Bemis Report of the Webster Trial, 1850 [1897], Image No: 76   Enlarge and print image (66K)           << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>
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Bemis Report of the Webster Trial, 1850 [1897], Image No: 76   Enlarge and print image (66K)           << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>
76. TRIAL OF JOHN TS'. WEBSTER. door, and I told her to ask Mrs. Bigelow, " If she knew where the Doctor was; as I wished to see him very much." Mrs. Bigelow, her- self, came to the door, called me by name, and asked me what; tile matter was. I then went directly down to Dr. T3aney J. Bigelow's, in Chauncey-place. I found him in, and told him what I had discovered. He told me to come along with him, to Mr. Robert G. Shaw, Jr.'s, in Summer street. We went do-Am to Mr. Shaw's; went into his study, and there found Mr. Shaw. (I did not call at Dr. Jackson's, until after I had been to Mr. Shaw's.) The Marshal came in to Mr. Shaw's, and I told him the same thing, that I had told the others. The Marshal told me to go right back to the College, and he would soon be there. I went to 1)r. J. B. S. Jack- son's, wrote my name on the slate, and then weat to the College, and got there before any of the other parties. I found Mr. Trenholm, and. he told me, that he had been down, and seen the remains. The Marsh;,', and Dr. Bigelow, got there in ten or fifteen minutes after I got hoiiie. Mr. Clapp came before them, I believe. The hole was about half-way between the floor and the ;;round. The aperture is about eighteen inches one way, and perhaps ten or twelve inches the other. From the privy-hole down to the ground, is a dis- tance of some eight or nine feet. These remains were not found directly under the privy-hole, but had fallen outwards, towards the outer, or northern wall. The dirt had been thrown away from the walls, to keep it from pressing on them, and the trench is wide enough for two men to walk abreast in. [The witness here explained to the Court and the jury, by means of the diagram of the basement-story of the College, the position of the walls, privy-hole, and remains.] There was no aperture, through which anything could flow in or out with the tide. The tide, however, penetrates the walls, and fills :.ip the trench. The water flows into the vault, in consequence of the walls being strained by the pressure of Dr. Webster's coal. Sometimes the water remains in the vault, five or six feet deep, after the tide has fallen. To the Attorney General.-Mr. Trenholm was able to bet down '.he trap-door, while I was gone, from my wife's finding another key to the front cellar. The noise heard, when we were down under tbo labora- tory, and when the Marshal took out his revolver, was made by my wife, and by the children running over the floor overhead. I did not know it, however, till several days after. To Mr. Bemis, again.-Before Dr. Webster was brougut down to the College, that evening, Mr. Tukey, Mr. Trenholm, and myself, went into the laboratory, and uncovered the furnace. I put my hand into the furnace, and took out a piece of bone. I don't recollect, whether we went up into the back private room, before he was brought down. Mr. Trenholm was ordered by the Marshal, to stay there and watch, until Dr. Webster should come. The party, with Dr. Webster, came about eleven o'clock. The front- door bell rang, and I went out of the shed-door, and saw the front steps all covered with gentlemen. An officer said to me, " We have got Dr. Webster here, and he is very faint." I opened the door, and Dr. Web- ster came in, apparently supported by two persons, one on each side. Dr. Webster spoke to me and said, " They have arrested me, and have taken me from my family, and did not give me a chance to bid them good-night." They wanted to go into the lecture-room, and I unlocked the door, and let them in.. Dr. Webster was very much agitated; sweat very badly, and trembled, as I thought: he did not appear to have the use of his legs. I thought, that he was supported by the officers, altogether. When I unlocked the door, all passed in. I .went down to the door of his back private room. They asked me for the key of the door. I told them that " I did not have it; that Dr. Webster always had it." Dr. Webster said, that they had taken him away in such a hurry, that he