Franz Muller

Franz Müller (31 October 1840 – 14 November 1864), was a German tailor who was hanged for the murder of Thomas Briggs, the first killing on a British train. The case caught the imagination of the public due to increasing safety fears about rail travel at the time, and the pursuit of Müller across the Atlantic Ocean to New York by Scotland Yard.

Crime

On 9 July 1864 Thomas Briggs, a 69-year-old City banker, was beaten and robbed while he travelled on the 9.50pm North London Railway train from Fenchurch Street to Chalk Farm. The assailant took his gold watch and gold spectacles, but left £5 in Briggs's pockets, and threw his body from the compartment. Just after 10.00pm, the driver of a train travelling in the opposite direction spotted Briggs lying on the embankment next to the tracks between the old Bow and Victoria Park & Hackney Wick stations, described as "his foot towards London and his head towards Hackney, at a spot about two-thirds of the distance 1 mile 414 yards between Bow and Hackney stations" or approximately 51°32′23.08″N 0°1′36.21″W / 51.5397444°N 0.0267250°W / 51.5397444; -0.0267250.