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TRIAL OF JOHN W. W EBSTER. 13
with a very respectable person, Mr. Pettee, a clerk in one. of the banks
in this city, to collect for them the moneys paid for these lecture-
tickets. The lectures commenced on the 7th of November. On the 9th,
Dr. Parkman having in view the purpose he had avowed, of compelling
Dr. Webster to pay his debt, and having also in his memory the promise
of the latter to pay it from the proceeds of the sales of his. tickets,
called
on Dr. Webster and insisted upon the payment. Dr, Webster stated
that he had not then received the money for his tickets, and requested
Dr. Parkman to wait a further period. At that time Dr. Webster had,
in fact, received a considerable portion of his money, which had been
appropriated to other purposes than the payment of his debt to Dr.
Parkman. There were other debts hanging over him; one of which, a
note to Dr. Bigelow, one of the Medical Professors, for about $230, was
paid from this fund.
Not satisfied with his statements, Dr. Parkman on the 12th of Novem-
ber, called on Mr. Pettee the collecting agent, to ascertain what was
the condition of Dr. Webster's funds in his ands. Two days after-
wards, he again called, and threatened a trustee process, or spoke of
one to Mr. Pettee, as the only mode of getting his pay from Dr. Web-
ster; and then sent a message by Mr. Pettee to Dr. Webster, that he
considered him a dishonorable and dishonest man. On Monday even-
ing, the 19th, after the repeated subterfuges of Dr. Webster, he called
on him again, and declared with some asperity, that " tomorrow some-
thing must e done." On the next morning Dr. Webster sent to Dr.
Parkman a note, the contents of which are unknown to the Government.
On Thursday, the day before his disappearance, the latter rode out to
Cambridge, to have another interview with Dr. Webster. Such were
the relations of these parties on the morning of that fatal Friday, the
twenty-third of November: the improvident and embarrassed debtor
evading the payment of his debts, the incensed creditor steadfastly pur-
suing him.
At about eight o'clock on that morning, Dr. Webster called at the
residence of Dr. Parkman, in Walnut street, and there made an appoint-
ment for Dr. Parkman to call at the Medical College to receive his pay
at half-past one o'clock. Though no one in the family knew that Dr.
Webster was the person who called, yet the whole evidence in the case,
will, doubtless, satisfy you of that fact. He did not call at Dr.. Park-
man's house to pay him there, but to appoint a meeting at the Medical
College at a time when his rooms would be vacated by the students,
between the hours of one and two o'clock, his lecture terminating at
one. About nine o'clock on that morning, Mr. Pettee, anxious to get.
out of his hands the balance of money due to Dr. Webster, in conse-
quence of Dr. Parkman's threats of a trustee process, which he wished
to avoid,' waited upon Dr. Webster, and paid him a balance of ninety
dollars, in a check on the Freeman's Bank. He then informed Dr.
Webster of Dr. Parkman's repeated inquiries respecting the state of
his funds, and his threat of a trustee process. Dr. Webster thereupon
remarked to Mr. Pettee ` You will have no further trouble with Dr.
Parkman, for I have settled with him."
I may as well state, in this connection, that Dr. Webster had con-
stantly held out to Dr. Parkman the expectation, and had represented
to others his intention of appropriating the money received from the
sale of his tickets to the payment of Dr. Parkman.
We shall show you that in this, Dr. Webster has falsified. It will
appear that not one dollar of that money could have gone to Dr. Park-
man. The $90 check received on the morning of the day of the disap-
pearance, was in the prisoner's possession the next day, and was de-
posited by him, to his own credit, in the Charles River Bank. His bank
account will be produced, and will be open to any explanation which
he through his counsel, may be able to give.
Dr. Webster's lecture days were Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and
Friday; he had no lectures on Saturday or Monday. You will observe,,,
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