Buried Bones - a historical true crime podcast with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul HolesOn today's episode, Kate and Paul travel to 1845 Boston where a hysterical man emerges from a burning house leaving behind a single dead body. What should be a simple case becomes a wildly unique one thanks to a strategy by the defense.
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I'm Kate Winkler Dawson. I'm a journalist who's spent the last twenty five years writing about true crime.
And I'm Paul Hols, a retired cold case investigator who's worked some of America's most complicated cases and solve them.
Each week, I present Paul with one of history's most compelling.
True crimes, and I weigh in using modern forensic techniques to bring new insights to old mysteries.
Together, using our individual expertise, we're examining historical true crime cases through a twenty first century lens.
Some are solved and some are cold, very cold.
This is buried Bones.
Hey Paul, Hey Kate, how are you.
I'm doing well? How about you?
I am hanging in there today.
Hanging in there is all I can ask for, right, that's right. I want to just tell you briefly what I'm doing tonight. I think it's a big mistake. I know. So one of my girls plays volleyball. She's very competitive, and there is a parent kid volleyball game tonight. I mean, I know you think it's hilarious. I do not. I think I'm going to get a volleyball to the face. But she really wants me to do it, and I got out of it last year, and this is her last year at this school, so.
You're stuck.
It's going to be awful. Have you had to do anything like that with sports and your kids? Where did you look out and they were all in band?
No? You know, with my older kids, I think there was one time we did sort of an adult child indoor soccer. You know, that was a lot of fun. But what ends up happening is is you know, of course the grownups end up getting super competitive with each other. It's you know, it's really not a fun experience for the kids.
I wonder how this is going to go. If it's the loudest parents at our game, then we might be in trouble because it's me and another mom who I adore. But I'm not sure either of us are going to be very good at this. But Quinn is super excited. She thinks she's gonna like spike on me and stuff it and all kinds of horrible things, which I said, I'm gonna remind you of later in therapy talk about stuff like this.
Oh, you're gonna have to put her in her place.
I know we'll see that will not happen, I'm sure. Although I've always been pretty athletic. I played indoor soccer. I was a goalkeeper for a long time as an adult, and I was pretty good. But it was a little bit if you've played indoor soccer and it sounds like you've had to participate in that, it was a little bit like being in a pinball machine a soccer ball coming at me in every direction. I separated my shoulder, I broke an ankle, I almost broke my nose several times. And when I started writing books, I just said, I think I got to take a break from this. This is not a good look for my publicity tours having all kinds of broken bones and everything. So I finally just stopped.
And that was indoor soccer and you're breaking everything like that.
Yes, I was in my forties, Paul.
Oh, okay, yeah, because when I played high school football for a couple of years, and that's exactly what happened to me, is I was just breaking bones left and right. You know my body wasn't built for football.
Well we're going to find out if my body is built for volleyball. I suspect not. But it's the effort. Sometimes I know I'm going to fail, but it's so important to my kid. She thinks it's going to be so much fun. So we'll see what happens. I don't know. This could be bad.
Oh it's fun. You're gonna have fun.
Good, I hope so well. I want to switch gears here because we are talking about a really interesting case. We're heading backwards and time for where we were last time. We're in eighteen forty five, So no photos, sorry, Paul, but some really fun drawings that's going to be helpful at all. We're in Boston, which is one of my favorite cities. I went to Boston University undergrad and absolutely loved it. And this is a historic case. I'm not going to tell you why. But the murder is the least interesting part of this case. But it's a historically important case, and I'm hoping to draw on either your experience or research or just sort of overhearing people talk about similar cases. It's fascinating for me though.
Okay, and you know you've asked me before if I had ever been to Boston, and I'd always said no.
Oh. Now, book Tour.
The paperback was released, you know a few months ago, and I did a book tour and I didn't go into Boston proper, but I was at the Boston airport. Okay, yeah, then end up. I mean, the worst travel day I've ever had in my entire life to get from Denver out to Boston. But I had the first event up in Woodstock, Vermont, where my collaborator on my book, Robin lived, and so you know, this was in October and the leaves were changing colors and it was just beautiful, you know. So at least I can now say I've been in the northeast part of the country.
Okay, very good, We're getting somewhere that sounds great. I love that area. And this is actually where the center of this story is in a wonderful place. It's been Beacon Hill in Boston, and it's as fascinating in eighteen forty five as it is now. So let's go ahead and set the scene. I want to give people a warning in this episode we do talk about suicide. So this takes place at a house in as I said, Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood, which to ad is known for these wonderful brick row houses and gas lamps and kind of a throwback to the eighteen hundreds. It is an alley called Cedar Lane where we are, and it's behind Charles Street, which is the main thoroughfare in Beacon Hill at the time. So it is owned by a couple named Joel and Berthia Lawrence, and they have a house. And this house has a little bit of a reputation. They charge very high rent to unmarried couples who can stay there together. In eighteen forty five, that is a massive no no. They also rented out to sex workers, which I feel like might be a little bit less of a no no than the unmarried couples. I think it's accepted a little bit more in the eighteen hundreds. So this is a couple who is making a lot of money in this house from renting out rooms to people who are not supposed to be displaying whatever they're doing in public. So already, you know this seems like this could be a complicated situation for whomever our victim is. So you were talking about the beautiful fall leaves and kind of that quintessential autumn atmosphere with the beautiful orange and yellow leaves. So this is that time. It is early morning October twenty seventh, eighteen forty five, and the woman of the house who's remind you his name is Bertheia Lawrence is woken up at four thirty or five in the morning by the sound of a woman screaming, and then she hears a big thud. This wakes up several of the borders at the house also and they report hearing. So we've got ear witnesses here. They report hearing heavy footfalls going down the stairs. Sounds like as if the person has skipped the first couple of steps or perhaps has fallen down a few of them and is shaking the banister on the way down the stairs. This is not someone who's suttly slipping out of this house. Ear witnesses can they be reliable? We have talked about ear witnesses before in their unreliability, but they can be helpful.
I'm assuming it's information, especially if you have multiple witnesses that hear the same thing. There's consistency in their statements that just lends credibility to the details that they're providing. So you know, here, the best detail is going to be the time in which they're hearing this person going down the stairs. Now, heavy footfalls, footfalls. I've never really heard that term before.
I love that phrase. I've used it a lot in the eighteen hundreds.
You know, that's such a subjective aspect, it's hard for me to put any weight on.
OK.
Does that indicate you're dealing with a larger person? Does that indicate it's a man? I don't think I could extrapolate with a lot of confidence from that type of subjective audio witness But the time, the timing, a woman's screaming sounds like somebody is running out. Now, can we correlate the woman's scream and the person running out as being part of the same event. You know, That's where I'm sure you're going to tell me what happens next.
Well, the ear witnesses say that the man goes out the front door. They hear that. They say he makes some kind of a noise. They don't know if it's a yell, but it seems like he's trying to alert people on the street of something happening. They say he sounds anxious, but nobody could really make out what he's saying or doing. He's anxious, we presume, because not only is there a scream happening, if he's connected to it in a thud. But the hallway in the house is now full of smoke, and it's coming from the small room at the back of the house on the second floor. And there's a woman who's rented that house in her early twenties named Maria Bickford. She's been there eight days. Multiple people from the house and from out on the street go into this room. There's smoke everywhere. They go into the room and they find that the bed and the closet have been set on fire, and there is a bed in a small adjoining room that has also been set on fire. But there's so much smoke that they have no idea if Maria is in there or not. So I've talked about fire in Seasons of tenfold More Wicked. I talked to a forensic chemist who said, it's it doesn't work the way people think it works. You know, you don't pour gasoline down and it's a perfect way to cover up a murder. It's unpredictable, and there are a lot of things the backdraft or the temperature, or how much oxygen is in the room and what the accelerant is, and fire is not the perfect way to cover up a murder? What do you think about that? So you've got these different parts of this back area that have been set on fire.
Well, right now, you've got multiple points of origin. So instead of a fire happening as a result of let's say, electrical short and this is in the eighteen this is eighteen forty five, so I'm sure we're not dealing with electrical shorts. You know, probably dealing with candles right for lights and stuff, But multiple points of origin strongly suggests that you're dealing with arson. Now when you start talking about if you have a crime that's occurred and the use of fire to cover it up, yes, there's variables. You know, you can't predict how that fire is going to proceed unless you are very very knowledgeable, you know. And I've gone out to arson cases, arsen cases in which bodies were burned. That's where working with the state fire marshals or arson investigators from the county level. From my jurisdiction, these are individuals that have a high skill set of being able to investigate the fire. And those are the types of individuals that would be able to go into an environment and predict how a fire would like proceed once it started. But if the fire fully engulfs the crime scene, it is disastrous for the investigation because fire is just I mean, it just ruins evidence. It is a good way to cover up a crime, and I'm not wanting anybody out there listening to commit a crime and use fire to cover it up. But if the fire proceeds, you know, and fully takes over the crime scene, yes, that is a good way to get rid of evidence.
And then you've got firefires coming in there, spring water to try to put it out, which does it even more Right.
Absolutely, it's a mess. There still can be evidence, but that is a tough, tough crime scene to process and get anything that's useful.
Well, they go ahead and quickly smother the fire, thank goodness, because it's in two different spots, and the homeowner, Joel, thinks that Maria has escaped. There's so much smoke they can't see anything. They open up a window or two and the smoke clears out and then they see her body. So this is Maria Bickford. She is found lying on the floor on her back and I've got the injuries here and they're pretty bad. She's wearing a nightgown that's been badly burned. Her hair has been singed, and her skin has also been burned. Her head is turned to the right, one of her ears is ripped, and her ear ring is missing, and her throat has been slashed. And I have more details on those injuries. But at first blush, this sounds awful, and then she's set on fire.
So at this point, Marie's on her back right now, she's fully clothed.
Yep, she's wearing a nightgown.
She's wearing a nightgown. Throat is cut, ear has been slashed, like the offender is almost trying to take her ear off, and the earring is missing from the ear that is slashed, as if the offender took a souvenir.
Or slashed it to a point where it flung off somewhere either one, I guess, yeah, And.
There's no one for me. If that earring was recovered at the crime scene.
I don't believe.
So now, Okay, So as of right now, obviously homicide and if she set on fire, then it's the offender is trying to cover up what happened. But I really can't discern much more with that information. It's definitively a homicide. I am keying in on the missing earring to a point. You know, is that a souvenir? Was there a sexual component to this crime? Was there a financial component to this crime? Is this a very expensive item of jewelry and the offender took advantage of being alone with Maria and decided I'm going to steal that and killed her in the process. Don't know at this point.
And when we talk about suspects, this is what makes it difficult. You have random couples coming in and out who are unmarried, who want privacy, and then of course you've got sex work happening where you have people coming in and out. So this is not like a private house with a family like we've talked about before. You have a lot of access coming in and out of people who are essentially anonymous through this whole thing. We don't even know if this is a man. But I can also tell you details about what I say is the viciousness of this crime was awful. But I don't think it's going to dictate whether it's a man or a woman.
No. In terms of women are very very capable of committing extreme acts of violence. Yep. You don't see women committing this type of crime frequently, but it does happen, and you have to consider that this location most certainly is going to be drawing in people from all walks of life, and it's somewhat of a beacon for crime. Anytime you've got a location in which there's sex work, you have the possibility that you have a criminal element that is going to be going there in part to participate as customers, but also recognizing that honey is passing hands there. Customers are going in with cash in hand. The sex workers are gathering up this cash. Whoever's overseeing the sex workers is going to have cash, so it's going to draw the criminal element who has financial interest in stealing that, either through theft or through robbery.
Well, this becomes more interesting because this seems angry to me. Listen to the wound. Maria's neck wound is six inches long, three inches deep. The jugular and the windpipe are completely severed. The cut goes all the way to her spine, and she is nearly decapitated, and they find an open razor with blood on it in between her body and the bed, clearly not discarded and not covered up. What do you think about that, good lord?
Almost decapitated, which is very typical for a throat slash as a result of homicide. A reasonably sharp knight will go through the soft tissues of the front of the neck, and almost always that knife during homicidal violence goes through the windpipe, goes all the way down to the vertebrae in the back of the neck. I've actually had a suicide in which the man cut his own throat, and relatively speaking, it's superficial. I was looking down this man's windpipe, his trachea, but it did not go all the way back to his vertebra So that's where people commonly read this nearly decapitated. It must be just this extreme act of violence. And it's like, no, this is what when somebody gets their throat to cut as a result of homicide. This is pretty typical.
Wow. I had no idea that it was that easy. Wow. Yeah, well okay, So once the smoke clears, literally they are finding more things. There are articles of men's clothing all around the room. This is a includes a vest a neckcloth, a pair of drawers. This is very nineteenth century stuff. A pair of drawers with a sock stuck in one of the legs, and the sock and the drawers have lots of bloodstains on him. The drawers are mens long underwear. If you didn't know that, they're kind of like a white capris that are worn underpants. So we do know who owns all of this clothing, and his name is Albert J. Terrell. Seems like an automatic suspect to this guy who has all of his clothing. Things that I want you to pay attention to that I know you will, but just to keep in mind because I think it's important later on. It doesn't appear like whoever did this? If it's Albert, he left behind the blade and his clothes are everywhere, and he's identifiable by the owners of this house. If this is a crime that he's trying to cover up, he's doing a lousy job of it.
Yeah, Well, what is his relationship with Maria? Was he staying with Maria?
So he was When people leave stuff behind like that, that just seems silly like this clothing would be connected to him quickly? Is it some sort of clever ruse like he knows he can just say I was staying with her. But there's no proof that I was there, Or is this someone who is so not savvy that they panic and take off, or could it be either of those or option see, I.
Think there's all option C because you have a fire that's been set, and so the offender is thinking that if I'm leaving my clothes behind, well they're going to be burned up in the fire. But most of the time, when homicides are committed, they're committed by a novice. You know. That's why we're able to catch a lot of these offenders because they have never committed a homicide before, and in the state of panic afterwards, now they're not thinking straight, and in eighteen forty five, they're not worried about DNA evidence or anything else. I think in this situation, if Albert is responsible for Maria's homicie side and he's now got his clothes that are bloody, and of course the blood patterns would be absolutely critical. Are those blood patterns consistent with the violence that was done to Maria? Are they more consistent with Albert finding Maria and maybe going up and trying to render aid or check on her, and that's why there's blood on his clothing. But the fact that he's taking the clothes off and doesn't alert anybody that there's a problem with Maria, would suggest to that, no, he's got some involvement with Maria's homicide. But I do think that if Albert is the one that killed Maria and now he's changing clothes because he recognizes he can't be walking around and with bloody clothes on, and then he sets the fire, his expectation is is that the evidence that he's leaving behind is going to be burned up, and that being a resident within that same room, staying with Maria, he naturally is going to come under suspicion the direct evidence that links him to the homicide is going to be gone in his mind because of the fire.
Let me describe the scene once the smoke is gone. So you've got this clothing everywhere that can be directly linked to Albert. And in fact, we know that Albert has been staying with Maria for the last few nights, including the night that it sounds like this all happened. And I'll tell you more about their relationship in a minute. But back to the crime scene. Investigators say the walls were spattered with blood everywhere, which I am assuming you're going to say, is not surprising at all, considering that her neck was cut so badly that she was nearly decapitated. Would you expect, what is it spray off everywhere? Based on that?
Right now, you've indicated that she only has her throat to cut. Does she have other wounds like defensive injuries on her hands or on her arms?
Now, not that they see, except for of course she's burned. Different parts of her body are burned. But it looks like this was just a one thing, one slash, and that was it.
So when somebody's and their heart is pumping, and now you cut their throat to the point to where the carotid arteries are exposed, you can get this what's called an arterial spurt. You know, so the heart pumps, the arteries are now exposed, they're open, and the blood will gush out and then as the heart fades. You don't have that. It's usually only a few the description that there's blood all over the walls. It's like, well, no, that's not what you would see. Typically with just a single injury like the throat being cut, there may be an arterial spurt that is seen, but it's not going to be going all over the room, like the way that it sounds like this description is portraying. Sometimes these descriptions are exaggerated because the person that is seeing it is relatively naive to what they're looking at. It may be a large arterial spurt in one location, but they interpret it as, oh, my god, there's blood all over the room. Well, no, not just from a single cut to the throat. There's more going on, and maybe they're just not recognizing, Oh, she in warding off this razor. You know, she had fingers cut, or she had her forearms cut, and now as she's flailing, there's cast off droplets that are ending up being deposited in a variety of locations within the room.
Well, this sounds odd, the coroner says, because of the blood spatter, he believes that her body was dragged from the bed where they think that she was set on fire to the floor. But there's a chair near the head of the bed that contains a pool of blood. So what would happen So right by the head of the bed where presumably she's in a nightgown, she's in And then he says he thinks that there's this pool of blood on the chair and then she's dragged and this is how we get a lot of blood on walls. Does that make sense to.
You, Oh, there's some conflicting information here. So if her throat is cut on the bed, there would most certainly be blood on the bed. There may even be this arterial spurt that I'm talking about. If she's drug off the bed onto the floor, then most certainly that would be very apparent with the blood staining. The pool on the chair would indicate that she had been bleeding if it's her blood, and that's the important thing. Right now, there's the assumption that all the blood is hers, But we could have a second bleeder that is no longer present inside, possibly the offender got cut. When you have pools of blood, that indicates that you've got a bleeding injury in which the blood is able to accumulate in that position, so that bleeding injury is stationary at that location for a period of time. Or you can have blood drain from one location and flow to a second location to create a secondary blood pool. But right now I'm having a hard time visualizing what this coroner is saying in terms of this. He's saying she was killed on the bed and then drug down onto the floor. How does the blood get on the chair? Was that just a secondary pool or did she end up resting on this chair for a period of time before her final position where she set on fire. I just don't know right now.
Right They find a letter in the room that's addressed to Albert Terrell, the man who is last seen with Maria. The witnesses say that he had spent that night with her, as I said, and had been with her the last few previous nights. This is a letter from a woman named Mary Anne Cassimer, and she says so. The letter is described as having poor spelling, but written in a neat female hand. Anyway, I don't know what that means. Some of the best handwriting I've ever seen has been my men. And this letter says, dear friend, excuse the liberty I take in writing you, but I can't think the cause of you not calling to see me. I suppose you have your reasons. I wish you to call today, for I want to see you very much. If I have offended you in any way, I am very sorry, and I hope you will forgive me. Do call and explain to me, the cause of your staying away so very long. That's very nineteenth century sort of courting talk, like she's obviously gotten her feelings hurt. But Albert is comfortable enough with Maria to bring personal letters into this room and have his clothing all over the place. So to me, it actually speaks a little bit more to the intimacy of Maria and Albert because I figured, well, I mean, he's spending all his time with Maria and not paying attention to mary Anne. But do you read something different in there?
Well, I guess I'm confused. So this letter is from mary Anne to Albert.
Yes, and he brought it with him, Okay, and they find the letter in Maria's room.
Yeah, So he has a prior relay relationship with a woman, mary Anne, and that woman obviously still has an emotional connection to Albert, and that's why she is writing. And this is a letter that is found in the room that now Albert is sharing with Maria. But at this point we don't know if he's sharing that letter with Maria. It's just something that's present within the room. I don't know if I could draw any conclusions as to what that means about Albert and Maria's relationship. I think he just obviously has this letter with him, but he's staying with Maria for several days, and is she a sex worker?
It says that she's been working in a brothel. Now it doesn't say sex worker. It could have been something else, okay, But nobody is indicating that Maria has been paid for anything. And this could be that situation where it's Albert and Maria who are one of those couples who is unmarried and wants to spend time together. But we need to know a little bit more about Albert too to find out if he needed to cover up something.
Well, the fact that he's not there and the fact that his clothes are there that have blood on them, he obviously is a suspect until determined that he is not involved in Maria's homicide.
Yep. They searched the room and they find a pair of keys in her bedroom that belonged to a boarding house where he had a room, and they open up a trunk and there's more of his clothing. So I mean, this seems to be going in that direction that Albert is connected to Maria. The people at the boarding house where Maria was staying. Said that Albert and Maria were fighting and making up over and over again. It sounds like over the course of the days leading up to her death and even the actual day, they were fighting and making up. And so you know, we know that at this point this is a volatile relationship. And the owners of the boarding house say that he had been at the house with Maria the day before she died from four until four thirty pm on that afternoon, and then went out and came back at eight o'clock. So so far, it just seems like this is a slam dunk, and it seems like if the DA wants to prosecute Albert, this is going to be not a problem unless you think I'm wrong. And there's not enough direct evidence let's say, no fingerprints because they hadn't perfected that technique yet, and a lot of other things that we're missing. Is this a circumstantial case.
Well, there's there's circumstances that are that are pointing at Albert. But when Albert leaves at four thirty, is Maria Seene after that time still alive? Yes, okay, she is. And then Albert comes.
Back at eight o'clock.
Okay, and then now we have these ear witnesses that hear a woman scream, and Maria would not be able to scream with her throat to cut the way it was, so that scream occurred before the throat was cut, if that was Maria's scream, And then we hear the heavy footfalls down the stairs. At this point, do we know that those footfalls are from Albert leaving?
We don't know yet, but more things will be revealed in a little bit. So we have between eight pm if he's the last person to see her alive, and this whole thing starts at around four point thirty the next morning, That's when they hear the screaming. So he returns home at eight pm, and then something happens between eight pm. Either he leaves and someone else does this, she does it to herself, which I doubt, or he does this sometime between eight pm and four ish in the morning the next morning.
Or you have another person in there that is in there with Albert. Yep, right now, we can't say it's just a single offender.
Okay, let's talk a little bit more about Albert and Maria, because boy do they have a backstory. Here comes some victimology, which I predict you will say is huge. Is that right? Huge?
I love it the way he said, Am I becoming too predictable?
No? No, no, no, I like to hear it. I think it's important. You're right, victimology is huge. So let's talk about Maria. She was born Maria Dunn, and she eventually marries a shoemaker named James Bickford. That's how she becomes Mary Bickford. She was sixteen years old around eighteen forty, not surprising time to be married. The couple settles in Bangor, Maine, and they have a child who dies in infancy. After that happens, Maria goes to Boston with some friends and she falls in love with the city, as many people have. She goes back to Maine and she tells James, let's go to Boston. He says, nope, I don't really want to do that, so she goes by herself. She says, you know, go kick rocks. I'm here. I want to go to the big city. And eventually James wants his wife back, so he follows her to Boston and that's when he finds out that she's been working in a brothel. And he said as nevermind, and he goes back to Bangor, Maine without her. I don't know when it says working in a brothel. I don't know if it is something other than sex work, or it could be sex work, it doesn't really matter. That's the situation. He found her, and this is how she ends up in Boston by herself, okay.
And then at some point she befriends Albert.
Yes, she meets Albert, who is get ready very wealthy, very married, and a father of two.
Okay.
I don't know if this is a justification if he did murder her or what happened. But I didn't expect any of that when I read about Albert. I just thought he was just some guy, I don't know, just average Joe. And it doesn't sound like he's average Joe.
No. And is mary Anne his wife?
It does not seem so. No, mari Anne is not his wife, okay. And Albert is very complicated, so let me talk about him. His family lives in Weymouth, Massachuset, sits and his father is a very prominent politician. He and Maria have an affair, So it does not seem like this is a sex worker situation, at least between the two of them. They are one of those couples pretending to be husband and wife. They go by fake names. People who know the couples say they are, as we already know, very volatile together. They fight a lot. One this is actually a sad quote to me. One border at the house, at the Lawrence House where Maria was once said that Maria told her that she didn't mind fighting with Albert because they had such a good time making up. So it was that kind of a relationship.
Obviously very contentious, hot and cold. It sounds like Albert has some anger control issues in all likelihood, maybe Maria does.
So. Interesting in the summer of eighteen forty five, which is a month before Maria died, Albert is arrested and he's charged with adultery. And remember we talked about the heartbreak lawsuits where women could sue men who take their virginity and obviously downgrade the women's status in that society.
Yeah, yeah, well, you know, obviously that's that's just part of the times, right. Yeah. You still see human nature kind of come out, and even though the penalty is so severe, people are willing to pursue you know these if you want to call it a crime of passion, you know, it's so weird to think of it that way, but you know they're willing to risk, you know, being charged criminally in order to be able to get into these relationships.
He's arrested because he and Maria are at a different boarding house. He is taking a big risk, the son of a politician, lots of money to kids, a wife. He is with Maria sneaking around and a relative of his saw them, turned them in, and his wife appeared in court and asked for leniency. No word on what his sentence was going to be because the trial was postponed for six months. And then all this stuff happens with Maria and everything changes. So there's a lot going on in this man's life, a lot. You know, he's got a wife who's willing to go bat but probably not for this, and just he's a mess. Albert is a mess when he could have had it sounds like a pretty easy going life and he has messed it up.
Well, and now we get into Okay, so what's the motive for Maria being killed? And who would want Maria dead? You know, first, you know, I from the crime of adultery. I don't know if Maria would have to testify, and is this an elimination of a witness, a critical witness to that. But you also have a wife that is finding out about Maria. You also have what appears to be another girlfriend, Mary Anne, who's yearning to get back together. It sounds like with Albert, you know, and does mary Anne find out about Ria? So there appears to be multiple individuals that potentially want to cause Maria harm, including Albert himself.
Yeah, we have a host of suspects potentially, but we know Albert was the last one to be seen with her, so it's a mystery so far. The day after she's killed, we look to our main suspect, Albert and say where the hell are you? And he has been seen on the Weymouth Bridge, which is about fifteen miles south of Beacon Hill, and the officers are sent there as well as to Salem and New Bedford and Lowell and Wister, all of these different places in the surrounding area to find this guy. A witness comes forward, who's a horse driver from a stable on Court Street in Boston. He says, I think I have this guy. I drove someone to Weymouth from Boston, matches Albert's description. Another witness reports, overhearing Albert's conversation with the driver, they heard Albert say that he was in quote in a scrape. And it is becoming complicated. And I know these are tiny details that just make Albert look very, very guilty. That's how I feel is he looks very guilty. But this story is going to take a big turn in a little bit. But does he look guilty to you? Or is this still circumstantial no definitive proof based on the lack of forensic tools we have in eighteen forty five.
Well, it's still circumstantial. I mean, there is physical evidence. Albert's clothes have blood on him. They can't determine whose blood it is, But right now I'm just going to presume that's Maria's blood, which would indicate he was in the room at the time. Maria has a single bleeding injury, you know, the throat being cut. But I can't say with just that evidence that Albert has one that cut Maria's throat, cut her ear, maybe took the earring. Was there a second person in the room. However, Albert is prime suspect, no question about it. And the fact that it sounds like he's fleet. It's not like he's standing there crying about what happened to Maria. You know, he is gone in the wind. So that also lends suspicion that he had direct involvement in Maria's homicide. Is there somebody else because as I mentioned before, there appears to be other women that potentially have motive to see harm come to Maria. You know, could they have been present confront Maria and then now Albert and some other women are running out of this boarding house together. But I think at this point my investigation is going to be centered on Albert and trying to get him into custody and see what he says happened.
Yeah, it'll be interesting because all of this detail that you're talking about is going to be very important very soon. Albert is clearly on the run. They go to his house in Weymouth. He is not there. His wife says, no clue, I have no idea where he is. He has gone north towards Montreal. He goes on a ship bound for Liverpool. It hits bad weather, he has to turn back. Remember, he has money, he goes to New York, he gets on another ship. He wants to go to New Orleans, and now we're going south. Finally, the authorities in Massachusetts make contact with authorities in Louisiana, and on December fifth, so this is probably about six weeks or so after Maria's murder, Albert is arrested on a ship in the Gulf of Mexico. That is not the historic part. That's a big deal though, So they were really pursuing this again. Look at the media. Beautiful woman throat slashed found in a Beacon Hill house. Prominent, wealthy man who's married with children is the prime suspect. This is eighteen hundreds media fodder right here, and he is finally caught and brought back to Massachusetts.
They must have been using some resources. I'm just unaware because all I can think of I'm envisioning the old wild Wild West wanted posters right with a hand drawn sketch on it and the name and saying if you see this guy, if you recognize this guy, you know, hold on to him. But yeah, no, that's that's amazing that they were able to track him down in the Gulf of Mexico. But so now he's he's arrested. I'm assuming he's brought back to Massachusetts.
So what happened was they received a tip that was a fugitive that was heading their way on the boat. So it sounds like they got the tip that he was likely on the boat, and they were able to relay that information to an authority who was on the boat with his description, and they were able to arrest him there. So it sounds like this was something that happened sort of quickly. I don't but there was no radio then, so yeah, I mean, it's pretty miraculous. But anyway, he is arrested, he is brought back to Boston. He is very wealthy, remember, and he gets a defense attorney who is a very prominent lawyer who is a US senator named Rufus Tudah and Rufus Judah looks at all of this, the brutality of the throat slashing, the fire, his reaction, and he comes up with the defense, which is why we're even talking about this. He says, Albert Terrell, if he did this, did it because he was sleepwalking. And it's the first instance of anyone using the defense of sleepwalking in the United States. Eighteen forty five, and now we have to see if it works. Have you done many stories about sleepwalking? I know there's one on a TV series and I think it's on Hulu that I saw, But I don't know much about the sleepwalking defense.
I can't think of any cases I've been involved with in which that was the defense. I'm aware that that has been used as a defense, and they don't necessarily the defense side doesn't have to prove. They just have to get the jury, somebody on the jury to leave. That's a possibility, you know. So interesting, Okay, I kind of want to hear how this proceeds.
Yeah, so the defense starts working on the public perception of Maria, just to take it down a notch and make her so unsympathetic.
You know.
He really highlights leaving her husband, going to the big city, working in a brothel, lots of outside of marriage relationships, a volatile relationship you know, with Albert, which of course Albert is painted as being the victim, not the aggressor. And so this is starting to shift the public opinion away from the poor young woman, beautiful woman who's been brutalized by this man, and something a little bit different. So they're not saying that someone else did it. They're saying that it was somehow justified because Albert has a history, supposedly of sleepwalking. So let's start with the prosecution, who simply says, look at all the evidence we have, of course he did it. The problem is is that, well, when the prosecutor says, did somebody slit her throat, he said sure, yes. Of course, under cross examination he steps back a little bit and says, it is possible she did it to herself. Now, you just finished saying that it could have happened, that you've seen that happen before they bring it up. They do settle Paul on the sleepwalking defense, but it was an interesting point. The defense made them say, essentially, could this have happened? And he said sure, yeah.
As I mentioned before, I did have a suicide in which the man cut his own throat. But the throat incision is very superficial relative to what is being described as what happened to Maria, and what I have seen with Maria's type of neck incision that is much more in line with homicidal violence than with suicide from my perspective, with the man that cut his own throat. There were hesitation marks, which is typical like when somebody cuts their wrist, oftentimes they are running the knife or the razor over their wrist multiple times, and so you see these linear, superficial, almost like an abrasion looking marks before they cut it. Well, this man had those types of marks on his wrist as well as on his neck before he cut into his own throat. I don't buy Maria doing this to herself. With the way it's been described. The argument of sleepwalking. What I would be keying in on from the kind of just the reconstruction of the crime and the wherewithal that the offender is exhibiting in this case, pears that Maria is likely killed up on the bed. She's now being drugged down onto the floor. The offender is changing clothes because he recognizes that he's got blood on the clothes, he's setting fire. There is a lot of recognition, I have just committed a crime. I need to cover my tracks kind of argues against this is somebody's sleepwalking. I don't see somebody sleepwalking going through all of these steps to cover up the crime. And then you've got the fugitive aspect running off Yeah, I think it's very easy for a prosecutor to undermine the sleepwalking defense in this case.
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see and listen to the background here. So the defense is pretty convincing, at least convincing to the public. So a neighbor says, the night that this happened, right after the murder, the scream, the fire, everything, Albert knocks on her door and makes a strange gurgling sound. When she answered, he asked, are there some things here for me? Just a random question, and she said that he looked either asleep or crazy, one or the other. So is Albert asleep and this is truly a defense or is he some criminal mastermind who has figured out a defense already or is there something in between?
Who is seeing Albert knock on the door?
Neighbor a neighbor right next to the boarding house.
And the neighbor is saying that Albert has kind of got a gurgling sound to his voice.
He said, he made a strange gurgling sound when she answered the door, and he said, are there some things here for me? She said that he was asleep or crazy, And remember the borders of the house. Said the guy who went out the front door with the heavy footfalls, made some sort of a weird noise that didn't sound like words, but it sounded like he was trying to alert people to the fire. Presumably, So weird behavior out of Albert is what people are describing.
Yeah, you know, right now, I really can't. I mean, is he purposely trying to stage this? It seems too far fetched that he's thinking that far ahead, in which now I better set up this sleepwalking defense and going to exhibit these these weird behaviors. What we don't know is what was Albert's state of mind. Was he under the influence of any drugs, was he under the influence of alcohol that night? But also going to if he is purposely trying to exhibit these strange behaviors to come up with some sort of let's say, insanity defense or something else, knowing he's going to kill Maria. That also goes to this forethought, which again just undermines the defense, where now you've got the sleepwalking angle. So I don't know, I mean, I'm not sure what to make of these behaviors. Upfront, It's still those behaviors do not explain away the blood at Albert's close the flight, you know, so there's there's still i think solid, circumstantial aspects and physical evidence. To be frank, that seems too strongly at Albert.
Okay, well, let's continue on because we get a little bit of background if we believe his family. So members of his family are called to the stand and they all say that this guy had a history of sleepwalking. They said he started sleepwalking when he was six years old. That once when he was sleepwalking, Albert grabbed his brother, pulled down the curtains, smashed windows, pulled his cousin out of bed, and threatened him with a knife, all while seemingly under the influence of sleep. When he got to Weymouth the day that Maria died, that he told people there he was evading the police because of his adultery charges nothing about murder, and when they said we have just found out that you are wanted for murder, they said, he was genuinely shocked. He had no clue that that was happening. So that is what we are left with, at least with these kind of testimonies from people who know him and his background. What do you think about that?
Oh, I'm not buying it. You know, I think the important thing is is that you know, the family is saying that he did these acts when he was younger, while he was asleep, but that's their perception of the state he is in. Is he doing that he's fully awake. Is he doing this but is conveying to others that he's under the influence under sleep You know, I still just I mean, think about the acts of the offender to kill Maria and to try to cover things up. You know, you've got a fire that's been set in two different locations. Person has to go track down whatever was used to start those fires. Person positioned Maria's body on the floor in order to probably facilitate setting the body on fire. You know, there's just so much interaction. I would need to hear, like from the current day, I would want to hear from experts who who can convey whether or not somebody who is technically sleepwalking can mentally process all the things the offender in this case had to do to commit this crime, to try to cover up the crime, and to escape. Would that be somebody who's sleepwalking would be able to do? I just don't see it.
Okay, So we will go through now and talk about the experts. The dean of Harvard Medical School says, it is possible for someone to commit murder and then flee. I don't think he said flee for six weeks and be completely under the influence of this. But we have a credible witness that the jury hears get on the stand and say this. Then you've got this really well known defense attorney who's been trained by Daniel Webster, who's a very well known attorney, who gives us six hour speech. Of course, no offense attorneys, but this is my dad would give me a six hour speech about the sleepwalking defense the first time it's ever used. And the press says this is the most ingenious and ably argued argument they had ever heard. Easily impressed press, I'm pretty sure now I'm.
Going to play Devil's advocate a little bit here. So let's think about Okay, it is possible for people who sleepwalk to commit this level of isolence and demonstrate this forethought and you know, complex thinking while under the influence of sleeper while asleep. So how come we don't have more homicides while people are asleep? Is it possible? I have a through marriage a family member who during a dream state had reached out and grabbed his wife and woke up, you know, after she starts fighting back, right. So it seems like if this was something that was possible, then we would have more of these types of cases over the decades. And I personally haven't seen this either.
A defense attorney who is working very hard. He's put an expert on the stand who says, yes, it's possible. He's put family members on the stand that say Albert has a history of doing this. He doesn't seem to have a history of violence. So the jury deliberates for two hours, and I'm betting, you know what, the verdict is.
Here to be Frank, I think it could go either way, you know, because really with the sleepwalking defense, I, of course am. I think it's a ridiculous defense. But I could see where you could have a juror hearing from this Harvard expert saying it's a possibility, and all you need is one juror to go, I have reasonable doubt, you know, And so you either have a hung jury. I don't think you'd get all twelve, but I could see where he could have a hung jury. Usually when jurors deliberate that quickly. I think you've probably got a conviction.
They acquitted him, and for the arson too, by the way, okay, totally quit it. Wow.
Yeah.
And he does get busted for the adultery, three years hard labor for cheating on your wife. The ending for Albert is in eighteen fifty five. Ten years later, he's arrested in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for robbing sailors on the US constitution. He's obviously bad news, but he got away clearly with murdering Maria Bickford. And I think part of it is victim shaming. The judge seemed to issue instructions that were a little victim shaming also about her character. And just of course, we cannot ever underestimate the power of money and the quality of the attorneys. And this is what we say over and over again. Money talks in this country in the law, and it is unfair that this guy got away with it. And I think it's pretty clear that maybe within the hours afterwards there's some kind of something with sleepwalking or being in some sort of state, But to go on the run for six weeks, obviously that is not the case in this story. I'm not an expert on sleepwalking. I know that there are stories out there, but I think in this case it is not right. And I know you agree.
Just take a look at the relationship history, you know, this contentious, volatile relationship. I think everything points to they may have had an argument that night, Albert is upset, maybe there's something else going on with other relationships that he has, but ultimately he intentionally cut Maria's throat and tried to cover that up with the fire and then he went on the lamb. And I don't buy the sleepwalking thing at all.
And I wonder if that mysterious letter from Mariann is what the trigger was here. I wonder if she found it. I don't know why he would have brought it. I wonder if she found it and got mad and this was a reaction. I mean, this doesn't seem like premeditated. This seems like shut up and a big fight. And they had been fighting, but this is the first time people have reported any kind of violence at all. So I was just trying to think, like, what would have happened? And I know you asked that, but that letter being out seems like probably not a great idea for Albert to leave it laying around, So I wonder if she found it and that's what happened.
You know, I think that's a really good point. I didn't think about that, But yet the letter from Mary Anne. I imagine Maria knows who Albert's wife, at least Albert's wife's name, and is recognizing, oh, here's another woman, and confronted him and he twisted off.
Yeah, that seems the most likely thing to me. I'm always interested in what I would think would be a creative defense, and this one just in this case. I'm not making commentary on all these other cases because I'm not an expert on it, but in this case, this is BS and I'm just sorry for her family, or her friends or anybody who cared about this that this is what the result was. But it does show victim shaming does work in court. And I've done many storesorries about this. It does work. It's awful. So you know, this is a sad story, but teaches you a lot and boy historic story too, because it does come up every once in a while. It just is not what you're saying. The prevalence of it isn't. It's just not there.
Yeah, and even with the three years of hard labor, Albert got off easy. He probably would have been subjected to far worse from his wife for the adultery than the three years of hard labor. But yes, wow, okay, that Yeah, that case didn't go the way that I was expecting it to go.
Well, we're wrapping this up and I'm going to head to this volleyball game now where I'm going to take out all of my pent up aggression toward Albert on a group of thirteen year old girls. We'll see how this goes. This is not going to go well. They're tall at thirteen, and I think I'm going to get spiked on. So we'll see. This was a good case for us to revisit. It's just more information for you and me going forward. And the more we talk about these historic cases and you pick up little details. Now you know what footballs are. I don't have to take the time to explain to you or to you the listener what a footfall is. I can just save that time for more important stuff. So the more vernacular we get down from the seventeen and nineteen and eighteenth century, it would be great.
Yeah, we're going to be starting to talk like people from the seventeen hundreds pretty soon.
Yeah you get ready, get ready? Okay, Paul, Well, I will see you next week with a non sleep walking story. God willing, We'll see.
At don't break anything at the volleyball game.
Hi, Well, I'll trom boy. I'll try not to have a good one you too. Bye bye. This has been an exactly right production for.
Our sources and show notes go to exactly rightmedia dot com slash Buried Bones sources.
Our senior producer is Alexis Emirosi.
Research by Maren mcclashan, Ali Elkin, and Kate Winkler.
Our mixing engineer is Ben Tolliday.
Our theme song is by Tom Bryvogel.
Our artwork is by Vanessa Lilac.
Executive produced by Karen Kilgarriff, Georgia hard Stark and Danielle Kramer.
You can follow Buried Bones on Instagram and Facebook at Buried Bones pod.
Kate's most recent book, All That Is Wicked, a Gilded Age story of murder and the race to decode the criminal mind, is available now, and
Paul's best selling memoir Unmasked, My life solving America's cold cases is also available now
