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Read the article from the American Antiquarian Society about researching the story:
http://www.americanantiquarian.org/vignettes110107.htm
From CLEWS - The Historic True Crime Blog:
Was Professor Webster Innocent!?
The killing of Dr. Parkman by Dr. Webster at Harvard's medical college is a classic murder tale - one of nineteenth-century America's most famous cases (nicely summarized in a meaty Wikipedia entry).
The high social standing of murderer and murderee propelled the case to international prominence. Harvard! It was hard for some to imagine.
But from the beginning, dark suspicions were directed at the man who discovered the crime and provided the critical evidence against Professor Webster - janitor Ephraim Littlefield.
Was Dr. Webster hanged in error?
(The article at right is from an 1896 edition of the Steubenville (Ohio) Herald; copyright expired; via NewspaperArchive)
Soon a book will retell the tale, and the janitor is the guilty man in what promises to be a deeply researched and heavily footnoted account. It is The Gentleman in the Purple Waistcoat: The Victorian Murder Case that Launched Forensic Science and Stunned Boston and the World. The authors are James & Lois Cowan, and their account was intriguing enough to secure the interest of publisher Smithsonian/HarperCollins. It comes out in 2009.
As the authors remark, they have studied the case for many years and were struck by "Littlefield’s particular veracity.... We have opted to look at the events in a new way: to examine all the intricacies for ourselves — not aided by the eager voice of the janitor. It was he, after all, who benefited from the verdict, collecting the reward offered by the missing man’s wealthy family."
Speaking for myself, I've never been one to seek out contrarians' accounts. Then I became a contrarian myself. So I'm looking forward to a book that promises to rewrite the crime encyclopedias. In the meantime, the web offers interesting tidbits about some of the authors' research discoveries and a website delving into some details of their theories.
Is there room for doubt, 160 years after the verdict? If you are a student of this crime, do you have a strong opinion? Are you amenable to an altogether new take on a very old case?
April 10, 2008 in Book News & Reviews | Permalink
Pre-Publication Excitement
Beyond reasonable doubt. Corpus delicti. Circumstantial evidence—a law-lit
thriller that cuts through voluminous transcripts and arcane arguments to
showcase a trial of the century and its landmark decision. A gripping narrative;
the definitive book on the Parkman murder, full of the social, political and legal
evolution of American jurisprudence, will fascinate lay people and lawyers alike.
—Kimberly J. Tucker, Esquire
Former Deputy Counsel; Florida Attorney General
A brilliant work that reads like fiction. The Victorian political shenanigans are
a hoot. The trial is a sham. The doctor is dead. The professor is garroted. I love
it.
—Mike Peters
Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist
and creator of Mother Goose and Grimm
Right away you're there, 1849 Boston, examining and investigating the body
parts, police mischief, and murky motives of one of the great American murder
mysteries. Using archival discoveries and uncanny forensic precision, James
and Lois Cowan have simply triumphed, overcoming a century and a half of
misdirection and repetition. A gripping narrative boasting the flair and style of
the best suspense fiction.
—Matthew Pearl
Author of The Dante Club and The Poe Shadow
It's a Victorian “Law and Order” tale that fuels curiosity and leaves you wanting
more. If you put "The Devil in the White City," "David Copperfield," and "Make
Way for Ducklings" into a blender, out would pour "The Gentleman in the
Purple Waistcoat...."
—Susie MacNelly
Shoe comic strip