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TRIAL OF JOHN W. WEBSTER. 215
ist's laboratory is crowded with every variety and species of article used
by manufacturers. They try experiments upon everything. It might
have perhaps been thought worth while to attempt to show why the tan
was in this instance carried there by Sawin, did it not abundantly appear
from the Government's own evidence, that it had nothing to do with the
homicide, the remains, or the issue before you.
We were threatened again, at another time, with danger from the
evidence concerning certain filed keys, which were seized by the police
from some drawer or shelf in the apartments of Dr. Webster; but happily
we have his own sufficient explanation in relation to them. They were
casually picked up in a neighboring street, and carelessly thrown by, as
of some possible future use. No matter that some of them would fit the
locks of his own door, or the door of the dissecting-room; for, though he
had a perfect right of access to that room, there is no pretence of proof
that he ever used those keys for the purpose of obtaining it. If he were
on trial for house or store-breaking, the possession of these burglarious
instruments might be significant; being on trial for murder, evidence of
possession of deadly weapons would be far more appropriate and material.
The keys might touch the case of a burglar; deadly weapons, if they were
shown, might be brought to bear against the prisoner. I submit, that
there is nothing here which should affect him.
Mr. Littlefield ha.s testified that a sledge-hammer was left in the
laboratory by masons who did repairing there more than a year ago:
that he afterwards frequently saw it there, and that he saw it on the
morning of the 23d of November. Since the arrest of the prisoner, dili-
gent search has been made for it, and it cannot be found. It has evi-
dently been carried away. Other witnesses have testified to the twine
which was found tied round the bone of the thigh, which wag discovered
beneath the tan in the tea-chest; and this piece of twine corresponded
in appearance with that of which the fish-hook grapple was made, and
with a large ball of the same article, found in the private room of the
prisoner. Both these circumstances will be readily accounted for upon
either of the hypotheses which are before you. If Dr. Webster com-
mitted the homicide and concealed the remains, it would not be improb-
able that he removed the sledge, and perhaps quite certain that he fas-
tened the twine to the thigh-bone. But, if some unknown agent was
there, by whom the body was brought into the College, it would be equally
reasonable to impute those effects to him. He who could make the dis-
position which certainly was made of the different parts of the body was
under no restraint from the locks or bolts by which the several rooms
were secured: he could dispose of the hammer and the twine as it suited
his pleasure. Unless, therefore, the evidence of the Government excludes,
to a moral certainty, the reasonable probability that some other person
beside Dr. Webster mutilated and concealed the body, the circumstances
relative to the twine and the hammer become insignificant and worth-
less.
Mr. Trenholm was called to state the conversation of Dr. Webster with
him concerning a twenty-dollar bill, about which he said inquiries were
made of him by Marshal Tukey, or by his directions, in the expectation
or hope of tracing it to Dr. Parkman. This has been fully explained to
you. It appears that an Irishman offered a. bill of that amount, at the
bridge, to pay a toll of one cent; the bill was retained by the toll-keeper,
upon a suspicion, not unnaturally excited, that the money wag unlaw-
fully obtained,-and possibly from the person of Dr. Parkman. Inquiries
were accordingly made of Dr. Webster, if he could identify it as among
the bills which he paid to him; but he was unable to do it; and there,
that whole matter ended. It is obviously no longer of any consequence.
Mrs. Coleman has been called to relate the interview which Dr. Web-
ster had with her on Friday the 30th of Novem.ber,--the day of his
arrest. From her testimony it appears, that, on his return from Boston,
he called at her house in Cambridgeport to inquire of her when she had
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