Chapter 23 Section 23

The State Historical Association spent more than ten years sorting and classifying the various "historical documents" left by the Hoya brothers, and in 1970 discovered the relics of Edward Sawyer, which was written by Professor West in prison The notes, memos, and even notes written to his lawyers, etc., total 194 pages, collectively called "West's Notes", which can be counted as written testimony that the professor did not have the opportunity to submit to the court.In fact, at the end of April 1850, Professor West wrote to then-Governor George Brigge to state his grievances, stating that "I have prepared a detailed document...but I have accepted the counsel of the lawyers and kept silent. Therefore, that document was also... never released."

Edward Sawyer kept the "West's Notes" for life, but it is said that it hindered the confidentiality agreement between the lawyer and the client, and he never disclosed the contents of the notes for life.After Edward's death, Judge Ebner Hoya came forward on behalf of the Bar Association to help arrange the funeral.There is no historical data to explain how this note was finally transferred to the hands of the Hoya brothers. The only thing that is certain is that both brothers have "a habit of collecting precious historical documents."After quitting politics in his later years, Georgie Hoya served as the president of the American Historical Association and the American Association of Antiquities Lovers.Judge De Hoya and Senator De Hoya died in the "Hoya House" in 1895 and 1904, respectively.

The Notes begin with Professor John West giving an exhaustive account of his whereabouts from November 23, 1849, the date of Dr. George Peckman's disappearance, to November 30, 1849, the date of his own arrest. .The text lists places and times, giving the names of all "possible witnesses" who he met or who saw him.Many of these details matched the testimony of other witnesses, including his three daughters. Some scholars have compared the narration in the notes with the testimony of Evren Littlefield in court verbatim, and believe that the discrepancy is so great that it is far from being explained by "memory errors".

For example, on November 23, the Friday when Dr. Peckman disappeared, Yveren said: "That afternoon ... about 5:30, I heard someone coming down the back stairs in the kitchen. I went out and saw that it was Wei Wei. Professor Sturt, with a lighted candle in his hand." And another witness, Joseph Kidder, a pharmacist, said: "On Friday, the 23rd, around 5 o'clock, or a quarter to five, the professor came into my shop to buy some perfume. I'm pretty sure it was that day ... I have a bill As proof.” Professor West’s daughters said: “Friday, the 23rd, when my father came home in the afternoon just in time for tea, it should be before 6 o’clock.” According to the account in his notes - and what he told the police at the time - he left the laboratory at around 3 o'clock to eat at the nearby Bradham Restaurant.Take the stagecoach home after dinner, stop at a shop on the way, get home about half-past five, and so on.

Just like one night after 10 o'clock, Yverren said that Professor West's door was "bolted from the inside", but many people confirmed that the West and his wife were gathering with friends at the neighbor Professor Treadwell's house at that time.Again, the latter is also consistent with the professor's own statement. Another example is Sunday, November 24. In his testimony, Evelyn said: "In the evening, I was standing on North Grove Street talking to Mr. Kahull about Dr. Peckman's disappearance. Professor West came. Question: 'Mr. Littlefield, did you see Dr. Peckman during the second half of last week?'..." But the professor's notes say that he came back from Abbe Peckman's house at four o'clock Around, then, 4:45 to 5:00, to neighbor Paige's, 5:15, home, dinner.

And on the morning of Wednesday, November 28, Yveren's testimony was "So I lay down on the ground, pressed my face to the floor, and looked through the crack in the bottom of the door, but at most I could see only his knees. ".According to "West Notes", the professor was having breakfast with his daughters.The third daughter of the West family, Helier, testified to this: "On Wednesday, after we had breakfast together, my father went to the garden. He stayed there all morning." Etc., etc. During at least seven or eight periods of the week, the door of Professor West's laboratory was locked, or he heard the professor in the laboratory, or he met or talked with the professor somewhere in the medical school, Both the testimony of other witnesses or the professor's own notes put Professor West in another place far away from Harvard Medical School.

In his notes, Professor West made no secret of his suspicions about the orderly, of his belief that it was Evren Littlefield who put the severed human limbs into his chemistry laboratory—besides Whether those severed limbs were the remains of Dr. Peckman, or whether Dr. Peckman was killed by Evren Littlefield. The text in the notes is not organized very well, and some of them are only fragments of words, not complete sentences.It can be seen that the professor just jotted down the thoughts that popped up in his mind at that time, writing down wherever he thought of.A few excerpts are as follows.

Yverzhin was a "grave robber" and had been active in the profession for many years, first at the old medical school and later at the new medical school. Ask him how many dead bodies he got in last summer and had to throw away because of the stink?How much does a corpse sell for?Usually $25.He got most of the bodies from the New York to Boston railroad—sometimes the barrels cracked and the bodies inside were exposed, and he went and got them, decapitated them, and sold the bodies to medical schools.Ask Yves about allowing him to dig up the Weller family graveyard to steal the corpse, and it was discovered later.Not long ago, he also sold a dead body - a corpse that had been dissected repeatedly for six weeks.He told the buyer that he could carry the body for any price.At the old medical school, Dr. Lorenz would pay him $200 to dispose of the corpses whenever the mortuary vault was full.Iferin stole the body of a girl from New Hampshire. Dr. J. C. Warren can testify how Everren got the corpse from Roxburgh.And Dr. Samuel Peckman, Jr., who knew how hard it was to buy a corpse from Yvergin for twenty-five dollars.Yveren cut off the head and sold it to the students for $5.Then the New Hampshire girl's family came to claim the body, and there was a lot of trouble.Ask Yverren how many corpses he got last summer.Saying 200 is not an exaggeration.