TRIAL OF PROFESSOR JOHN W. WEBSTER, FOR THE MURDER OF DR. JOHN PARKMAN IN THE MEDICAL COLLEGE, NOVEMBER 22, 1849
1850 · Boston
by [Webster, John W.]
Boston: John A. French, 1850. 91.[4]pp. with in-text illustrations and frontispiece portrait. Early 20th-century buckram, gilt label. Cloth slightly soiled, label chipped. Institutional ink and blind stamps to titlepage. Light tanning. Good plus. One of the numerous contemporary reports on the trial of Harvard professor John W. Webster for the sensational murder of his colleague, Dr. George Parkman. Webster committed the crime after Parkman allegedly threatened him with loss of his academic position if he did not pay his debts to him. Webster killed Parkman in his office in the Harvard Medical School, and proceeded to burn up the body in a furnace in his office, until what was left of Parkman's remains were found by a janitor. This account features several attractive black-and-white illustrations. "While there have been more mysterious cases, cases involving more prominent or notorious persons and others more macabre, the Parkman case still ranks high on the list of American murders" - McDade. McDADE 1067 (Inventory #: WRCAM53862)