Dr. James W. Stone. Report of the Trial of
Professor John W. Webster ...
, 1850
,
Image No: 275
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Dr. James W. Stone. Report of the Trial of
Professor John W. Webster ...
, 1850
,
Image No: 275
   Enlarge and print image (54K)           << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>
266 are alone, and ask yourselves the question, whether a gentleman, a man of culture, would be likely to carry around in his pocket so cumbersome a key as that, which he could, by no possibility, for any honest purpose, use anywhere else? When that key is called for, what is his answer? °' It hangs up yonder." It is not found there; the key of his wardrobe is found. He says,-'°I do not know, then, where it is." Then that door is broken open; and it turns out, afterwards, that while they were at the jail, and before they had gone to the College, that privy-key, which locked up those remains, had been borne about in the prisoner's possession, and was taken from his pocket by the person who arrested him. In the great case of Courvoisier, for the murder of his master, Lord William Russell-that case which has made all Europe ring with strictures upon the conduct of the Counsel, whether just or unjust-the great fact insisted upon was, that the bloody gloves were found in the trunk of the prisoner-put there, as it was contended by his Counsel, at a subsequent time, to fasten suspicion upon an innocent man. Here were the remains themselves found, not in the trunk of the lrisoner, but found in a place to which he alone had access. -the ey of which he kept in his own pocket, and the fact of which pos- session he denied. And you will determine whether I have said too much, or said it too strongly, not only that this prisoner stands justly charged with the homicide of Dr. Parkman, but that his mutilated remains have been found under his lock and key. The matter of the blankets-of new blankets and counterpanes -is inexplicable to me. Why they should have been put there, or carried there, I do not know, and you will judge. I make no sug- gestion respecting them. Now, what was his conduct and his whereabouts through that week? In the first place, he was locked into his laboratory, at unusual times, during a week of official leisure. Has he shown, or attempted to show, that he was engaged in anything which required his presence there ? That he was so locked in, does not depend on Littlefield's testimony alone. Clapp, Rice, Starkweather, Fuller, Mrs. Littlefield, Mr. Samuel Parkman Blake, Mr. Sawin, who had often gone there before, testify to it. The Cochituate water was running. No fires were wanted; and yet, it is here in evidence, unimpeached and unimpeachable, that fires were kept up during that week, more intense than were ever kept there before, and in places where no fire was ever kept before. Gentlemen, when was he there ? I have already stated to you, and to the Court, that, upon a critical examination of the testimony of his three daughters, there is a most significant and remarkable corroboration of the testimony of Littlefield. They do not conflict in any particular. He was there on Friday afternoon. What was he doing there ? Where did he dine ? I have already asked you that question. It is worthy of your consideration. On Saturday morning, you have no trace of him. From Saturday morning at one o'clock, until Saturday in the afternoon at one o'clock-have you any assurance where he was during that interval ? Is not the argument just and'fair, that he had come over, in one of those flittings of his, from Cambridge to the Medical College? Nobody else had a key to the building but