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Illustration Credits
All illustrations are from the 1879 Frederick D. Linn & Co. reprint of George Bemis’s Report of the Case of John W. Webster (1850), with the exception of the photograph of John W. Webster, which is reproduced courtesy of the Houghton Library of Harvard University.
Title page: Detail of Massachusetts Medical College
Part I: Map of the neighborhood by the Medical College
Part II: Dr. George Parkman
Part III: Professor John White Webster
Part IV: Detail of “Herculan” envelope addressed to Marshal Tukey, 30 November 1849
Part V: Details of remains discovered in the Medical College
Part VI: Photograph of Professor John White Webster (Louis Arthur Holman collection: MS Keats 10 #39, Houghton Library, Harvard University)
Rear pastedown and free endpaper: Plan of the second story of the Medical College
Index
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.
Page numbers followed by n refer to endnotes.
A. A. Foster & Co., 84–85
abortion, 25, 65, 71, 106, 144, 285n
Adams, Charles Francis, 4
Adams, Henry, 267
Adams, John Quincy, 4
Agassiz, Louis, 32, 236, 267
Ainsworth (Professor Frederick S.), 22, 25, 26
Albert, Madeline, 104
Andrews, Gustavus, 128, 138, 197, 225, 249, 252, 300n
appeals and pardon requests
angry letters to Governor Briggs, 250–52
pardon requests, 233–34, 237, 242, 246
petitions for clemency, 231, 242–44, 246, 247, 248–49
writ of error, 234, 237–38
Appleton, Charles, 172
Appleton, William, 260
Aram, Eugene, 227
Asch-ph***** (mummy), 235–37, 316n
Bachi, Pietro (aka Bartolo), 33–35, 221
Barly, William, 172
Barnum, P. T., 91, 266
Barrett, Thomas, 172
Beacon Hill Reservoir, 42
Bemis, George
added to Webster case, 171, 173–74, 307n
after Webster’s conviction, 237, 244, 261–62
payment for services, 262–63, 322n
during Webster’s trial, 176, 177, 197–99, 205, 210, 222–23
Bermondsey Horror, 156, 157
Bigelow, Henry Jacob
after Webster arrest, 142–43, 144, 223
Boston Society for Medical Improvement, 14, 17–18
Cambridge Musical Association, 35
and Clapp’s search in college, 73
and discovery of Parkman’s remains, 115–16, 117
education and early career, 12–13
Egyptian mummy and, 236
fondness for lock picking, 115
hired by Medical College, 12, 277n
love of animals, 16
Medical College opening lecture, 11–14
medical jurisprudence, 14, 244
Phineas Gage and, 15–17, 18, 73, 236
and Webster’s privy break-in, 105
Bigelow, Jacob, 12, 106, 160–61
Bigelow, John, 44, 140, 152
Bigelow, Susan, 16
Blake, James, 51–52, 54, 116
Blatchford, Thomas, 244
blood for chemistry lectures, 26–27, 29, 85
bodies for dissecting, 10, 23–26, 65
books about Webster, 162, 228–30, 261–62
Boston Courier, 67, 147, 158, 227, 228
Boston Daily Advertiser, 136
Boston Daily Atlas, 136, 224, 249
Boston Daily Bee
on the murder, 132, 156
support for Mayor Bigelow, 44
on the trial, 168, 227–28
on Webster’s arrest, 132–33, 136–37, 148
on Webster’s financial affairs, 146, 228
Boston Daily Chronotype, 136, 147–48
Boston Daily Evening Transcript
murder and trial, 157–58, 196, 227, 249, 297n
news, general, 67, 158, 235
on Parkman disappearance, 55, 61
Webster as reader, 61, 94–95
Boston Daily Journal, 55–56, 157, 196, 255, 297n
Boston Daily Mail, 136, 180, 185, 229, 235, 247
Boston Herald
attacks on Tukey, 97, 193, 285n
on “dead house” incident, 157
on the murder, 132, 148, 161, 162–63
news, general, 97, 245, 287n, 299n
on the trial, 168–69, 185, 206, 209–10, 222, 228–29
on Webster’s arrest, 132, 136, 137, 139
Boston, MA
in 1868, xvii, xviii
population growth, 1830–1850, 42, 282n
Boutillier, 104
Boutwell, George S., 323n
Brahmins, 267
Briggs, George, 231, 236, 242–43, 244, 245, 250–51
Brontë, Charlotte, 158
Browne, Albert, 4
Browne, Albert Gallatin, Jr., 267
Browne, Charles Farrar, 323n
Burke and Hare, 104
Burnham, police officer, 98, 293n
Burroughs, George, 265
Byram, Robert J., 201, 223
California gold rush, 71, 94
Cambridge Chronicle, 7, 22, 146, 156, 320n
Cambridge Musical Association, 35, 160
campus clubs and activities, 9–10
Cannon, Benjamin F., 165
capital punishment
abolition in Michigan, 248
dental evidence used by prosecutor, 187
judges required for capital cases, 170–71
one-year-delay law, 248–49, 265
questions about, during jury selection, 172
sentencing of John Webster, 225–26
Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment, 248, 250
see also execution of Webster
carbon monoxide poisoning, 10
Chamberlain, Artemas White, 4
Chamberlain, Nathan Henry, 4
Choate, Rufus, 200, 263
cholera epidemics, 6–7, 47, 165
Civis letters, 199–200, 209–10, 218, 233, 241
Clapp, Derastus
and discovery of Parkman’s remains, 117–18
and Parkman’s former manservant, 45
search for Parkman in college, 73–75
search of Webster home, 131–32
Webster’s arrest, 118–24, 297n
work as auctioneer, 76
Clark, doctor, 138
Clifford, John
after Webster’s conviction, 229, 237–38, 246, 262, 265
Bemis added to Webster case, 173–74, 307n
and Tremont House hotel fire, 188, 189
during Webster’s trial, 174–76, 187, 198, 213–16, 222
coal pen off Webster’s lab, 21, 81, 86
Cochituate water, 42, 43, 107, 117
confession by Webster, 238–42, 243, 264, 317n
Cooke, Josiah, 268
Cook, Roxanna, 14
Corder, William, 104
coroner (Pratt), 127, 134–35, 155, 298n
coroner’s storage room, 155–57
counterfeiters, 52, 65, 138, 148
Courvoisier, François Benjamin, 264
Craigie Bridge, 62, 65, 69, 120, 241, 259
Craigie House, 30, 31, 32
Crosby, James, 180, 195–96, 221
Cummings, police officer, 128
Cunningham, Andrew, 91
Cunningham, Charles, 91, 131–32
Cunningham, Charles, Jr., 91
Cunningham, Mrs., 90–91, 92
Cushing, John Perkins, 260
Dabney, Carl, 233
Dabney, John, 232–33
Dabney, Sarah (Sally) Webster, 90, 92, 164
Daves, John, 4
David Copperfield (Dickens), xvii, 156, 196
Davy Society, 10, 13
Day, Albert, 231
Day, Moses Henry, 4
Day, Moses Henry, Sr., 4
Deacon, Edward Preble, 36, 37
Deaco
n House, 36–37
“dead house,” 155–57
Description of the Island of St. Michael, A (Webster), 162
Dexter, Franklin, 139, 200
Dickens, Charles, xvii–xix, 268–70
dissecting room disposal vault, 21–23, 25
Dorsheimer, Philip, 4
Dorsheimer, William, 4, 267
Dunbar, carpenter, 253–54
Eastman, Fondey & Company, 198
electro-biology, 162, 205–6
Elements of Medical Jurisprudence (Farr), 144
Eliot, Charles William, 267
Elsie Venner (Holmes), 267
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Charles Dickens and, xvii, xviii
Charles T. Jackson and, 185
Henry Longfellow and, 159
Oliver Wendell Holmes and, 27
Pythologian Society, 9
Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Locke), 219
Euthanasy, or Happy Talks Towards the End of Life (Mountford), 253
Eveleth, Sheriff, 168, 169–70, 175, 249, 252, 256–57
Everett, Edward, 34, 162
execution of Webster
hanging, 254–57
hidden from wife and daughters, 252, 319n
preparations for, 252–54
Farrar, Mrs., 138
Father Mathew, 81
Fayal, 221, 232–33, 241, 253, 261
Fay, Judge, 225
Fillmore, Millard, 245
Fiske, Theophilus, 162, 206, 311n
Franklin, John, 156
Fuller, Albert, 46
Fuller Foundry, 45–46, 106–7, 110
Fuller, Leonard, 107
Fuller, police officer, 101, 133–35
Furber, Sarah, 24–26, 65, 106
Gage, Phineas P., 15–17, 18–19, 73, 236
gases generated by decomposition, 22
Gay, George, 143
Gay, Martin, 143
Gilbert, Pedro, 145
Gliddon, George, 235–37, 316n
Goode, Washington, 147–48, 248, 251
Goodrich, Charles Bishop, 237, 238
Gould, Nathaniel, 197–99, 212, 310n
grapevines, 21, 74, 89–90, 100, 110, 240, 249
Great Expectations (Dickens), xvii
Greene, Benjamin H., 196, 244, 310n
Grimes, J. S., 206
Grove Street Murder, 57
gutta-percha, 90
Hall, A. Oakey, 234, 316n
handbills posted, 60, 67, 69–70, 93, 121, 175, 181, 195
hands found in Charles River, 160–61