On the evening of 9 July 1864, Thomas Briggs, chief clerk at a London bank in Lombard Street,, boarded a train at Fenchurch Street station – and was the first person to be murdered on a train in Britain. He was found, badly beaten, on the track between Bow and Hackney by the crew of a London-bound train. He was taken to a nearby public house where a doctor found he had a fractured skull. He died soon afterwards.

The subsequent police investigation reads like a crime novel. Inspector Tanner of Scotland Yard learned from those who knew Briggs that he always wore gold-rimmed spectacles and a gold watch and chain. None of these were found in the blood-soaked compartment where the attack had taken place.  Eventually a jeweller named John Death reported being sold a gold watch chain from a “foreign” customer he believed to be German.

On 18 July, the police received Information from a cabman named Matthews whose eldest daughter had been engaged to a young man known as Franz Muller.  Muller had given the girl a gift in a small box, which she gave to her youngest sister as a plaything. Matthews had been shown the box, and noticed by chance the name “John Death” printed inside.

It was a lucky day for Inspector Tanner: Matthews had a photo of Muller, and John Death confirmed this as the customer who sold him the watch chain. On 19 July a warrant was issued for Muller’s arrest but Tanner’s quarry was already on board a sailing ship bound for America.

In the best Edgar Wallace mystery style, Tanner rushed to Liverpool where he took an Atlantic steamer. This arrived in New York several weeks before the sailing ship, so that when Muller eventually disembarked, he walked straight into the man from Scotland Yard.

Charged with the murder of Briggs, Muller was found guilty and hanged

publicly on 14 November before a crowd estimated at 50,000, many of whom had

taken the day off to witness the event. So ended the story of Britain’s very first murder on a train.

[ adapted from an article by Charles Moorhen in History, 25 November 2008. ]

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