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1849: The true life tale of one of Boston’s richest men vanishes…
Blood & Ivy: The 1849 Murder That Scandalized Harvard
What you need to know before your trail
On 23 November 1849, in the heart of Boston, one of the city’s richest men vanished. Dr. George Parkman, who owned much of Boston’s West End, was last seen that afternoon visiting his alma mater, Harvard Medical School. Police scoured city tenements and the harbour but a Harvard janitor held a much darker suspicion: that their ruthless benefactor had not left the Medical School building. His shocking discovery engulfed America in one of its most infamous trials, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. John White Webster, Harvard’s professor of chemistry. A baffling case of red herrings, grave robbing and dismemberment; it became a landmark in the use of medical forensics. Rich in characters and atmosphere, Blood & Ivy explores the fatal entanglement of new science and old money in one of America’s greatest murder mysteries.
Locations
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Boston
Boston is brought to life in this historical read. Charles Dickens in on a triumphant tour of the US and to welcome this writer back to USa shores after a break o some 25 years, the city went all out to ‘Dickenize’ its streets and shops, ensuring his novels were available in all shops. People smoke Little Nell cigars and Pickwick snuff.
Harvard
Read an account of the real life murder on the Boston.com website.
In 1849, Dr. George Parkman, a doctor from Boston, went missing
Days later, his dismembered body was discovered in a colleague’s laboratory at Harvard Medical School.
Dr John White Webster was soon suspected and convicted of the murder. Both men worked at the Harvard Medical School, located near to the Massachusetts General Hospital near the Charles River at that time.
Parkman was a prominent philanthropist and engaged in real estate investment and speculation. Webster was also from a well-connected family, and was a chemistry instructor at the medical school with his own lab.
Webster was not as successful however and owned Parkman money. It was the trial of the century.
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
Thank goodness II was lucky enough to be gifted Blood and Ivy by the Publisher as there’s more titles written by Paul Collins and his way of bringing true life crime takes to life is really good.
A case of two Harvard doctors and in 1849, the murder of one of them at the hands of another. I’d never heard of this case so it was a thrill to discover it and even more so, step back into the past with Paul’s evocative writing and unique turn of phrase.
The book plunges you into the time and place from the first page. Charles Dickens is on his US tour, they’re selling Little Nell cigars in the stores, horses and carriages clatter down the streets. A historical reader’s dream.
But that’s just the brilliant scene setting start. What follows is almost unbelievable to the point you can’t believe this really happened. At a time whenHarvard’s medical legacy was being written, cadavers were being examined in halls, medical discoveries were on the cusp of being made, and where such gore fascinated and inspired Dickens himself for future novels.
This novel is thick with history and gore, a trial of the century which examines procedures of that time such as reasonable doubt, motive, mental illness, the allure of the medical scholars of their time.
Take your reading scalpel to this one and get dissecting!
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Blood & Ivy: The 1849 Murder That Scandalized Harvard
Destination : Boston Author/Guide: Paul Collins Departure Time: 1849
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