On July 9, 1864 as the 9:50 p.m. train from Fenchurch Street pulled into Hackney station at 10:11 pm, two bank clerks entered a first-class carriage and discovered it awash in blood—the scene of the world’s first murder on a railway. Though neither the attacker nor the victim were present at the scene, the victim was discovered shortly after, unconscious and severely injured by the tracks between Hackney Wick and Bow Stations. Thomas Briggs, a nearly 70-year-old bank clerk, had boarded the train at Fenchurch Street, and during his journey…
