Webster Murder Was the 19th Century's O.J. Simpson Case

Ephraim Littlefield, still full from his Thanksgiving dinner the previous day, attacked the vault again with his hammer and cold chisel. He desperately wanted to know what was inside there.

Finally, he broke through the five layers of brick from the outside, and the sunlight rushed inside. It illuminated the ghastly contents of a furnace.

Littlefield, a janitor at Harvard Medical School, had found what were later identified as a human thigh, pelvis and shin. His suspicious now confirmed, he hurriedly summoned the police. Officers responded quickly and found an even greater variety of human remains.

The body parts formed the basis of the case against Dr. John W. Webster, Class of 1811, a prominent chemistry professor at the Medical School.

Littlefield was suspicious of Webster because of the professor's recent behavior. The professor had asked about the construction of the vault and had been unusually nice to the janitor, going so far as to order him a Thanksgiving turkey.

According to Robert Sullivan's 1971 book, The Disappearance of Dr. Parkman, the police identified the remains "to be those of a man about fifty or sixty years old with strong muscular development and a tall frame."

Based largely on one dentist's identification of the victims's false teeth, police identified him as Harvard professor George Parkman, Class of 1809.

Speculation about the murder was intense, and the case quickly became a national story. It was the O.J. Simpson case of the 19th century.

"Excluding the three presidential assassinations, the tragic Lindbergh kidnap-murder, and probably, but not certainly, the Sacco-Vanzetti case, few, if any, American crime stories so completely engrossed the public press, so totally grasped the attention of the American people as did the trial...of Harvard Professor John White Webster at the halfway mark of the 19th century," Sullivan wrote.

The press and public immediately suspect- ed that Webster had dismembered his colleague, and the police agreed. One hundred forty-five years ago this week, on November 30, 1849, police officers came to Webster's Cambridge home and took him into custody, according to the Boston Daily Bee.

He was charged with murder.

Two Celebrities

Webster was an unusual murder suspect. He was a prominent member of Harvard's academic and social community, and he and his wife were known for their lavish and well-attended parties.

The victim was even more famous. Parkman had donated the land where Harvard Medical College was located. A well-known Boston socialite, Parkman was also well-loved by the public for his benevolent demeanor.

In his definitive history Three Centuries of Harvard, Samuel Eliot Morrison wrote that "the poorest people knew that they could call on Parkman in the middle of the night for some medical emergency and not fear of being rebuked."

Parkman had been missing since the week before Webster's arrest. He was last seen entering the Medical College at 1 p.m., reportedly for a meeting with Webster.

The following Monday, Robert Gould Shaw, Parkman's brother-in-law and grandfather of the famous Civil War general, distributed 28,000 handbills telling of the professor's disappearance.

The bills offered $3,000 to anyone who had information which would help Shaw find Parkman alive.

Sullivan's book says the handbill included this statement: "He may have wandered from home in consequence of some sudden aberration of mind."

Three thousand dollars was an incredible sum for those days, and it attested to the importance the community attached to Parkman.

Questions

Webster's arrest captivated the country. The community clamored for explanations. Why had a successful professor murdered, dismembered and, using acid, partially dissolved another professor?

According to historians, the murder was motivated by money. Webster owed Parkman a loan which totalled, with interest, $2432.

Webster's income at the time was only $1200 per year. But his wife and he were fond of throwing parties. So he borrowed money from his wealthy friend, Parkman.

That money didn't last long, though, and Webster borrowed an additional $1200 from Shaw. Parkman, however, was reportedly annoyed by this extra loan and began to suspect he might never be repaid. He repeatedly hounded Webster about the money.

That established the motive. The actual indictment brought against Webster contained four charges:

"He in and upon one George Parkman feloniously, willfully and of his malice aforethought, did make an assault; that he, the said John W. Webster, with a certain knife which he then and there in his right hand had and held, him the said George Parkman in and upon the left side of the breast of him the said George Parkman then and there feloniously, will-fully and of his malice aforethought, did strike, cut, stab and thrust, giving to the said George Parkman then and there with the aforesaid knife in and upon the left side of the breast of his the said George Parkman one mortal wound of the length of one inch and the depth of three inches of which said mortal wound the said George Parkman then and there instantly died."

The public's interest became so great in People v. Webster that worker productivity went down. On the day Shaw's award was announced, the entire city of Boston stopped working to search for Parkman.

In a 1967 review of the case, The Boston Herald reported that "60,000 spectators were admitted at 10 minute intervals in the 12 day trial."

Maintaining Innocence

Before and during the trial, Webster maintained he knew nothing about the crime and was totally innocent.

"He knows nothing about it," his lawyer, Edward D. Sohier, said. "There are the remains of a human body but we can no more explain how they came there than the government can."

At the end of the trial, the jury deliberated for two hours and 45 minutes. But despite Sohier's denials, they convicted Webster of murder in the first degree.

At first, Webster protested the verdict. He petitioned the government to, at the very least, reduce his sentence.

But then, on July 2, 1850, Webster admitted to the crime. He said he had become angry with Parkman and had grabbed the nearest object with which to hit Parkman. What he grabbed was a "stick of wood." The blow killed the professor.

The state's Committee on Pardons did not budge in its death sentence.

At 9:30 a.m., on August 30, 1850, in front of a hushed crowd of thousands at the Leverett Street Jail, John W. Webster was hung for the murder of George Parkman.

Today Webster's case is a textbook example at many law schools about conviction by "circumstantial evidence."

According to Sullivan, the cause helped establish many legal precedents. It also was important to the development of "effective definitions of 'reasonable doubt,' 'alibi,' 'murder,' and 'manslaughter,'" Sullivan wrote.

The Webster case, according to Edmund Pearson, the so-called "historian of homicide," is America's most celebrated murder

He was charged with murder.

Two Celebrities

Webster was an unusual murder suspect. He was a prominent member of Harvard's academic and social community, and he and his wife were known for their lavish and well-attended parties.

The victim was even more famous. Parkman had donated the land where Harvard Medical College was located. A well-known Boston socialite, Parkman was also well-loved by the public for his benevolent demeanor.

In his definitive history Three Centuries of Harvard, Samuel Eliot Morrison wrote that "the poorest people knew that they could call on Parkman in the middle of the night for some medical emergency and not fear of being rebuked."

Parkman had been missing since the week before Webster's arrest. He was last seen entering the Medical College at 1 p.m., reportedly for a meeting with Webster.

The following Monday, Robert Gould Shaw, Parkman's brother-in-law and grandfather of the famous Civil War general, distributed 28,000 handbills telling of the professor's disappearance.

The bills offered $3,000 to anyone who had information which would help Shaw find Parkman alive.

Sullivan's book says the handbill included this statement: "He may have wandered from home in consequence of some sudden aberration of mind."

Three thousand dollars was an incredible sum for those days, and it attested to the importance the community attached to Parkman.

Questions

Webster's arrest captivated the country. The community clamored for explanations. Why had a successful professor murdered, dismembered and, using acid, partially dissolved another professor?

According to historians, the murder was motivated by money. Webster owed Parkman a loan which totalled, with interest, $2432.

Webster's income at the time was only $1200 per year. But his wife and he were fond of throwing parties. So he borrowed money from his wealthy friend, Parkman.

That money didn't last long, though, and Webster borrowed an additional $1200 from Shaw. Parkman, however, was reportedly annoyed by this extra loan and began to suspect he might never be repaid. He repeatedly hounded Webster about the money.

That established the motive. The actual indictment brought against Webster contained four charges:

"He in and upon one George Parkman feloniously, willfully and of his malice aforethought, did make an assault; that he, the said John W. Webster, with a certain knife which he then and there in his right hand had and held, him the said George Parkman in and upon the left side of the breast of him the said George Parkman then and there feloniously, will-fully and of his malice aforethought, did strike, cut, stab and thrust, giving to the said George Parkman then and there with the aforesaid knife in and upon the left side of the breast of his the said George Parkman one mortal wound of the length of one inch and the depth of three inches of which said mortal wound the said George Parkman then and there instantly died."

The public's interest became so great in People v. Webster that worker productivity went down. On the day Shaw's award was announced, the entire city of Boston stopped working to search for Parkman.

In a 1967 review of the case, The Boston Herald reported that "60,000 spectators were admitted at 10 minute intervals in the 12 day trial."

Maintaining Innocence

Before and during the trial, Webster maintained he knew nothing about the crime and was totally innocent.

"He knows nothing about it," his lawyer, Edward D. Sohier, said. "There are the remains of a human body but we can no more explain how they came there than the government can."

At the end of the trial, the jury deliberated for two hours and 45 minutes. But despite Sohier's denials, they convicted Webster of murder in the first degree.

At first, Webster protested the verdict. He petitioned the government to, at the very least, reduce his sentence.

But then, on July 2, 1850, Webster admitted to the crime. He said he had become angry with Parkman and had grabbed the nearest object with which to hit Parkman. What he grabbed was a "stick of wood." The blow killed the professor.

The state's Committee on Pardons did not budge in its death sentence.

At 9:30 a.m., on August 30, 1850, in front of a hushed crowd of thousands at the Leverett Street Jail, John W. Webster was hung for the murder of George Parkman.

Today Webster's case is a textbook example at many law schools about conviction by "circumstantial evidence."

According to Sullivan, the cause helped establish many legal precedents. It also was important to the development of "effective definitions of 'reasonable doubt,' 'alibi,' 'murder,' and 'manslaughter,'" Sullivan wrote.

The Webster case, according to Edmund Pearson, the so-called "historian of homicide," is America's most celebrated murder