the sleepwalking murders

"A.F." case
"A. F. " was a gun fancier and a hunter, and kept loaded firearms in his room. His father, with similar interests, slept in the adjoining room. Hearing a bump against the connecting door early one morning, "A.F.", still asleep, hollered "You dog, what do you want here?" and fired the gun near to his hand. The intruder turned out to be his father.

Boshears case
Willis Boshears was an American Army sergeant stationed in England, drinking in a British pub on New Year's Eve. After a while he returned to his apartment with a young couple. He went to sleep on the floor, where the woman was already asleep. When he woke up he found he had killed the woman; terrified, he hid the body miles from the apartment.

Fraser Case
Simon Fraser, of Glasgow, Scotland, often dreamed that a beast had invaded his home at night. One time, he dreamed that a white beast had come up through the floor. He seized it and dashed it to the ground. He woke up to find he had killed his infant son.

Gnypiuk Case
Wasyl Gnypiuk, a Polish immigrant (to England) had suffered Nazi internment, which caused him to have nightmares; in one of these, he dreamed of fighting back. In fact, he was in the home of his landlady, and when he woke up it turned out he had beaten her to death.

Griggs case
Esther Griggs, resident of London and a mother of three, dreamed one night her house was on fire. Screaming "save my children!" though asleep, Ms. Griggs threw her baby into the street.

Kiger case
Jo Ann Kiger, a teenager, was asleep when she took a revolver in each hand, poised to defend her family against a "monster." She fired, and fatally shot her brother and her father.

Ledru case
Robert Ledru, a French police detective, was asked to investigate a murder on the beach. Examining the evidence--the fatal bullet and some footprints--he decided he had been sleepwalking on the beach and fired the fatal shot. He turned himself in.

Pollard case
William Pollard was a farmer whose neighbors knew him well as a sleepwalker and sleepworker--doing his chicken-farm chores while fast asleep. One night he dreamed he was fighting with a marauding stranger. When his wife awakened him, he found he had killed their daughter.

How the law dealt with these eight
The volume says how the law dealt with them, adding that Western law recognizes sleepwalking as a defense but is otherwise not consistent. "Griggs and Pollard were never charged; 'A. F.,' Kiger, and Boshears were acquitted; Fraser and Ledru were acquitted but ordered by the court to sleep henceforth only by themselves, in locked rooms; while Gnypiuk, denied an appeal to the British House of Lords, was hanged."

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