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TRIAL Or' JOHN W. WEBSTER. 363,
doors and bolted them,-the doors of the lecture room, and of the
laboratory below. And then, what was I to do?
It never occurred to me to go out and declare what had been done,
and obtain assistance. I saw nothing but the alternative of a success-
ful removal and concealment of the body, on the one hand, and of infamy
and destruction on the other. The first thing I did, as soon as I could
do anything, was to drag the body into the private room adjoining.
There I took off the clothes, and began putting them into the fire which
was burning in the upper laboratory. They were all consumed there
that afternoon,-with papers, pocket-book, or whatever else they may
have contained. I did not examine the pockets, nor remove anything
except the watch. I saw that, or the chain of it, hanging out; and I
took it and threw it over the bridge as I went to Cambridge.
My next move was to get the body into the sink which stands in the
small private room. By setting the body partially erect against the
corner, and getting up into the sink myself, I succeeded in drawing it
up. There it was entirely dismembered. It was quickly done, as a
work of terrible and desperate necessity. 'The only instrument used
was the knife found by the officers in the tea-chest, and which I kept
for cutting corks. I made no use of the Turkish knife, as it was called
at the trial. That had long been kept on my parlor mantel-piece in
Cambridge, as a curious ornament. My daughters frequently cleaned
it: hence the marks of oil and whiting found on it. I had lately brought
it into Boston to get the silver sheath repaired.
While dismembering the body, a stream of Cochituate was running
through the sink, carrying off the blood in a pipe that passed down
through the lower laboratory. There must have been a leak in the
pipe, for the ceiling below was stained immediately round it.
There was a fire burning in the furnace of the lower laboratory.
Littlefield was mistaken in thinking there had never been a fire there.
He had probably never kindled one, but I had done it myself several
times. I had done it that day for the purpose of making oxygen gas.
The head and viscera were put into that furnace that day, and the fuel
heaped on. I did not examine at night to see to what degree they
were consumed. Some of the extremities, I believe, were put in there
on that day.
The pelvis and some of the limbs, perhaps all, were put under the
lid of the lecture-room table in what is called the well,-a deep sink
lined with lead. A stream of Cochituate was turned into it, and kept
running through it all Friday night. The thorax was put into a similar
well .in the lower laboratory, which I filled with water, and threw
in a quantity of potash which I found there. This disposition of the
remains was not changed till after the visit of the officers on Monday.
When the body had been thus all disposed of, I cleared away all
traces of what had been done. I took up the stick with which the fatal
blow had been struck. It proved to be the stump of a large grape vine,
say two inches in diameter, and two feet long. It was one of two or
more pieces which I had carried in from Cambridge long before, for
the purpose of showing the effect of certain chemical fluids in coloring
wood, by being absorbed into the pores. The grape vine, being a very
porous wood, was well suited to this purpose. Another longer stick
had been used as intended, and exhibited to the students. This one
had not been used. I put it into the fire.
I took up the two notes, either from the table or the floor,-I think
the table,-close by where Dr. P. had fallen. I seized an old metallic
pen lying on the table, dashed it across the face and through the signa-
tures, and put them in my pocket. I do not know why I did this rather
than. put them into the fire; for I had not considered for a moment
what effect either mode of disposing of them would have on the mort-
gage, or my indebtedness to Dr. P. and the other persons interested;
and I had not yet given a single thought to the question as to what
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