Show yrvjpjp Ti f f z w C SOLVING A RAILWAY MURDER Ty George Barton Col James Fraser and His Wonderful Capture of a Crook Hurried Investigation t a Trip by flight and Other Mysterious I Mysteri-ous Features Are Inoculated Into Col Frasers System of Arritttng at Identity of the Criminal Parties Scene Is Placed in an English Station I I m II I I I r r I co I I HE tlmo was an evenT even-T Ing In July some years ago the place tho sta T tion platform of the North London Hallway company at the Metropolitan Metro-politan borough of Hackney A number of passengers wore there awaiting the six oclock O local from London It arrived presently with f hell ringing clamorously i ° clamorous-ly and engine pulling q i up great clouds of smoke and sparks Tho moment the train came to a full stop a man on the platform made a rush for the nearest railway carriage Ho opened the door and entered but suddenly sud-denly drew back with a look of fear on his face and a cry of horror on his t + lipsTim Tim guard looked and what he saw robbed his tongue of Its glibness The setting sun sent a golden streak into the coach and the glaring light revealed re-vealed there on tho bluo cushions a pool of red blood Tho guard and the hesitating passenger entered together I and made a careful examination of I the carriage The mans first sight had not flecolved him There could bo no possible doubt about it The cushions of the carriage were soaked with hut hu-t man blood Inside the coach was a hat a walking stick and a small black r1 I leather bag The railway carriage was run on to its destination and a dispatch Instantly Instant-ly Hashed to Col James Fraser the head of the London police forco In the meantime tho most persistent crossquestioning failed to throw any light whatever upon the mystery of i tho bloodsoaked cushions The guard j remembered in a hazy sort of way that two men had entered the carriage b 4 Just before tho main left Fenchurch street in London His Impression was that they wero together but he had no certain recollection of that As to q their appearance he was totally at sea He only know that ho had a r crowded train that day and In the Hurry and hustle of his work paid but I scant attention to Individuals There was one clue however and that was of a character that could not be overlooked even In the density displayed dis-played by the railway officials It was the ImprcssUvn of a bloodstained hand on the door of the railway carriage The first act of Col Fraser was to order the guilty carriage out of service Ho directed that special pains be taken to preserve the impression of tho bloodstained hand so that it could be referred to whenever when-ever tho occasion demanded That same night word came to police po-lice headquarters that the body of a welldressed man had been discovered at a spot where the North London g4 railway passes Victoria park Tho man was unconscious but still allvo Ho was taken to a nearby hospital and all that medical science could do was done to rostore him to consciousness but in vain Ho died within 24 hours without saying a word It was evident from the start that ho had been murdered mur-dered Unfortunately his head and face had been beaten so cruelly that he was unrecognizable Just at a time when the solution of his Identity seemed farthest away the hospital authorities au-thorities came upon a card In his vest b pocket It read Thomas Briggs Rob arts Co Lombard street London 1 An officer was at once dispatched to the office of Roberts Company In Lombard street Tho head of that firm aid that Mr Briggs was their chief I clerk and ono of their most valued employes and that they were at a 44 total loss to account for his unexplained I J unex-plained absence from his post Ho had been with their banking house for nearly half a century and during all of that time had prdmptly reported for work as tho clock was striking nine Ho failed to da so that morning morn-Ing and they had assumed that ho was 111 Just as they wero preparing to send an Inquiry to his home a message mes-sage was received stating that he had not returned to his house in Hackney the night before A hurried investigation investiga-tion proved that Mr Brlggs left his home at tho usual hour on tho previous pre-vious day Ho carried a goldheaded cane and woro gold rimmed eyeglasses I eye-glasses and had In his possession a gold watch and chain After concluding conclud-ing his business at the bank ho left at tho usual hour In tho afternoon and pilled with his married daughter at Peckham Ho returned to the city In time to take tho regular train at Fen church street for his home at Hackney Hack-ney That was tho last time he was ever seen alive It did not take many hours to Provo that the unoffending clerk of itobarts Company and tho unknown Individual whoso body had been found near Victoria park wero one and the same person and that tho old gentleman gentle-man had been brutally murdered for his money The eyeglasses and tho gold watch and chain were both missIng miss-Ing The bloodsoaked cushions tho general disorder of the railway carriage car-riage and the imprint of tho bloody hnnd on the door of tho vehicle proved that a terrible struggle had taken place before the foul deed was accomplished It must have been done very quickly because the distance from Fenchurch street from whence the train started and Hackney was only a matter of three miles In fact tho deed must have been committed Immediately after tho train loft tho city for tho body had been thrown Into tho bushes of Victoria park and tho murderer had evidently jumped from the train before It reached Hackney Hack-ney station But the days went by and there was no result The newspapers were filled with the details of the crime and there was great public indignation Tho oldest old-est citizens of the metropolis wrote scathing letters to the London Times in which they inquired dramatically whether it was possible for a man togo to-go on a railway journey In tIe heart of tho British Empire without incurring in-curring the risk of being murdered The police chafed under this criticism but still they did not appear to make any progress Col Fraser sat in his office day by day and tried to solvo the problem Ho finally resolved that It would be necessary to trace tho gold watch and chain that had been stolen from Mr Briggs before it would be possible to get a clue to the man who had committed tho murder Every pawnshop in or around the metropolis was visited but nono of thorn possessed pos-sessed any jewelry that corresponded to that which had boon stolen from the bank clerk In the railway carriage Col Fraser was not satisfied with these reports and determined to personally per-sonally prosecute his inquiries and researches In another direction Ho selected the jewelers of London and hegan his work in the locality known as Cheapsldo To his delight he camo upon a significant sig-nificant clue within 21 hours Mr Graves a jeweler in Cheapsldo possessed pos-sessed a gold chain which was identical identi-cal with tho ono that had been owned by Mr Briggs The jeweler said that ho had accepted tho chain In exchange ex-change for another ono which ho had given to a foreign looking person who I had called at hla establishment To add to tho Importance of this discovery discov-ery It was learned that the exchange of the jewelry had been made on the day following the murder of Thomas Briggs Tho news of this first link In the chain of evidence was widely published pub-lished in tho London newspapers On the day following while Col Fraser was seated at his desk in tho police headquarters the door opened and a stranger entered the room 110 was a short stout redfaced man wearing a bluo coat with brass buttons Tho man carried a whip and from his dress and manner was evidently a cabman Ho saluted In an awkward manner Is this Col Franer It Is was thp terse response And may you bo the chief of police po-lice Thats what I am called sometimes some-times was the Indulgent response Well my names Bobby Smith Glad to ace you Mr Smith Im a cabman An honorable vocation responded tho colonel with a smile I understand youre investigating tho murder of Mr Briggs At this Col Fraser was all atten tlon He scanned tho mans face carefully care-fully and replied Yes I am Can you furnish mo with I any Information on tho subject I dont know was the response but I havo a little box hero that may interest you Whereupon ho handed Col Fraser a jewelers little card box bearing tho name of Mr Graves tho Cheapsldo Jeweler The olllcor looked it over I and said I Whero did you get thlut 4I7m I I 1 j f t H I 7 f i 74TcY 2fzE7z42f7 r It belongs to my little girl was the reply Where did she get It It was given to her by a man who lOdged with ushis namo Is Franz Muller Ho loft very suddenly after the papers had become full of the Mystery of the Railway Carriage This was news with a vengeance The cabman was taken In hand and subjected to a rigorous cross examia tlon He told all about his German lodger and said among other things that tho man had left his photograph on tho bureau in the secondstory back room where he had lodged The police immediately secured the photograph and Col Fraser hastened to Cheap side and presented it to Graves the Jeweler Did you over see that man ho inquired I did was the reply lIe Is the foreigner who came hero and ex changed tho chain on the day after the Driggs murder Col Fraser returned to the cabmans homo and hbld another long interview With tho redfaced person who had so providentially furnished him with a cluoTho Tho cabby proved to be a veritable mine of information Ho testified among other things that ho had purchased pur-chased tho hat which was found in the railway carriage doing so at tho request re-quest of Muller his Gorman boarder It was learned that Muller had transferred trans-ferred his residence to a cheap lodging lodg-ing house in tho Whltechapcl district dis-trict This was carefully guarded and Col Fraser having supplied himself with a warrant went there one morning morn-ing to arrest the suspect Two men were stationed III the front of tho house and two In the rear and Cot Frasor himself went upstairs to make the arrest Ho hammered at the door There was no response He burst It open and foundnothIng The room was empty The bird had flown Col Frazer realized the Importance of prompt and speedy action and ho at once formulated plans by which two of the shrewdest detectives in tho metropolis were detailed to go to America to arrest Mr Franz Muller Bobby Smith the cabman and Mr Graves tho Jeweler of Cheapsldo were sent with tho officers for the purpose of Identifying Muller This curlqusly assorted quartet Immediately Immediate-ly I went to Liverpool and took tho first steamer across the Atlantic It proved to be tho City of Manchester which in its day was ono of the fast ocean liners but which at tho present tlmo would bo ranked among the slow freighters However time sailing vessel In which Muller took passage was oven slower and It was calculated that the Manchester would reach New York some days before tho Victoria It was an anxious voyage and the time was counted with feverish Impatience Impa-tience but the expectations of tho pursuers were realized and the Man chusfer reached New York more than 48 hours ahead of the Victoria Tho four men waited on the dock and as soon as the vessel reached tho pier they went aboard Muller had been quite sick on the way over and ho came on deck looking palo and careworn care-worn Mr Graves and the cabman recognized him at once and shouted In unison Thats the man I The two detectives immediately placed him under arrest and before leaving tho vessel made a search of the prisoners box Tho watch belonging belong-ing to the murdered man was found In his trunk wrapped up In a piece of leather Most audacious of all Muller at the time of his capture was wearing wear-Ing the hat which belonged to the murdered man It had been cut down and somewhat altered but there was no difficulty In finding traces which made it correspond to the article of headgear which had been In tho family of the victim for many years Through tho cooperation of the American authorities extradition papers pa-pers wero speedily prepared and tho prisoner went back to England In tho custody of his four captors arriving there in the middle of September of the year of the murder Although the Bertilllon system of Identification by means of thumbprints had not been perfected at that time tho first steps taken by the authorities was to secure tho Impressions of the prisoners hands These wero carefully compared with tho bloodprint on the door of the railway carriage and tho marks of the right hand wore found to correspond fairly well witi the blondstalnoa impression im-pression on the door of tno coach The trial occurred at tho next session ses-sion of the general criminal court Sir Robert Call reI the solicitor gen eral had charge of tho prosecution which was based entirely upon circumstantial cir-cumstantial evidence It was charged that Muller had committed tho murder mur-der under a sudden impulse that standing at the station ho had noticed I no-ticed Mr Briggs watch and chain and Jowolry and was filled with an overwhelming over-whelming desire to possess them that on tho spur of the moment he had determined de-termined to follow him Into tho carriage car-riage Tho victim resijlcd but his as 1 sallant determined to possess the valuables val-uables no matter at what cost Ho had tried to choke Mr Briggs into insensibility in-sensibility and not succeeding in that had seized hold of a life preserver pre-server such as is carried in English railway carriages and had used it to batter In tho head of his venerable victim There was a deep wound over ho ear tho skull was fractured and there wore several other blows on the head Following up this presentation of the crime the distinguished sollc Itorgeneral presented pleco by piece tho bits of evidence which In his mind convicted Franz Muller of tho murder of Thomas Briggs Sir Robert Collyer said that it was tho strongest circumstantial evidence which had over been brought forward In a murder mur-der case In his time Muller on his part tot up an alibi but it was not very well substantiated and tho Jury without tho slightest hesitation returned re-turned a verdict of guilty After Ills conviction Muller Insisted that he had been found guilty upon a false statement of facts His case was taken up by the Society for the Protection of Germans In England and tho most powerful influences wore exerted there and abroad to obtain a reprieve for tho convict In the meantime I mean-time Muller was urged to mako a confession of his crime Ho evaded any direct response to un this appeal usually no I usual-ly saying Why should man confess to man Man cannot forgive man only God can do so Man Is therefore only accountable to God Ho persisted In maintaining this attlttfdo until tho very last Ho was not a vicious man in any manner or way and it was quite evident that his crime was not premeditated and this fact at times caused some uneasiness of conscience to his captors His refusal to admit his guilt was perplexing and disquieting I Finally tho day of execution arrived I A German pastor attended him to tho scaffold and urged him to make his peace with God Tho black cap was placed over his eyes and tho ropo was adjusted about his neck Tho executioner execu-tioner prepared to glvo the signal which would launch him into otor nlty At that psychological moment Muller leaned over and whispered in the ear of his pastor I did it The next second tho drop bad slipped and Franz Muller had gono to meet his Creator Copyright IMS by W G Chapman |