In November 1849, a sensational murder shook the city of Boston to its core. It all began when Dr. George Parkman, a scion of one of Boston's richest families, suddenly vanished. One week later ...

For Dr. George Parkman was one of Boston's leading citizens ... and Webster saw that he would have to get rid of the body quickly. Until his death, however, he maintained that his crime was ...

Primed by such writings, the American public received the story of George Parkman's murder, and its grisly details of dismemberment and corpse destruction, with shock, disbelief ⁠— and avid ...

Karen Elizabeth Chaney earned her master's degree in American history from Harvard University. She wrote her master's thesis on the 1849 George Parkman murder under the auspices of the late Dr.