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The Detective Who Discovered HE Was the Murderer: Historic Sleepwalking Cases

Khalid Elhassan February 9, 2025 15 min

Sleepwalking - Robert Ledru commits murder in his sleep — Robert Ledru commits murder in his sleep. Pinterest

6. Attacking the Victim’s Character to Acquit Her Killer

Sleepwalking - Maria Bickford — Maria Bickford. The Lawbook Exchange

Rufus Choate argued that Maria Bickford could have committed suicide after she ensnared the hitherto innocent Tirrell with her charms, and seduced him away from his wife and children. As Choate pointed out, it was common for prostitutes to kill themselves in disgust and despair over their lifestyle and profession. An implied but unstated subtext to the argument pitched by Tirrell’s lawyer was that “fallen women” such as Maria Bickford might be better off dead, anyhow. That resonated with the jurors’ cultural mores. At a time of disquiet over the recent proliferation of “fallen women” handing their cards to passersby on city streets, it was easy to convince them that the victim was as morally culpable as her murderer. After Choate delivered a six-hour closing argument, the jury retired to deliberate.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.