The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-23 00:00:00

The Murder of Mr Briggs.

Yesterday Mr Henry, the chief magistrate of Bow street,
granted a second warrant fcr the apprehension of Franz
Muller, the man suspected of murdering Mr Briggs on the
North London Railway.

The former warrant was obtained somewhat hurriedly at
a private sitting, on Tuesday evening last, and it was then
impossible to collect all the evidence desirable for the satis-
faction of the American authorities under the Extradition
Act ; but the officers were obliged to leave by the night train
e
to save the mail packet Manchester, which left Liverpool on
was impossible.
State. a
te. There cart be
Wednesday The warrant
taken, a
however,
wfurtherever,to
delayth
residence of the
American Minister, Mr Adams, by whom it
private was
letter tt e r readilyad -
denr
edsosresde endorsed, andthe
Amfurthererie supplementedansecreSecretary
of
fb
little doubt of the arrival of the Nanchester, under ordinary
circumstances, a day or two in advance of the Victoria, the
the mail packets,
t
sailing vessel which conveys Muller to New York ; but the
of the
to someheswifte sstligoh apprehension asf
fandthisormer a shipc
ishas o tonegiven rise
to the possibility, should any mishap arise, of her being a
few hours too late. With the view therefore of lessening
the chance of Muller's escape, Sir G. Grey and the Police
G.mmissioners resolved to procure a second warrant against
him, supported by additional evidence, and again endorsed
by the American Minister, to be sent out by the mail packet
leaving Liverpool this morning (Saturday), and which is
one of the best on the line.

For this purpose the following witnesses were examined,
and it will be seen that two or three of them were heard for
the first time—the evidence of Mr Lee especially being
somewhat startling, for unless he is mistaken, there must
have been two persons engaged in the murder of Mr Briggs.
Mr David Buchan, 23, Nelson-square, Peckham, woollen
warehouseman, deposed—l am wall acquainted with the
late Mr Briggs. I had known him for many years. He
was uncle to my wife. On the 9th of July last he dined
with me about 5 o'clock, and I afterwards ear him to the
omnibus, the Nelson, in the Old Kent-road. That was about
half-past 8 o'clock. He was to proceed by that omnibus to
King William-street, and get out there for the Fenchurch-
street Station. He was in very good health. He had his
watch safe. I know that because I remember distinctly
seeing him frequently refer to it to ascertain the time. I
believe the chain now produced, which I have examined, to
be his, but I am more particularly able to identify the old-
fashioned key and the broken seal. I had observed the
piece chipped out of the stone of the seal months ago. The
chain is an Albert guard which was given to him about 2
years ago by a friend. Ha formerly wore a different kind
of chain. When he came to my house he had with him
the black bag now produced, in which he had brought
something for us, and I am almost certain it was empty
when he left. We had offered to send it back, but ho said
it was not necessary, as it would give him no trouble to
carry it.
Mr Henry said that for the sake of form, and in order to
enter the fact on the depositions, it was necessary to ask
the witness if Mr Briggs was perfectly sober when he left
witness's house.

Witness replied that he was perfectly sober—indeed, he
was a man of very temperate habits. On Sunday witness
hearing that Mr Briggs was laid up and in a vory precarious
state, went to his house in Clapton-square, and found him
lying on the point of death.

Mr Thomas Lee—l live at 4, Parkfield-villas, King Ed-
ward's-road, Hackney,

at the What are you?
Mr Burnaby (the chief cleroltu)t—l
ern. I knew the late
MrWEitrnigegsss—wloalml. aTpbrievlaat
saw him was on the
nightwaitio
go f
otnh et b
09th
platformin s t instant, t
Bo
, at
set
g time
about ten o'clock. I was
Bow Station for a train to
go to Hackney, when the carriages came up, and I saw
him in a first-class compartment.
He said " Good
night, Tom," and I answered
" Good night, Tom."
Knowing his early habits, I felt
some surprise at seeing
him out so late. He appeared it:t
spirits. lie
was
sitting
with
his his usual health and
back to the engine. There
were two men in the carriage
with him. By his side
was a dark thin man, who seemed to me to be tall, and
opposite to him was a stoutish thickset
whiskers. I noticed that hisb man, with light
and, which was thrust
through the loop at the carriage Window, was of unusual
size. I saw more of him than of the
other, because the light
was fully reflected on his face. They v
com-
partment of a railway carriage,
the division
in the first
'vision nearest to the
engine, and Mr Brigga was sitting in the corner, on the near
side of the line— side on which he would
opposite to the
enter at Fenchurch street. I conversed
with him a few se-
conds while waiting for the train to start, and then got into
a second class carriage further to the
front. The next sta
tion would be Hackney-wick, but I
!eat on to Hackney.
The train had stopped at Hcckney.lnk I heard nothing
of the murder till I saw the papers :
Monday morning.
William Timms, North London. Railway
deposed —I travelled with the train of empty
guard, No. 17,
empty carriages re-
turning about 10.25 from Victoria pa
lying on the rk station to Bow. In
passing the canal bridge I saw an object
six-
foot way below at about 800 yards from the station at
Hackney-wick. The engine driver also
saw
it, and said it
must be either a dog or a man. We both put on the breaks
and stopped the carriages, and we and the fireman got down,
They lifted up the body, and said, ~
We
have run over a
man," The body was taken to the Mitford Castle, Wick-
lane, and it was found he was not dead. After taking the
carriages on to Bow I went back to the Mitford Castle, and
stopped with him all night, helping in
what was being done
to bring him to consciousness. On his face
and whiskers
there were some stains of blood, quite dry.
The contrast
with his full white beard was remarkable.did not examine
his clothes. The first person to identify the body was his
servant, who came over from Clapton, I
was not examined
at the inquest, though I was there.
Mr Alfred Henry Brereton, of Old Ford-road, surgeon,
deposed—On Saturday night the 9th July
I
was called in to
Tat. see Mr Briggs, at the Mitford Castle Tot
about 11 o'clock, I found him lying on a table
in a room
below in an insensible state. A police-constable was search-
ing him, By my direction the body was carried up-stairs,
and placed on a mattress upon a large table, There was a
tranaversejagged wound across the left ear,
and another
jagged wound in front of the same ear.
Above the ear there
very severe
was a large scalp tumour and two
hwounds, one
of them on the upper part of the scalp, the
whole of which
was mote Or less grazed. Both his hands e slightly
I
bruised. He was still alive, but insensible. remained
with him until six o' clock next morning, when lai
arrived with the family medical mhiman. I left in theirs sonre,
and did not see him again alive. I did not see him till Tues-
day,na when I attended the post-mortem examination. On
Sunday morning, at about three o'clock, went with the lastI
witness and a police-sergeant to aamine the part of the line
where the body was found. For a space of abo11 t a foot in
I
diametet the earth was damp with blood. n order the
better to ascertain that it was human blood, I rubbed
an
envelope upon it. On the moistened earth I found a large
stone, weighing about six ounces, and baying blood and light
or grey hair adhering to it. It was a roundish smooth
stone. About five o'clock the same morning I examined
the first-class railway carriage pointed out to me by one of
the railway servants at Bow. On one of the cushions on the
off side there was a smear of bleed, as if from a hand being
wiped on it, and on another cushion there was a spot of
blood about
as large as a half-crown. On the near side seat,
next the engine, there was a great quantity of blood upon
the cuzhion, filling up the cavities formed by the buttons
and still quite liquid. The side windows also had spurt;
and streams of blood upon it—red arterial blood. On the
mat, upon the near side, there was a spot or two of blood.
and a
portion of a link of a gold chain was trodden into
the mat, The mat was handed over to Inspector Kerres-
sey. There was blood also upon the off side foot-board and
wheel of the carriage outside. The next day I attended an
inquest, and on Tuesday I was present at a post mortem
examination. I again examined the scalp externally, ob-
serving the wounds already described. On raising the
scalp it was found that these wounds had not penetrated
entirely through, but there was a great quantity of effused
blood
underneath, and the bone was extensively fractured.
The fractures corresponded exactly with the two severe