The First British Railway Murder by James Gardner

Author:James Gardner [Gardner, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-09-24T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

Amongst the national newspapers, the Morning Star led the campaign to obtain a reprieve.

As the time for Muller’s execution draws near a very uneasy feeling begins to pervade a large portion of society that the whole truth has not yet been ascertained… Large sections of the community consider Muller not guilty. The Home Secretary can never err in giving a few days longer to a doomed man, he may err greviously in refusing time in a case like the present.[36]

The next day on 11th November, the same newspaper followed up with another powerful editorial.

… witnesses most familiar with Muller’s hat were never asked whether the one found in the railway carriage belonged to Muller or not. According to Blyths he had the same hat on Saturday as he had on Sunday. Mrs Blyth would have noticed a new hat. This is why the prosecution never asked it for fear of upsetting the evidence of Matthews who could not possibly have seen Muller’s hat for weeks. Why did the defence take no notice of this startling omission? The Blyths did not think the[shabby] hat found in the railway carriage was Muller’s.

The conduct of the police in not showing the hat first of all to those witnesses who were necessarily the best that could be produced creates a painful impression, and the subsequent omission at the trial to supply this glaring defect is utterly inexplicable. The hat alleged to be Mr Brigg’s which Muller said he had had for two months has never been shown to his landlady… The proof that it was the hat of Mr Briggs is by no means so strong as to stand in the face of clear and decisive negative testimony… Are these facts not worthy of a patient investigation before so dread a penalty as death is inflicted? We need a reprieve for a few days to establish the truth of these facts. An ably written pamphlet by Dr Walter Smith of the Inner Temple claims “Muller cannot yet be said to have been tried, in great measure due to the defect in the law which does not make an examination of the prisoner as a necessary part of such inquiries.

Other newspapers criticized the judge’s assertion that “It is only necessary to justify a conviction that the jury should have the certainty with which they transact their own most important concerns” as too subjective. An Edinburgh newspaper noted in its editorial that “although the prisoner was found guilty we did not get an explanation of the murder… the public mind was not perfectly satisfied”.

In fact, although the prosecution had said the motive for the crime was money it had not been a completely convincing one. Muller was a wheeler dealer in clothes but had not been that poor. He had lent money to Mrs Repsch. He had also lent money to Mrs Matthews and her sister. Just before leaving for America he had bought six new shirts which he had asked Mrs Blyth to wash for him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.