Reason First: Was Albert Tirrell a Sleepwalker or Killer or Both?

Albert Tirrell saw murder and arsonist charges based on the fact that he had no awareness of committing these crimes as he engaged in sleepwalking. The crime involving a prostitute consisted of the young woman with her head nearly detached from her body, the cut to her throat had been so deep.

Tirrell maintained his innocence and eventually saw acquittal of murder and arson, the first successful rulings of sleepwalking involved in such crimes in America. The slit throat and the fires in the brothel all pointed to Tirrell in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. He remained on the lam for nearly two months where authorities apprehended him in New Orleans, Louisiana. Law enforcement returned him to Boston to try him in court.

The jurists, who had little to no understanding of somnambulism delivered a not guilty verdict in the end. They knew little of the ramifications of the decision. While Tirrell had been acquitted of these charges, he was not the exemplar of good standings and morality. He discarded his wife and children to be with the lady of the night, Maria Ann Bickford. As he tossed all virtue to the wind, Tirrell reverted to a slimy creature of no standing within the world as a man. Sleepwalking or not, he gave up his highest values to slum in a brothel. His wife and children should have been his top values. Instead of staying with them or at least making an official divorce from them, Tirrell chose the coward’s route. He could’ve been “insane while sleeping” and slashed Bickford’s throat or not, what still remains is the fact that Tirrell was a sacrificial, selfless mess. He created havoc in his own mind. This spilled into the outside world. Tirrell dispensed of all ties with his family so readily because he was a confused male. He had wished to live in a world where he could be irrational. He left his family but he gave no thought to what this might mean. His moral downfall, although he would live virtually in the shadows for the remainder of his days, meant that he could never look anyone in the eye. He had to go around town knowing that he committed in his sleep a viciuous murder. Despite his acquittals, he forever stayed in immorality.

His mind may have been in a sedate state while he allegedly killed Bickford and set the fires, this does not mean that he should be viewed as some champion of virtues. Though brothels should be legal and they provide a service, Tirrell was no paragon of morality for visiting one by ditching his family.

This groundbreaking case would set the tenor for similar circumstances in the next few decades. As this took place in 1845, the innovative techniques and investigative procedures for determining crimes related to sleepwalking have greatly improved. Tirrell would have greater difficulty with all of the technology and forensics understanding of modern times. Alas, this was the 19th century and scant research had gone into somnambulism.

Why the jury arrived at an acquittal is because of this lack of knowledge. Today, jurors might have looked at the fact that Tirrell indeed remained cognizant and aware of what he was doing.

As an innocent man in physical terms, his soul still remained corroded. Tirrell cast away all ethics just to be with Bickford. Whether he killed while sleepwalking, under full consciousness of what he was doing, or never did the misdeed in the first place, he was still a lousy human being. He was pathetic. To give up his family for a prostitute demonstrates the shabby mindframe that he possessed.

Tirrell certainly became fortunate with his lawyer Rufus Choate concocting the sleepwalking angle. This revolutionary tactic is still used in courtrooms who see the “sleepwalking defense.”

Tirrell will always be the man who may have gotten away with murder. That’s something for which everyone should wake up and realize.