MURDER AT HARVARD

Hardback. The true story of the bloody killing of one friend by another - the murder that rocked Boston into a century of silence. Featuring The Parkman-Webster case, the murder of Dr. George Parkman, scion of an important Federalist family, by his Harvard classmate and friend of 50yrs, Dr. John Webster. On the Friday before Thanksgiving, 1849, Dr. Parkman left his house at 8 Walnut Street, Boston, and was last seen entering the Harvard Medical College on North Grove Street next to the Massachusetts General Hospital. There his trail stopped. In 30yrs he had never before failed to come home for two o'clock dinner and Mrs. Parkman sat up all night before serving notice of his disappearance. Dr. Webster lived in great domestic bliss with his devoted wife and daughters. He was also a connoisseur of fine wine and food and delighted in playing host to his many friends and colleagues. His generosity, however, exceeded his means, and many of those same friends had lent him money. When George Parkman sallied forth into a rich and bustling Boston on that autumnal Friday his intention was to collect payment on some notes long overdue from this same old friend. We follow the disappearance of this prominent man. We move to the Harvard Medical College with its anatomy classrooms, its cellar vaults and furnaces, the office of Professor Webster. Clues appear, so repugnant as to be unbelievable. A distinguished professor is incarcerated in the Leverett Street jail where friends bring meals from the nearby Parker House, for Dr. Webster professed his innocence and loved his food. We follow the choosing of counsel and the trial under the famous Judge Lemuel Shaw. And finally we follow the guilty man to the lonely gallows and a hasty and secret burial. From the beginning we have known that Dr. Parkman was murdered by Dr. Webster but the author keeps the reader in the exact and constant suspense which hung over Boston as the long-awaited trial wore on. The book recreates the sights and sounds, the people and places so deeply involved in this terrible murder of friend by friend. To the last touching note, a first gift to the fund for his widow, the reader lives through a tense time of local history. That first gift, by the way, was from another widow, Mrs. George Parkman. Illus., Notes and Sources + Index. 318pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. V. lightly browned edges, sl. bowed upper cover o/w Nr. Vg. in G++ dw. showing signs of shelfwear.