The Parker Murder, Manchester's Great Mystery, The Story of the..

1886. A Future President of the United States and a Future Governor of Massachusetts were Counsel for the Defense [Trials]. Wentworth, Asa, Defendant. Wentworth, Henry, Defendant. Wentworth, Horace, Defendant. The Parker Murder. Manchester's Great Mystery. The Story of the Murder of Jonas L. Parker, March 26, 1845, With an Account of the Efforts to Discover His Murderers, And a Report of the Famous Trial of the Wentworths. Manchester, NH: Printed by John B. Clarke, 1886. 43 pp. Text in parallel columns. Two woodcut text illustrations (maps). Octavo (9" x 6"; 23 x 15.2 cm). Stab-stitched pamphlet in printed wrappers. Light soiling, light rubbing to extremities, early owner inscription ("Edward Runnells Mast Yard," dated 1886) to front wrapper, light browning to text. $650. * Only edition. "Parker was the local tax collector and his body, with throat cut, was found outside the town. The Wentworths were not tried until 1850; then they were defended by Franklin Pierce and Benjamin F. Butler and acquitted" (McDade). Benjamin F. Butler (1818-1893) was successful trial lawyer, politician, and Civil War general who served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts and Franklin Pierce (1804-1869), was a successful Massachusetts lawyer and later President of the United States. OCLC locates 13 copies, 4 in law libraries (Harvard, Social Law, South Texas College of Law, University of Missouri). McDade, The Annals of Murder 1075.