The Chieftain: Victorian True Crime Through The Eyes of a Scotland Yard Detective

by Payne, Chris

  Matthews’ evidence identified a young German, Franz Müller, as the prime suspect. Müller was a tailor and a regular visitor to Matthews’ home. Indeed, only the previous Tuesday (12 July), Müller had visited and had given Matthews’ youngest daughter a small cardboard box, ‘such as jewellers put their various wares in’, bearing the name and address of John Death.14 Matthews was also able to provide a photograph of Müller, and informed the police that he had bought Müller a hat a few months ago, similar to one of his own, which Müller had paid for in kind by making Matthews a waistcoat. Without delay the police took the cardboard box and photograph to John Death’s silversmith premises in Cheapside. Death identified the box as being of the type that he would have used to pack a watch chain and ring, and, on seeing the photograph of Müller, recognised him as the foreigner who had exchanged the gold watch chain for those items. Meanwhile, Matthews was taken to Scotland Yard and shown the hat found in the railway compartment, which he duly identified as the hat that he had bought for Müller.

  Why it took Matthews so long to come forward with his information remains a question even today. His explanation was that he simply hadn’t heard about the Briggs murder despite the extensive newspaper coverage, street gossip and widespread bill-posting.15 This issue and other aspects of Matthews’ evidence were later to be challenged by defence lawyers at the Old Bailey. However, for Inspector Tanner and his team it provided the best information received so far on the identity of the possible murderer. Tanner promptly proceeded to Bow Street Police Court to obtain a warrant for the arrest of Müller. Matthews had also provided the police with details of the address where Müller lodged, at 16 Park Terrace, Victoria Park. Here, the landlady Mrs Ellen Blyth confirmed that Müller had stayed there for some seven weeks, but had informed her about fourteen days previously of his intention to leave England for America. Having somehow raised sufficient money for a steerage passage, he had boarded the sailing ship Victoria on Thursday 14 July, which had left London the next day, headed for New York. Mrs Blyth had already received a letter from Müller dated 16 July and postmarked ‘Worthing’:

  On the sea, July 16 in the morning. Dear Friends, – I am glad to confess that I cannot have a better time, as I have; if the sun shines nice and the wind blows fair, as it is at the present moment, everything will go well. I cannot write any more, only I have no postage; you will be so kind to take that letter in.16

  So, the suspected murderer had escaped – or had he? For sailing packets, such as the Victoria, the average Atlantic crossing time from England to the east coast of America was about thirty-six days. Isambard Brunel had shown as early as 1838, with the Great Western, that the journey time could be reduced to as little as fifteen days if the traveller went by steamship.17 Having hurriedly packed and bidden farewell to their families, Tanner and Clarke headed out of Euston station on Tuesday 19 July on the 9 p.m. train for Liverpool. They were accompanied by the two main witnesses, John Death and Jonathan Matthews. On 20 July, the four men boarded the Inman Line steamship City of Manchester, which departed from Liverpool Docks for New York at 11 a.m.18 Inspector Kerressey stayed behind to obtain a further warrant and followed Tanner and Clarke on 22 July, sailing from Liverpool on another of the Inman Line’s fleet of steamships, the City of Cork.19 The chase was on to get to America before Müller.

  The sixteen days it took Tanner and Clarke to reach New York provided them with time to take stock of the case, and to plan their strategy once they arrived. They had to be self sufficient, as there was no opportunity for communicating with their colleagues in London while on the ship. In 1864 the use of wireless telegraphy was many years away, and wireless communication did not impact on the international tracking-down of criminals at sea until its use in the arrest of Dr Crippen on 31 July 1910. In addition, it was only in 1866 that lasting cable telegraphic links were established between Britain and America, so, even when they reached New York on 5 August, Clarke and Tanner were only able to contact Scotland Yard through messages sent by steamship.20 Despite the relative isolation in which the two detectives had to make their decisions, the absence of an effective means of communicating between ship and shore was also beneficial for them as Müller would not be able to hear the news that he was being pursued unless the Victoria called in at another port en route. Events back home suggested that this would be unlikely. Before they had left England, the Victorian equivalent of an ‘all ports alert’ for the Victoria had been put out by Scotland Yard, informing police in British (including Irish) ports where the Victoria might call in, ‘to search for and arrest Franz Müller’.21

  On board the City of Manchester, Tanner and Clarke must have wondered what reception they would receive when they reached New York. America was in the throes of a prolonged and bloody civil war. While Britain had maintained a formal position of neutrality, the political and economic tensions were considerable. The war had produced adverse effects on some sectors of the British economy, particularly the textile industry of north-west England, since 1861, when there had been an interruption in the imports of baled cotton from America’s southern states. One consequence was that large parts of Lancashire’s workforce went from being the most prosperous workers in Britain to the most impoverished.22 This had led to some overt support in Britain for the Confederacy, which had been exacerbated in the eyes of Union politicians by the manufacture in Britain of some warships, including the Alabama. The ship had been built in secret at Birkenhead in 1862, through the collaboration of a Confederate agent and a cotton broker in Liverpool. Launched in July 1862 as the Enrica, it had sailed with a civilian crew to the Azores, where it was commissioned as the Alabama. Operating with a crew that still included some British nationals, the Alabama had served for two years as a commerce raider, attacking Union merchant and naval ships in a total of seven expeditionary raids. In this time, she boarded nearly 450 vessels and captured or burned sixty-five Union ships, but had finally met her end off Cherbourg on 19 June 1864 under the guns of the United States’ Ship Kearsage.23 Tanner and Clarke would have known of the recent demise of the Alabama before they left for America, and must have wondered whether the wounds inflicted on the Union cause by a British-manufactured, and partly British-manned ship, would affect their reception in New York.

  Their voyage was also not without incident. On 23 July Tanner fell down a stairway and injured his back. Whether he had not yet gained his sea legs or had over indulged on the ship’s rum we will probably never know, but the accident confined him to his bunk for four days and, despite on-board treatment, he required further treatment for his injury after arriving in New York.24 On 5 August, the City of Manchester finally berthed at Manhattan.

  Tanner’s first substantive report to Mayne was sent on 9 August, relaying the information that the Victoria was not expected to arrive until 20 August at the earliest.25 Tanner also reported a visit to the British Consul, who had advised him to communicate with the chief of police in New York, Superintendent Kennedy, and with the legal counsel for the consulate, Mr Marbury. Tanner met with Kennedy and Inspector Carpenter of the New York Metropolitan Police and had been assured that he would receive all the aid he required.26 Marbury had informed the detectives that the arrest of Müller in American territory must be made by an officer deputed by the New York police. With Kennedy’s agreement, Sergeant John Tiernan had been selected for this responsibility as he was stationed 8 miles up the bay, at Sandy Hook, alongside the medical officer whose duty it was to board each ship before the captain was able to enter the harbour and disembark the passengers. If arrested, the prisoner would need to be taken before a commissioner for the extradition hearing. Tanner also informed Mayne that he was taking every possible step to prevent Müller escaping. To reduce the chance of escape happening a reward of £5 had been offered to any ship’s pilot who boarded the Victoria, to ensure that they communicated only to the ship’s captain the police plans to board the ship and arrest Müller. Tanner had sent Clarke and Kerressey about 7 miles up the ba
y, to Staten Island, to locate all potential ships’ pilots. From here they could also give early warning of the Victoria’s impending arrival and do everything possible to prevent Müller’s escape, rescue or kidnapping by bounty hunters; all of which were seen as real dangers.27

  By the time of Tanner’s report of 16 August, the impact of the Civil War was starting to introduce worrying complications, and the New York summer weather was adding to the problems:

  … the Victoria has not yet arrived, or since the 25th July been heard of. My arrangements are very much (just at the present time) complicated, for a Confederate vessel named Tallahassee paid a visit outside New York harbour and destroyed several ships, one of which the Adriatic belonging to same owners as the Victoria, and I fear, the Victoria will share the same fate … We are all well, but suffer somewhat from the very great heat.28

  Tanner was right to be concerned about the Confederate ship. The Tallahassee was yet another British-built ship. It had only been commissioned in the Confederate navy as recently as 20 July 1864, the same day as Tanner and Clarke had sailed from Liverpool. Under its new flag it ran the Union blockade of its home port, Wilmington, North Carolina, on 6 August and then undertook a spectacular nineteen-day raid off the Atlantic coast as far north as Halifax, Nova Scotia, destroying twenty-six ships and capturing seven others. Amongst them the Victoria’s sister ship, the Adriatic, had been seized and burned, though the Tallahassee lost her main mast in the process.29 There had been no casualties amongst the passengers and crew of the Adriatic, but they had suffered a considerable ordeal. They had been transferred to a small barque which took two days to reach land, had inadequate food and water, and provided standing room only for the passengers. In addition, most of the passengers had lost their possessions, which had been burned with the Adriatic.30 If such a fate befell the Victoria, what chance would Tanner and his colleagues have to arrest Müller and to locate any incriminating evidence that he might have been carrying in his luggage? Fortunately, as events turned out, the Confederate vessel headed north and did not interfere with the Victoria’s passage.

  On 23 August, Tanner was still waiting. ‘Up to this date we have no tidings of the ship Victoria she is now 40 days out and may be hourly expected.’31 Shortly after he had sent this message he received a telegram from Sandy Hook, that the Victoria had at last been sighted off the coast. Once the ship was in American waters (and only then), Tanner was able to obtain a warrant for the arrest of Müller from Commissioner Charles Newton. Despite various efforts on the part of the British detectives to prevent the news of the arrival of the Victoria becoming widespread knowledge, there were soon reports of groups of people in boats and on the shoreline, hailing the ship with shouts of ‘How are you, Müller the murderer’, ‘Throw the murderer overboard’ and similar expressions.32 Fortunately, these were not heard or understood by the man himself. At last, on the evening of Wednesday 24 August, Sergeants Clarke and Tiernan climbed on board the Victoria from the medical officer’s boat in Staten Island Bay. They found that Müller was unaware of what was about to happen. Clarke later described Müller’s arrest:

  On 24th last August I went on board the ship Victoria at New York. Mr Tiernan, an officer of the New York police, was in company with me. The prisoner was on board. He was called to the after part of the ship by the captain. I seized hold of him by his arms. He said ‘What is the matter’. Tiernan said, ‘You are charged with the murder of Mr Briggs’. I found that Tiernan did not remember the particulars, and I followed by saying ‘Yes, on the North London Railway between Hackney Wick and Bow, on 9th July’. The prisoner said, ‘I was never on the line’. I do not know whether he said, ‘that night’, or whether he said ‘I never was on the line’. I told him my name, and that I was a policeman from London, and pointing to Mr Tiernan, that he was a policeman of New York. I then took him down stairs into the saloon. Tiernan searched him in my presence. A key was taken from his waistcoat pocket. I have it here. I took possession of it and said, ‘What is this the key of?’ He said ‘The key of my box’. I said ‘Where is your box’. He said ‘In my berth’. In consequence of what the captain told me, I went to No. 9 berth and found a large black box which I brought into the saloon where the prisoner was standing. He said ‘That is my box’. I unlocked it with this key that I had taken from his waistcoat pocket, and in a corner of the box I found this watch (produced). It was then sewn up in a piece of leather. I have the piece in which it was sewn up. I said to the prisoner, ‘What is this?’ believing it to be a watch as I felt it in my hand. He said ‘It is my watch’. I then took up the hat that was standing in the box, and said ‘Is this your hat?’ He said ‘Yes, it is the hat’ (produced). I said ‘How long have you possessed them?’ He said ‘I have had the watch about two years, and the hat about twelve months’. I told him he would have to remain in custody and be taken to New York. I kept him on board all night. Inspector Tanner came in the morning and I then gave him over to him.33

  Clarke then questioned members of the crew and some of the other passengers to establish how Müller had behaved during the journey. The reports that emerged suggested that Müller had been better behaved and more popular than some passengers. There had, however, been some trouble which was attributed to his ‘overbearing manner’ and, on one occasion, he received a black eye for calling a fellow passenger ‘a liar and a robber’.34

  Tanner, when he arrived on board, had brought Death with him and conducted an ‘identification parade’ in which Müller was placed amongst a group of eight other steerage passengers in a cabin. Death duly picked out Müller as the man who had exchanged Briggs’ watch chain on 11 July.35 Tanner briefly reported progress to Mayne: ‘The Victoria has arrived at New York and Müller has been arrested. The hat and watch of Mr Briggs were found in his possession. Müller protested his innocence and the legal proceedings in reference to his extradition are progressing.’36 The news of the arrest did not arrive in Britain until 7 September. When it was received, newspapers across the country devoted numerous column inches to the story. Few of the press reports sought to present a balanced picture of the case, with Müller’s presumed guilt being implicit in every story. Several articles contained the first descriptions of Müller:

  He is apparently about five feet six or seven inches in height, compactly built and about twenty-four or twenty-five years of age. His forehead is well developed, hair light, no whiskers or moustache, and eyes blue, but very small and very deeply set in his head; while his mouth is decidedly repulsive from its extreme width and protuberance, impressing one with the idea of dogged obstinacy and vindictive relentlessness.37

  The extradition hearing was the next hurdle for Tanner and Clarke to overcome. Mr Marbury presented the case for the British Consulate and Müller was represented by Messrs Shaffer and Blankman, thanks to the German Legal Protection Society of London who paid for his defence. The first day was filled by prosecution evidence and the cross-examination of Tanner, Clarke, Kerressey, Tiernan, Death and Matthews. The second day was to prove to be a memorable day of courtroom theatre. It started quietly enough with Müller’s counsel seeking an adjournment to give them further time to prepare the defence. When this was refused, Chauncey Shaffer played the Alabama ‘card’:

  He was not present to-day to quarrel with the policy of England, but here he would fearlessly state at the outset that he did not regard the treaty under which it was sought to extradite this man as anything else than a violation of the Constitution of the United States and utterly inoperative … He would show conclusively that it [the Treaty] was at present suspended by the act of the British Government … There is that hostility on the part of English subjects towards this country which writers on international law denominate ‘mixed and unsolemn war’ … England cannot say she is neutral in this matter when she furnishes our rebellious subjects with vessels of war, mans them, opens her ports to them, furnishes them with arms and ammunition and sends them forth on their errands of destruction, burning merchant s
hips and destroying the commerce on the seas of a friendly Power. The Alabama, built and armed in England, and manned by Englishmen, sunk and burned 120 of our ships … But as in the case before the Court, when a man is found murdered near London, they pursue the supposed murderer to our shores and cry ‘Treaty, treaty, treaty’. They tore that treaty to pieces three years ago (Applause). Nay, more than that, great argosies, laden with the choicest treasures of the nation, have been sunk in countless numbers with connivance and consent of the neutral, friendly Power … England, to claim this man [Müller], must come into court with clean hands. She must not come here and ask to honour her justice when she dishonours her own justice, breaks her treaties and cries peace and neutrality, while at the same time she lets slip the dogs of war.38

  Shaffer’s tour de force must have been a painful experience for the Englishmen in court that day. Fortunately, Marbury resisted the temptation to argue on the same political ground as Shaffer and concentrated on the evidence, presenting a telling claim that there was a complete chain of evidence that justified Müller’s committal and extradition. He was rewarded for his restraint by the verdict delivered by Commissioner Newton. While complimenting Müller’s defence team for their performance, Newton concluded that there was sufficient evidence to commit Müller.39

  Tanner waited for the newspapers to emerge on 28 August before reporting back to Mayne:

  I beg further to report that yesterday the final examination of Müller took place when the Commissioner decided that it was a case in which he should certify for a warrant of extradition. It will be seen by the newspapers which I send also by this mail that strong language was used by the prisoner’s counsel in reference to England and the applause it gained. When the papers are ready I go on to Washington to obtain the warrant from the President [Abraham Lincoln] to take the prisoners home. I do not know how long it will take but I shall endeavour to leave here by the steamship, Etna, on the 3 September for Liverpool. I beg also to state that extraordinary as it may seem, strong sympathy is felt here for the prisoner and it is rumoured that an attempt to rescue him from my custody will be made.40