Word: parkman
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...fact, during the more than 322 years of the College's existence there has not been one murder of an undergraduate by another. The Faculty's record, of course, is not quite as sterling, it being blemished in 1849 by the infamous Webster-Parkman case...
...nineteenth century produced the most specutacular crime in Harvard history. On a Friday afternoon in November of 1849 Dr. Georgius Parkman, a widely known philanthropist, humanitarian and instructor at Harvard Medical School, was murdered and his body mutilated so horribly that it had to be identified by his dentist...
...pioneer in the medical treatment of the insane, Parkman had inherited a large amount of money, some of which he lent to a colleague, Dr. John White Webster. A professor at the Medical School for a quarter-century, Webster had luxurious tastes beyond his means. Parkman became furious with his debtor when he discovered that both another creditor and himself had been given the same bill of sale as security. He pursued Webster relentlessly and finally made an appointment to see the latter at his laboratory to collect the debt...
...Parkman never returned. For three days Webster remained behind bolted doors in his laboratory, with his furnace and two stoves going full blast, and the water running contin- uously. He left word that he was "performing experiments." By the following Wednesday the janitor had become suspicious, and attacked the brick vault in the basement with a chisel. By Friday, one week after Parkman's disappearance, the janitor had opened a hole large enough to introduce light. A human thigh and pelvis were revealed. Other parts of Parkman's dissected body were found in a blood-bath around the room. Webster...
...claimed a frameup, but the key issue at the trial was whether or not the murder had been premeditated. Webster later conceded that he had struck Parkman with a stick of wood as a result of the later's abusiveness, but he stoutly maintained that he had not intended to kill him. The jury was out for only three hours. All Boston thrilled to see a Harvard professor kicking on the gallows of the Leverett Street jail...