In late November of 1849, the dismembered and burned remains of Dr. George Parkman were found in the basement laboratory and furnace room near John White Webster’s lab. While the murder of the Boston elite was headline news, nothing could prepare anyone for the sensation that was John White Webster’s murder trial. Part one can be found here.
On January 16th, 1950, a grand jury indicted John White Webster for murder, after coming to the conclusion that George Parkman had been murdered, dismembered, then burned, and that Webster was the one responsible for the acts.
On March 19th, 1850, the murder trial of John White Webster began. At the trial’s conclusion, it was estimated that 60,000 people witnessed, at least in some way, part of the trial. The regular seats were replaced with bleachers, and tickets were issued to the crowds as they waited outside the court room. In groups, they would file in, watch the proceedings for 10 minutes, and then file out to allow for the next group to enter.
Webster’s defence counsel consisted of two Harvard graduates: Edward Dexter Sohier, and Pliny T. Merrick. Sohier was unaccustomed to criminal law, while Merrick was more experienced. Webster did not discuss his defence strategy with his attorneys. Instead, he wrote a 194-page defence that he handed to them as explanation. The pages told the same story he’d been telling – he’s paid Dr. George Parkman back in full, they’d gone their separate ways, and the medical school janitor, Ephraim Littlefield, was the one who was actually responsible for the man’s murder.
Countering Webster’s defence were Massachusetts Attorney General John Clifford, and George Bemis, Esq. Clifford made a three hour opening statement on the first day of trial. He presented the facts. Then he handed the case over to Bemis, who examined witnesses.
The following day, the jury visited the scene of the murder. Once back in the court room, a witness described Webster as ‘mad’. His defense did not object.
On day three, as group after group was shuffled in and out, a witness testified that, in their belief, only a person with knowledge of dissection and anatomy could have dismembered the body in such a manner. Webster had this knowledge.
George Parkman’s dentist even testified that the jawbone belonged to George – the dentist said he recognized the work he’d done on the teeth in the fall of 1846. The dentist went on to demonstrate for the jury that the jawbone and the teeth remaining fit the plaster impression he’d made of George’s jaw.
The following two days, Ephraim Littlefield was on the stand. He explained to the jury that George had come around demanding repayment of the debt Webster owed him, and that Webster had started acting oddly thereafter – locking his lab and his rooms when he hadn’t done so before, carting the bundles out of the privy attached to his lab into the furnace room, and so on.
The defence tried to frame Littlefield’s testimony as an attempt at grabbing up the cash reward. Littlefield denied these claims. And though Webster had suggested in the pages he’d handed to his attorneys that Littlefield was the one responsible for the murder, they never mentioned it. They also neglected to mention Littlefield’s proximity to the lab, and the fact that he often watched dissections, and was known to steal corpses for profit. It was as if the defence weren’t all that keen on defending their client at all.
The Monday following Littlefield’s testimony, the jury learned intimate details about Webster’s issues with debt, especially the debt he owed George. After that, a police officer described how the body, in its parts, was discovered. The tea chest where the torso was found was brought to court.
Witness after witness was brought forward to explain, in detail, Webster’s odd behaviour following George’s disappearance. They even procured three unsigned letters as evidence that showed that the writer intended to throw the police off Webster’s trail. It was highly assumed, though not proven, that Webster himself penned the letters.
The defence, though bungling the cross-examination of Littlefield, did try to refute the prosecution’s case. They brought forth witnesses at the 11th hour who claimed to have seen Dr. George Parkman after the time he’d allegedly been murdered.
The judge, exhibiting extreme bias for which he was later criticized, dismissed the witnesses. It was thought that the man the witnesses had seen a man by the name of George Bliss. However, the man in question was never brought in to testify as to his whereabouts on the day it was believed George was murdered.
The defence then called multiple medical experts to the stand to testify. Some of the experts had even testified for the prosecution. Under defence scrutiny, they had to concede that, despite all the expertise that the lab and equipment that the Harvard Medical School had to offer while examining the dismembered body, it was, indeed, quite difficult to truly identify the man as Dr. George Parkman.
The prosecution conducted a day-long closing argument wherein they reiterated that the medical expertise was sound – the examination of the body, such as it was, had been conducted in a clean, sanitary medical environment by top experts in their fields. Such stringent forensic examination was a first in an American courtroom – it was almost unheard of.
Against the advice of his attorneys, Webster took the stand in his own defence. He criticized his attorneys, and then demanded that the author of the anonymous letters make themselves known. No one stood up.
On March 30th, 1850, the jury went into deliberation. They found John White Webster guilty of murder. They agreed unanimously that the body, such as it was, had been that of Dr. George Parkman. They agreed unanimously that John White Webster had murdered him. They agreed unanimously that the murder had been deliberate.
On April 1st, 1850, John White Webster was sentenced to be hanged.
Prior to his execution, Webster wrote a confession. He admitted to killing Dr. George Parkman, but he claimed it was in self-defence. Webster alleged that George had become aggressive toward Webster about receiving repayment for the owed debt, and Webster experienced an ‘unpremeditated rage’. Webster, in his own words, stated that he: “seized whatever thing was handiest – it was a stick of wood – and dealt him an instantaneous blow with all the force that passion could give it. It was on the side of his head, and there was nothing to break the force of the blow. He fell instantly upon the pavement. There was no second blow. He did not move.”
Webster also confessed to having written the three anonymous letters designed to throw off the investigation.
On August 30th, 1850, John White Webster was taken to Boston’s Leverette Street Jail, where he was publicly hanged.
Throughout the trial, and the hanging, crowds of people gathered, tittered, and gossiped. The papers wrote extensively about Boston’s elite turning on each other, and on themselves. The case in its entirety was an examination of greed, and the absolute need to save face. Webster couldn’t handle being in such financial strife, and George Parkman was an outlet for his rage.
Just another “elite” throwing a tantrum and causing a scandal. Nothing new here.
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Sources:
Murder in the medical school: The Parkman-Webster murder case, Boston 1849-1950 – Corinne Hogan – Royal College of Surgeons of England
The Murder of a Wealthy Boston Physician by a Harvard Professor, 1849 – Thomas Duke – Historical Crime Detective
George Parkman Wikipedia page
Parkman-Webster murder case Wikipedia page