0:00

Hi I'm Wendy Zuckerman in Delhi. Thing to

0:02

science Basses. Today

0:05

on the show the story of

0:07

a weird and gruesome murder. It's

0:09

one that shocked America and put

0:11

science to the ultimate test. If.

0:19

You've got little kids around? Maybe tuck them it

0:21

at night before you listen to this one. right?

0:24

Let's. Jump in. The. And men have been

0:26

opened any and has since taken know. That.

0:29

Senior producer Rose Rim Law. She

0:31

just said. The abdomen

0:33

had been opened and intestine

0:35

taken out. She's. Whispering

0:38

because. Are. Not library right

0:40

now. We're. Pouring over the details

0:42

of the matter, First the

0:44

thorax and left thigh and the

0:46

corpse and been subjected to the

0:48

action of fire as shown by

0:50

the singed here when the partially

0:53

corrosive seat of the skin you

0:55

like we have but her words

0:57

than roast. The. Sub

0:59

setting. This.

1:02

Crime went down in eighteen Forty Nine

1:04

and we first made this episode a

1:07

couple years ago, but wanted to share

1:09

it again because oh boy is that

1:11

a goody. And. This morale

1:13

it had the perfect setting the

1:16

very prestigious Harvard University. Of this

1:18

everything that you would want it

1:20

assorted crime story. There's a cast

1:23

of characters that included one of

1:25

the richest men in Boston, a

1:27

suspicious janitor, a noted professor, and

1:30

then at the center of it

1:32

all, this mysterious mutilated corpse. So

1:36

we have this like

1:38

House Roasted have dissolved.

1:41

Been. Quite body could

1:43

have done. Since

1:45

single mother. And.

1:49

Were breaking open this case because to

1:51

catch the killer and bring them to

1:53

justice. It took all the cutting edge

1:55

science that the nineteenth century had to

1:57

offer and it broke new ground. Have

2:00

scientists. He's only forensics. To

2:02

crack this place. So.

2:05

Come with us as we put on

2:07

a trench coats, grab a magnifying glass

2:09

and find out. Who. Done It.

2:13

When it comes to podcasts, there's

2:15

lots of true crime. but then

2:17

there's some. Sick of. Sciences.

2:24

Murder in the ivory tower. Is

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coming up to stop the the break. There's

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Million Modern Claims The said this were

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highlighted Miss My Billie since the responsibly.

3:36

Who. The must be sad how stores

3:38

in Boston on Friday Nov. twenty

3:40

bad. Eighteen Forty Nine The

3:42

Streets of Full of horses and

3:44

carriages. Is it still in the

3:46

New England as Thanksgiving is right

3:49

around the corner and one of

3:51

Boston the richest men is app

3:53

collecting rent money. His name is

3:55

up to George Pokemon. Bostonians.

3:59

noom as a really, really,

4:03

really rich landowner in Boston. This

4:06

is Paul Collins, a professor at Portland State

4:08

University, and he's written a book about this

4:10

murder mystery that we're telling you today. It's

4:13

called Blood and Ivy. And

4:15

so Paul told us more about this

4:18

George Parkman fellow. He

4:20

was known as being kind of a miser, and

4:22

he would actually go around and collect the rents himself

4:26

on foot because he did not want the expense of

4:28

a horse. He was known as

4:30

being really tough

4:32

with his tenants. Like your classic kind

4:34

of Mr. Scrooge. Yeah,

4:36

I mean, there is something

4:38

very Scrooge-like about him. A

4:41

money-grubbing Scrooge. Sounds

4:44

like a guy with a lot

4:46

of enemies. And

4:50

Mr. Parkman, he was very

4:52

recognizable. He had a jutting lower

4:55

jaw. It was very distinct, and

4:57

he tended to walk around with it up in the air. So,

5:00

you know, he's almost like

5:02

the caricature that you would imagine of a

5:05

somewhat stuffy, snooty, rich guy. And

5:09

this Friday in chilly November, it

5:11

seemed like a regular day for Mr.

5:14

Parkman. With his jutting jaw, he was

5:16

out doing his rounds, collecting money. He's

5:19

later seen at the grocery store, and he told the

5:21

man at the counter, I've got to go

5:23

to the Harvard Medical School. I'll be back in five to

5:25

pick up my things. And

5:27

then he leaves behind a head of

5:31

lettuce. From

5:33

here, Mr. Parkman is spotted trotting

5:35

off to the school. He's actually

5:37

seen walking up to the medical school

5:40

building, which is not an unusual thing.

5:42

He would often stop by there. But

5:45

on this day, an unusual

5:47

thing does happen. After

5:50

Mr. Parkman goes to the school, he

5:53

vanishes. And

5:56

there's like some scattered, seeming,

5:59

sighting. of him around the city after

6:01

that, but they're hard to

6:03

confirm. Nobody actually speaks to him after

6:05

he's seen at the medical school. When

6:08

Mr. Parkman doesn't return home, his

6:10

family isn't sure what happened. Maybe he'd

6:12

gone for a wander in the woods. After

6:15

several days, he still doesn't return.

6:17

The family

6:19

starts thinking, well, perhaps he had

6:22

some kind of mental breakdown. He'd

6:24

had breakdowns in the past, even talked

6:26

about suicide. So perhaps he

6:28

jumped off a bridge. Humm,

6:31

suspected foul play. After

6:33

all, Mr. Parkman was carrying a lot of money

6:35

with him at the time. Perhaps he

6:37

was murdered for the cash. The

6:40

family plasters the city with missing persons

6:42

posters and a

6:44

$3,000 reward, which is roughly a hundred grand

6:47

today. And so

6:49

the town goes nuts searching for

6:51

this man. They scour through Parkman's

6:53

properties, vacant lots, railway stations. They

6:55

sweep the medical school and even

6:57

drag the river for his body. And

7:00

yet, nothing. Things are

7:02

looking hopeless. A

7:05

week goes by and finally a breakthrough.

7:11

It comes from a janitor who lives in the

7:13

basement of the Harvard Medical School. And

7:15

this janitor seems to know about everyone's

7:17

comings and goings in the building. So he tips

7:20

off the police. He's like, boy,

7:22

you missed something in one of the

7:24

labs in Harvard. And the police, they

7:27

don't mess around. So they break the door

7:29

down and they tip over a T

7:32

chest, a large T chest that was in the

7:34

lab. And an

7:36

entire human thorax basically

7:38

falls out. If

7:40

you didn't catch that, he said an entire

7:43

human thorax fell

7:45

out of the T chest. That's

7:48

right. A chest was in

7:50

the chest. And if

7:52

that wasn't enough, the thorax was sort

7:55

of hollowed out and had had like

7:58

a thigh shoved into it. in

8:00

order to shove it all into this chest. What?

8:03

So what, what whoever did

8:05

this, did was

8:07

ultimately cut the body up into

8:10

various bits and then scooped

8:13

out the innards of the torso

8:16

and then shoved a thigh in there

8:18

and put it in a case? Yeah.

8:22

They just found all these, these parts that

8:24

have been kind of pulled apart in a

8:26

very bizarre manner. Parts

8:30

of the thigh and thorax had been

8:32

soaked in some chemical and then burnt.

8:36

And these details would end up being really

8:38

important. There

8:40

was also a furnace in the lab

8:42

and when police raked through the ashes,

8:44

they found the remains of a human

8:47

skull, a lower jaw, gold fillings and

8:49

artificial teeth. Whoever

8:51

had access to this lab is now

8:54

looking very, very

8:56

suspicious. And the

8:58

police learn that there is one man who

9:00

has a key, a professor

9:02

of chemistry who had been at

9:04

Harvard for 25 years. This

9:07

was actually his private laboratory

9:10

and his name is John

9:12

Webster. But

9:17

he hasn't seen like an obvious suspect

9:19

for murder. He's a family

9:21

man married with four kids. Webster

9:24

is this sort of strange

9:27

figure in a way because he

9:30

seems to be a fairly competent

9:33

professor. He's made some attempts at

9:35

inventions that kind of don't go anywhere.

9:38

He's just not all that great. He's

9:41

like the rest of us, mediocre. Yeah.

9:45

So by all accounts, John Webster

9:47

was a fairly average chemistry professor.

9:51

It's just that now he's a fairly

9:53

average chemistry professor with a

9:55

hollowed out thorax in a tea chest

9:57

in his lab. And

10:01

the police don't waste any time. They

10:03

see the body parts and immediately arrest

10:05

the professor, dragging him back to the

10:07

medical school and asking him to explain

10:10

why a dismembered corpse is scattered around

10:12

his lab. And

10:14

they lay out these parts that they've been finding in

10:16

front of him and say, what

10:19

is this? What is this doing in your lab? And

10:21

he can't explain. And the

10:23

only thing he says over and over again

10:25

is that the janitor has betrayed him, that

10:27

the janitor is somehow behind us. Ah

10:31

ha. So the janitor

10:33

emerges as suspect

10:36

number two. The

10:38

janitor's name is Ephraim Littlefield. And remember, he

10:40

was the person that led the police to

10:43

the professor's lab in the first place, which

10:46

I guess he's a bit suspicious. And

10:49

now the professor has turned around and

10:51

said, I've been framed. It's the janitor

10:54

that you want. And I

10:56

can even tell you how he snuck into

10:58

my lab. Webster was

11:00

telling his team, you guys

11:02

have to go look at the door to

11:04

my lab because you'll discover that you can

11:07

pry it up in such a way that

11:09

someone could break into the lab and plant

11:11

something. So that's how the janitor got in.

11:14

And even though Mr. Littlefield is

11:16

a professional janitor, we

11:19

found some dirt on him. In

11:21

fact, he doesn't look nearly as squeaky clean as

11:23

the professor. He's often described

11:25

as a swamp Yankee. He is

11:27

fond of a drink or two. And

11:30

he allegedly had been quietly running some

11:32

card games at the medical school late

11:34

at night. So in

11:37

his downtime, he's a drinker and a gambler.

11:40

But the real killer piece of evidence against

11:42

him was what he did at

11:44

work. Besides cleaning the

11:46

premises, he helped to

11:49

procure dead bodies. He

11:54

literally knew where the bodies were buried.

11:57

At the time, anatomy students at

11:59

Hobbits were desperate for bodies to

12:02

dissect. And getting those corpses

12:04

was dirty business. It often

12:06

meant paying off body snatchers who

12:08

literally dug corpses out of graveyards.

12:11

Yeah, this janitor was really kind

12:13

of the middleman. He's the guy that

12:15

would get the money from the professors and then

12:18

go talk with the body snatchers.

12:20

So clearly this janitor didn't have a big

12:23

issue with handling corpses for cash. And

12:26

we know that Mr. Parkman had a lot of

12:28

money on him when he disappeared. Plus,

12:30

since there was a reward, if the

12:32

janitor did this dirty deed, he would now

12:35

get paid twice when he stole the cash

12:37

and again when he led the police to

12:39

the body. With that kind of money,

12:41

this janitor could have made a

12:43

call. So

12:47

who is responsible for the chopped up body

12:49

at Harvard? Was it the professor in

12:51

the laboratory with the chemicals or the

12:53

corpse collecting janitor in the basement?

12:57

Who knows? But

13:00

soon, evidence starts

13:03

piling up against one of our

13:05

suspects, the professor.

13:08

Turns out he has a motive too, and

13:10

it's the oldest in the book. You

13:13

see, the professor owed lots of money

13:15

to the missing Mr. Parkman. He

13:18

was in fact flailing in a quicksand

13:20

of debt. Deeply, disastrously

13:22

in debt, and

13:24

in debt to Parkman in particular, he

13:26

owed him thousands of dollars. He literally

13:28

signed away every book,

13:30

every piece of clothing right down to the

13:32

bed linens in his house, just

13:35

all his property. It

13:37

turns out that the professor had a taste for

13:39

the finer things in life. He

13:41

spent all of his inheritance on a stupidly

13:44

fancy house, and with what Harvard was paying

13:46

him, it wasn't nearly enough to

13:48

keep up with his lavish lifestyle. And

13:51

so, the professor was in the red to

13:53

the Scrooge of Boston, owing more

13:55

than a yearly salary to the bloke. It

13:59

then emerges. that this chemistry

14:01

professor was no mild-mannered nerd.

14:04

Newspapers report rumours that he had such

14:06

a quick temper that his nickname while

14:09

he was a student was

14:11

Sky Rocket Jack. Okay,

14:14

and then finally, spits his job.

14:17

The professor studies chemistry right, but he's

14:20

not cooking up new life-saving medicines at

14:22

the medical school. Oh no. He

14:24

studies what chemicals do to the human

14:27

body. Chemicals. Like

14:30

arsenic. The

14:33

chunks of body in the professor's lab and the fact

14:35

that he owed the dead man lots and lots of

14:38

money, it looks bad for

14:40

the professor. Bad enough for prosecutors

14:42

to take this case to trial. Yes.

14:46

The professor would be charged with the

14:48

murder of Mr. George

14:50

Parkland. After the

14:52

break, the trial against the

14:54

professor. 19th century

14:56

forensic science gives this case everything

14:59

it's got. We'll learn

15:01

how to dissolve a human body, 19th century

15:04

style, and try to identify a

15:06

corpse from the hairiness of its

15:08

legs. Hair

15:10

raising science, coming up. Welcome

15:25

back to the biggest news in 1850. We've

15:29

learned that a wealthy Scrooge type, aka

15:31

Mr. Parkman, has gone missing, and the

15:34

last place he was seen was at Harvard

15:36

Medical School. A mutilated corpse

15:38

has been found in the lab of a

15:40

chemistry professor who's now on trial

15:43

for murder. And

15:48

this case goes 19th century viral.

15:51

New railroads were built and brand new telegraph

15:54

poles strung up, allowing news of

15:56

the Parkman case to travel to Wisconsin,

15:58

Texas and Florida. In fact,

16:00

the story of Mr. Parkman's murder even made

16:02

it to Australia. And

16:04

back in Boston, the locals couldn't

16:07

get enough. Here's

16:10

Professor Paul Collins again. Paul Collins They

16:12

had a real problem at the courthouse. People fighting

16:14

each other, punching each other in the face trying

16:17

to get in. It was pretty nuts. Sarah

16:21

So many people wanted to witness the

16:23

trial of the Harvard professor that officials

16:25

had to rotate people through the courtroom.

16:27

Paul By the end of the trial, about

16:30

60,000 spectators had passed through

16:32

the courthouse. Sarah Oh my gosh, 60,000.

16:35

Paul It's equivalent to almost half

16:37

the population of the city. Sarah It

16:40

seems that everyone wants to sticky bake on

16:42

the trial of the chemistry professor accused of

16:44

killing one of the richest men in Boston.

16:47

And you could understand why this was one of

16:49

the hottest seats in town. I

16:51

mean, this trial, it's got a fancy

16:53

professor, a dodgy janitor, and a missing

16:56

rich man. All the trimmings of a

16:58

Broadway show. One that you'd

17:00

kill to see. And

17:03

with all the evidence lined up against the professor,

17:06

you'd think that this case was a slam dunk.

17:09

But things take a rather curious

17:11

turn. When the professor's

17:14

legal team came up with a

17:16

rather intriguing argument. They

17:19

basically say, look, you are accusing

17:21

our client of killing Mr. George

17:23

Parkman. But you don't even know if the

17:25

body that you found in his lab is

17:28

Mr. Parkman. I mean, think about it. You've

17:30

got a thorax without a head, chunks of

17:32

a skull, and parts of a leg. That

17:35

could be just about anyone. On top

17:37

of that, this corpse was found

17:39

in a medical school. And there

17:42

were dead bodies all over the place. Paul They

17:45

said, well, this could be anybody. It's a whole

17:47

building full of cadavers. Sarah Like

17:49

we had mentioned, there were cadavers around

17:52

for the students to dissect. And

17:54

in fact, the students at this school cut

17:56

up so many bodies that Harvard literally built

17:58

the place to deal with. all these

18:00

corpses. They had this dissecting room

18:03

in effect over the river or over an

18:06

area that was very accessible to the river

18:08

so that they could just dump this stuff

18:10

out. So yeah, I mean

18:12

they literally designed the building with

18:15

cadavers in mind. And every

18:18

now and then the odd body part

18:20

would be found around Harvard. Like leading

18:22

up to the trial, some hands were

18:24

found in the river near the medical

18:26

school and the police thought, aha, these

18:28

are Mr. Parkman's hands. But

18:30

then a sheepish medical professor comes

18:32

forward and says, sorry, your mates,

18:34

that one's mine. I put it into the

18:37

river to see how it decomposes. Hmm, touche,

18:41

defense team. But

18:44

seriously, though, in 1850,

18:46

how would you prove that these body

18:49

parts are Mr. Parkman's? At

18:51

the time, there was, of course, no

18:53

DNA evidence. In fact, scientists wouldn't even

18:55

understand what DNA was for another

18:57

hundred years. And fingerprinting wouldn't

18:59

be used in courts for

19:01

decades. Not that it

19:04

mattered. They didn't even have this corpse's fingers.

19:08

And so in a desperate attempt to prove

19:10

that the body in the professor's lab was

19:13

in fact Mr. Parkman, the

19:15

prosecutors turned to some rather

19:17

bizarre legal strategies. For

19:19

example, one of the legs found

19:21

was particularly hairy. And so they

19:24

tried to identify him that way.

19:27

That was one of the weirder

19:30

moments of the trial. So they talked to Parkman's

19:33

brother-in-law. And they

19:37

asked him, well, where his legs hairy?

19:40

And his brother-in-law is a bit embarrassed about

19:42

being asked about this. They says,

19:44

well, you know, there was

19:46

this one time where he pulled up his pant

19:48

leg for some reason. And yeah, he had kind

19:51

of hairy legs. But

19:55

it's amazing to think about that in

19:57

a trial today, because we have DNA

19:59

evidence. imagine that in order to

20:01

identify someone as a legitimate piece of

20:03

evidence, they're like, how hairy

20:05

was he? The

20:07

prosecutors are going to need a hair more proof.

20:11

And so they find some evidence that

20:14

we can really sink our teeth into.

20:17

Bits of dentures and a jaw were found

20:19

in the furnace of the professor's lab. And

20:22

so the prosecution thinks perhaps we can

20:24

prove this is Mr. Parkman by his

20:26

teeth and they catch a lucky break.

20:30

So shortly before his disappearance, Mr. Parkman

20:32

had visited a dentist to be fitted

20:34

for dentures. And that

20:36

dentist had a cast of exactly what

20:38

Mr. Parkman's jaw looked like. So

20:41

the prosecution calls the dentist to the

20:43

stand and they say basically, do you

20:46

recognise these bits? And

20:48

the moment the dentist saw the jaw, he

20:51

knew exactly what he was looking at. He

20:54

said, Dr. Parkman

20:57

is gone. We

20:59

shall see him no more. Tears

21:02

fell down his face and

21:04

some people in the crowd broke down

21:06

crying. And you see, the

21:09

dentist could identify Mr.

21:11

Parkman's jaw because it was

21:14

so odd looking. This

21:17

is what we've come for. We're

21:24

currently looking at the cast that

21:27

the dentist made of

21:29

Mr. Parkman's jaw. I

21:32

got to see the cast of Mr.

21:34

Parkman's jaw with senior producer, Rose Rimmler,

21:36

because it's still kept in the archives

21:38

at Harvard. And so this

21:41

became this critical piece of evidence to say

21:44

that that body in

21:47

the professor's laboratory that must have

21:49

been Mr. Parkman because he had

21:51

this weird jaw. It

21:54

is kind of protuberant, but

21:57

it wasn't just that his jaw was so... We

22:02

got to see a cast of his

22:04

dentures as well, and it turns out

22:06

they were even weirder because Mr. Parkman

22:08

only had a few teeth left, and

22:10

so his dentist actually made dentures that

22:12

would fit around them. This is

22:14

such a specific cast.

22:16

You would absolutely be able to identify someone

22:18

based on this. Yeah, there's like three

22:21

clustered on one side and one by

22:23

itself on the other side. You

22:25

could just have this like scraggly remains of teeth

22:28

that would be pretty totally

22:30

like a fingerprint almost. You

22:33

might think that this would have clenched the case, but

22:36

at the time, introducing this kind of

22:38

evidence was a total gamble. It

22:41

was the first time that dental evidence was

22:43

introduced into a murder trial in America, and

22:46

just the idea of identifying a

22:48

whole person based on pieces of

22:50

their body was all pretty new

22:52

and untested science. On

22:55

top of all that, the defense team

22:57

had their own dental expert. Here's

23:00

Paul again. The defense brings in

23:02

another dentist and says, could

23:04

you look at a tooth or at a piece

23:06

of jaw or at a bit

23:08

of a denture and actually identify who it came

23:10

from? And the guy says, no. So

23:13

there's almost this battle

23:15

of the dentist that basically happens in

23:17

the courtroom. And it

23:19

goes on and on. These are definitely his teeth.

23:21

No way. You'd never know.

23:23

You couldn't know. Then finally,

23:26

the dentist for the chemistry

23:28

professor crumbles and admits, well,

23:31

it might be Mr. Parkman. What

23:34

seemed like this wild and untested new form

23:36

of evidence suddenly becomes

23:38

very, very powerful. Okay.

23:41

So the prosecution seems to have

23:43

convinced people that this body is

23:45

indeed Mr. Parkman's, but there is

23:47

one more hurdle. The

23:50

prosecution now needs to explain why. If

23:53

it was the professor who done it, why

23:56

did he leave the body in

23:58

this weird dismembered state? After

24:01

all, he's a chemistry professor.

24:04

If he did commit the murder, surely he would

24:06

have done a better job of getting rid of

24:08

the body. Well,

24:11

yeah, he's a chemistry professor. Why didn't he just

24:14

dissolve the body? An expert

24:16

in chemicals takes the stand and says,

24:18

yes, you can dissolve a body

24:20

using strong chemicals. But

24:22

here's the thing. You need a

24:24

ton of them, particularly to

24:26

dissolve an entire human body. Markman

24:29

was not actually a very heavy guy. He

24:32

was maybe only 140 pounds. Just

24:35

all chin. Right. But

24:38

I mean, that's like industrial quantities.

24:41

He doesn't have anything like that. And he doesn't have

24:43

any containers in his lab that are

24:46

remotely big enough to do that. And

24:48

there was evidence that someone had tried to

24:50

dissolve the body. So

24:52

an expert on the stand, along

24:54

with this dream team of other Harvard

24:57

alumni, had done a cutting edge

24:59

chemical analysis of the dismembered corpse. This

25:02

was really, you know, CSI Boston 1800.

25:06

And well, remember how there were those weird

25:08

chemicals on the body parts found in the lab?

25:11

Well, the analysis revealed that some

25:13

of Parkman's body parts had been

25:15

soaked in this chemical called potash

25:17

lye. But

25:19

there clearly wasn't enough there to

25:21

disappear an entire body. So

25:24

that would explain why Mr. Parkman's body

25:27

hadn't been completely destroyed by

25:29

chemicals. The professor simply didn't have enough.

25:33

Parts of the corpse, if you'll remember,

25:35

had also been roasted by fire. And

25:37

there was a small furnace in the

25:39

laboratory. So then the question became, why

25:41

weren't the body parts burnt completely? Another

25:45

learned doctor takes the stand. One

25:47

who has a lot of experience getting

25:49

rid of bodies. And he

25:51

says, Well, yeah, I burn lots of bodies

25:53

and actually it takes you need a good

25:56

big stove for it and need lots of

25:58

kindling and you don't want to use the wrong

26:00

kind of coal and he goes

26:02

over all these details. And basically what he points

26:04

out is that the professor really doesn't have the

26:06

right kind of stove or the right kind of

26:08

fuel. The prosecution argues

26:11

that this fairly average chemistry

26:13

professor did a fairly

26:15

average job of getting rid of a

26:17

body. The crowd in

26:19

the court fast. What,

26:23

so we imagine. Did

26:26

the professor's totter off the stand? The

26:28

jury had to work out what the

26:31

Charles Dickens to do with all this

26:33

new-fangled scientific evidence. The

26:35

scientific testimony about the teeth, the chemicals and the

26:37

fire, it all seemed to add up to the

26:39

professor having done it. But

26:41

at the same time, there were no

26:43

witnesses who saw the professor kill anyone.

26:46

No one heard a scream and this professor's

26:48

never fallen a foul of the law before.

26:51

And he's pleading innocence, insisting that

26:53

a sketchy janitor has pulled one

26:55

over everyone. And you

26:58

know, there's no conclusive evidence of any kind.

27:00

Just some toffee professors, a procurement

27:02

drawer, a weird set of dentures

27:04

and a curious chemical analysis. Would

27:08

the science be enough?

27:13

At around 8pm, the jury retires to

27:15

consider the verdict. Two

27:18

and a half hours later, they come

27:20

back and declare him. The

27:27

professor was sentenced to death and

27:30

the papers went wild. The

27:33

excitement at this juncture was intense

27:35

as no psych markers cheered and

27:37

wept before the court ruled the

27:39

soldiers. The jury, as well

27:42

as the prisoner, traveled in groups. For

27:45

those infinite goodness, have mercy

27:47

on your soul. But

27:50

for anyone who still had doubts about the professor's

27:53

guilt, the truth would soon

27:55

be revealed. sell

28:00

awaiting his hanging. He confessed

28:02

to his minister, and the

28:05

whole sordid tale was later published in

28:07

the papers. Here's what the professor said happened.

28:10

Mr. Parkman, the Scrooge of Boston,

28:13

came hassling him to repay his

28:15

debts. He'd always hassled

28:17

the professor for money, but on that day

28:19

in November, Mr. Parkman took it one step

28:21

further, and threatened to have

28:23

the professor fired. By

28:26

Webster's account, he picks up the nearest thing, which

28:28

is basically a large sort of stick of wood,

28:31

and just hits him as hard as he can in the head. Parkman

28:34

drops dead, and Webster

28:36

panics. And

28:38

that's where everything

28:40

then unravels. And

28:43

without the dental evidence, the chemical

28:45

analysis, the scientists, this

28:48

fancy professor might have gotten away with

28:50

it. He might have

28:52

been able to hide behind the reputation of

28:54

such a prestigious college. After

28:57

all, at first, who

28:59

would believe that a family man

29:01

and a respected professor at Harvard

29:03

could commit murder? But in

29:05

the end, at least this time, the science

29:09

convinced them and won

29:11

out. I guess murder

29:13

was on the syllabus. That

29:16

was my David Cruz. Who

29:21

are you? Looks

29:23

like the dentist took a bite out

29:25

of crime. Why?

29:29

What about, um, maybe

29:31

Mr. Parkman shouldn't have been so

29:33

mouthy. All

29:40

right. That's

29:43

science versus murder in the ivory tower.

29:47

If you want more gory details about this trial,

29:49

you have to check out Paul Collins' book. It's

29:52

called Blood and Ivy, the

29:54

1849 murder that scandalized Harvard.

29:56

It's a really great read, so I do

29:58

think you should check it out. Also

30:00

on our Instagram which is science

30:02

underscore vs we've got photos of

30:04

Mr. Parkman's strange jaw, at least

30:07

the cast of it, and some

30:09

fun shots of Rose and I

30:11

hanging out in Boston. Also

30:14

if you are on TikTok come and say hello. I'm

30:16

at Wendy's recommend. I'd love to hear from you. This

30:23

episode

30:28

was produced by Caitlin Surry with help from

30:30

me Wendy Zuckerman along with Rose Rimmer, Meryl

30:33

Horne and Adelia Rubin. We're edited by Blaise

30:35

Terrell with help from Caitlin Kinney. Back

30:37

checking by Michelle Harris. Mixed and sound

30:39

design by Emma Munger with help from

30:41

Bobby Lord. Music by Emma

30:43

Munger and Bobby Lord. A huge

30:45

thanks to Jessica Murphy and the

30:47

team at Harvard University Archives. Platt

30:49

Lars Trembly and Matthew Nelson, Frank

30:51

Lopez, Joseph Lavelle Wilson and the

30:53

Zuckerman family. I'm Wendy Zuckerman,

30:55

back to you next time.