A Grisly Murder
Lawrence and his wife found 21-year old Bickford lying on the floor. Her throat has been savagely cut; her windpipe and jugular vein were severed. Overall, the wound on her neck was three inches deep and six inches long. The murder weapon, a bloodstained razor, was found at the foot or her bed. The killer had apparently tried to set fire to the bed, and Bickford’s hair was singed while her skin was charred. There was also a bloodstained vest and a cane belonging to a man in the room.
The Lawrences had seen Tirrell enter Bickford’s room, but he was nowhere to be found. There was even a letter in the room which was from J. L. T. to M. A. B. It didn’t take Colombo to figure out that Tirrell was a person of interest in the case and his sudden disappearance only made it more likely that he was guilty. Tirrell was indeed on the run and spoke to the owner of a livery stable at around 5:30 am looking for a horse. He told the stable owner that he needed to go to his father-in-law as he was in a bit of difficulty.
Tirrell went to Weymouth and then to Canada. Once in Montreal, he boarded a boat bound for Liverpool, England, but bad weather forced it to turn back. He fled to New York City and boarded a boat to New Orleans. At this point, he was a wanted man so the authorities in Louisiana were waiting for him and Tirrell was arrested on December 5, 1845.
The Winds of Change
When Tirrell was on the run, public opinion was very much against the fugitive. The brutality of the murder meant everyone in Boston wanted the killer to be caught and brought to justice. Then a very strange thing happened; in the nearly four months between his arrest and the beginning of the trial, the public became sympathetic towards Tirrell. They believed he had been seduced by a disreputable woman. Clearly, Bickford’s reputation preceded her.
Even with the weight of public opinion behind him, the deck was stacked against Tirrell when the trial began on March 24, 1846. The circumstantial evidence against him was extremely strong. A number of witnesses could testify to the couple’s affair, and Tirrell could be placed at the murder scene on the night of the murder. However, there were no eyewitnesses to the crime.
Another major plus for Tirrell was the fact that he had renowned attorney, orator, and former United States Senator, Rufus Choate, as his defense counsel. The prosecution began by providing testimony from the Lawrences and other boarding house residents who claimed Tirrell spent the night with Bickford and left her room before the break of dawn. Choate countered by casting doubt on the testimony by painting the prosecution witnesses as unreliable. The defense also brought in character witnesses who all swore that Tirrell was a good and honorable man. Even so, Choate knew the case was in the balance. This was when he mounted his brilliant sleepwalking defense.