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TRIAL OF JOHN W. WEBSTER. 115
Immediately, after they had gone, Dr. Webster called for a pitcher
of water, and drank several times. He asked me, "If they had found
Dr. Parkman?" I told him, that I wished he would not ask me any
questions as it was not proper for me to answer them. He said, "You
might tell me something about it.'="Where did they find him?" "Did
they find the whole of the body?" "How came they to suspect me?"
"Oh! my children, what will they do?" "Oh! what will they think of
me:?" "Where did you get the information?" I asked the Doctor
If anybody had access to his private apartments, but himself?
" Nobody- has access to my private apartments," he replied, " but the
porter, who makes the fire." There was a pause for something like
a minute and a half, when the Doctor added, "That villain! I am a
ruined man! There was no further conversation. The Doctor would
walk the floor, and wring his hands, and then he would sit down.
I saw the Doctor put his hand in his vest-pocket, and put it up to
his mouth; and, in a moment, he had a spasm, as .if in a fit. I went to
him, and said, " Doctor, haven't you been taking anything? " and he
replied, that he had not. I then helped him up from the settee, and he
walked the floor. I was with him about an hour, when Mr. Clapp
came back and told me to commit him. I went to him, and told him,
that I must commit him.
I took hold of his right arm, and he could not stand. I asked Mr.
Cummings, one of the attendants, to take hold of him. He did so, and
we led him to the lock-up. I told Mr. Cummings, that I thought he had
been taking something, and that he had better send for a physician.
I said this to him in the Doctor's hearing, when we got ~to the lock-up,
underneath the office. Mr. Clapp thought that he had better not send
for a physician, but go down every few minutes, and look to him.
We had to lift the Doctor up, and lay him in his berth; we laid him
upon his side and he turned over upon his face. He had a spasm,
every now and then, and appeared like a man in a fit. I never saw a
man in such a state, in my life. I have,seen a great many men in fits,
but, never one like him.
I left the Doctor, and next saw him, about three-quarters of an hour
afterwards at the Medical College. Dr. Webster, Mr. Parker, Mr.
Andrews, Mr. Platt, and several others, were up in the upper laboratory,
tory, when I came there. When the party were in the lower laboratory,
some one asked the question, Where the furnace was? and Mr. Little-
field walked towards it, and pointed it out. While in the laboratory,
the Doctor appeared very much agitated,-more so, than he did
up-stairs.
I have had some fish-hooks and twine, in my possession, which I
now produce. These were found, just as they now are, in Dr. Webster's
private room, in his upper laboratory.
. [The witness exhibited the articles to the jury. The hooks were
arranged in the form of grapples, and had attached to them, leaden
sinkers of a pound's weight, or more. Pieces of twine, of perhaps six
or eight yards in length, were wound around each. There were three
of these grapples; one, composed of three hooks, one, of two, and one,
of one. The fish-hooks, themselves, were some six inches long, with
a bend, an inch, or an inch and a half, across.]
Mr. Starkweather, resumes.-I saw these articles, on Friday night;
the night of the arrest. I took the hooks and twine, on Saturday. They
were rolled up in a paper, on the shelf, in the back private room. There
is another ball of twine there, yet.
On Saturday, there was a general search. I was in the upper labo-
ratory, and heard my name called in the lower laboratory. I went
down there, and saw Mr. Fuller bringing out a tea-chest. Upon the
thigh of the body, found in it, there was a quantity of twine wound
round. I cut a, piece of it off. [Witness exhibited the piece of twine
cut off, with a label on it, for the purpose of identification.]
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