Derastus Clapp (May 1, 1792 – June 1, 1881)Massachusetts Archive Vital Records Vol. 330, p. 136 was head of the first city detective bureau in the United States,Lane 60 located in Boston, Massachusetts. He was appointed to the office of constable by the elderly Mayor Josiah Quincy in 1828, and was reappointed every succeeding year to 1874. In 1848, he was promoted to be one of the first detectives in the city.Lane 61 Clapp is most noted for his role in the arrest and prosecution of John White Webster for the murder of George Parkman.
Biography Clapp was born in Claremont, New Hampshire, but soon moved to Boston, after his marriage to Susannah Bowditch of Braintree, Massachusetts on February 15, 1818.Vinton 191 He established an auction house, over which he presided for several years before he was appointed to the office of constable for the City of Boston in 1828.Roberts 39; Boston Daily Advertiser, 28:58, 3 In 1832 and 1836, he was also captain of a ward militia company.Roberts 39 According to an interview in the Boston Traveller on October 26, 1874, Clapp stated that "136 prisoners arrested by him were sent to the State Prison, and several hundred to the House of Correction, and that many thousand dollars worth of stolen property have been recovered by him and restored to its owners."Clapp 81 He gained renown during his tenure as constable as "a successful detecter [sic] of crime"Clapp, 82 whose name would conjure "dread...among those who had reason to fear an arrest." There were reports that he would instill fear in the guilty without even approaching them.Athens 18 November 1880, page 2 In 1850, most of the dread was harbored by school-aged children, as he was also an appointed truant officer.Lane 62 He and his assistant literally carried hundreds of children from all parts of the city back to the public school system.Clapp 82
In 1849, Clapp caught his "big break". A prestigious member of the Boston BrahminsStory, 94-121 was reported missing. Clapp's role in the investigation of the disappearance of Dr. George Parkman propelled him into international fame.News reports of the case that appeared in the United Kingdom papers were usually constructed from articles published in the American papers. See The Morning Chronicle (London, England), Wednesday, December 19, 1849; Issue 25012.; The Bristol Mercury (Bristol, England), Saturday, December 22, 1849; Issue 3118; The Ipswich Journal (Ipswich, England), Saturday, December 22, 1849; Issue 5772; Manchester Times (Manchester, England), Saturday, December 22, 1849; Issue 119; The Northern Star and National Trades' Journal (Leeds, England), Saturday, December 22, 1849; Issue 635; Daily News (London, England), Wednesday, April 3, 1850; Issue 1203; Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser (Dublin, Ireland), Thursday, April 4, 1850 His fame was short-lived, however, and in 1854, Boston established its first uniformed police force, with Constable Clapp as its less prominent member.Lane 61; Davis 447 His sole concern was ticketing illegally parked traffic on State Street and serving orders of notice issued by the City Clerk. In January 1874, a muscle tear in his right leg disabled him, but he continued his duties until October of that year. He retired on October 1, 1874 after 46 years of service.
Derastus Clapp and the disappearance of Dr. Parkman During 1849-50, Derastus Clapp participated in the investigation of the disappearance of Dr. George Parkman and the subsequent arrest and trial of Professor John White Webster for the murder of Parkman.Clapp, in his brief biography in The Clapp Memorial papers, omitted this particular piece of his history. Clapp's experience before this event was centered on less heinous crimes, such as burglary and counterfeiting,Clapp, 82; Acts & Resolves, 66-7, 308-9 and he was initially unprepared for the demands required when dealing with homicide among the Boston elite.Ferdinand, 84-99.
November 23, 1849, was the last day Dr. Parkman was seen.Bemis, 33, 53-4, 262, 269; Stone, 27; Journal, 7; Globe 6; Parkman's family notified Charles M. Kingsley, Parkman's business manager, that the doctor never returned home for lunch. The next day, November 24, he began a search of the city along with a half dozen police officers and a group of concerned citizens. The search continued as the family posted notices offering a reward of $3,000 for information related to Parkman's disappearance. Based on information acquired during the search, on November 26, 1849, Clapp, in addition to Kingsley and other officers, began focusing on the Harvard Medical College and surrounding areas.Bemis 153; Stone 88; Journal 26; Globe 37 During the search of the college, Clapp made his deference to the upper class apparent. According to trial testimony by Mr. Kinsley, Clapp stated to Professor Webster that he was just following orders and no one in the college was a suspect.Bemis 36, 153; Stone 88; Journal 6, 26; Globe 7, 37, Clapp's hesitancy during the search is also on record. While searching Webster's laboratory, he started opening a door to a small room. When Webster told him that he kept his valuable and dangerous articles there, Mr. Clapp put his head as far as the door and turned back again, saying, "I will not go in to be blowed up."Bemis 36; Stone 27; Journal 6
As the investigation continued, and suspicion fell on the college as the scene of the crime, Clapp became more aggressive. The college's janitor, Ephraim Littlefield, had been conducting his own investigation, and found what were later to be identified as Dr. Parkman's remains under Webster's private privy. On November 30, a week after Parkman's disappearance, Clapp was again called to the college, where he was the first to view Littlefield's gruesome discovery. He was dispatched to Webster's house to make the arrest.Bemis 155, Stone 88, Journal 26, Globe 37
Clapp was not going to be made the fool twice.Amory 219 Having experience with the "rogues" of Boston,Lane 57, 65 Clapp called upon his "devious Yankee"Shimer 430 skills to lure the professor out of his house and into jail. He took a coach and two other officers for back-up and rode to Cambridge to the Webster residence.Bemis 155; Stone 89; Journal 26; Globe 37 Leaving the coach and the other officers parked away from the house, Clapp approached Webster on his porch as he was escorting out a visitor. He requested Webster accompany him to the college to perform another search. Webster went back inside to get his hat and coat, but when he saw the coach and other officers, he suddenly remembered his keys.Amory 219; Dempewolff 252; Clapp deterred his efforts to return to the house and told him they had keys enough to get in, "it was of no consequence."
Webster boarded silently as Clapp instructed the driver to go over Craigie's Bridge, where the police had been searching the waters earlier. After a few minutes of desultory conversation, Clapp broached the subject of the search efforts for the doctor and the progress the police had made. Webster confessed he had seen Dr. Parkman the week prior at the college, but the doctor had left the campus, still alive. During their conversation, the coach turned on to Brighton Street, and Webster became very agitated. "The driver is going the wrong way."Bemis 156; Stone 89; Journal 26; Globe 37 Clapp tried to calm him by telling him the driver was "probably green" and would get it straightened out. When they stopped in front of the jail, Webster knew something was wrong. "What does this all mean?"Bemis 155; Stone 89; Journal 26; Globe 38 Clapp escorted him into the jail and charged him with the murder of Dr. George Parkman.
Detective Clapp and the other officers continued their efforts while Webster was incarcerated.Bemis 148; Stone 86; Journal 25; Globe 36 On December 5, 1849, Clapp executed a warrant to search the Webster house, meticulously and overtly following proper procedures during the course of the search.Bemis 148; Stone 86; Journal 26; Globe 36 Evidence acquired during the search provided motive for the court to proceed in the prosecution of Professor John White Webster.Bemis 497; Stone 302; Journal 554; Globe 73
Although Derastus Clapp retired from the police force in 1874, he continued to serve in public office and retained his notoriety.Lane 48 In 1896, fifteen years after his death, a small paragraph in an Ohio paper noted:
They have extremely venerable policeman in Boston, Mr. Derastus Clapp. Who is ninety years old, has been in the department about forty-four years, and is at present in the special service of the board of street commissioners.Steubenville Daily Herald 7
Notes
References Acts and Resolves Passed by the General Court Amory, Cleveland. The Proper Bostonians. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1947 The Athens Messenger 18 November 1880, Athens: Ohio Bemis, George. Report of the Case of John W. Webster. Boston: Little, Brown, 1850 Borowitz, Albert. Janitor's Story66 ABAJ 1540-45 (1980) Borowitz, Albert. A Gallery of Sinister Perspectives: Ten Crimes and a Scandal. Kent State University Press, 1982 Boston Daily Advertiser, 08 Feb 1820, 28:58, Boston, Massachusetts Clapp, Ebenezer. Clapp Memorial: Record of the Clapp Family in America. Boston: Clapp & Sons, 1876 Davis, William Thomas. Memories of an Octogenarian. Plymouth, MA: Bittinger, 1906 Dempewolff, Richard. Famous New England Murders. Brattleboro, VT: Steven Daye Press, 1942. Dilnot, George. The Trial of Professor John White Webster. New York: Scribner, 1928 Ferdinand, Theodore N. "The Criminal Patterns of Boston Since 1849." The American Journal of Sociology 73.1 (1967): 84-99. Holmes, Sr., Oliver Wendell "The Brahmin Caste of New England," Atlantic Monthly in 1860. Lane, Roger. Policing in the City: Boston 1822-1885. Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press, 1967 Roberts, Oliver Ayer. History of History of the Military Company of the Massachusetts, Vol. III Boston: Mudge & Son, 1898 Shimer, William Allison. The American Scholar. Virginia: University of Virginia, 1945 Steubenville Daily Herald Ohio: Steubenville Stone, James W. Report of the Trial of John W. Webster. Boston: Holden, 1850 Story, Ronald. Harvard and the Boston Brahmins: A Study in Institutional and Class Development, 1800-1865. Journal of Social History 8.3 (1975) Sullivan, Robert. The Disappearance of Dr. Parkman. Boston: Little, Brown, 1971. Vinton, John Adams. The Vinton Memorial. Boston: Whipple, 1858 Webster, John W. and The Boston Journal. The Trial of Prof. John W. Webster Indicted for the Murder of Dr. George Parkman. Boston: Redding & Company, 1850 Webster, John W. and The New York Globe. Trial of Professor John W. Webster for the Murder of Doctor George Parkman. New York: Stringer & Townsend, 1850.