Free Blood on the Tracks: A History of Railway Crime in Britain by Alan Brooke, David Brandon

Matthews accompanied Tanner and Clarke in order to confirm Muller’s identity when he was apprehended. The police even gave Mrs Matthews, who had four young children, financial compensation for the loss of her husband’s earnings while he was being a good citizen enjoying an expenses-paid passage to New York and back.
    New York was buzzing with excitement about the murder, and its citizens were very taken up by the idea that Muller was crossing the Atlantic in order to evade justice, and that following hotfoot and actually overtaking the oblivious Muller was the epitome of cutting-edge technology, a steamship, carrying doughty British detectives determined to bring their quarry to justice. In fact so excited were some New Yorkers that a boatload of them sailed past Victoria as she was entering harbour shouting out phrases like, ‘How are you, Muller the murderer?’ Fortunately for the authorities, Muller apparently did not hear the commotion they made.
    Muller must have been musing about the opportunities that the New World would provide for an enterprising young fellow like himself as his ship neared its destination. Victoria docked on 26 August. Blissfully unaware of the nemesis bearing down on him as he waited to disembark, no one could have been more surprised than he when a couple of New York uniformed policemen, and a pair of what were clearly English plain-clothes detectives, shouldered their way through the crowd and arrested him.
    He was taken below and he and his belongings were searched. On his person were Briggs’s gold watch and silk hat which had been slightly altered by Muller. The police officers learned that Muller had made something of a name for himself on the voyage by his truculent and overbearing manner, and had come off second best in a fight with a fellow passenger who he called various rude names. Muller for his part received a corker of a black eye. Fights among the bored passengers on the long voyage were by no means uncommon, butMuller had also drawn attention to himself by betting that he could eat five pounds of German sausages at one sitting. He laid the bet in order to raise some money but failed in this culinary marathon and, having no cash, paid his debt with two shirts. It seems there had not been a dull moment while Muller was on board!
    After the positive identification that was required, extradition proceedings were started, but they quickly ran up against an unexpected snag. There were many rich and influential people of German origin in and around New York and they took up Muller’s case, arguing that he was beyond the jurisdiction of the British courts and British police. One argument was that in the USA a person was presumed innocent until proven guilty, whereas Muller had been chased halfway across the world, intimidated by the police and the legal authorities, and was now being threatened with extradition as if the case against him was already decided.
    It should be remembered that the general mood of people in the north of the USA was hostile to Britain, because many wealthy Britons supported the Confederate cause in the American Civil War. In fact Britain and the USA were almost in a state of undeclared war.
    However, extradition formalities were eventually concluded on 3 September, and Tanner and Clarke embarked on Etna with Muller in handcuffs and with Matthews and Death, who had been revelling in the experience of a lifetime, something to tell their grandchildren about – all at public expense. Even Muller clearly enjoyed his voyage back to Blighty. Travelling in Etna was a much more luxurious experience than steerage in Victoria , and Muller did not stint on the best cuisine that the ship’s galley could provide. Neither did he waste his time in between meals. He got to grips with, and completed, a reading of Pickwick Papers and David Copperfield .
    The ship docked at Liverpool on 16 September and, after staying in the city overnight, the party travelled down to London