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