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864 TRIAL OF JOHN w. WEBSTER.
account I should give of the objects or results of my interview with Dr.
Parkman.
I never saw the sledge-hammer spoken of by Littlefield, and never
knew of its existence; at least, I have no recollection of it.
I left the College to go home, as late as six o'clock. I collected
myself as well as I could, that I might meet my family and others with
composure. On Saturday I visited my rooms at the College, but made
no change in the disposition of the remains, and laid no plans as to my
future course.
On Saturday evening I read the notice in the Transcript respecting
the disappearance. I was then deeply impressed with the necessity of
immediately taking some ground as to the character of my interview
with Dr. P. for I saw that it must become known that I had such
an interview, as I had appointed it, first, by an unsealed note on Tues-
day, and on Friday had myself called at his house in open day and
ratified the arrangement, and had there been seen and probably over-
heard by the man-servant; and I knew not by how many persons Dr.
P. might have been seen entering my rooms, or how many persons he
might have told by the way where he was going. The interview would
in all probability be known; and I must be ready to explain it. ,The
question exercised me much; but on Sunday my course was taken. I
would go into Boston, and be the first to declare myself the person, as
yet unknown, with whom Dr. P. had made the appointment. I would
take the ground, that I had invited him to the College to pay him money,
and that I had paid him accordingly. I fixed upon the sum by taking the
small note and adding interest, which, it appears, I cast erroneously.
If I had thought of this course earlier, I should not have deposited
Pettee's check for $90 in the Charles River Bank on Saturday, but should
have suppressed it as going so far towards making up the sum which
I was to profess to have paid the day before, and which Pettee knew
I had by me at the hour of the interview. It had not occurred to me
that I should ever show the notes cancelled in proof of the payment;
if it had, I should have destroyed the large note, and let it be inferred
that it was gone with the missing man; and I should only have kept
the small one which was all that I could pretend to have paid. My
single thought was concealment and safety. Everything else was inci-
dental to that. I was in no state to consider my ulterior pecuniary
interests. Money, though I needed it so much, was of no account with
me in that condition of mind.
If I had designed and premeditated the homicide of Dr. P. in order
to get possession of the notes and cancel my debt, I not only should
not have deposited Pettee's check the next day, but I should have made
some show of getting and having the money the morning before. I
should have drawn my money from the bank, and taken occasion to
mention to the cashier, that 1 had a sum to take out that day for Dr. P.,
and the same to Henchman, when I borrowed the $10. I should have
remarked, that I was so much short of a large sum that I was to pay
to Parkman. I borrowed the money of Henchman as mere pocket-money
for the day.
If I had intended the homicide of Dr. P., I should not have made the
appointment with him twice, and each time in so open a manner that
other persons would almost certainly know of it. And I should not
have invited him to my room at an hour when the College would have
been full of students and others, and an hour when I was most likely
to receive calls from others; for that was an hour-just after the
lecture-at which persons having business with me, or in my rooms,
were always directed to call.
I looked into my rooms on Sunday afternoon, but did nothing.
After the first visit of the officers, I took the pelvis and some of
the limbs from the upper well, and threw them into the vault under
the privy. I took the thorax from the well below, and packed it in
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