Murder Mystery: An 1850s Whodunnit

Science Vs

Spotify Studios

Science, Education, Health & Fitness

4.4 • 11.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2018

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s 1849, and a gruesome murder has just happened at Harvard. As body parts turn up, the science of the day is put to the ultimate test… to find out: who did it? We speak to Prof. Paul Collins, who tells us how this morbid mystery unfolds. Check out the transcript right here: http://bit.ly/2BntpNU Selected references: Paul Collins’ book, Blood And Ivy: The 1849 Murder That Scandalized Harvard The transcripts from the trial against John Webster Also check out our previous episodes on Forensic Science and DNA and the Smell of Death. Credits: This episode was produced by Kaitlyn Sawrey with help from Wendy Zukerman, along with Rose Rimler, Meryl Horn and Odelia Rubin. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell, with help from Caitlin Kenny. Fact checking by Michelle Harris. Mix and sound design by Emma Munger. Music by Emma Munger and Bobby Lord. A huge thanks to Jessica Murphy and the team at the Harvard University Archives, plus Lars Trembly and Matthew Nelson, Frank Lopez, Joseph Lavelle Wilson and the Zukerman Family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to Science Vs from Gimlet Media.
0:05.4	On today's show, we're taking you back to a gruesome murder that happened in 1849.
0:12.0	It shocked America and put the science of the day to the ultimate test.
0:17.4	Yeah, Science Vs is going true crime.
0:27.6	If you've got innocent ears around, you might want to skip this episode because it is indeed gruesome.
0:36.6	The abdomen had been opened and the intestines taken out.
0:40.0	The car lages and the ramps had been separated and the lungs, liver and heart removed.
0:46.4	Producer Rose Rimmler and I went to Boston to investigate this crime and we ended up
0:50.7	pouring over the original documents from the murder and we're in a library.
0:55.8	Which is why we have to whisper.
0:57.9	First, the thorax and left thigh of the corpse had been subjected to the action of fire
1:03.4	as shown by the singed hair and the partially roasted state of the skin.
1:10.0	Yeah, I feel like we have better words than roasted.
1:13.3	What's upsetting?
1:15.6	This murder went down in 1849 and it had the perfect setting, the very prestigious Harvard University.
1:25.6	Plus, there was everything you could want in a sort of crime story, a cast of characters
1:30.6	that included one of the richest men in Boston, a suspicious janitor, a noted professor,
1:37.2	and at the center of it all, a mysterious mutilated corpse.
1:45.6	So we have this like half roasted, half dissolved, been that quiet?
1:52.1	Body, who could have done this?
1:55.0	Sunsick mother f***ing applies.
1:59.0	And we're breaking open this case because to catch the killer and bring them to justice,
	...

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