Chapter 4 Section 4

The police went to the basement first and saw in the sewage pipes under Professor West's laboratory - also seen by Ivren Littorfield - a human right thigh, a severed leg from the knee and ankle Left calf and a pelvic bone or abdominal cavity with mostly intact male genitalia and a 6-inch rectum. In the smelting furnace in the laboratory on the first floor, the police pulled out some false teeth and some bone fragments from the ashes. The search continued Saturday.On this day, also in the laboratory on the first floor, more human body fragments were found in a tea chest (teachest) placed in the southwest corner - a chest cavity was hidden under the ore specimens on the surface and tanned leather. .A left thigh was inserted into the space, and there was a hole-like wound at the lower end of the left chest that seemed to have been pierced by a sharp weapon.

According to the opinions of the experts and scholars present at the time, these human remains belonged to a tall man aged 50 to 60 years old, about 1.8 meters tall, with a strong body and particularly well-developed leg muscles. Later, there were rumors in the society that Professor Jeff Wyman of Harvard Medical School used those scattered bones to spell out the "scar" on the back of the deceased's hand, which was similar to the scar that Dr. Pikeman's close relatives and friends had seen. No difference.It was also said that Mrs. Peckman, Eliza, recognized two distinctive marks of the penis and the hindquarters from the abdominal cavity, and so on.Although there is no way to check its authenticity, at least for the latter statement, many people think it is just a dirty joke made up by people with nothing to do.

In short, the media and the public quickly agreed with the police's conclusion, believing that they finally found Dr. George Pikeman. The news of Professor John West's arrest came later.According to the Boston Journal: On Friday night, several police officers came to the residence of Professor John West in Cambridge, where the professor was having a good time with friends.Professor West was told that the police were going to launch a new round of search on the medical school soon, and he needed to be present in order to open the door and open the box.Then he was taken into a carriage bound for Boston.

During the whole process, Professor West did not hesitate or panic at all. He was calm and natural as usual, talking to the police about the disappearance of Dr. George Peckman and various related news circulating at that time. It was not until the carriage stopped at the gate of the municipal prison that the police informed Professor West that he had been arrested on suspicion of murdering Dr. Pikeman. This sudden announcement took Professor West by surprise, and for a moment, he seemed completely bewildered. Before he recovered from the shock, Professor West had already been taken to the carriage and escorted to the medical school.There, the officials present carefully observed Professor West's performance and reaction when he saw the human remains.He was then sent back to prison again.

There are hardly any records about Evren Littlefield's life and family background in the existing materials, only a few fragments mentioning that his ancestral home was in New Hampshire and he came to Boston more than ten years ago.But there's more about John West and George Peckman. West and Pikeman are both local families. When the first members of their family settled here, the United States was still a British colony and Boston was still transforming from a fishing village to a market town.Later, the ancestors of the two families have produced dignitaries, wealthy businessmen, such as governors, presidents of Harvard University, etc., and more than one Harvard graduate.

When John Wright West was born on May 20, 1793, his father, Redford West, was a successful and wealthy apothecary.John studied at Harvard Medical School at the age of 14, received a bachelor's degree at the age of 18, and received a doctor's degree in medicine at the age of 22. In the same year, in 1815, he traveled across the ocean to practice in London, where medicine was most developed at that time, and later became a famous British poet. Kent, as a deputy to surgeon Simpson Foster at Gass Medical College Hospital. After the internship, John West traveled around the British Isles with Professor Boyer, an authority in the medical field at the time, and fell in love when passing through the Azores on his way back to the United States, and hit it off with the daughter of the American consul stationed in the island.She was the later Mrs. West, Heliye Henklin.

The West couple held their wedding in 1823. Afterwards, John West took over Doctor Gerhan's clinic in Boston, but the business did not go as smoothly as the young MD imagined, so from the very beginning, the economy The embarrassment in the world is like a ghost.Many years later, Professor West wrote this statement in a letter to his friend Jon Lovell from Revley Street Prison: In fact, I know very little about the value of money.My father never gave me very little pocket money, and never allowed me to ask or meddle in his business, and of course there was no doubt that he had good intentions.Since I got married and lived in Boston, all I got from my dad was $500 a year, rent included.I inevitably fell into debt, but always believed that my practice would make money.

I only got half of what was supposed to be mine when my father died, and that didn't include the Joels River Bridge - I have to tell you how.He left all his real estate to my children.As long as I live, I can only enjoy the annual income.If any children get married, that proceeds go to me and the unmarried children. Foolishly, at the instigation of others, not of my own family, I bought a large and expensive mansion in Cambridge, and spent great sums on gardens, books, furniture, etc.In the following years, I went into debt repeatedly and could barely support my estate.When I first bought the house and land, people told me that the real estate in this area was very hot, and that within a few years, I would only have to sell a part of my real estate to make a lot of money and get rid of all the debts.As a result, almost all of them were lost.

This mansion on Harvard Road was later auctioned by creditors in 1837, and the West family moved into the house of Mr. Jonas Wieser at 22 Garden Street near Harvard Square in the form of "rent to buy". "Rent to buy" is a long-term lease contract. The two parties agree in advance that when the total amount of rent paid by the tenant is equivalent to the value of the property, the house will be owned by the tenant.