Great Train Crimes: Murder and Robbery on the Railways (11 page)

Dr Simpson of South Lambeth Road reported his findings from the post mortem. Death was due to the laceration of the brain, where the bullet had been found. The shot had been fired at very close range. The killer had fired on his victim whilst the former was standing and the latter was seated. Reference was made to the prisoner’s letters which indicated his guilt. The jury concluded that this was murder and Parker was responsible. He was committed to trial at the Old Bailey by coroner’s warrant. There he was found guilty and sentenced to hang. Parker was resigned to his fate.

Parker was hanged at 9 am on 19 March at Wandsworth Prison. The executioners were James and Thomas Billington. As Revd Phipps the prison chaplain said, Parker maintained to the end that the shooting was
an accident carried out when he was drunk.

Alfred Bowker from Winchester had his own ideas about what should be done to prevent such outrages in future. He wrote to
The Times
with his ideas. He was particularly concerned because he had travelled on the same train as Pearson. The fact that the compartments were partitioned from each other isolated passengers from one another. Therefore:

we might at least take a leaf from our Continental friends, for in France and many other places we almost invariably find, when their railway coaches are divided by partitions into several compartments, each compartment has a means of communication by a sliding glass panel, which is inserted in the partitions slightly above the heads of passengers when seated.

People could then speak to others in other compartments and also see what was happening there. This would deter crime, because people in another compartment could see what was happening and then ring the communication cord. It would also reassure nervous passengers. It does not seem that this suggestion found favour.

This murder was hardly original. As with Muller in 1864 and Mapleton in 1881, Parker was a desperate young man in need of money. Selecting as his victim, a prosperous-looking man, he killed him for his money, but was subsequently arrested, tried and hanged; just as his predecessors had been. However, unlike them, he had accelerated the progress of his discovery and arrest by committing his crime in the presence of another, and this was a fatal error. Had he been even more ruthless than he was, he could have shot her dead as well, and this would certainly have delayed his apprehension; whether he would have escaped justice as other train killers in the future were to do is a moot point. Perhaps he would have done.

‘I can’t let you have it, I am going to meet a particular “Tart” tomorrow.’

On Sunday evening of 24 September 1905, the body of a young woman was found on the railway line in Merstham tunnel. At first it seemed that this was either a case of accident or suicide. The body was conveyed to the stables of the nearby Feathers Hotel. PC Burt and PC Carr were the first two policemen on the scene. On closer examination it appeared that this was a case of murder. This was because a scarf was found in her mouth; it was about ten inches within, though fairly loose, but was difficult to pull out. Furthermore, both her purse and her ticket were missing. Superintendent Brice of Surrey Police was in charge of the investigation.

Most of the public facts of the case were disclosed at the two hearings of the inquest, both held at the coffee room of the Feathers Hotel. The inquest was concluded on 2 October. Mr Nightingale, coroner of East Surrey, presided and Brice and Captain Sant of the Surrey Constabulary were also present.

The first fact to emerge was the identity of the victim. She was Miss Mary Sophia Money, born in 1882 in Watford. In 1901 she was employed as a book-keeper in a dairy and then lived in Harrow Wealdstone. By 1905, she was the book-keeper at Henry Bridger’s dairy on Lavender Hill, Battersea. The dairy was actually managed by his brother, Arthur, who did not, unlike the rest of his staff, sleep on the premises. Her wage was 8s per week, plus board and lodging. She had taken the place of Miss Lane, who had been employed there for four years, but who had to leave to look after her sick sister. Her savings amounted to £50 on death. Miss Money’s wages were raised from 6s to 8s a week before her death, because the nature of her duties changed. She was apparently a good worker and the accounts were in order.

Her injuries were horrific. The top of the head and forehead were broken, with the brains being partially torn and out and smashed. Her nose bones were broken. There were other fractures to the skull. Only the lower part of the face was unaffected. There were also bruises around her mouth and on the rest of her body, together with a number of scratches.

Many of these injuries could have been, and undoubtedly were, the result of leaving the train suddenly and then been run over by it. However, there were some which had probably not been inflicted in that way. Dr Wilcox stated:

There were several bruises on the left arm of a livid colour – deep crimson. One ran along the forearm. It was so red that it looked as if it had been stamped on. There were also other bruises above the elbow. On the left hand I found a small crimson bruise on the back of the little finger, this being the only mark on the left hand. On the upper extremity of the right arm I found several dark crimson bruises very clearly defined. Over the front of the bend of the right elbow was a pale blue bruise of a different colour. Another light blue bruise was also found.

The coroner pressed the doctor for his conclusions. He replied, ‘I think they were produced in quite a different way from the others. The others were the result of very considerable violence.’ He thought that she had been alive on leaving the train, and that the bruises on the arm and hand were produced by someone’s grip. They might have been caused by a struggle. If she was defending herself, then it was probable that she would have used her right arm in order to do so (Miss Money was right-handed according to her brother). Some of the other bruises might have been caused by her body being thrust through the compartment door or window.

Emma Hone, a colleague of the victim, gave her evidence. She had helped Miss Money to dress on the evening of 24 September. She had worn a wide white silk scarf around her neck. Although Miss Money had told her she would be back by 9 pm, she had not returned home that night by 11 pm. Their employer, Mr Bridger, came down from the dining room and asked Miss Hone if she could wait up for Miss Money. She agreed and went up to her colleague’s room. Although her latchkey
was in her bag in the room, she herself was not there. Miss Hone waited there for two hours, but to no avail. At 1 am she went to bed.

Relatively little was known about Miss Money’s last movements. In the afternoon, she had been studying railway timetables, according to a colleague. A railway journey was evidently being planned, and one that was not simple. Her planned route, though, was kept secret. She spoke with her manager that morning. Early in the evening she had gone to Miss Frances Golding’s shop near Clapham Junction. Here she bought a box of chocolates after being in the shop for about 5–7 minutes. She was alone. It was then about 7 pm and she told Miss Golding that she was going to Victoria (a very short trip from Clapham Junction). She was next seen at Clapham Junction station. Here, though, the evidence varies. Edward Parker, a ticket collector at the station, said that when the 7.21 train left that evening, he saw a young woman, whom he later identified as Miss Money, standing on the platform. He asked her where she was going and she said Victoria. She was alone. However, David Morris, a tailor of Hampton, said he saw a young woman, whom he believed was Miss Money, at Victoria at about 7.20 pm. He had been waiting there for the arrival of his son. When shown a photograph of her, he thought that the woman he saw was very similar. Clearly both witnesses could not be correct, but as to which was correct was impossible to discern.

Another witness claimed they saw her at Victoria. Mrs Macilroy, a schoolmistress at a boarding school, recalled that, at 7.30 pm, at Victoria:

I saw a lady enter the station from Wilton Road, and from what I read, I am now convinced that this lady was Miss Money. She appeared to be expecting somebody and although she kept walking up and down, I noticed that she was always looking towards the Buckingham Palace entrance. About 7.45, as she was being rather annoyed by gentlemen looking at her, she was joined by a gentleman, carrying a brown kit bag and wearing a pepper and salt coloured coat, who apparently came into the station from the Buckingham Palace entrance. The greeting struck me as very unusual. The gentleman did not sit down, and both went off together immediately, towards the other station.

It was then thought that she was seen at Croydon station. Alfred
Barton, a guard on the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, was on the 9.13 train from London Bridge on the night in question. He was talking to a man on the platform at Croydon just in front of a first class carriage, no. 508. He then saw a man and a woman walking past the barrier. The woman was young and wore dark clothes, with a long muslin scarf. She was tall and thin and her companion was thin, five feet eight high and had a long face and a thin chin. The man was wearing a bowler hat and had a moustache. He saw the couple again at the next station, South Croydon. They were sitting very close together in a compartment. The man sat on the side nearest the door.

When questioned more closely, Barton gave additional details. He thought the pair were behaving suspiciously by trying to avoid him. He wondered if they were in fact, first class passengers. Barton said, ‘When I looked at the man in South Croydon he looked as if he didn’t want anything to do with me.’ The next stop was Redhill, where the guard, though he was occupied with the mail van, thought that the man alighted. Earlier, he had merely said that he had not actually seen the man leave, but that he had seen a porter shutting the door. Whether or not he had indeed seen Miss Money and her companion is another question. The two may well have been merely eager to avoid the guard because they were having an illicit affair, rather than anything more deadly.

There was an interesting statement by Frederick Yarnley, a signalman on duty at Purley Oaks signal box. He saw the train which had left London Bridge at 9.13 pass by. He also saw a struggle take place in one of the compartments on that same train, in the carriage which was third from the end of the train. A couple was apparently standing up, and the man was trying to force the woman onto the seat. The man had both his hands up and the struggle took place near to the door, not the communication cord. The woman was about five feet four and was dressed in black. He did not notice whether she was wearing a scarf. He could not identify the woman he had seen with a photograph of Miss Money. Such sights, though uncommon, were not rare and it did not, in his opinion, seem to be of sufficient severity that would justify in stopping the train.

A possible clue was a handkerchief found at Penge. Robert Money was uncertain whether his sister’s handkerchiefs were marked, but thought they had lace around the edges.

It certainly seems that Miss Money was seeing a man. An anonymous
man said he saw her on the Sunday before her death, involved in ‘a heated alteration in the neighbourhood of Clapham station’. It was reported by another informant that Miss Money often went to the Crichton restaurant, near to Clapham Junction, with a well-dressed man. They were seen there on the Wednesday and Friday afternoons before her death, and allegedly the same man accompanied her to the station on the Sunday evening.

One suspect who would seem to have been ruled out was Charles Bell, a railway clerk. He had known Miss Money for four years, though there had been no engagement nor any understanding between them. However, he had given her a ring in the previous year. He had last seen her on 18 September. On the day of her death he was on a cycling trip with a friend, Mr Morris. They had had tea at The George at Berkhamsted in west Hertfordshire, and had not returned to London until 9 pm. He knew of no other man that she was seeing.

Another suspect was Bridger himself. There was some discussion whether his relationship with Miss Money might be more than merely that of employer and employee. George Money claimed that Bridger had once been with her to Waterloo station, where she took a cab to Euston. She did not tell him if Bridger paid for it. When asked about Bridger, Miss Money told her brother that ‘he was a very nice fellow’. She was apparently cheerful in her life and work. Money told the court that his sister said that Bridger told her that he made about £6 per week. On a Sunday in the previous summer, according to her sister, Miss Money went down to Bognor with Bridger and when the latter saw a man from Clapham, who worked at a furniture shop near to the dairy, he turned his face away in order not to be recognized. Once she had been to the theatre with Bridger and her brother. It was also alleged that on 17 September, Bridger went with her to Clapham Junction, where she took a train to Windsor (buying a second class ticket) and it was expected he would meet her on her return. The two clearly appeared to spend time together outside working hours. Finally, Money claimed he saw Bridger after the murder with injured fingers.

Both Bridger and Caroline, his wife, vehemently denied this. He said he had never given her any gift, nor had he discussed his income with her, nor did he ever go to the theatre with her. Although he had been at the dairy shop on the Sunday, he had left at 2.30 to go home, where he dined with his wife. He then smoked and lay on his bed until about 7 pm. Then the couple had tea and went out for a stroll on the Common
before retiring to bed at about 10.30. They were childless and did not employ a servant on Sundays. No one was able to corroborate the story, but there was no direct evidence against him, nor did anyone see him with Miss Money on that fatal night. The clean-shaven Bridger was asked by a juror if he wore a moustache, which he denied.