Report of the case of John W. Webster, indicted for the murder of George Parkman, before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts : including the hearing on the petition for a writ of error, the prisoner's confessional statements and application for a commutation of sentence, and an appendix containing several interesting matters never before published / by George Bemis.

  • Webster, John White, 1793-1850.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the case of John W. Webster, indicted for the murder of George Parkman, before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts : including the hearing on the petition for a writ of error, the prisoner's confessional statements and application for a commutation of sentence, and an appendix containing several interesting matters never before published / by George Bemis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    con street. I was looking for him, for a special purpose, and he turned out of the street into the Mall, just before I came near enough to him, to speak to him. I was at the Medical College on Tuesday, after the finding of the remains; had been there the day before, but went again, Tuesday-noon. The medical gentlemen, who have been called, Dr. Lewis and others, had then nearly completed their examination. I went for my own gratification, and without being expected to be called to testify to my observa- tions. I saw, on a board, the parts of a body, which have been spoken of, — a chest, pelvis, two thighs, and one of the legs. The dissection of the chest was made in the usual way of post-mortem examinations. It was done as well as it would usually be done by a physician ; and no one, who had not been in the habit of seeing dissections, could have done it, as it was. I made inquiry, whether the medical gentlemen had exam- ined the ribs, and whether there was no mark upon the rib near which the hole was. I was told by some person, that there was not. I drew forward the skin, myself, and found, on the under side of the sixth rib, exactly under the hole, a clean cut on the ribs. The hole was through the flesh, and through the membrane or periosteum of the rib, and made, when the parts were tense. After death, the elasticity of a body is gone, and it would be very difficult to make a clean cut like this. I have tried it. There was a clean cut through the periosteum, almost into the rib, just such as could not be made upon a dead body without a very sharp knife, but which might easily be made upon the living body with a common knife. This struck me at the time, as it went very near the heart, as the cause of the death. I should suppose that a stab in that region would cause internal effusion of blood. In the case of these remains, the parts were unusually bloodless. They seemed as much so, as meat that is sold in the shambles. My inference from this would be, that the person bled to death from violence. The hair, which I noticed upon the remains, was sandy, intermingled with gray. The skin had lost the appearance of elasticity, as in a young subject, and had the thickness at- tendant upon age. I judged from the hair, skin, and carti- lages, that the subject must have been between fifty and sixty years of age. There were ossifications in the cartilages, such as do not commence till after middle life. The body was of an unusual formation. It was narrow across the shoulders, and the difference between the width there, and across the