St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-08-16
A MYSTERIOUS CRIME.
The Tale of n Dark and Dreadful
Crime Retold.
Supposed Temperance of the Aged
Victim.
Correspondence of the Globe.


man, the supposed victim of the great Har-
ward college murder, walking the street of a
neighbOring town has aroused great interest
among the friends to whom they impaired
the information, but though quiet investi-
CATION has been made no further trace of
the mysterious old gentleman has come to
light. The two witnesses, however, de-
clare they could not have been mistaken.
To be sure, the tall. thin form was consid-
erably bent. and the hair had turned to the
purest white, but the man walked just as
DIR. Parkman walked, with hat upon the
back of the head and with one hand clutch
ing the other arm behind the back. Then
there was that predominating chin, which
had been always so prominent as to win for
the doctor the nickname of Chin"
Though many doubt if DIR. George Park
man will ever be found alive or his remains
discovered, which can unquestiOnably be
proved rs his, still the positive statement of
these former acquaintance is of sufficient
weight TO renew the interest which the
mysterious crime, unparalleled anywhere
by the station of the participants, has al
ways excited. The supposed murder of
DIR. Parkman and the hanging of Prof. Web
ster, one of the leading officials of Harvard
college, was the fact so constantly alluded
10 NftlA- WITCH. is
he stood on the political stump, he threw
back on the college authorities who had re-
fused him an LID, the insinuation that
one OF their number found his place
UPON THE GALLONS.
1t was on a cold night in November that
DR.. Parkman failed to return home. His
friends inStituting a search, traced the doc
tor TO the Harvard Medical college. but as
no one at that time dreamed of siISpecting
a man of such eninence as Prof. Webster,
the search was confined to the neighbOring
buildings. Then suspicion began TO settle
on Littlefeld, the janitOr of the college,
and he, urged by this TO action, started
investigations on his own account.
He remembered that the missing
man, four days before the disappearance,
had engaged in a verbal dispute with Prof.
Webster about few hundred dollars which
were owed him by the professor. and which
the latter neglected TO settle. He remem-
bered that on the fated November day he
had seen DIR. Parkman walking toward the
college and that behind Prof. WebSterS
door there was q sledge hammer which had
always been Kept III the laboratory below.
After the disappearance the professors
apartments had been locked and the key
hole covered. and when the janitor, lying
Hat Oll Allt llOuL. lOOhCl lllC lONGI
creyice he saw the occupant carrying nod
after bod from tine furnace to the vaults.
just one week after the disappearance, the
janitOr, with the assistance of two profess
Ors TO whom he had communicated his the
DRY, made hole through wall of the vault and
saw within il various parts of a leg and other
remains of man. That night Prof. Web
ster was arrested and at IL o'clock brought
into the room where it was supposed the
murder had been committed. He trembed
like leaf, and when water was offered
him snapped at it as though in a iit-a dem
OnStTatiOn, however, which friends said
came from an overdose OF strychnine taken
TO quiet the nerves. When the news of the
arrest spread through the city there was
UNPRECEDENTED EXCITEMENT.
No one could believe that man of
WebSters standing in society and profession
had committed so heiaous a crime. The
very name OF Harvard college. with which he
was so Intimately connected, seemed to
forbid the thought. But evidence aecumu-
lated, all circumStantial, OF course, but still
bad looking for the arrested man. Other
parts of a human body and a knife were
found in a tea chest in the laboratory, and,
most damaging of all, in the furnace a set
OF teeth which were identified as DR.. Park
mans by the dentist who had made them.
Ii came out that Prof. Webster, peaceable
and humane man though lie was, possessed
wiJhal petulant and eXcitable disposition,
and when it was learned that DR.. Parkman
had i'm an irritating manner pressed for the
payment of the money he had loaned on a
mortgage upon the mineral collection of tine
Harvard professor, il could easily be sur
missed that the latter, III moment of sud
den passion, had seized the Sledge hammer
and dealt the fatal blow. Yet nothing
could DC directly proved. lobe sure, Prof.
Webster. after DIR. PaTkman's disappear
ance, mad ordered large tin box with very
strong handles, and had also bought u pair
of grapneis such rs would let down It
mains into a vault, but this was all circum-
stantial. There was still a great mystery
in the affair.
For the defense there was testimony from
a woman who was positive she had seen
Chin upon the street after the date of his
visit 10 the medical college, and the cOrrOb-
Grafton OF her sister. 10 whom she had at
that time mentioned the fact. There were
three anonymous letters produced, all writ
ten To the city marshal. One suggested
that DR.. Parkman had been drowned from
the Cambridge bridge, and that
IF CANNoNS WERE FIRED
his body would rise. Another affirmed that
the missing man had been kidnapped on
board a vessel. and that the writer feared
for his life if he detailed more. y third
read:
You will find DR.. Parkman murdered on
Brooklyn heights. Yours truly,
NJ, Captain of the Darts.
Experts. however. traced similaritieS in
the ScrawlS To the prisoners handwriting.
The prisoner denied that he had written
the letters To divert suspicion. He insisted,
too, that he could have had no trouble with
DR.. ParEman. for the borrowed money had
all been repaid. but when it came to prov
ing this latter statement the prisoner failed
to show anything which could convince.
So in spite of his previous good standing
and high reputation Prof. Webster was
hung. and Harvard college has to-day upon
her fair escutcheOn this stain, the worst of
all stains.
The interest awakened by the tale of the
two old residents of Cambridge has led to
the production. by the men who possessed
them, of SundTy relics which belonged to the
famous professor One is the knife of Prof
Webster. held now by Mr.. Andrews, the
former keeper of the Jail where the
prisoner was confined. 1t bears upon the
horn handle the Christian-like inscription:
do unto others as you would have them do
unto YOU" when you can do good neglect
not the opportunity" Mr.. Andrews says
that the night before Prof. Webster was
executed the fated scientist described with
great enthusiasm an electrical experiment
he had made on tine bodies of two dead men.
''ItwaS fine experiment, 'the professor had
declared, Il succeeded in making one corpse
wink SOlemnly and the other wave his leg
in air." Another relic is OF interest from
the fact of its showing that the tanning of
human skins by Harvard scientists, as dis
IN ,a