REPORT OF THE CASE OF JOHN W. WEBSTER, … IRVING PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY

George BEMIS (1816-1878). Report of the Case of John W. Webster, … Irving professor of chemistry and mineralogy in Harvard … indicted for the murder of Geroge Parkman … before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, including the hearing on the petition for a writ of error. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1850 Octavo (9 ¼ x 5 ½ inches). Pp. [i-]iv-xii; [1-] 2- 628. Frontispiece and 7 plates. Contemporary leather, titled in gilt on spine labels (rubbed, joints weak, the upper joint split with the cover almost detached, front free endpaper loosely inserted). Provenance: Frederic Gordon Dexter (armorial bookplate and signature).

A particularly important case in American legal history because it demonstrated how a murder conviction could be established through circumstantial evidence and forensic identification, even when the complete body of the victim was not available. The evidence concerning Parkman's teeth was especially significant in this respect, in addition to establishing the victim's identity.

The present work records primary source material and documents how financial conflict between Webster and Parkman led to Parkman's disappearance and Webster's prosecution, how physical and circumstantial evidence produced a murder conviction despite the absence of a complete body, how Webster's attempt to obtain a writ of error failed, and how his subsequent confession acknowledged the killing while disputing that it had been premeditated. He was executed in August 1850.