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Murder In The First-Class Carriage: The First Victorian Railway Killing (2011)

by Kate Colquhoun(Favorite Author)

3.47 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1590206754 (ISBN13: 9781590206751)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Overlook Hardcover

review 1: Thoroughly deserved 5 stars for one of my best reads of this year. This book delivers exactly as promised...a 'sensational' account of the murder of Thomas Briggs, and subsequent detection, dramatic pursuit, capture, arrest, trial, sentence and execution of the murderer (wont reveal his name!). It also brilliantly contextualises the murder in the wider Victorian society as a whole, allowing readers to understand the fear caused by this, a senseless and unprovoked attack of a repectable and well-to-do gentleman on a railway...that very symbol of Victorian progress and industry. The lurid interest in the murder at the time, brought to life by the descriptions of the tumultous crowds gathering for the execution (no doubt fodder for the 'Penny Dreadfuls') certainly demonstrate... mores a thirst for gore pretty characteristic for the time. Though my own appetite to read this book left me wondering if I was any different...?
review 2: Thomas Briggs was attacked and ejected from a railway carriage in July 1864. His injuries were severe and he subsequently died from them without regaining consciousness. He was a banker and had done well for himself during his life. He was seventy when he died, taking the secrets of the attack to his grave. The alarm was first raised by fellow employees of the bank when they got into the railway carriage and found it spattered with blood. About the same time Briggs was discovered on the railway line and carried to a nearby public house. There was a battered hat left in the carriage which did not belong to Briggs and it was this hat which later led to the German tailor who was executed for his murder.But was he really the murderer? He seemed too open, honest and mild mannered to have attacked anyone. Franz Muller, while not being very good with money, seems to have been an inoffensive person but there was overwhelming circumstantial evidence against him. In a chase as exciting as any fiction Muller was pursued to New York by the police and two of the witnesses against him and brought back to England. He had the victim’s gold watch – identified by serial numbers – and his hat in his possession. He could have come by them honestly as he claimed but it seemed unlikely especially when the hat which remained in the railway carriage was identified as Muller’s.In spite of this evidence a modern barrister could have probably constructed a defence and enough reasonable doubt to save his client from the gallows. The police seem not to have investigated the sighting by several people of the agitated man on the same train and the two men seen in the same compartment by a friend of the victim. They also seem not to have paid too much attention to the two young men who found the blood in the railway carriage and who had direct links with the victim. Briggs’ family believed he had received threats because he had rejected a loan application,There is enough doubt in the case to exercise the imagination of the observant reader of this fascinating book and plenty of sources listed if anyone wishes to take the story further. It is an intriguing story and I read it in less than twenty four hours. There are copious notes on the text, a list of the dramatis personae and an index as well as illustrations which display well in this e-book edition. The book is well written and as exciting as any detective fiction. less

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