Episode 24: The Parkman Murder, Boston’s Celebrity Trial of the (19th) Century

In 1849, Boston was rocked by the crime of the (19th) century when Professor John Webster murdered Dr. George Parkman in his lab at Harvard Medical School. The world was riveted by the investigation and trial that ensued, while the Boston Brahmins were shaken to the core by the scandal in their ranks. The courtroom drama lived up to our modern-day CSI standards, offering one of the earliest uses of forensic evidence and a legal standard still in use today. Listen to the show!

The Parkman Murder

• Murder at Harvard, a dramatization of the Parkman case
• Download an app that reveals the timeline of the Parkman case

This Week in Boston History

 

• Read a review of the live album the Doors recorded in Boston in 1970.
• A letter from Abigail Adams to John, in which she says, “I hope in time to have the Reputation of being as good a Farmeress as my partner has of being a good Statesmen.”
• The letter written by a British conscientious objector to bearing arms against his countrymen in Boston.
• A scheme to sink old ships in the channels of Boston Harbor.
• Isabella Stewart Gardner, Boston’s patron of the arts.
• An account of the 11th Massachusetts Volunteers, the “Minutemen of ’61.”

• A Coast Guard history of Boston Light.