George Parkman

George Parkman was a prominent businessman and philanthropist in Boston. He is best known for donating land to Harvard Medical College (now part of MGH) and his murder in that very location.

Parkman was born in 1790 into the prominent Parkman family. After inheriting his father’s estate he became one of Boston’s most visible businessmen, landowners, and benefactors. George was a friend of John James Audubon (of the Audubon Society), who named the Parkman Wren after him, and is also the namesake of Parkman Street (along with his father, Samuel). 

George gifted Harvard lands in the West End for the construction of Harvard Medical College, which opened in 1846 (only the foundation remains, now part of Massachusetts General Hospital). That building was the site in 1849 of George’s murder, dismemberment, and disposal by Dr. John Webster, the Erving Professor of Chemistry at Harvard. The murder took place in the Harvard laboratory that Webster worked in, and parts of a body, including false teeth, were discovered at the site, disposed in a furnace, a tea-chest, and a privy (a bench with holes, serving as a toilet). A rough sketch of the laboratory was offered as evidence in Webster’s trial, with each of the disposal sites marked. The Harvard Medical Library purchased a copy of the drawing in 1938 for its collections.

Webster was convicted and executed in August 1850. The case was unprecedented because it was the first time a jury was asked to identify a body “beyond reasonable doubt”, and pioneered new ground in scientific and circumstantial evidence. For this reason, and the general intrigue surrounding the case, Parkman’s murder was the most sensational case for its time. Often compared to the O.J. Simpson Trial, it was covered in the entire Western world. More than 60,000 spectators rotated through the public gallery every ten minutes. An incredible media blitz generated many books in response, and present-day media about the case includes new documentaries and an iPhone app. Even now, some are still debating the facts of the case, and whether or not Webster was actually guilty. 

Parkman’s home now serves as the Mayor’s Office Reception Hall in the Beacon Hill neighborhood. The home is said to be haunted due to a plumbing issue that occurred years after the murder, and is featured in a tour led by the Boston Ghosts company.