The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-05-01
MURDERS BY DOCTORS
The Keenest Cruelty Is Always
Shown.
KNOWLEDGE INSPIRES CRIME
The Great Tragedies OF the Gen.
fury Have Medical Men
as Their Central
Figure.
.NOWLEDGE INSPIRES CRIME
From the New York Journal.

Murders committed by medical men
show a keenness of cruelty and general
diabolism not apparent in the deeds of
criminals who lack knowledge of sur
gerry. There is almost a refinement Of
cruelty about them, a strang combina-
ton of wanton brutishness and ingeni-
Gus torture.
The recent arrest of the three Gin
cinnati medical students charged with
the murder of Pearl Bryan, whose
headless body was found in a lonely
copse in the woods near her home in
Lexington, KY, and the revolving de-
tails OF the crime, so fas as they have
been ferreted out have brought to pub
lie attention the fact that the most
horrible crimes of the century have
been committed by men familiar with
medicine and surgery, either as stu
dents or graduates, and that this
knowledge has been used by them
either in the killing or the subsequent
efforts to cover up all clews which
would lead to the discovery of theiI
identity.
Is there anything in the study OF
medicine which makes a man careless
of human life? Does the fact of the
possession of the knowledge of what
Nature yields most readily to furnisha
morbid impulse to commit crime in a
man otherwise in no way a criminal
either by necessity or environment
Does the fact that a man has killed
another human being have no horrors
to a man skilled in the science of med
icine? Does that account for the meth
odical, dispassionate manner in which
such criminals have endeavored &c
hide all traces of their crime?
Up to ten years ago what was con-
sidered the crime of the century. and
the one which had most excited not
only the locality, but the country at
large, was the famous Parkman- Web
ster case of Boston. The murdered
man, DR. George Parkman, was
wealthy resident of Boston and one of
the founders of the Massachusetts, Med
ical college. The murderer DIR. John
w. Webster. was professor of chemis-
try at Harvard college, lecturer on the
same subject of the faculty of the Mas
sachusetts Medical college, and a high
ly respected resident of Cambridge. II
was largely through Parkman's influ.
ence that Webster obtained his posi-
ton in Harvard. and the former had
in many ways aided his protege He
loaned him money. The first sum was
$500 and was loaned in 1912 on a prom
issory note. Five years later the amount
was increased to a total of $2.432.
Friday, November 3d. 1919. DR.. Park
man disappeared. He was last seen on
his way to call on Prof Webster &c
notes which were due and unpaid. The
authorities both of the police depart
ment and of the college Immediately
instituted search for Parkman's re-
mains. The janitor of the institution
went quietly to work on the hypothesis
that the missing man was killed by Web
ster, and made a thorough search OF
the laboratory in which he did his
work.
One week after the disappearance
the vault of a closet adjoining the la.
boaratory was opened and human bones
found therein, and the inference was
drawn that they belonged to the muir
dered Parkman. In tea chest in the
laboratory was found a human chest
with a perforation in the region of the
heart, and a left thigh with a string
attached. In the ashes of the furnace
were found grains of gold a pear
shirt button, a human tooth, blocks OF
mineral teeth and about fifty frag-
ments OF bones belonging to the skull
face and other parts of the body.
Webster was arrested and brought
to trial March 10. 1850. He was found
guilty and sentenced TO death. An at
tempt to get a reversal of the Judgment
failed, and when he saw that death
was inevitable he made a full confess
sion. lie said that Parkman called at
his room and demanded money; that
he had none to give and started to ex-
plain his financial condition, when his
caller interrupted him with a torrent
of abusive language. Webster said
that he tried to pacify him. but his ef-
forts were unavailing. At last his tenn
per got the better of him, and seizing
a stick of wood he felled Parkman with
a single blow. Death was instantan-
eous. He then proceeded TO dis
pose of the body in the manner already
n hn 70. !, lie
in the shadow of the college where he
had labored so long.
DR. Robert Buchanan, one of the
most famous Of New York murNierers,
in 1891. deliberately poisoned his wife
In order to benefit by the will he had
made in his favor. which gave him
nearly $4,000. 1t was a most ingenious
crime. Buchanan administered large
Quantities of morphine to his wife as
she lay i'll, and in order to counteract
the outward symptoms of the drug,
which physician would readily detect,
gave her atrophine. She died April %,
1891, buchanan made the fatal error
and criminal history shows a murderer
always makes some error Of this sort
He not only predicted his wife's ulti-
matte death, but made no secret of the
fact he wished 10 be rid of her. These
facts and other utterances which did
not seem to be in keeping with the
grief he would have reasonably been
expected TO display, caused the body
to be exhumed and AN Investigation
made which showed the cause of death
10 be morphine poisoning.
Another fact which added to the
suspicious against Buchanan was the
fact that within month after his
wife's death he married in Canada a
woman from whom he had been pre-
viously divorced. Upon trial he was
convicted. The case was taken TO the
supreme court, and the British ambas-
sador also interviewed To the extent OF
petithoning for executive clemency
But the law was allowed to take its
course and he was executed in July OF
last year.
CARLYLE HARRIS CRIMES.
The case Of Carlyle Harris probably
excited as much II not more attention