Chapter 13 - Crime

Summary

Not many people would have sympathised with Ruskin’s denunciation of the railways, but even those who disliked them were happy to use the facilities the railways offered. Among the first eager customers were citizens both good and bad, and a petition to Quarter Sessions in 1860 from some leading Luton townsfolk asking for more police constables, shows how the railway there was used. The petitioners stated:

‘That numerous attempts at Burglary and Housebreaking have been recently made at Luton some of which have succeeded and property to a considerable amount has been taken away and that very recently Two well known and experienced Thieves were apprehended in the Vestry Room of the Parish Church who made a desperate resistance but fortunately the Police were on the look out . . a complete set of Skeleton Keys and Housebreaking Implements were found in their possession . . That since the opening of the Railway from Luton to Hatfield, Thieves have much greater facility in disposing of their plunder by taking an early morning Train to London in little more than an hour and before the Police are aware of the Transaction…’

But trains were not just convenient for escaping, but also suitable for some sorts of theft. The modern corridor coach did not become common until the end of the 19 th century, and the ordinary compartments were an ideal medium for the criminal, especially if they contained only one person. Thus the most common form of crime, during this period, was personal assault with robbery as the motive, for there was no communication between carriages.

Public opinion gave H. Sheridan the opportunity to introduce his Railways (Guards’ and Passengers’ Communication) Bill in May 1857, which though good in conception, did not go far enough. Railways could adopt any form of communication they wished, and the result was that many companies fitted unreliable systems to their coaches, which were in effect useless.

A murder by an immigrant called Muller in 1864 caused the greatest outcry, but the railways’ response varied from gradually fitting Harrison’s external cord, to fitting of ‘Muller’s lights’ on the London & South Western Railway.