Welcome to the WBZ Book Club. This is Jordan Rich here to talk about
a book called Chopped, a novel by Dale Pollock, and no, it's
not a cookbook. The author transports us to Boston in a different time,
the mid eighteen hundreds, and the scene of what many called at the time
the crime of the century, the disappearance, murder, and mutilation of one
of Boston's richest residents, doctor George Parkman, whose human remains were discovered in
a privy vault under the laboratory of a Harvard professor, John Webster. Turns
out, Webster owed Parkman money, as many did during that time, and
after a short investigation, is accused of murder. Webster was indeed convicted and
executed for the murder. But in the book Chopped a Novel, Dale Pollack
puts a slightly different spin on the case, one involving the earliest incarnation of
forensic investigation and the introduction of an original method for capturing the trial's transcripts called
phonography, colorful characters, and a magnificent look at what Boston was like in
eighteen fifty Chopped a novel by Dale M. Pollock. It's a riveting true
crime story The Book Club WBZ, Boston's news radio