5 Disturbing Harvard Secrets That They Desperately Tried To Bury

The Professor Who Butchered a Colleague

In 1849, a janitor made a gruesome discovery inside the Holden Chapel: the dismembered and partially charred remains of Dr. George Parkman, a wealthy Boston philanthropist. The investigation led to a shocking culprit, Harvard chemistry professor John White Webster, who had murdered Parkman over a financial dispute. Webster was eventually convicted and hanged for the crime, cementing this event as one of the most scandalous and grisly episodes in the history of the Ivy League.