTER, AND UniWa States ®alrnJrat» 183g. CITY OFFICERS IN BOSTON, AND OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION. BOSTON PUBLISHED BY JAMES LORING, 132 Washington Street. : — — _ ECLIPSES IN 1833. There will be Jive Eclipses this year, two of the Son, and three of thet Moon, as follows, viz : I. The first will be of tlie Moon, January, 6th day, and visible as follows Beginning 2h. Om. \ Middle, or greatest obscuration 3 9 ( Appar. time End 4 20 ( mor. Duration 2 20 ) Digits eclipsed 5 deg. 43 min. on the Moon's northern limb. II. The second will be of the Sun, January, 20th day, 5h. 9m^ evening, invisible in the United States. III. The third will be of the Moon, July, Ist day, the latter part only visible. Moon rises eclipsed 7h. 39ra. ,.^^ {Appar.) .„ „ time Middle 7 55 ^^^"• End 9 33 S Digits eclipsed 10 deg. 18 min. on the Moon's southern limb.. IV. The fourth will be of the Sun, July, 17th day, 2h. 26m. morn- ing, invisible in the United States, but throughout Europe will b» visible. V. The fifth and last will be a total eclipse of the Moon, mostly- visible, December 26th, as follows, viz: Moon rises, (tota% ecKpsed,) 4h. 28m. | Middle 4 47 /.^^^k tj^o End of total darkness 5 36 ^PP^L V even. End of the eclipse.. 6 36 Whole visible duration 2 8 03^ The Compiler of the Register has endeavoured to be accurate in all the statements and laames which it contains ; but when the difficulties in such a compilation are considered, and the constant changes which are occur- ring, by new elections, deaths, &c.
    [Show full text]
  • American Legal Ethics in an Age of Anxiety
    Digital Commons at St. Mary's University Faculty Articles School of Law Faculty Scholarship 2008 American Legal Ethics in an Age of Anxiety Michael S. Ariens St. Mary's University School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.stmarytx.edu/facarticles Part of the Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons Recommended Citation Michael S. Ariens, American Legal Ethics in an Age of Anxiety, 40 St. Mary’s L.J. 343 (2008). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law Faculty Scholarship at Digital Commons at St. Mary's University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Articles by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons at St. Mary's University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ST. MARY'S LAW JOURNAL VOLUME 40 2008 NUMBER 2 ARTICLES AMERICAN LEGAL ETHICS IN AN AGE OF ANXIETY MICHAEL S. ARIENS* I. Introduction ..................................... 344 II. American Legal Ethics from Hoffman to the Canons... 349 A . Introduction .................................. 349 B. David Hoffman's Legal Ethics ................... 353 C. Lawyerly Zeal in the Mid-19th Century ........... 364 D. Defending the Guilty Client ..................... 375 E. Sharswood, Lawyers and Professional Ethics in the 1850s ........................................ 384 F. David Dudley Field and Professional Honor ....... 394 * Professor, St. Mary's University School of Law, San Antonio, Texas. Thanks to Leslie Griffin and Russ Pearce, and to my colleagues Dorie Klein and Colin Marks, for their comments, and to my colleague Vincent Johnson for his comments on an earlier draft. Thanks also, to Judith Maute for her assistance in obtaining the oral history interviews of the American Bar Foundation.
    [Show full text]
  • 2011 Fiscal Year in Review
    2011 Fiscal Year In Review Friends, From our inland lakes to our ocean waves, from our energy future to our families’ health, the time is right for CLF’s work. New England is in transition: a few antiquated, dirty power plants continue to operate while others, like Dominion Energy’s plant in Salem Harbor, are being forced to shut down. Meanwhile, as Cape Wind finally has the financing it needs to move forward to become the nation’s first offshore wind farm, New England leads the country’s transition to a clean energy future. CLF is helping make all of these changes happen. Thanks to a continued focus on a relevant and focused set of initiatives, we are in a strong position to advance our goals. In the fiscal year that ended July 31, 2011, we maintained the 14 percent increase in our operating budget that our Board approved last year. With those funds, we invested in membership growth, enforcement actions on clean water and clean air cases, and internal efficiencies to increase our effectiveness. We are seeing progress on these important new initiatives – progress that bodes well for our health as an organization and as a region. In response to the mounting threats to New England’s fresh and salt waters, we launched two new initiatives across the region. The first, New England Ocean Odyssey, is a project with renowned National Geographic photojournalist Brian Skerry, who will document and raise awareness about New England’s ocean – one of the most extraordinary and biologically productive ecosystems in the world. Similarly, we launched The Great Bay Piscataqua-Waterkeeper, a new initiative devoted to protecting the Great Bay estuary.
    [Show full text]
  • Story of the First Identification in Forensic Dentistry Endorsed by the American Justice System
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Cosmos Scholars Publishing House: Journals Management System 8 Global Journal of Anthropology Research, 2014, 1, 8-11 Story of the First Identification in Forensic Dentistry Endorsed by the American Justice System Xavier Riaud* 145, route de Vannes, 44800 Saint Herblain – France Abstract: In 1849, Webster killed Parkman. The latter’s body was never found but his dental prostheses were discovered and later identified. Webster was arrested and prosecuted for murder. The analysis of the dental prostheses carried out by Parkman’s personal dentist positively identified the prostheses, resulting in Webster being condemned to death. This was the first case of identification in forensic dentistry, which was endorsed by the American courts. Keywords: Forensic dentistry, History, Justice. George Parkman was born in 1790. He studied The victim’s identity was proved thanks to the false medicine at Harvard Medical College in 1813. He teeth. During the trial, Parkman’s dentist, Dr Nathan C. travelled throughout Europe to deepen his knowledge Keep (1800-1875) and his assistant Dr Lester Noble, and gain new skills [4]. He discovered a profoundly proved that two pieces of evidence (a block of mineral humanistic medicine working with pioneers of the teeth and part of a marked set) were the remains of subject who devoted as much time to their patients’ dentures made and fitted by keep him self [2]. These well-being as to therapeutics. Upon his arrival home, two elements were perfectly matched to a plaster cast he began to put into practice everything he had learned of the deceased’s mandible that the practitioner had in Europe.
    [Show full text]