23. The Biggest Scandal of the Tirrell Case Was That a Rich Killer Got Away With Murder
In the years after the Albert Tirrell trial, other defendants were acquitted of crimes based on the sleepwalking defense pioneered – at least in the United States – by defense lawyer Rufus Choate. Ironically, however, it now seems that America’s first successful sleepwalking defense was probably a sham. While people in a somnambulistic state are capable of complex actions, Tirrell’s failed attempts at setting fire to the brothel after the murder demonstrate that he tried to destroy evidence of his crime and cover his tracks.
Such actions indicate that he was well aware of his actions and their consequences: sleepwalkers do not try to destroy evidence of their crimes while sleepwalking. Tirrell was probably guilty of the murder of Maria Bickford, and almost certainly guilty of the attempted arson of the brothel and the consequent attempted murder of its occupants, or at least the reckless endangerment of their lives. Today, it is highly unlikely that a defendant in similar circumstances would get away with a sleepwalking defense.