Speaker 1: You're listening to American Shadows, a production of iHeartRadio and
Speaker 1: Grimm and Mild from Ahar and Manky. Like most American
Speaker 1: women in the eighteen hundreds, Rachel Baker didn't have a
Speaker 1: lot of autonomy. Her fate rested in the hands of men,
Speaker 1: of both her fathers and others within society. Her father, Ezekiel,
Speaker 1: was deeply religious and raised his daughter with strong views
Speaker 1: about sin and sinners, but little else in the way
Speaker 1: of education. Rachel was seventeen when the sleepwalking began in
Speaker 1: November of eighteen eleven. At first, these episodes of somnambulism
Speaker 1: horrified her, and she became despondent. When the rate of
Speaker 1: incidents increased to nearly every night, she gave her parents
Speaker 1: a solemn warning she'd be dead and would go straight
Speaker 1: to Hell. She even seemed unhappy during the incidents, becoming
Speaker 1: agitated in her sleep. These fits of despair lasted until
Speaker 1: January of eighteen twelve. One night, Rachel said God had
Speaker 1: spoken to her and forgave her sins. From then on,
Speaker 1: she remained calmer during the episodes. Seeing their daughter's mood
Speaker 1: had significantly improved. Her parents no longer hid Rachel's affliction. Instead,
Speaker 1: they invited others to investigate her nightly activities. Observers witnessed
Speaker 1: the snambulism for themselves. Rachel got out of bed and
Speaker 1: started with a half hour of prayer. Still asleep, her
Speaker 1: breathing became labored, and she gnashed her teeth. Everyone waited
Speaker 1: As her eyes met at church elder, she warned him
Speaker 1: of the dangers of eternal damnation. The witnesses gasped the
Speaker 1: short tirade. Then Rachel regained her composure and spoke about
Speaker 1: the scriptures she had learned. Finally, she shook violently and
Speaker 1: collapsed back onto her bed. Locals thought God had made
Speaker 1: Rachel a vessel for his teachings and possibly a prophet.
Speaker 1: Her words and pronunciations contrasted with her blesser education. Outsiders
Speaker 1: were more skeptical and suggested she might be faking the
Speaker 1: episodes to garner attention. As word of Rachel's midnight sermons spread,
Speaker 1: people traveled from all across the state of New York
Speaker 1: to meet her. Aside from the fact that Rachel gave
Speaker 1: sermons in her sleep, what made her stand out from
Speaker 1: other preachers was her gender. Women were not permitted to preach,
Speaker 1: and those who dared caused scandals. Rachel spent her days
Speaker 1: recovering from her knightly sermons, which left her emotionally and
Speaker 1: physically exhausted. To give her a short break, a Baptist
Speaker 1: minister and his wife offered Rachel the opportunity to travel
Speaker 1: with them to New York City. Than she accepted, the
Speaker 1: trip was hardly a vacation. They introduced her to doctor
Speaker 1: John Douglas. He and other doctors studied her, hoping to
Speaker 1: find a cure for her sleep walking. Rachel submitted to
Speaker 1: every test. Her episodes intensified, causing her to jerk, flail,
Speaker 1: and cry. The only relief came when she preached the
Speaker 1: following days. She acted as though nothing unusual had happened.
Speaker 1: Skeptics flocked to her bedside, though the doctors defended her
Speaker 1: as the real thing. Rachel showed strong similarities to other
Speaker 1: cases of sleepwalking, where people remained unaware of their nocturnal actions.
Speaker 1: The ministers grilled her, other doctors tried bleeding her or
Speaker 1: gave her opium to sedate her. They had no effect.
Speaker 1: After a while, Rachel had enough of the examinations and
Speaker 1: returned home. She hadn't been back long. When her father
Speaker 1: received a letter from doctor Douglas, several colleagues wanted to
Speaker 1: sponsor Rachel's formal education at Missus Bowering's Seminary for Young Ladies.
Speaker 1: Her parents agreed. Rachel's classmates, doctors, and various religious officials
Speaker 1: attended her sleepwalking sermons with rapt attention. After graduation, Rachel
Speaker 1: went on to lead a quiet life. Skeptics and believers
Speaker 1: alike watched her case transition from a weakness of a
Speaker 1: woman's nerves to a medical and religious oddity, but she
Speaker 1: wouldn't be the last sleepwalking curiosity. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome
Speaker 1: to American Shadows. We've all heard the advice get plenty
Speaker 1: of sleep. How much depends on our age and health,
Speaker 1: among other factors. The message is clear, though we don't
Speaker 1: always get enough sleep restores our body and brain. Along
Speaker 1: with the advice to get plenty of rest, we've probably
Speaker 1: heard adages to follow circadian rhythm. With this method, people
Speaker 1: go to bed sometime after dark and rise with the sun.
Speaker 1: Usually we try to sleep straight through the night, but
Speaker 1: that hasn't always been the case. The how and when
Speaker 1: of how we sleep has changed during the Renaissance era,
Speaker 1: people slept for short periods, waking during the night, briefly
Speaker 1: followed by a second sleep cycle. Often people used the
Speaker 1: waking cycle in between for prayer, chores, or other activities.
Speaker 1: Sixteenth century doctors told couples that they were most likely
Speaker 1: to conceive during this time. During the Industrial Revolution, long
Speaker 1: work hours and strict schedules changed when people slept. With
Speaker 1: the invention of electricity, came lighted streets, businesses, and homes.
Speaker 1: In the eighteen twenties, doctors commonly told parents to break
Speaker 1: their children from sleeping in shifts called bi phasic sleep
Speaker 1: and sleep through the night instead. Some researchers speculate that
Speaker 1: by phasic sleep might be more natural than one long segment.
Speaker 1: They point to nineteenth century medical journals where cases of
Speaker 1: insomnia first appear. By the nineteen twenties, medical records discussing
Speaker 1: by phasic sleep vanished altogether. Insomnia did not. Many of
Speaker 1: us toss and turn from dark till dawn, and some
Speaker 1: of us enjoy the night until we're out to sea
Speaker 1: or in another remote location. It's hard to fathom how
Speaker 1: different the night sky looks without city or neighborhood lights.
Speaker 1: No longer do a thousand stars glitter like diamonds on velvet.
Speaker 1: Though some of us would prefer such a sight, we
Speaker 1: once longed for a means to illuminate the shadows. Paris
Speaker 1: became the first city to use candles and glass lamps
Speaker 1: to light streets in sixteen sixty seven. As technology evolved,
Speaker 1: cities used oil and gas lamps at night. The invention
Speaker 1: of electricity for lighting our homes altered how we viewed sleep.
Speaker 1: Light on demand shifted our awareness of our available time.
Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty two, Edison's electric light became the miracle
Speaker 1: technology of its day, though getting it to just half
Speaker 1: of America's homes took another twenty five years. We've come
Speaker 1: to view light as a sense of safety. The night
Speaker 1: and darkness are places of danger and uncertainty. Criminals have
Speaker 1: often used the cloak of darkness to commit unspeakable acts.
Speaker 1: People associated those who went out into the night with
Speaker 1: crime and immoral behavior. Such nighttime activity caused the early
Speaker 1: colonists a good deal of anxiety. People expressed their secret
Speaker 1: desires at night and took part in lawlessness and sinful behavior.
Speaker 1: Working women and their male clients were called night walkers.
Speaker 1: Adulterers met their lovers at unreasonable hours. Thieves, according to
Speaker 1: court records, behaved in unbecoming ways. People called the time
Speaker 1: after dark the night season, a time of danyer, depravity
Speaker 1: and great sorrow. In seventeen oh three, authorities created the
Speaker 1: Act to prevent disorders in the night. Anyone wandering the
Speaker 1: streets past nine pm had to have a legitimate reason
Speaker 1: to be out of the Townfolk lit streets with oil
Speaker 1: lamps to help prevent crimes and carousing. Night watchmen monitored
Speaker 1: town squares and certain alleys in urban areas. Of all
Speaker 1: the people who ventured into the night, one alarmed the
Speaker 1: colonists the most. Sleepwalkers, otherwise calleds and ambulists. No one
Speaker 1: understood what caused the disorder, but many thought that anyone
Speaker 1: who could wander around at night while sleeping was capable
Speaker 1: of anything. A Witnesses said that watching as anambulist was
Speaker 1: like seeing a dead person come to life. Sleepwalkers often
Speaker 1: said they had no recollection of their actions, spurring people
Speaker 1: to wonder about the boundaries between life and death. With
Speaker 1: the association between wicked behavior and the night, sleepwalkers found
Speaker 1: themselves lumped into the same category as those participating in
Speaker 1: illicit activities. The weaf made strides towards understanding sleepwalking. We've
Speaker 1: learned that the disorder can be genetic, caused by a
Speaker 1: lack of quality sleep, a side effect of drugs or alcohol,
Speaker 1: and certain illnesses. Yet even today we can't help but
Speaker 1: wonder how much control sleepwalkers have over their actions. Night
Speaker 1: had barely given way to morning on October twenty seventh
Speaker 1: of eighteen forty five, when screams woke Joel Lawrence and
Speaker 1: his wife. They lay in bed listening. The screams stopped,
Speaker 1: and a loud thought followed. The sounds had come from upstairs,
Speaker 1: the room they had rented out to Mary Bickford. Undoubtedly,
Speaker 1: she and Albert had gotten into another fight. This one
Speaker 1: sounded a little more serious than the others, though after
Speaker 1: a moment of silence, someone ran down the stairs and
Speaker 1: out the front door. In a hurry. The couple climbed
Speaker 1: the stairs to check on Mary. Joel pushed the door open.
Speaker 1: Smoke hung in the air, though they barely noticed, and
Speaker 1: Mary lay in a pool of blood on the floor
Speaker 1: next to her. Wisps of smoke drifted from her bed.
Speaker 1: Some one had killed her, and then tried to set
Speaker 1: her mattress on fire. The brutal death shocked the Lawrences,
Speaker 1: though the fights leading up to them at Knock. Mary
Speaker 1: had been renting from them since June, though she had
Speaker 1: lived in Boston for a while. A couple of years earlier.
Speaker 1: She had come to Boston with a few girl friends
Speaker 1: after a bout of depression, as she and her husband
Speaker 1: had lost a child, and her family and friends thought
Speaker 1: the bustling city would do her good. And it did,
Speaker 1: and Mary couldn't get enough of it. She had fallen
Speaker 1: in love. She wanted to move to Boston permanently and
Speaker 1: live like the rich people on Beacon Hill. Her husband, James,
Speaker 1: a poor shoemaker, was less than thrilled, and Mary returned
Speaker 1: without him. It wasn't the city alone that she had
Speaker 1: fallen in love with. During her first visit, she had
Speaker 1: met a handsome man with whom she had carried on
Speaker 1: a flirtatious relationship. Upon her return, the two continued their
Speaker 1: whirlwind romance. Her new bows swept her off her feet
Speaker 1: and whisked her away to Newburyport, Massachusetts. Mary never divorced James,
Speaker 1: though she had put the days of being a poor
Speaker 1: shoemaker's wife behind her, or so she thought. Her new
Speaker 1: boyfriend dumped her shortly afterward, and Mary returned to Boston.
Speaker 1: She wrote to James, consenting to return, but only if
Speaker 1: she could do as she pleased. James tracked her down,
Speaker 1: hoping to bring Mary home. However, hope turned to anger
Speaker 1: when he found her working in a brothel. James had
Speaker 1: had enough. He promptly returned to Maine, washing his hands
Speaker 1: of his marriage. Mary was less upset. She hopped from
Speaker 1: brothel toroel, finally finding one with more league clientell. Her
Speaker 1: beauty made her popular with the men. One of those
Speaker 1: men was Albert Terrell, whose father was a wealthy merchant
Speaker 1: and former state legislator. Mary and Albert began a passionate relationship,
Speaker 1: and he showered her with gifts. Albert soon abandoned his
Speaker 1: wife and children. Mary thought she'd hit the jackpot. In
Speaker 1: her mind, leaving his family was the ultimate proof of
Speaker 1: his devotion. Albert's father died in eighteen forty four, leaving
Speaker 1: him with what would amount to over three hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars today. Albert immediately began spending that inheritance on Mary.
Speaker 1: They dined on the finest food and stayed in the
Speaker 1: poshest hotels. He bought her expensive clothes and jewelry. Albert
Speaker 1: flaunted his affair. Those who knew him called the relationship
Speaker 1: scandalous and without a hint of decency. But as much
Speaker 1: as Albert devoted himself to Mary, the same was not
Speaker 1: true of her. Refused used to give up working in
Speaker 1: the brothel. Cozy dinners turned into fights, both in public
Speaker 1: and private. At first, Mary shrugged off the arguments, claiming
Speaker 1: she enjoyed making up with him and still kept her clientele. Eventually,
Speaker 1: Albert began escalating his demands that she quit, and Mary
Speaker 1: wrote to James complaining about her poor treatment. Perhaps unsurprisingly,
Speaker 1: James did not come to her rescue. Mary broke up
Speaker 1: with Albert in June and moved to the Lawrence's boarding house.
Speaker 1: The breakup was temporary, and the two resumed where they
Speaker 1: had left off. On September twenty ninth, Albert was indicted
Speaker 1: on charges of adultery. He evaded capture for weeks. The
Speaker 1: press gleefully took to reporting Albert and Mary's sordid love affair.
Speaker 1: Though humiliated, his wife and family pleaded with prosecutors to
Speaker 1: postpone the proceedings while they helped him reform. The prosecutors
Speaker 1: gave them six months, and Albert immediately left for Mary's
Speaker 1: side once more. If the press didn't have enough to
Speaker 1: print before October twenty seventh, they certainly did after the
Speaker 1: Lawrence's discovery of Mary's body and their statement to the police.
Speaker 1: And not only had the Lawrences found Mary on the
Speaker 1: floor with a severed windpipe and jugular vein, but they'd
Speaker 1: also found the murder weapon, a blood stained razor, at
Speaker 1: the foot of the bed. They also found a man's
Speaker 1: cane and vest, along with several items belonging to Albert. Furthermore,
Speaker 1: they'd seen Albert enter the house the previous evening, and
Speaker 1: just as Mary had finished with a client, the case
Speaker 1: seemed open and shut, Albert had killed her in a
Speaker 1: fit of rage and jealousy. That morning, Albert fled the
Speaker 1: house and headed for a livery stable. He told the
Speaker 1: stable hand that he was having some difficulties and demanded
Speaker 1: a horse. After briefly stopping at home, he fled again,
Speaker 1: making his way to Vermont and Canada for a couple
Speaker 1: of days. He wrote to his family that he intended
Speaker 1: to go to Liverpool. He might have made it too,
Speaker 1: except for the storm that forced the ship to dock
Speaker 1: in New York. On December fifth, he boarded another ship
Speaker 1: heading to New Orleans. Authorities were waiting for him when
Speaker 1: he arrived and took him back to Boston. The press
Speaker 1: reported every move and readers awaited the trial. As far
Speaker 1: as Boston residents were concerned, the guilty verdict couldn't come
Speaker 1: fast enough, except Albert's lawyer had a plan every bit
Speaker 1: as devious as his client, and taking a queue from
Speaker 1: Daniel Webster's claim that the best defense is an offense,
Speaker 1: Attorney Rufus Choke began building his case, calling into question
Speaker 1: Mary's character. It was victim blaming, for sure, and even
Speaker 1: though Mary had been brutally murdered, a public opinion of
Speaker 1: her was only slightly more favorable than that of Albert,
Speaker 1: and people had little sympathy for a woman who had
Speaker 1: abandoned her husband, engaged in an affair with a married man,
Speaker 1: and become a sex worker. But while victim shaming is
Speaker 1: daring enough, Choate took it to a whole new level.
Speaker 1: He based his case on an idea that came to
Speaker 1: him at the office. He noted the title of a
Speaker 1: book on an intern's desk, Sylvester Sound, the Snambulist. Choate
Speaker 1: kept his strategy as secret until the trial began on
Speaker 1: March twenty fourth of eighteen forty six. Before the big reveal,
Speaker 1: Choate started with a different tactic. He pushed one of
Speaker 1: the physicians at the coroner's office to concede that Mary's
Speaker 1: three inch deep and six inch wide neck wound could
Speaker 1: have been self inflicted. Then he brought another witness to
Speaker 1: the stand. A woman who lived near the Lawrence's boarding
Speaker 1: house testified that Albert had arrived on her doorstep that morning.
Speaker 1: She said he had acted strangely and asked if there
Speaker 1: was anything in the house for him. A brother in
Speaker 1: law admitted that al Albert had arrived home and said
Speaker 1: he was fleeing the adultery indictment. O When confronted with
Speaker 1: the murder, the news seemed to surprise Albert. Choate's junior
Speaker 1: council then stated that Mary might certainly have committed suicide,
Speaker 1: since that was the natural progression for women of her character.
Speaker 1: The coroner took the stand, disagreeing with the earlier doctor's testimony,
Speaker 1: and stated that Mary's wounds were impossible to self inflict.
Speaker 1: In response, Choate diverted the court to another possibility, the
Speaker 1: Lawrences had committed the crime. He brought in a fireman
Speaker 1: to confirm that mister Lawrence had tried to keep him
Speaker 1: from entering the room. Choate insisted that the Lawrences had
Speaker 1: made up the story about seeing Albert arrive the night before,
Speaker 1: and finally he told the court that Albert hadn't tried
Speaker 1: to flee a murder charge. He had simply fled due
Speaker 1: to his shame as part of the adultery charges. Albert
Speaker 1: was a good man of honorable character and good breeding.
Speaker 1: Choate told the court Mary had been the aggressor, seducing
Speaker 1: him with her lewde behavior and indecent ways, and she
Speaker 1: had kept him spellbound, he argued. Choate told them that
Speaker 1: Alexander the Great had once penned an entire battle plan
Speaker 1: in his sleep, and that writers and philosophers had also
Speaker 1: done their best work while sleepwalking. Albert, he went on,
Speaker 1: was a sleepwalker. He brought in the dean of Harvard's
Speaker 1: medical school to testify that it was possible that someone
Speaker 1: could dress, murder, light fires, and escape while sleepwalking. Choke
Speaker 1: claimed the prosecutor's case was shaky. No one had seen
Speaker 1: Albert kill Mary or flee the scene, but if they had, well,
Speaker 1: then Albert had been sleepwalking. Two hours later, the jury
Speaker 1: returned to the verdict not guilty. Unsuccessful at bringing Albert
Speaker 1: Terrell to justice for murder, the prosecution tried again with
Speaker 1: a lesser charge arson. Once more, the jury returned a
Speaker 1: not guilty verdict, agreeing with the defense that Albert could
Speaker 1: not be held accountable for actions during episodes of sleepwalking. However,
Speaker 1: he hadn't been sleepwalking during his affair and stood before
Speaker 1: the court again, this time for adultery. The jury found
Speaker 1: him guilty and sentenced him to three years of hard labor.
Speaker 1: He lived the remainder of his life in relative obscurity,
Speaker 1: though the case lived in infamy. It seems ridiculous that
Speaker 1: anyone could claim sleepwalking as a defense in a murder trial.
Speaker 1: Yet if we thought this case would be the last
Speaker 1: of its kind, would be very wrong. There have been
Speaker 1: sixty eight murder cases where sleepwalking was used as a defense.
Speaker 1: In the eighteen seventies, a hotel goes asked in Kentucky,
Speaker 1: drew his gun and shot the clerk sent to wake
Speaker 1: him up. A witnesses testified that during the incident, the
Speaker 1: man whooped and yelled excitedly. When he awoke, he seemed
Speaker 1: confused and immediately apologized. He admitted his guilt, and the
Speaker 1: court found him guilty of manslaughter. Later, a higher court
Speaker 1: repealed the decision and in Texas during the nineteen twenties,
Speaker 1: esaum Bradley was anxious as he went to bed with
Speaker 1: his mistress one night. He slid a pistol under his pillow,
Speaker 1: which he later claimed was due to a death threat
Speaker 1: he had received earlier in the day. During the night,
Speaker 1: he awoke to a noise in the room, He grabbed
Speaker 1: the pistol and shot into the dark. When he turned
Speaker 1: on the light, he discovered the body of his mistress.
Speaker 1: Initially convicted of murder, a higher court overturned the verdict
Speaker 1: due to a sleepwalking defense. Certain prescription sleep medications have
Speaker 1: come into the spotlight over the years for causing some
Speaker 1: patients to sleepwalk, but thankfully, eating has seemed to be
Speaker 1: the most prominent side effect. Since Albert Terrell's case, sleepwalking
Speaker 1: is a murder defense has been relatively rare. While we
Speaker 1: have plenty of new medications to help insomniacs. We still
Speaker 1: have a lot of unanswered questions when it comes to sleepwalking,
Speaker 1: though there have been numerous studies. The disorder affects children
Speaker 1: more often than adults, roughly twenty nine percent between the
Speaker 1: ages of two and thirteen, with the most incidences occurring
Speaker 1: in those between ten and thirteen. A few adult sleepwalk
Speaker 1: just four percent. A study in France concluded that fifty
Speaker 1: eight percent of adult sleepwalkers displayed violent behavior, while thirty
Speaker 1: one percent of those harmed themselves. Forty six percent became
Speaker 1: violent with their sleeping partner. Most sleepwalkers say they have
Speaker 1: no recollection of sleepwalking or the events that took place
Speaker 1: during an episode, So despite our advances in medical technology,
Speaker 1: were not much closer to understanding what's going through someone's head,
Speaker 1: even temporarily while sleep walking. Creepy stuff for both the
Speaker 1: person afflicted and those sleeping next to them. There's more
Speaker 1: to this story. Stick around after this brief sponsor break
Speaker 1: to hear all about it. Famous Impressionist artist Jeanne Louis
Speaker 1: Boudin is said to have painted in the colors of Lavre,
Speaker 1: a port in France, the vivid mix of cobalt and
Speaker 1: ultramarine is seen in a few of his paintings, and
Speaker 1: his pastel works are said to have captured the skies.
Speaker 1: Visitors say the area is beautiful and full of light.
Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty seven, a vacation to take in the
Speaker 1: scenery was the furthest thing from thirty five year old
Speaker 1: Robert l Dru's mind. By all accounts and his own
Speaker 1: admission he was married to his considered one of France's
Speaker 1: most outstanding police detectives, all nighters while working on a
Speaker 1: case were more the norm than the exception. Three years earlier,
Speaker 1: he had been the lead investigator on a case where
Speaker 1: anarchists sought to overthrow the government. His tireless work helped
Speaker 1: crack the case, resulting in the capture and imprisonment of
Speaker 1: the rebels. He solved the unsolvable, Even in murder cases.
Speaker 1: L Drew often worked until he passed out from exhaustion,
Speaker 1: sometimes at his desk or en route to his bed.
Speaker 1: All this lack of sleep made him both nervous and irritable,
Speaker 1: So when he left to investigate the disappearance of several
Speaker 1: sailors in Lavre that summer, his coworkers hoped l Drew
Speaker 1: might also get some much deserved rest. Once he solved
Speaker 1: the case, he dove right into work the moment he arrived.
Speaker 1: Exhausted and making little progress, L Drew went to bed early.
Speaker 1: When he arrived at the police station next morning, detectives
Speaker 1: asked him to work on a different case that had
Speaker 1: taken priority. A prominent businessman, Andre Monette, had gone for
Speaker 1: a swim the previous evening and someone had shot him
Speaker 1: in the chest. The lack of evidence that the scene
Speaker 1: stumped the local detectives. La Drew interviewed Monet's wife. They
Speaker 1: hadn't named any heirs to his estate, and he didn't
Speaker 1: have a single enemy. He had simply gone to the
Speaker 1: beach for a night swim to cool off from the
Speaker 1: summer heat, and never came home. La Drew headed to
Speaker 1: the scene not far from his hotel. He understood the
Speaker 1: detective's confusion. None of Monette's possessions had been taken, there
Speaker 1: had been no signs of a struggle. Yet the scene
Speaker 1: bothered him greatly, especially the footprints around the body. He
Speaker 1: ordered a plaster cast be made. After reviewing the cast,
Speaker 1: he sat on the beach for hours. One detective observed
Speaker 1: that l Drew seemed as though he were in some
Speaker 1: sort of trance. He sat in the same position without moving,
Speaker 1: impervious to the glaring sun and heat. Suddenly he stood
Speaker 1: and walked over to the police chief they could stop
Speaker 1: the investigation. He said he knew without a doubt who
Speaker 1: the killer was. Before the chief could ask who, the
Speaker 1: Drew walked back to his hotel and waited. The following morning,
Speaker 1: the chief informed him they had uncovered a bullet from
Speaker 1: a German luger pistol, which is quite common in France.
Speaker 1: The Drew returned to Paris and went straight to the
Speaker 1: police station where he worked. He showed his boss the
Speaker 1: plaster cast and told him that while he knew who
Speaker 1: the killer was and he had no motive, then he
Speaker 1: said I killed Monette. His superior wouldn't believe it. But
Speaker 1: then Le Drew told him how he had gone to
Speaker 1: bed early and how he woke the next morning with
Speaker 1: wet socks. Then he pointed out that the cast revealed
Speaker 1: the killer was missing their big toe on their right foot,
Speaker 1: just like him. He also owned the same make of
Speaker 1: gun used to kill Monette. To prove had done it,
Speaker 1: l Drew had a cast made of his right foot
Speaker 1: for comparison. He insisted that his colleagues arrest him, even
Speaker 1: though he knew he had killed Monette in his sleep,
Speaker 1: to test out Ledru's sleepwalking theory. They kept him in
Speaker 1: jail and under constant watch. They handed him a revolver,
Speaker 1: but this one contained only blanks, and sure enough, one night,
Speaker 1: l Drew got out of bed and took the pistol
Speaker 1: and coldly fired upon a guard. L Drew was sentenced
Speaker 1: to a lifetime confinement, but not in jail. It was
Speaker 1: ruled that such a punishment would be too harsh for
Speaker 1: someone who couldn't control their sleepwalking tendencies. Instead, he spent
Speaker 1: the rest of his life at a secluded farm outside
Speaker 1: of Paris, and although a host of doctors and guards
Speaker 1: watched over him, l Drew never had another sleepwalking episode
Speaker 1: and lived a peaceful life until his death in nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty seven. American Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This
Speaker 1: episode was written by Michelle Muteau, researched by Ali Stead,
Speaker 1: and produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive
Speaker 1: producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn
Speaker 1: more about the show. Visit grimminmile dot com. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.