Indiana State Sentinel

Horrible Murder and Arson.
A great sensation has been created in Boston by an appalling murder, somewhat similar to the Helen Jewett tragedy which occurred in New York some years ago. The Boston Mail of Oct. 27, gives the following particulars:
The scene of the murder is a small two-story brick house, in Cedar lane, between Cedar and Charles streets occupied by Mr. Joel Lawrence and wife, who have lived there something like twenty-five years. For some years past, as we understand, the premises have been used as a house of assignation—rooms being kept for the accommodation of those in the habit of visiting it.
The body, that of a young and beautiful female of 23 or 24, was lying on the floor covered, all but the breast; head and feet, with a bloody sheet which had been thrown over it. She lay on her back close to the grate, with the head turned over on the right side. The head was thrown back, exposing a terrible and ghastly cut from ear to ear. The jugular vein and windpipe were entirely severed, the razor which the murderer used having entered to the bone. Her hair was partly consumed, and her face charred and blackened by the action of the fire.
The door of the house being unlocked on the arrival of the Coroner's jury, they proceeded up one pair of stairs to the room in which the murder was committed, and the view was most appalling—inconceivably so to any one who was not there to see it.
The room, which was a small sized bed-room, in the rear of the house, in the second story, contained fragments of burnt clothing strewed about, and the walls were spattered with blood—probably done when she was dragged from the bed and thrown upon the floor. A chair, standing near the head of the bed, contained a pool of blood.
We gathered from a conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence and a girl in the house that they were awakened about five o'clock this morning by a shriek upstairs, and a heavy fall, which apparently jarred the house; immediately after, and before they were hardly awake, a person came down stairs, slipped in the haste, and fell, but recovered, and rushed out of the front door.
The family then smelt fire, and going up to the room, found it filled with flame and smoke. The fire was set in three different places—the bed which the murdered woman had occupied—the closet containing her dresses, and a bed in an adjoining bedroom, which was unoccupied, were all more or less burnt. Against the door of the front bedroom, occupied by a girl who lives there, a pile of bed clothes had been placed and then set on fire—it seems to have been the intention of the murderer to bury all evidence of his fiendish deed, in the conflagration of the house and death of its occupants.
The name of the murdered woman was Maria A. Bickford. She was of slight, graceful figure, and very beautiful. She has been married, but has not lived with her husband for some time past. He is a shoemaker by trade, and was lately in the employ of Mr. Smith, in Cambridge street. He is now at Bangor, where this ill-fated woman formerly belonged.
A letter was found in the room addressed A. J. T. to M. A. B. Also a pair of men's drawers, cane and stockings, and a bunch of keys. Dr. Moriarty, who was present at the examination, said it was impossible for her to move after she received her death wound, and he must have dragged her from her bed. In the straw bed under which she slept, a bunch of matches were found nearly burnt up.
Suspicions, almost amounting to certainty, are fixed upon Albert J. Tirrell as the murderer, though he has not yet been arrested. Tirrell was arrested some time since, at New Bedford, on a charge of adultery, and was lately discharged, having compromised the matter. He is said to be a native of Weymouth, in this State.
Annexed are further particulars from the same paper of the 28th:
A jury of inquest visited the premises in the forenoon at half past 11 o'clock, and found the room, which is on the second floor, in much confusion. Among other things, a trunk of clothes, in which matches had been introduced, was much burnt. The body of the murdered woman was much disfigured, and presented a horrible appearance. She lay in her blood on the floor, and the articles in the room were more or less stained with it. Some matches and a comb were found in the bed on which she had lain. Among the articles in the room we noticed some lines of music, an accordion, a bottle of cologne, a parasol, gloves, shoes, &c. The jugular and windpipe were cut, and the throat entirely laid open.
It seemed by the bloody water in the wash bowl, that the murderer, after consummating the horrid deed, coolly went to the washstand and washed his hands. The individual who passed the night with the deceased, and who it is supposed is the murderer, went to the house in question at 4 o'clock, Sunday afternoon, stayed half an hour, and was again there at 8 P. M. We learn further that when he returned from the room, after the act, he was heard by the inmates of the house to slip on the stairs and partially fall down. Some of them have recollection also as to a scream being uttered by some one, evidently by the woman who was murdered. The jury found among other things in the room a letter addressed as follows:—"A. J. T., to M. A. B." The unfortunate female's name was Maria A. Bickford. She formerly lived in the vicinity of Bangor, and was married to a shoemaker by the name of Bickford. About three years since she left her husband and came to this city, where she has lived a life of dissoluteness, and has attracted much attention in our streets. The suspicions of our police have fallen on one Albert J. Tirrell. Tirrell is the individual who was lately indicted in the Municipal Court for adultery, avoided the officers, but was subsequently arrested with some difficulty at New Bedford. The affair has since been settled. It will be remembered that he was armed at the time. He is said to be a desperate character. He took a meal or two at Concert Hall on Sunday, but his stopping place, or place where he left some of his baggage, was No. 9 Elm street. But yesterday he did not seek his accustomed resort, but escaped early in the morning from the city. About 5 o'clock in the morning of yesterday, soon after the deed was perpetrated, he went to the stable of J. F. Fullum, in Bowdoin Square, and got a person to take him out of town immediately, and in the direction of Weymouth. The person conveyed him out and returned at 11 o'clock, A. M., yesterday. Soon after his return, the required legal process was provided, and four officers, fully prepared for any emergency, started in pursuit. He can scarcely escape an arrest.
We learn that he had a wife and two children at Weymouth. It has been ascertained that the key found at the room of the murdered woman exactly fits the locks of some of his baggage.