Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 15.pdf/584

 A Bungled Affair. ster called upon the Rev. Dr. Francis Parkman (brother of the murdered man) at about four o'clock in the afternoon, and stated that he had seen the notices in the papers and that he had himself had an interview with Dr. Parkman on Friday last in the lectureroom of the college, when he had paid the latter the $483 then clue, who thereupon promised to attend to discharging the chattel mortgage of record. Accidentally meeting Mr. Blake, a nephew of the deceased, and Littlefield, janitor of the Medical College, on the street, he repeated the same statement to each. To still further divert suspicion, he also called upon the City Clerk of Cambridge and asked whether the mortgage had been can celled. On Monday, it was determined to make search through the Medical College. Having first thoroughly explored the other parts of the building, the party knocked at the door of Webster's laboratory and after some delay, were admitted. The examination was of an exceedingly cursory description and was utterly unproductive of results. Left alone, when the officers had departed, Professor Webster took the pelvis and limbs from the upper well and threw them into a vault under a private privy. At ten o'clock the next day, the party of officers again called for the purpose of mak ing a thorough search. Professor Webster stated that while he was perfectly willing to assist in any way, he would have to ask them to be very careful not to disturb things, as he was to lecture at twelve. Finding nothing, the police withdrew. In the afternoon, the murderer, having carefully secured the door, drew the thorax from the lower well, and packing it in tan, placed it in a tea chest which stood in the laboratory and heaped minerals on top up to the brim. He then returned home and passed the evening playing whist with his family.

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On Wednesday, the 28ih, Webster went early to the college. A hot fire was soon made in the laboratory furnace. Some of the limbs, what ones or how many, he was subsequently unable to recall, were con sumed. This was the last he had to do with the remains. He left the college at noon, and returning to his house at Cam bridge, dined there, passed the afternoon working in the garden, and in the evening went with his wife and daughters to a party in Boston. Thursday was Thanksgiving day and he remained at home. On the Tuesday previous, Prof. Webster had purchased a considerable quantity of fish hooks and twine, asking the clerk at the same time, to instruct him in the art of mak ing a grapple, and on Friday morning about 10 o'clock he called at a tinman's store andi left an order for a large tin box with strong handles and a cover that could be tightly soldered. Nothing better reveals the chaotic condition of the criminal's mind, than the statement, undoubtedly true, made in his subsequent confession, that he had no really definite purpose in doing this. The grapple he designed for possible use in drawing the remains up from the vauflt whenever he should determine to dispose of them, the box was procured to contain them, though he had for a considerable time intended to order both for the purpose of securing cer tain specimens of marine vegitation which he desired to add to his collection. He had not even concluded where to conceal the box in the event of its being used for the first mentioned purpose. What possible design he could have had in soldering it up before disposing of it, thus enabling the evidence of his crime to be much better preserved, is undiscoverable. It reveals the utter inability of the man to conceive of any rational plan. His purposeless actions resemble nothing so much as those of the simian perpetrators of the murders in the Rue Morgue.