Chapter 1: The murder that shocked Harvard

Hi, I’m Wendy Zukerman and you’re listening to Science Vs. Today on the show: The story of one weird….  gruesome murder. It's one that shocked America and put science to the ultimate test…

If you've got little kids around… maaaaybe tuck them in at night before you listen to this one… Orright, let's jump in.

RR The abdomen had been opened and the intestines taken out…

That's senior producer Rose Rimler… she just said… the abdomen had been opened and intestine taken out … she's whispering because we're in a library right now … we’re poring over the details of the murder

RR First the thorax and left thigh of the corpse had been subjected to the action of fire

RR As shown by the singed hair

WZ Whoaaa

RR and partially roasted state of the skin. Eww i feel like we have better words than roasted…  that's upsetting.

This crime went down in 1849…   and we first made this episode a few years ago - but wanted to share it again, because oh boy is it a goodie … and this murder? … it had the perfect setting ...… the very prestigious Harvard University….  and here's everything you could want in a sordid crime story… a cast of characters that included one of the richest men in Boston ... a suspicious janitor ... a noted professor ... and then at the center of all: this mysterious mutilated corpse…

WZ So we have this half roasted …

RR: half dissolved … but not quite …

WZ: body

WZ: Who could have done this?

RR: Some Sick motherf---

WZ: Rose!

We’re breaking open this case… because to catch the killer and bring them to justice … it took all the cutting-edge science that the 19th century had to offer… And it broke new ground as Harvard scientists used early forensics to crack this case… so come with us – as we put on our trench coats, grab our magnifying glass… and find out: whodunnit?

When it comes to podcasts there’s lots of true crime… but then there’s S…..

RR: Some Sick motherf---

AAHHHH

Science Vs… Murder in the Ivory Tower…. Is coming up… just after the break.

PREROLL BREAK

Chapter 2: A very rich man disappears

Welcome back… We start our story … in Boston on Friday November 23… 1849 …  the streets are full of horses and carriages ... there’s a chill in the New England air … Thanksgiving is right around the corner^[1]… 

And one of Boston’s richest men … is out collecting rent money. His name is Dr. George Parkman.

PC Bostonians knew him as a really, really, really rich landowner in Boston.

This is Paul Collins, a professor at Portland State University,^[2] and he’s written a book about this murder mystery that we’re telling you today — it's called Blood and Ivy … And so Paul told us more about this George Parkman fella.

PC He was known as being kind of a miser. He would actually go around and collect the rents himself on foot because he did not want the expense of a horse. He was known as being really tough with his tenants

WZ Like a classic kind of Mr. Scrooge

PC Yeah I mean, there is something very Scrooge like about him.

A money grubbing Scrooge. Sounds like a guy… with a lot of enemies … hmmm. And Mr. Parkman — he was very recognisable …

PC He had a jutting lower jaw. It was very distinct. And he tended to walk around with it up in the air. So you know he’s almost like the caricature you would imagine of a somewhat stuffy, snooty rich guy

And this Friday in chilly November… it seemed like a regular day for Mr Parkman. With his jutting jaw^[3] he was out doing his rounds - collecting money.… He’s later seen at the grocery store^[4]…  and he told the man at the counter, I’ve got to go the Harvard Medical School… I’ll be back in 5 to pick up my things … he leaves behind a head ….. of lettuce^[5] … from here Mr Parkman is spotted trotting off to the school.

PC He's actually seen walking up to the medical school building. Which is not an unusual thing, he would often stop by there …

But ON THIS DAY ... an unusual thing does happen. After Mr. Parkman goes to the school -- he vanishes!

PC And there’s like some scattered seeming sightings around the city after that, but they’re hard to confirm — nobody actually speaks to him after he’s seen at the medical school

When Mr Parkman doesn’t return home… his family isn’t sure what happened. Maybe he'd gone for a wander in the woods? After several days… he still doesn’t return. The family starts thinking … well, perhaps he's had some kind of mental breakdown … he'd had breakdowns in the past … even talked about suicide ... so perhaps he jumped off a bridge…?? ^[6][7][8] Some suspected foul play: Mr Parkman was carrying a lot of money with him at the time …  perhaps he was murdered for the cash?

The family plasters the city with missing persons posters and a $3,000 dollar reward^[9]… which is roughly a hundred grand today^[10]. And the town goes nuts searching for this man^[11][12]. They scour  through Parkman’s properties, vacant lots, railway stations. They sweep the medical school and even drag the river for his body … and yet - nothing. Things are looking hopeless.

Chapter 3: The tea chest of horrors

A week goes by… and then finally - a breakthrough! … It comes from a janitor^[13] ...  who lives in the basement of Harvard medical school… and this Janitor seems to know everyone’s comings and goings in the building… he tips off police^[14] … he’s like… 

oi! you missed something in one of the labs at Harvard…

Police don’t mess around…

PC So they break the door down. And they tip over a tea chest. A large tea chest that was in the lab … and an entire human thorax falls out.

WZ gasp!

If you didn't catch that he said – an ENTIRE HUMAN THORAX FELL OUT OF THE TEA CHEST … That's right … a chest was in the chest … And if that wasn't enough

PC The thorax was sort of hollowed out and had like a thigh shoved into it… in order to shove it all into this chest

WZ What?? So what whoever did this, did ... was ultimately cut the body up into various bits and then scooped out the innards of the torso, and then shoved a thigh in there and put it in a case??

PC yeah. They just found all these parts that had been kinda pulled apart in a very bizarre manner

Parts of the thigh and thorax had been soaked in some chemical and then burnt… And these details would end up being really important … There was also a furnace in the lab, and when police raked through the ashes they found the remains of a human skull, a lower jaw, gold fillings and artificial teeth^[15] …

Chapter 4: The professor

Whoever had access to this lab is now looking very very suspicious. And the police learn.. there is ONE man who has a key --- a professor of chemistry who’d been at Harvard for 25 years^[16]. This was actually his private lab. His name? Is John Webster... BUT he doesn’t seem like an obvious suspect for murder … he’s a family man, married with four kids

PC Webster’s this sort of strange figure in a way, because he seems to be a fairly competent professor, he’s made some attempts at inventions that kind of don’t go anywhere. He's just not all that great …

WZ: He’s like the rest of us: mediocre ...

PC: Yeah haha

So by all accounts John Webster was a fairly average chemistry professor. It’s just that now he was a fairly average chemistry professor with a hollowed-out thorax in a tea chest in his lab.

<<DUN DUN>>

And the police don't waste any time. They see the body parts… immediately arrest the Professor … drag him back to the medical school and ask him to explain why a dismembered corpse is scattered around his lab...

PC And they lay out these parts they’ve been finding in front of him, and say - what is this? What is this doing in your lab? and he can’t explain… the only thing he says over and over again is that the janitor is behind this. that the janitor has betrayed him, that the janitor is somehow behind this.

<<sfx>>

Chapter 5: The janitor

Ahhh ha. So the janitor emerges ... as suspect Number 2. The Janitor’s name is Ephraim Littlefield… and, remember, he was the person who led the police to the professor’s laboratory… Which I guess is a bit suspicious.. and now the Professor has turned around and said I’ve been framed. It’s the Janitor you want -- I can even tell you how he snuck into my lab!!^[17].  

PC Webster was telling his team. You guys have to go look at the door to my lab. Because you’ll discover that you can pry it up in such a way that someone could break into the lab and plant something. So that, that's how the janitor got in

And even though Mr. Littlefield is a professional janitor  -- we found some dirt on him.  In fact… he doesn't look nearly as squeaky clean as the Professor

PC described as a swamp yankee. fond of a drink or two. And he allegedly had been quietly running card games at the medical school at night

WZ mmm hmmm

So in his downtime he was a drinker, and a gambler… but the real killer piece of evidence against him... was what he did at work -- besides cleaning the premises --- he helped to procure dead bodies.

PC He literally knew where the bodies were buried

At the time… anatomy students at Harvard were desperate for bodies to dissect^[18].  And getting those corpses was dirty business… it often meant paying off body snatchers who literally dug corpses out of graveyards…

PC Yeah, this janitor was really kind of the middle man, he’s the guy that would get the money from the professors and then go talk to the body snatchers…

So clearly this janitor didn’t have a big issue with handling corpses for cash …  And we know Mr Parkman had a lot of money on him when he disappeared…. Plus, since there was a reward,  IF the janitor did this dirty deed -- he would now get paid twice..  when he stole the cash and again when he led police to the body. With that kind of money ... this janitor could have made a killing.

So who's responsible for the chopped up body at Harvard? Was it the professor in the laboratory with the chemicals? Or the corpse-collecting janitor in the basement?

Chapter 6: The case against the professor 

Who knows?!? But soon…  evidence starts piling up against one of our suspects… the professor. He has a motive too. The oldest in the book. The professor owed lots of money to the missing Mr Parkman… he was in fact… flailing in a quicksand of debt.

PC Deeply disastrously in debt. And in debt to Parkman in particular, he owed him thousands of dollars. He'd literally signed away every book, clothing, down to the bed linen in his house. Just, all his property^[19].

You see the professor had a taste for the finer things in life… he spent all of his inheritance on a stupidly fancy house^[20]… And with what Harvard was paying him -  wasn’t nearly enough to keep up with his lavish lifestyle. So the Professor was in the red to the Scrooge of Boston — owing more than a yearly salary to the bloke^[21]. It then emerges that this chemistry professor was no mild mannered nerd… newspapers report rumors that he had such a quick temper, his nickname while he was a student was Skyrocket Jack^[22] ...

OK and then finally…  there’s his job. The professor studies chemistry. But he’s not cooking up new lifesaving medicines at the medical school - oh no - he studies what chemicals do to the human body. Chemicals … like arsenic.

<<GONG>>>

The chunks of body in the professor’s lab and the fact that he owed the dead man lots and lots of money — it looks bad for the Professor - bad enough for prosecutors to take this case to trial. Yes. The professor would be charged with the murder of Mr. George Parkman.

After the break... the trial against the Professor. 19th Century forensic science gives this case everything it's got… We'll learn how to dissolve a human body… 19th Century style… and try to identify a corpse from the hairiness of its legs…

Hair raising science … Coming up...

BREAK

Chapter 7: The trial

Welcome back. To the biggest news in 1850. We’ve learnt that a wealthy Scrooge type aka Mr Parkman has gone missing… and the last place he was seen was at Harvard Medical School.  A mutilated corpse has been found in the lab of a chemistry professor … Who’s now on trial for murder.

And this case goes 19th Century viral… new railroads were built … ^[23] and brand-new telegraph poles strung up^[24]… allowing news of the Parkman case to travel to Wisconsin … Texas ...and Florida … In fact… the story of Mr Parkman’s murder even made it to Australia^[25].

And back in Boston… the locals couldn’t get enough … Here’s Professor Paul Collins again

PC they had a real problem at the courthouse… people fighting each other, punching each other in the face trying to get in^[26]. it was pretty nuts.

So many people wanted to witness the trial of the Harvard Professor that officials had to rotate people through the courtroom…

PC By the end of the trial about 60 thousand spectators^[27] had passed through the courthouse

WZ omgosh 60 thousand?

PC It’s equivalent to almost half the population of the city^[28]

It seems that everyone wants to stickybeak on the trial of the chemistry professor accused of killing one of the richest men in Boston. And you could understand why this was one of the hottest seats in town… I mean this trial.. had a fancy professor, a dodgy janitor and a missing rich man.... all the trimmings of a broadway show… one you’d kill to see…

And with all the evidence lined up against the professor you’d think the case was a slam dunk. But things take a rather curious turn…  when the Professor’s legal defence team came up with a rather intriguing argument…

They basically say look you are accusing our client of killing Mr George Parkman but you don't even know if the body you found in his lab IS Mr. Parkman. You’ve got a thorax without a head… chunks of a skull, and parts of leg… That could be just about anyone.^[29] On top of that – this corpse was found in a medical school… and there were dead bodies all over the place… ^[30] 

PC They said well it could be anybody it’s a building full of cadavers

Like we mentioned… there were cadavers around for students to dissect… ^[31]…and in fact the students at this school cut up so many bodies that Harvard literally built the place to deal with the corpses…

PC they had a dissecting room in effect over a river,^[32] or an area very accessible to the river, so they could just dump this stuff out. So yeah, I mean, they literally designed the building with cadavers in mind.^[33] [34]

And every now and then… the odd body part would be found around Harvard.. Like leading up to the trial some hands were found in the river near the medical school^[35]… and police think - a-ha! these are Mr Parkman’s hands! But then… a sheepish medical professor comes forward -

sorry, uh, mates, that one's mine..… I put it in the river to see how it decomposes.

 Hmmm… touché defence team. 

Chapter 8: Forensics in the 1800s

But seriously, though. In 1850, how would you prove these body parts are Mr. Parkman? At the time there was - of course - no DNA evidence…  in fact scientists wouldn’t even understand what DNA was for 100 years.^[36] And fingerprinting wouldn’t be used in courts for decades… ^[37] not that it mattered… they didn’t even have this corpse's fingers!

In a desperate attempt to prove the body in the professor's lab was in fact Mr. Parkman... the prosecutors turn to some rather bizarre legal strategies. For example, one of the legs found was particularly hairy -- and so they tried to identify him that way.

PC that was one of the weirder moments of the trial. So they talk to Parkman’s brother in law. they ask him well, were his legs hairy^[38]. he's embarrassed about this. yeah there was this one time when he pulled up his leg pants-03 yeah he had kinda hair legs ahahha

WZ it's amazing to think about that in a trial today because we have DNA evidence. But to imagine in order to identify someone as a legitimate piece of evidence, asking how hairy was his legs-01

Yahahahha

Yah, the prosecutors are going to need a hair more proof. And so they find some evidence they can really sink their teeth into. Bits of dentures and a jaw were found in the furnace of the Professor's lab ... so the prosecution thinks perhaps we can prove this is Mr. Parkman by his teeth.

And they catch a lucky break.... shortly before his disappearance.. Mr Parkman had visited a dentist^[39]  to be fitted for dentures. And that dentist had a cast of exactly what his jaw looked like...

So the prosecution calls the dentists to the stand and says, like, -- do you recognize these bits?.

And the moment the dentist saw the jaw, he knew exactly what he was looking at … and he said: “Dr. Parkman is gone -- we shall see him no more.” .^[40] [41] Tears fell down his face, and some people in the crowd broke down crying…  

And you see, the dentist could identify Mr Parkman's jaw because it was so odd-looking.

WZ this is what we've come for. oooh  [gasp] we are currently looking at the casts that the dentist made of Mr Parkman’s jaw.

I got to see the cast of Parkman's jaw, with senior producer Rose Rimler – because it's still kept in the archives at Harvard.

WZ this became this critical piece of evidence to say that body in the lab… that must have been mr parkman because he had this weird jaw

RR: It is kind of … protuberant.

But it wasn’t just the jaw that was so protuberant^[42]… We got to see a cast of his dentures aswell... which were even weirder!! because parkman only had a few teeth left… So his dentist made him dentures that fit around them^[43]..

WZ This is such a specific cast. You would absolutely able to identify someone based on this

RR Yeah... there’s three clustered on one side and one on another side … you just have this scraggly remains of teeth that would be pretty … totally like a fingerprint, almost

You might think that this would have clinched the case… but at the time, introducing this kind of evidence was a total gamble… it was the first time dental evidence was introduced into a murder trial in America … And just the idea of identifying a whole person based on pieces of a body ... was all pretty new and untested science.^[44] On top of all that, the defense team had their own dental  expert. Here’s Paul again.

PC The defence bring in another dentist and says, could you look at a tooth or at a piece of jaw, or a bit of denture… And actually identify who it came from? And the guy is like NO^[45]… So there is almost this battle of the dentists ^[46] that happens in the courtroom.

And it goes on and on… these are definitely his teeth -- no way! You’d never know! -- THEN FINALLY the dentist for the chemistry professor crumbles and ADMITS — well it might be Mr. Parkman… 

PC What seemed like this wild and untested new form of evidence… suddenly becomes very powerful

Okay so the prosecution seems to have convinced people the body is Mr. Parkman's. There is one more hurdle though… the prosecution needs to explain why, if it was the professor whodunnit… why did he leave this body in this weird dismembered state… afterall he is a professor in chemistry -- IF he committed this murder -- SURELY HE COULD HAVE DONE A BETTER JOB GETTING RID OF THE BODY ^[47]??  

PC Well yeah he’s a chemistry professor why didn’t he dissolve the body?

An expert in chemicals takes the stand^[48]. And says yeah, you can dissolve a body using strong chemicals ... but here’s the thing: you need a tonne of them. Particularly to dissolve an entire human body.^[49].

PC Parkman was not actually a very heavy guy, maybe only 140 pounds…

WZ just all chin

PC right but that’s industrial quantities he doesn’t have anything like that, he doesn’t have containers in his lab that are remotely big enough to do that.

And there was evidence that someone had tried to dissolve the body… So, this expert on the stand, along with a dream team of other Harvard alumni^[50]  had done a cutting edge chemical analysis of the dismembered corpse^[51]... This was really CSI: Boston 1800s And well remember the weird chemicals on the body parts found in the lab?? Well the analysis showed that some of Parkman’s body parts had been soaked in this chemical called Potash Lye^[52]… but there clearly wasn’t enough there to disappear a body.

So that would explain why Mr. Parkman’s body hadn’t been completely destroyed by chemicals, the professor simply didn’t have enough. 

Parts of the corpse if you’ll remember had also been roasted by fire… and there was a small furnace in the laboratory… so then the question became — why weren’t the body parts burnt completely? Another learned doctor takes the stand… one who has a lot of experience getting rid of bodies… ^[53] And he says …

Well yeah I burn lots of bodies, actually it takes… you need a good big stove. you need lots of kindling, you don’t want to use the wrong kind of coal. He goes over all these details. Basically what he points out is that the Professor doesn’t have the right kind of stove or the right kind of fuel.

The prosecution argues that this fairly average chemistry professor… did a fairly average job of getting rid of a body. The crowd in the court. Gasped. Or so we imagine…^[54]

Chapter 9: The verdict

After the Professors tottered off the stand. The jury had to work out what the Charles Dickens to do with all this newfangled scientific evidence. The scientific testimony about the teeth, the chemicals and the fire ... seemed to add up to the professor having done it -- BUT at the same time…  ... there were no witnesses who saw the professor kill anyone. No one heard a scream … and this professor’s never fallen afoul of the law before… and he’s pleading innocence, insisting that a sketchy janitor has pulled one over on everyone ...

There’s no conclusive evidence of any kind. Just some toffy professors. A protuberant jaw, a weird set of dentures, and a curious chemical analysis. Would this strange new — science be enough?

At around 8pm^[55] Jury retires to consider the verdict. Just 2 and a half hours later.^[56] They come back and declare him. GUILTY. The professor was sentenced to death. And the papers went WILD …^[57][58].^[59] [60]

The excitement at this juncture was intense ^[61]

"the prisoner sank back in his chair and wept^[62]"

“An awful and unbroken silence ensued”^[63]

The jury as well as the prisoner trembled and grew faint^[64]

May god, of his infinite goodness, have mercy on your soul”^[65]

But for anyone who still had doubts about  the professor’s guilt... the truth would soon be revealed. As Professor John Webster sat in his cell awaiting his hanging…. He confessed to his minister^[66]. And the whole sordid tale was later published in the papers. Here’s what the professor said happened. Mr Parkman, the Scrooge of Boston, came hassling him to repay his debts. He’d always hassled the professor for money. But on that day in November Mr Parkman -- took it one step further… and threatened to have the professor fired…

PC By Webster’s account he picks up the nearest thing. Which is basically a large stick of wood, hits him in the head. Parkman drops dead and Webster panics. And that's where everything then unravels.

And without the dental evidence… the chemical analysis…and the scientists…   the fancy Professor… might have gotten away with it. He might have been able to hide behind the reputation of such a prestigious college…  After all at first… who would believe that a family man and a respected professor could commit murder… ? But in the end… at least this time, the science convinced them… and won out.

RR I guess murder was on the syllabus. That was my David Caruso … from CSI whooo are you

Looks like the dentist took a bite out of crime. Whooo

WZ What about um  .. maybe Mr Parkman shouldn’t have been so mouthy… whoooooo ahaha alright. 

That’s Science Vs Murder in the Ivory Tower

If you want more gory details about this trial… you have to check out Paul Collins’ book - it’s called Blood and Ivy: the 1849 Murder that Scandalised Harvard. It’s a really great read. Also on our insta … science_vs – photos of Mr Parkman's strange jaw, well a cast of it, and fun shots of Rose and I hanging out in Boston. Come say hey on tiktok @wendyzukerman

This episode was produced by Kaitlyn Sawrey with help from Wendy Zukerman, along with Rose Rimler, Meryl Horn and Odelia Rubin. Editing by Blythe Terrell, with help from Caitlin Kenney. Fact checking by Michelle Harris. Mix and sound design by Emma Munger, with help from Bobby Lord. Music by Emma Munger and Bobby Lord. A huge thanks to Jessica Murphy and the team at the Harvard University Archives, plus Lars Trembly and Matthew Nelson, Frank Lopez, Joseph Lavelle Wilson and the Zukerman Family.

I’m Wendy Zukerman, fact you next time!