← Back to the front page

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

10. America’s Juiciest Nineteenth Century Society Scandal

Sleepwalking - Albert Tirrell's murder of Maria Bickford was a nineteenth century sensation — Albert Tirrell’s murder of Maria Bickford was a nineteenth century sensation. Flickr

The 1840s’ juiciest American upper class scandal revolved around a New England blueblood rich kid, a prostitute, and murder. In his early twenties Albert Jackson Tirrell, scion of a wealthy Weymouth, Massachusetts, family, shocked society when he left his wife and two children to be with Maria Bickford, a married prostitute living in a Boston brothel. Tirrell fell in love with Mrs. Bickford, who seemed to return the affection. However, that did not stop her from continuing her profession. That state of affairs did not sit well with Tirrell, and was a constant bone of contention throughout the relationship. The result was an even bigger scandal that left the earlier one in the dust. On the night of October 27^th, 1845, loud noises were heard from Bickford’s brothel room. The owner awoke to the smell of smoke and discovered that somebody had set three fires in his establishment.

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.