Derastus Clapp

Derastus Clapp (May 1, 1792 – June 1, 1881)[1] was head of the first city detective bureau in the United States,[2] located in Boston, Massachusetts.

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.

"[7] He gained renown during his tenure as constable as "a successful detecter [sic] of crime"[8] whose name would conjure "dread...among those who had reason to fear an arrest.

[14] His sole concern was ticketing illegally parked traffic on State Street and serving orders of notice issued by the City Clerk.

[15] Clapp's experience before this event was centered on less heinous crimes, such as burglary and counterfeiting,[16] and he was initially unprepared for the demands required when dealing with homicide among the Boston elite.

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.

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.

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.

[23] Having experience with the "rogues" of Boston,[24] Clapp called upon his "devious Yankee"[25] skills to lure the professor out of his house and into jail.

[26] 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.

[33] 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.