In the late nineteenth century, a series of murders, some unsolved, between London and Brighton shocked Victorian Britain. We take a deep dive into these strange cases and examine some of the curious characters and suspects involved in Murder on the Brighton Line.

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TRANSCRIPT

[Music] this podcast contains descriptions of death and violence that some listeners may find upsetting [Music] hello and welcome to the six o'clock knock the true crime podcast that takes a fresh look at murder i'm jack morrell i served as a police officer from 1985 to 2015. my last 12 years in the job was spent exclusively dealing with homicides as a detective sergeant and i'm simon ford a journalist and writer i have years of experience in radio and broadcasting i still have a nose for a good story and jack is still keen to apply his copper's brain to cases whether solved or not that's right and this episode will focus on murder on the railway of course we touched on the railways a few episodes back didn't we the frederick deming case serial swindler and bigamist with a parshan for murdering his wives yes indeed he used the opportunity to travel that steam trains and steamships gave 19th century society he traveled extensively and he used a different name in every town the victorian era meant that travel was so much easier and quicker the railways had revolutionized transport replacing those horse-drawn stage coaches that up to then were the quickest way to get from one town to another right mass travel had arrived passengers were less conspicuous traveling in greater numbers the commute had arrived and with it the travelling criminal yeah we're looking at this subject after someone suggested a particular case known as the murder on the brighton line but when we started digging we found two others on the same stretch of railway line between london and brighton well as your fellow journalist the late sir harry evans said keep digging the truth is down there somewhere wow it's not often i mentioned in the same breath as the late great harry evans so um thanks for that mate and in terms of the truth yes it certainly is so we're going to dig into all those grisly crimes and trust me they are grisly jack did you ever deal with any railway cases well not really because railways in the uk have their own police the british transport police or btp we occasionally asked them for information or made inquiries relating to people moving through railway premises but to be honest we really saw btp officers at our police stations well the british transport police force has its roots very early in the history of british policing the earliest record of railway police predates the formation of the metropolitan police usually recognized as the first modern police force in england and wales by at least four years no one knows just how many individual railway dock and canal police forces existed in the 19th century but they probably numbered over a hundred largely unsung and in many cases unremembered i suppose a modern equivalent would be private security firms in the united states safeguarding the interests and assets of corporations these early forces combined to form the modern btp we looked at the recent crime figures for the btp there was a significant rise in all crimes of 12 percent in 2019 adrian hanstock the deputy chief constable said the record number of passengers using the railways was behind the jump in crime rates which were mainly theft and anti-social behaviour hanstock put a lot of this down to the fact that railway stations are becoming increasingly commercial environments well that's certainly true anyone familiar with some pancreas station in london will know that the original storage areas below platform level they're now a stylish shopping center and the victorian booking office is a bar and a restaurant the force also reported a surge in the number of vulnerable people it dealt with including through providing mental health support officers and rail staff performed 2529 life-saving interventions up 32 percent on the year before despite this there were only six homicides on the british railway network in 2018 to 19. one was the awful death of 51 year old lee pomeroy who was stabbed to death by a paranoid schizophrenic after an argument on a train maybe there is an argument for the btp to be amalgamated into the regional forces to share experience and intelligence public transport will only increase in the years to come integrated management of our transport network imagine that so do criminals use the rail network as a way of getting about or do they prefer to use the roads instead well of course they use both but you know over the years i've thought about how the world has changed not just in a policing sense but how society has changed in how it moves around if i'm completely honest the core has a lot to answer for this may be just my opinion but the car has made us selfish and anti-social we treat the car as an extension of our private lives whilst it's given us choice and freedom to move around when we want to we seem to enjoy the anonymity that the car brings us and as policing has taught me the public don't like it when they're challenged do they no i suppose not we all resent being stopped by the police or getting a fixed penalty notice through the post i know i do how dare they take a photo of me driving through that red traffic light not that i make a habit of it incidentally i suppose the car has also allowed criminals to operate in even wider areas and as you say jack being less conspicuous you're spot on burglars are the best example dwelling house burglars usually have a rule of not on their own doorstep they prefer to steal from neighboring estates or areas they were passing through they always had a problem though how to transport their ill-gotten gains now jewelry and cash is not a problem electrical goods not so easy the car changed all that not only does the car provide transport and storage they don't stand out or look out of place do they it's just another car driving on a public road privacy no interaction with the public yeah i get it i'm trying to imagine myself as a burglar and having to use public transport while carrying the contents of somebody else's house with me i've got a heavy hold all bulging with jewellery and ornaments candlesticks that sort of thing a sony playstation and i'm having to plan my getaway so 10 minute walk to the station buy a ticket wait around a bit i'm restricted by the timetable several people might see me look at me heavens even speak to me that's it and the car changed all that within a couple of hours at any time of day a criminal could drive to another town commit a crime drive to a different town dispose of the goods then return home the risks of being stopped by the police you'd take your chance even if the police showed an interest in you you could hide any evidence in the worst case scenario you could fail to stop for them and try and get away yeah i see what you mean there the car allows people to move around unnoticed at a time to suit them protected by a metal shell things were very different 140 years ago it is 1881. the telephone has not long been invented matthew webb has recently swung the english channel and unwittingly his image has made it onto millions of matchboxes the first boer war has just ended in south africa where the british got their butts kicked two years ago 75 people died in the tay bridge railway disaster in scotland this case is much further south almost as far south as you can get on the british mainland in brighton on the south coast of england [Music] the london and brighton railway opened in 1841 and it brought brighton within the reach of daytrippers from london the population grew from around seven thousand in eighteen hundred and one to more than a hundred and twenty thousand by nineteen hundred and one in 1881 there was overcrowding and disease clean water and sanitation would desperately needed just 47 miles from london the train was popular the regular service to the capital went to croydon and then split into two one line to london victoria and the other to london bridge stations on the route from london included east croydon three bridges hayward's heath willsfield burgess hill hassocks and preston park it's monday the 27th of june at 2pm preston park is a small quiet station serving a village on the outskirts of brighton the ticket collector watches the arrival of the train from london bridge a male passenger gets off there's something about him that draws the ticket collector's attention the man emerges from the first class compartment and steps onto the platform he seems unsteady on his feet he's not wearing a hat which is unusual nor is he wearing the collar and tie even more concerning he's covered in blood he seems distressed the collector goes to his assistants the man mumbled something about having been attacked as the train entered merced tunnel now merston tunnel is just south of croydon and several stops from preston park probably a 30 minute journey away the tunnel goes through a chalk hill and is over a mile long so the train would be in darkness for what about a minute i suppose correct now this distressed and bloodstained man claimed that two men traveling in the same compartment struck him on the head he remembered nothing more until the train reached preston park where he came round