A Murder on the North London Train (Abridged, Annotated)

On the night of Saturday, the 9th of July, 1864, a suburban train on the North London Railway left its station. At the last station two bank clerks opened the door of a compartment of an empty first-class carriage. The two men had hardly sat down when one called the other's attention to some blood on his hand.

It was one of the most sensational and celebrated cases of the 19th century. A man was murdered on a British railway car--something that had never happened before. The suspect had fle...