Bemis Report of the Webster Trial, 1850 [1897], Image No: 32   Enlarge and print image (68K)           << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>
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Bemis Report of the Webster Trial, 1850 [1897], Image No: 32   Enlarge and print image (68K)           << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>
32 TRIAL OF JOHN W. WEBSTER. is for a watch, descriptive of such a watch as Dr. Parkman was known to have had about him. And the fourth, is Mr. Shaw's reward of $1,000 for the discovery of the body. Besides the circulation given to these, in the shape of hand-bills, they were published as advertisements in all the Boston newspapers. The search for the deceased was prose- cuted till the remains were found. I heard of the discovery of the remains, on Friday, November 30th. Mr. Kingsley, and Mr. Blake, and Mr. G. M. Thatcher were in my office, when Dr. J. H. Bigelow called, and informed me of Mr. Little- field's discovery. I put a. revolver into my pocket, and immediately started to meet Mr. Littlefield at Mr. Robert G. Shaw, Jr.'s, in Sum- mer street, and go from thence to the Medical College. I sent to have Mr. Clapp and Mr. Spurr meet me there, and went down in company with Dr. Bigelow and Mr. Littlefield. When we arrived, we found the other officers, and Mr. Trenholm, another police officer, there. From Mr. Litchfield's apartments, we went into the cellar, and thence down through the trap-door, into the basement. [Here a model, in wood, capable of being taken apart, and intended to exhibit, in a miniature, a fac simile of the interior of the College, as also drawings of the several apartments connected with the case, where exhibited, to aid the witness's explanations. They were care- fully examined by the Bench, and some explanations asked.] Witness resumes.-After descending through the trap-door, we crawled along upon the ground underneath the floor, some sixty feet, to the back or north wall of the building, and there, where the cross, wall meets the back wall at right angles, and within a foot or two of the back wall, was a hole pierced through the cross wall, about eighteen inches square, and large enough to admit a man's body. The bricks and mortar lax around, as if freshly broken out. We had a lamp with us, and I asked Col. Clapp to pass it through, and see what could be seen. He looked in, and said that there were parts of a human body; and I also looked in, and saw, as I thought, several pieces of human flesh. The water from the sink was running down and spattering over them: I asked Trenholm and Littlefield to go in, and pass out what they could find. We got a board, and they passed out three or four pieces of a body,-a. pelvis, a thigh and a leg. I asked Dr. Bigelow, as a mat- ter of form, if these were parts of a human body; and he said, yes. I then asked, if they were from a dissecting-room. He said, it was not the place for them. I asked Littlefield, if there was any entrance to this place except through the privy-hole above, and the aperture in the wall through which we had drawn the parts; and he said, no. While we were down there, we heard some one overhead, and hurried out, saying, " he is overhead," or, " that is Webster." We came out upon the cellar-floor, through the trap-door, and did not see anybody., Dr. Bigelow went into Mr. Littlefield's rooms, and I went into the store- room connected with the laboratory, with my revolver in my hand, while the other officers went into the- laboratory to search for Dr. Web- ster, or whoever it might be. I remained where I was, till the other officers returned, and said, that they could not find any one;-they had searched the lecture-room all under the seats, and could not find him. We then all went into the laboratory. I went near the furnace, whence the bones were taken, and recollect hearing the cover stir, and seeing something in Col. Clapp's hands. I looked at it, and saw that it was a cinder or piece of slag, with a, bone in it. I also saw some other one of the- party have something of the kind in his hands. I told them not to touch anything, but to leave all as it was, till the things should be taken possession of, by order of Court. I then sent officers, Clapp, Spurr, and Starkweather, over to Cambridge, to arrest Professor Webster, and bring him into town. I have had charge of the bones found in the furnace in the laboratory,' and also of various other things, which I here produce and identify-.