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GEo. W. LEARNED-challenged.
A, MANimus-challenged.
M. 0. Et.viN-challenged.
EDWARD W. PIERCE had expressed an opinion, and was discharged.
G. C. SALMON-challenged.-
STEPHEN A. STACEPOLE was accepted by prisoner, and being unbiassed, was
sworn in.
the Jury was here filled, and sworn in the case. They are-Robert J. Byron,
Foreman;
John Boroughscale; Mr. - Barry; J. Crosby; J. E. Davenport; Albert Day; J.
Eustis; N.
1. Fuller; B. H. Green; A. Hayward; Fred. A. Henderson; Stephen A.
Stackpole.
The remaining jurors were now dismissed from further attendance until
further notice.
The confusion incident to the retiring of the jurors having subsided, the
Attorney General of
`~2ssachusetts, the prosecuting officer in behalf of the State, now rose to
address the Jury.
Opening Address of the Attorney General,
Mr. CLIFFORD addressed the Jury on the painful yet imperative duty which
had fallen upon
L.em, and exhorted them to throw aside all former prejudices which might
have infected their
I_inds, and to consider calmly and dispassionately the testimony which
should be offered by the
Gcvernment against the accused, as well as the evidence which the accused
might offer in his
c wu defense.
The events attendant upon the committal of the crime attributed to
Professor Webster had
created a wide-spread and universal excitement in the community, and it
might be natural that
the Jury should have participated in the feelings of the public; but they
were now to discard this.
feeling, and in that Hall of Justice were to imbibe and nourish the
sentiments to which that
place should give rise in the bosom of every man who was bred up in a
country possessing insti-
tutions like ours. The Government, in the course of the trial, would
introduce testimony to
prove that on Friday, the 23d of November, 1849, at a little after 1
o'clock, P. M., Dr. Parkman,
who was a man of most regular habits, had just purchased, before his
regular dinner-hour,, a
quantity of lettuce which was at that time of the year a very rare luxury ;
and it was evident
that Dr. Parkman had, in purchasing that article at that time of the day,
the intention of eating,
it at his dinner table on that day.
The Government would also introduce testimony to prove that Dr. Parkman was
not at his
home on that day at his usual dinner-hour, nor ever after that. The last
time he was seen on that
Friday was while he was entering the Medical College in Grove street; and
although many per-
sons had at first declared that they had seen him at or after 6 o'clock, P.
M., on the day of his dis-
appearance, yet when these statements had been examined, it was proved that
they were all mis-
taken as to the day, or the hour of the day in question.
On the Saturday succeeding the 23rd Nov., the streams around the city were
searched, and the
po:ice was put in requisition, to discover, if possible, the body of the
missing man. Large rewards
were offered by the family and relatives of the Doctor for the recovery of
his body, alive or dead.,
Almost one week after the disappearance. of Dr. Parkman, the men found, in
a manner that -
would be related on the stand by a witness of the Government, the pelvis,
thighs and leg, or legs,
of a human being in the vault of a privy attached to the Laboratory of the
prisoner, and attach-
ed to, or wrapped around these parts, were certain towels, having marked
upon them the initials
of Professor Webster. The towels, also, were new, and such as Professor W.
had been accus-
tomed to use in his Laboratory, in the exercise of his duties as Professor.
In the furnace of the
Laboratory were found shortly afterwards the fractured and half-consumed
fragments of human
bones, together with several blocks of mineral teeth which were recognized
at once to have been-
those of Dr Parkman, by Dr. Keep, who had produced the mould in which he
had manufactured
the teeth in 1846 for Dr. Parkman, and proved that the teeth found in the
furnace of the Labo-
ratory exactly fitted the mould, and were, to all appearances, the same
teeth that had. belonged
to, and had been used by Dr. Parkman.
in a box or chest of the Laboratory was found the thorax or cliest of a
human being ; from the
thorax the heart was missing; the ribs were fractured, and the interstices
penetrated by a-
wound near the heart, and the flesh much torn ; and when the different
parts found in the privy,
of the Laboratory were placed together, and it was shown that the parts
found in the different
parts, of the Laboratory were all different from each other, and all
evidently belonged to one and
the same body-and that the height of the individual to whom the remains
belonged had been,
while alive, about five feet ten inches, and the garments would prove that,
from -passports and
other evidence, the hight of Dr. P. was just five feet ten and a-half
inches. It was also ascer-
tained, by the investigation of scientific men, that all the mutilated
fragments of a human body
had been subjected to the action of powerful alkalies, and the chest, with
the thorax, had been
:o,z. ;1 with a hunting knife of singular form; and covered with an
incrustation resembling that
which would have been caused by the drying of blood on the blade. It would
be proved by the
Government that 14r. Webster had been subjected, by various causes to
severe and long-contin-
ued financial difficulties and embarrassments, and that he had in 1842
borrowed the sum of ?400
from Dr. Parkman, for which he had given his note
The principal of that note was not entirely paid in 1847-in this latter
year Dr. P. had taken
a mortgage from Professor Webster of all his personal property to secure
the amount still:10i=
paid on the note. In April, 1849, a friend of Dr. Parkman s told him that
Professor Webster'had
mortgaged his personal property to Robt. G. Shaw, and it would be proved
that the prisoner had
before that time obtained money from Mr. Shaw, on a mortgage of personal
property, and bi
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