1. " 'Murder at Harvard' on American Experience"
Posted by Doug on Jul-5th-03 at 10:23 PM
An article appeared in today's paper about a PBS American Experience episode 'Murder at Harvard' which is scheduled to air Monday, July 14, at 9 PM EDT. The victim of this crime was Dr. George Parkman and the accused was Dr. John W. Webster. Webster was eventually tried, convicted, and hanged.
This is another famous (or infamous) Massachusetts murder case and took place around 1849-50, a little over forty years before the Borden case. Robert Sullivan who wrote 'Goodbye Lizzie Borden' also wrote a book about the Parkman/Webster case entitled 'The Disappearance of Dr. Parkman.' I own this book and read it a number of years ago; I don't remember all the details of the case but do think Sullivan was more sympathetic to the defendant Webster than he was to the defendant Borden.
For additional information try
http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/ecp/10/214/html/0036.html
http://www.pbs.org/previews/AMEX_Harvard/
Doug, thank you for that information! That's something to look forward to! For those of you who have Edmund Pearson's Murder at Smuttynose and Other Murders -- the Parkman/Webster case is included in that anthology.
Pearson, Edmund Lester. "The Bordens: A Postscript." Murder at Smutty Nose: and Other Murders. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1927. 291-302.
This Pearson tome has a 21 page essay [94-114] on the case "America's Classic Murder OR The Disappearance of Doctor Parkman" with 2 odd, elongated drawings of the crime itself and one of the hurried Dr. Parkman in long stride.
Apparently Dr. Parkman died trying to collect a debt.
I've read this book twice but thanks for having me get it out again!
For Doug! From Pearson.
(Sorry Diana, we *crossed in the mail*!)
(Message last edited Jul-6th-03 1:50 AM.)
Thanks, Kat! I think these pictures are also in Sullivan's book about the Parkman/Webster case though I don't have the book at hand to check.
I don't have the Pearson book about this case.
The importance of this case (prosecuted by politician and future Civil War general Benjamin Butler, of New Orleans fame) is that it was the first successful murder case prosecuted with out a body. They found his false teeth, and little else. As I remember.
Was Benjamin Butler the first politician to belittle Harvard by saying of their professors "I hanged one of them"?
Just watched "Murder at Harvard" (I'd taped it) and was struck by something one of the historians said. Pauline Maier spoke about "the chasm between the present and the past and the challenge for contemporary people to overcome their anachronisms; to try to get a sense of what happened in times in which they have not lived and the inevitable degree of failure that this enterprise involves." Made me think of our struggles with the Borden case.
(BTW Tonight's "American Experience" on PBS is about The Donner Party. Their story is a sterling example of the endurance of the human spirit.)
I caught this tonite. I was surprised to learn it occured in 1846/47, which was a tad earlier than I'd thought.
Absolutely unimaginable having to go thru what those people did.
Do you all remember Harry posting this link a while ago?
It is Hiram Harrington going to Californ -i-ay looking for gold.
I caught the last 45 minutes just now of the Donner Party and thought of Hiram! he was on his voyage not long after the Donner tragedy
I went to 6-8th grades in Sacramento, and we studied the Donner expedition and visited Sutter's Fort. Thanks for the reminder that the show was on!
http://www.rootsweb.com/~rinewpor/mercury1882.html
(Message last edited Jul-22nd-03 3:06 AM.)
Oooo, I was watching American Experience tonight too. Those poor people, what a tragedy!
Certainly food for thought, Diana. I don't think people have changed much in the past few thousand years; what does evolve is how people act and react to what is going on both inside and outside themselves, and how they show it. Imagine what those living a century from now will think about infamous crimes of our era, such as the Tate/Manson killings, the Simpson/Goldman case, or the Jon-Benet Ramsey murder. Whether or not crimes like these are "solved" the circumstances and aftermath certainly say something about our times and the individuals involved as well as about the rest of us, the investigators, the chroniclers, and the spectators.
The PBS station I saw 'Murder at Harvard' on (WNET, New York) followed that program with an American Experience episode from a while back about the Stanford White murder case which took place in New York City around the turn of the twentieth century. That story did not seem as far removed as the Parkman case. Times and attitudes changed dramatically from the middle of the nineteenth century to the end and the circumstances of the Stanford White case reminded me of what can be found every day in the modern tabloids.
This was in the last part of the Link on Hiram Harrington.
There are Borden's, Potter's & Batemans
Newport Mercury, May 20, 1882
"TIVERTON
OBITUARY.—Mrs. Richard Borden’s funeral was held Friday, the 12th inst., from the residence of her son, Benjamin C. Borden. She died Tuesday morning after a short and painful illness, at the advanced age of 82 years, 1 month and 12 days. The funeral of Mrs. Potter, who has long resided with her son, Mr. Jerome Potter, was held Thursday of last week. Her remains were deposited in the Bateman family lot, near Portsmouth."
When I once READ about it, they said the big problem was the start of the Mexican War, which took off many of the men that could have been used to help rescue this party. No telegraphs either?
There is a great American history quotation based on the events of the Donner Party. Following the rescue of the survivors, the truth of what happened became known. People were horrified and charges of murder and cannibalism were brought against some of the leaders. Following a guilty verdict in a Colorado courtroom, the judge prepared to sentence one of the leaders found guilty. He said:
"There were ten Democrats in the territory of Colorado and you ate eight of them. Therefore, you are sentenced to be hanged."
Immediately thereafter, he suspended the sentence and those found guilty only spent a short time in prison.
This story sounds like it is too good to be true!
Why has nobody mentioned the Ira Einhorn murder conviction? Too new for the books?