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TRIM. OF JOHN 4Z'. WEBSTER. Ii
another of the Professors. It will be shown, that young Dr. Bigelow.
returned with him to the College; that the Chief of the Police was
summoned; that the remains found in the vault were examined; and
that the Government, thereupon, caused Dr. Webster, a Professor in
that Institution, to be arrested as the murderer of Dr. Parkman.
That night, and the following day, this discovery was followed by
others of more importance, made by the police without the aid of Mr.
Littlefield; naively, the bones and mineral teeth in the furnace, and
the other portions of the remains in the tea-chest. The importance of
these discoveries in determining the question of the identity of the
remains, compared with that made by Mr. Littlefield, will be apparent,
when you have heard the testimony respecting them.
After his arrest, Dr. Webster made declarations inconsistent with
each other, and, as I think you will be satisfied, inconsistent with his
own convictions. He charged upon Mr. Littlefield, either the commis-
sion of the homicide, or of conspiring to fix it upon himself; while
almost in the same breath, be averred with great confidence,-what was
entirely inconsistent with this, that " those were not the remains of
Dr. Parkman, any more than they were his own." His conduct from
the time of his arrest up to the time of his arraignment in the Police
Court. will be matter of evidence, and you will give it proper considera-
tion. You will consider especially, his declarations respecting Mr.
Littlefield, in connection with the evidence of his conduct towards him,
during the previous week. One fact I will state here, though I do not
intend to recite the details of his conduct or conversations, On Tues-
day, Dr. Webster asked Mr. Littlefield if he had got his Thanksgiving
turkey: upon his answering in the negative, he gave him a written
order for one upon a provision dealer; the. first present he had ever
made him, during an intimate intercourse of seven years, and this at
a time, when, as he subsequently stated, he was looking upon him
with suspicion, and " did not like the man."
He was taken, upon his arrest, to the Medical College, when the
remains were brought up from the vault to the room above. The cir-
cumstances which transpired there, will be detailed to you. The reason
for taking him there, was, to give him an opportunity to be present
when a further search was made of his apartments, and particularly of
his private room, to which the police had not then had access.
Mr. Parker, the Attorney of the Commonwealth for this County,-
as he will state to you,-with a disposition to act with fairness towards
the prisoner, upon the presumption that he was an innocent man,
deemed it an act of justice that he should be present at. the examination,
to explain anything which might be found by the police upon his
premises. .
There were found in his private room, a pair of pantaloons, marked
with Dr. Webster's name, and a pair of slippers, which on examina-
tion by a scientific expert, are shown to have been spotted with blood.
There were towels nearly new, marked with the initial letter of his
name, found in the privy-vault, where the tide ebbed and flowed:-this
vault, it will be shown, gave ingress to the sea, but not to any solid
substance. A large number of skeleton-keys were found in his labora-
tory, fitting nearly every door in the College, which he stated he had
found in the street and carried to his room. There was found upon his
person at the time of- his arrest, the key of the privy; though when
asked by one of the officers where that key was, he pointed to one hang-
ing upon a nail in his private. room, saying, " there it is; " which, on
being tried, did not fit the lock of the privy door.
There was also found upon his person a paper, which will be put into
the case, and of which I shall be glad to hear some satisfactory
explanation from his learned and able counsel. It purports to give two
different versions of the interview which Dr. Parkman had with him
on Friday, the twenty-third of November. The character or contents
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