From the testimony of janitor Ephraim Littlefield:

The Party, with Dr. Webster, came about eleven o'clock. The front-door bell rang, and I went out of the shed-door, and saw the front steps all covered with gentlemen. An officer said to me, “We have got Dr. Webster here, and he is very faint.” I opened the door, and Dr. Webster came in, apparently supported by two persons, one on each side. Dr. Webster spoke to me, and said, “They have arrested me, and bare taken me from my family, and did not give me a chance to bid them good-night.”

They wanted to go into the lecture-room, and I unlocked the door, and let them in. Dr. Webster was very much agitated; sweat very badly, and trembled, as I thought: he did not appear to have the use of his legs. I thought, that he was supported by the officers, altogether. When I unlocked the door, all passed in. I went down to the door of his back private room. They asked me for the key of the door. I told them, that “I did not have it; that Dr. Webster always had it” Dr. Webster said, that they had taken him away to such a hurry, that he had no chance to take his keys. Someone said, “Force the door.” <…> When I got into the back room, they wanted to go into the other private room, where the valuables were kept. I told them that I never had had a key of it; and Dr. Webster made the same answer as to the key, that he did in relation to the other door. I was asked, Where the key of the privy was? and I told them, “That they must ask Dr. Webster; as I never saw the inside of it, in my life.” Dr. Webster said, “There the key hangs, upon the nail.” Mr. Starkweather handed the key down to me. Mr. Trenholm and I, then went down the laboratory, to unlock the privy-door; but I found that the key would not fit. Mr. Trenholm said, “Let me have it;” and he tried it, with no better luck. I then went up, and told Dr. Webster, “This is not the key ; it don't fit.” “Let me see it,” said Dr. Webster. I did; and he said, “This is the key of my wardrobe; but the other is up there, some-where.” They hunted round for it, but could not find it; and then I understood Dr. Webster to say, that he did not know where it was. <…>

When he got down into the laboratory, he asked for water. I got a tumbler, and handed some to him. When he took the tumbler in his hand, he trembled, and snapped at it, as a mad dog would; he did not drink any. One of the officers took hold of the tumbler, and held it to his lips. He got some water into his mouth, but it appeared to choke him.

Someone asked, “Where that furnace was, where the bones were?” <…> I went to the furnace, and uncovered it, taking off all the minerals which were upon the cover. I put my hand in, and took out a piece of bone, which appeared to be the socket of some joint. Mr. Pratt was there; somebody else took out some.

From the Parkman-Webster murder case (November 23, 1849)

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Professor Webster is the man, who murdered Dr Parkman, his impatient creditor, in a fit of rage, and then burned him in a laboratory furnace. And it’s really hard to say what he was trying to accomplish, when he left bones and ashes exposed. Perhaps it was simply a habit, since his duties as a professor did not include cleaning the lecture-hall or furnaces—it was the janitor’s Mr Ephraim Littlefield’s responsibility, who later found the traces of the crime. Perhaps, professor Webster simply wanted to wait for the ashes to cool down so that they might be swept out without burning him. Or maybe, he waited for the odour to clear away. Whatever it was, he was confident that two locked doors would be enough to ensure that nobody would expose the crime. He was gravely mistaken—Littlefield who smelt a rat, was industrious enough to dig a hole into the laboratory from an adjacent basement. He then crawls through the excavation only to find professor Webster with dismembered and partly burned mortal remains.

Charles Dickens, travelled all the way to Boston in 1868 only to visit than famous crime scene. When he entered he noticed that it smelled as if the dead body was still in the room. Let’s attribute this phenomenon to overly sensitivity of an artist—you must realise that as many as eighteen years passed since the date of the murder.

Dickens began writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood a year after the visit to the crime scene of the Boston murder. It is one of the first true detective novels, in which the unmasking of a crime is not entrusted to the fate or Providence, but is based on real evidence and pure deduction. Unfortunately (or maybe it is fortunate) the evidence will be so skilfully concealed within the story, that it will take more than a century to reveal them. Some of the details of choirmaster Jasper’s crime will be taken straight from the Parkman-Webster murder case, whom, by the way, Charles Dickens knew personally; they were introduced to one another during his first tour of America in 1842.

Just like it was the case with Edwin Drood, the first several days after the disappearance of Dr Parkman, he was considered to have gone somewhere of his own free will. The police took a hint of a crime thanks to an accidental discovery of Parkman’s golden watch in a river nearby (the murder himself removed the watch from the dead body before burning it). Let’s admit, these facts are sufficient to draw a parallel between Parkman-Webster case and Edwin’s.

It seems that reshuffling has been totally ripped off the Boston case. Professor Webster locked the laboratory with its only key, took the key with him and hanged a locker-room key on its place—this was supposed to eliminate any suspicions regarding its disappearance. Webster locked the lecture-hall too, and hid the key at home. If we analyse the Dicken’s novel, we might also notice some strange manipulations involving keys.

Firstly, a key to Mrs Sapsea’s monument appears in Chapter IV—her husband and the future Mayor of Cloisterham takes the key out of iron safe let into the wall and gives it to Durdles the Stonemason. Who in turn, tries to put the key into the inner pocket of his coat, but with little success, since it was full—he has already got two keys in that pocket. Choirmaster Jasper, who is present during the incident makes a mocking remark about it. ‘You are undermined with pockets,’ he says and asks to pass him all of the keys so he could take a closer look. Jasper examines the keys on a palm of his hand, clinks them one against the other and then returns them to Durdles. The stonemason puts two of them back, but ties the third and the heaviest key to Mrs Sapsea’s monument to his precious dinner-bundle together with his hammer, crackers and all.

What have you understood of what is described above? First of all, the keys are truly massive, you can’t fit three of them in one pocket, while the pocket isn’t small at all, Dickens is not ambiguous when it comes to its size—a large breast-pocket he calls it. Second of all, the keys are alike—all of them are crypt keys and therefore keys to a lock of a similar type and size. Walters even thinks, that keys are almost identical, that’s why Jasper has to learn to identify them by the way they clink. Probably it was not the case, since Jasper notices how heavy the key to Mrs Sapsea’s monument is and therefore it has to be slightly different from the others. The most important thing we learn from the chapter is that the key ends up in Durdles’s dinner-bundle, ‘as if he is an ostrich and likes to feed on iron.’

In the very next chapter, Jasper’s interest towards the bundle is explicit—twice in the same chapter he asks the stonemason to let him hold it. Is Jasper going to take hold of the key then and there in the middle of the street in order to make a key mould or any other reason? That is very unlikely, for he realises that Durdles requires that key in his work, since he is yet to place a memorial plate on the wall which bears the following inscription: ‘ETHELINDA, Reverential Wife of MR. THOMAS SAPSEA, AUCTIONEER, VALUER, ESTATE AGENT, &c., of this city.’ On top of that, there is that impudent acute-sighted Deputy somewhere near, which complicates the matter even further.

No, in Chapter V Jasper only prepares himself, he surely has planned the theft for the more appropriate time when the work in Mrs Sapsea’s monument will have been done and it will be the time to return the key to its owner. That is the reason why Jasper is so eager to follow the stonemason.

The events of Chapter V take place in the later October (not only the day waning, but the year). Mr Sapsea is yet to become a mayor, since municipal elections of 1842 are to be held on St .Michael’s day or the first Sunday after November 4^th. In other words, there is a little less than two months left till the so-called moonlight expedition to the great tower and stonemason Durdles has been carrying the key to Mrs Sapsea’s monument in his dinner-bundle all along.

And finally, a queer reshuffling of keys occurs in Chapter XII, as a matter of fact, so queer that it leaves everybody stunned for more than a century, so that nobody even tries to comprehend. In this chapter, Dickens describes all the manipulations with the keys pretty clearly, but at the same time he carefully masks them, flooding with a bunch of unnecessary details. However, if you really pay attention to wording you might get Jasper’s whole plan on the palm of your hand.

At the beginning of the moonlight expedition Durdles unlocks a small side door which serves as an entrance to the crypt with a key. Let’s call that key ‘The Crypt Key’ and mark him as Key No 1.

‘<…>Mr Jasper and Durdles pause to glance around them, before descending into the crypt by a small side door of which the latter has a key<…>They enter, locking themselves in, descend the rugged steps, and are down in the Crypt.’

Thus the external door to the Crypt is being unlocked and locked again with the key No 1. The key remains with Durdles—the person who unlocks and locks it. He uses the same key to unlock another door leading from the Crypt to the south-western transept of the Cathedral a few minutes later. One of the pictures of Rochester Cathedral shows that it is a simple wooden door.

‘Durdles<…> opens the door at the top of the steps with the key he has already used; and so emerges on the Cathedral level, in a passage at the side of the chancel.’

Jasper and Durdles leave this door open (or at least they leave it unlocked) since they are planning to return the same way they came. Dickens, who is always attentive to detail, especially when it matters, does not say anything about the door being locked—therefore it is safe to assume that the door is left unlocked. Moreover, the opposite would be irrational, since there are no other people in the Cathedral besides Jasper and Durdles, what should they lock it for?

At this very moment the Key No 2 is introduced or let’s call it The Tower key. Jasper produces that key out of his own pocket, since it has been confided to him. But who does confide it to him? Maybe Durdles? It is very questionable, since Durdles, who is rather content with having all the keys with him, has no reason to confide one of them to Jasper. No, it looks like the Tower key has been given to Jasper because of his duties as a choirmaster or perhaps confided for the time being by the master of keys of the Cathedral Mr Tope. One way or the other Jasper has brought the key with him. We are going to justify this conclusion later.

Meanwhile, the fate of the Crypt Key is unknown. Durdles might have put it back into the pocket or maybe he gives it to Jasper along with the dinner-bundle. Later we are going to see that the whereabout of the Key No 1 do not play any role in the story. To keep it simple, let’s imagine that Durdles passes the key and the bundle to Jasper—eventually he will be obliged to return it to Durdles, so that the latter could unlock the Crypt once again.

Thus, Durdles opens the iron gate leading to the staircase the tower with the Key No 2 which Jasper gave him. Adventurers then ascend to the top of the tower where they spend several minutes before they descend. Durdles has had the key until the very moment he locks the iron gate again.

‘The iron gate attained and locked<…>they descend into the crypt again.’

Dickens does not mention that they had to unlock the door during their descend—therefore we may conclude that it remains unlocked. Nor he mentions anything about Durdles returning the Key No 2 to the choirmaster. It seems that Durdles is still holding the tower key in his hand after he has locked the gate.

Having descended into the crypt while holding the Tower Key (Key No 2) in his hand, Durdles falls asleep right on the floor. He senses that something touches him while he is asleep and also that something falls from his hand. Obviously it’s one of the two keys, either Key No 1 or Key No 2. Let’s not forget that the Crypt Key (Key No 1) is either in Durdles’s pocket or in the possession of Jasper. Therefore, it cannot fall out of the stonemason’s hand. The Tower Key (Key No 2) has certainly been in Durdles’s hand and it was never mentioned that Durdles returns it to Jasper. Thus, it’s very likely that the fallen item is none other, but the Tower Key.

Thus, the location of the keys once Durdles falls asleep is as follows:

• The Crypt Key (Key No 1) is in the possession of Jasper (or in Durdles’s pocket, however Jasper could have easily taken it from there, since he touches Durdles);
• The Tower Key (Key No 2) is on the floor next to Durdles.
• Sapsea’s Key (Key No 3) has been in the same place all along, or in Durdles’s dinner-bundle to be more accurate.

So, what does Durdles find on the floor in front of him when he wakes up?!

It’s the Crypt Key!

‘As Durdles recalls that touching something in his dream, he looks down on the pavement, and sees the key of the crypt door lying close to where he himself lay.’

Let’s consider this, Durdles drops The Tower Key, however when he wakes up it is The Crypt Key that is lying in front of him. Then Durdles is ‘again conscious of being watched by his companion’— it is Jasper observing him to find out whether or not Durdles will notice the substitution. The stonemason, however, notices nothing, moreover he thinks that his bundle is narrowly observed and he decides that he must tie it afresh.

This small detail suggests that Jasper unties the bundle for some reason while Durdles is asleep, which, as we know, contains a massive key to Mrs Sapsea’s monument—this is the very key Jasper needs for the crime. Durdles does not notice the weight difference, it means that the bundle does not get any lighter and thus the key is still there, but which key?

Is it the same key, the one which is on the floor but then disappears or is it the tower key? John Jasper, waits for Durdles to fall asleep and as soon as he does, Jasper picks up the tower key unties the stonemason’s bundle and substitute it for the key to Mrs Sapsea’s monument. Jasper takes hold of the Sapsea’s key and hides it in his pocket, while he places the tower key in the dinner-bundle and ties it back. He then puts the crypt key next to Durdles’s unconscious body. This is the key the stonemason discovers when he wakes up!

Thus, what Dickens really did was process some of the details of Parkman-Webster murder case for his own benefit—The Boston criminal substituted a locker-room key for the laboratory key (the laboratory in which he burned the body in the furnace), the murder from Cloisterham similarly substituted the tower key for the Sapsea’s monument key (the crypt in which he burns the body of his victim with quicklime).

The theft and the substitution of the key was only possible during a short span of time—between the completion of work in the crypt and the return of the key to its master. And this is exactly how it happens—in Chapter XII the memorial plate with the inscription is already hanging on the wall of the crypt, while the key is still in the stonemason’s dinner-bundle. Jasper substitutes the keys and the unsuspicious Durdles returns a different although very similar key, the tower key to Mayor Sapsea, instead of the key to his family crypt.

In one of my previous articles I claimed that Jasper needed the key to Mrs Sapsea’s monument for a short period of time only—in order to unlock the crypt and then close it but leave it unlocked. I have to admit, I was completely wrong about this and many other theories. The substitution of the key on the floor suggests that Jasper performs manipulations not only with Mrs Sapsea’s key, but with the tower key as well—which could only mean the substitution of key in the dinner-bundle. Leaving the door of the crypt unlocked for as long as one week, he then commits a murder in that very crypt while being unable to lock it again—this carelessness is very unlike wise and proactive Jasper. In my opinion, the fact the Jasper takes possession of the key, is proof enough that he accomplishes what he was intended to accomplish—he murders Edwin. In any other case scenario his possession of the key would not make any sense within the plot.

The whereabouts of the original key to the laboratory stolen by Webster has remained unknown till the very end; the door was opened with the hatchet, after which the mortal remains were found in the furnace. I want to believe that in the case of Jasper the original key to Mrs Sapsea’s monument will not be found either—whether it is found or not it won’t make any difference to the investigation. The most conclusive evidence which can send Jasper to the gallows will be the identification of the key returned to Mr Sapsea by Durdles as the tower key, which Mr Tope so kindly entrusted to Jasper.

The ring which belongs to Rosa’s Mother, the one that was able to withstand the all-devouring qualities of quicklime may only identify Edwin’s dead body. Parkman’s remains on the other hand were identified from his teeth, but for a dime novel this method of identification would not fit in, it is overly… well… er… realistic.