Bemis Report of the Webster Trial, 1850 [1897], Image No: 86   Enlarge and print image (68K)           << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>
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Bemis Report of the Webster Trial, 1850 [1897], Image No: 86   Enlarge and print image (68K)           << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>
$13 TRIAL C)P` JOHN W. WEBSTER. thing which Mrs. Littlefield witnessed, showing that there was a diffi- culty of access to his apartments, is proper. Mr, Bemis.-And we offer it no more to prove that Mr. Littlefield did this, than to prove that any other independent person was doing the same thing. [The Court ruled, that anything which the witness had observed, might be stated, but not her conversation with Mr. Littlefield.] Mrs. Littlefield, resumes.-I did not see Mr. Littlefield lying down at the floor. I only saw him listening; and when he saw me, he came away. I did not see him get into the laboratory, that afternoon. I saw Dr. Webster pass through our entry, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. Wednesday morning, I saw him turn to go up the front stairs; not through the laboratory-door, as usual. Can't say, at what hour he came to the College, Friday morning. We had a rather late breakfast, as Mr. Littlefield had been out, the night before, and did not get up; I had tried to call Mr. Littlefield up, earlier. Dr. Webster came into our kitchen, took up a paper, and said, " Mr. Littlefield, have you heard anything of Dr. Parkman? " My husband replied, " No; I have not," as near as I can recollect. The Doctor then went on to say, " That a woman had seen a large bundle put into a cab; that the num- ber of the cab had been taken; that they had been to see the cab; and that it was all covered with blood." Mr. Littlefield replied, " There are a great many stories flying about; one does not know what to believe:" and he then said to me, that Dr. Webster knew a great deal more about it, than he pretended; but this was after the Doctor had gone out. I knew of Mr. Littlefield's beginning to dig through the wall, Thurs- day. He went to borrow tools. Mrs. Harlow brought him an axe. I saw him go down, and should think that he was digging about an hour, Thursday. About three o'clock, Friday afternoon, he commenced again. I had to watch the doors, both clays, to see if Dr. Webster should come along. After the doors were all locked, and Mr. Littlefield had been digging three-quarters of an hour, or so, Friday afternoon, I thought I saw Dr. Webster, through the window, coming. If Dr. Webster came, I was not to let him in, until I had struck four times with a hammer which I had. When Mr. Kingsley and Mr. Starkweather went by, I thought that it was Dr. Webster, and struck four times, and Mr. Littlefield came up. While Mr. Littlefield was out talking with them, in the shed, Dr. Web- ster came to the College, went to the door of the laboratory, and unbolted it. I heard him unbolt it, and take in the grape-vines, and then he went away, leaving the door unlocked, as he had usually done before the dis- appearance of Dr. Parkman. I saw the door standing a little ways a-jar. Dr. Webster went directly out; he had not been in the building but a few moments. I saw him pass through the entry, but could not tell by which door he went out. While the Doctor was in the laboratory, Mr. Littlefield continued talking with the police-officers. He then came in, and went to digging again, and had not been more than ten min- utes under the building, before he came up. He seemed to be very much affected, more than I ever saw him before, in my life. I said- Mr. Merrick.-We object to conversations. Attorney General.-I think, may it please Your Honors, that it may be a matter of some consequence, in the course of our examination, to show certain facts, which consist partly in appearances, and partly in conversations. but which are yet facts, having a material bearing on this issue, and which, as facts, are admissible testimony. If it is intended to be intimated here, under any pretence, that Mr. Littlefield assumed to have found those remains, or anything which implicates him in the crime, it is most material to show what his appearance was when that discovery was first made: what he did, when he came out of that cellar, in reference to this subject-matter, and when he found