Mr Briggs' Hat: The True Story of a Victorian Railway Murder by Kate Colquhoun Read Free Book Online Page A

table, symbols both of a violated man and of his attacker. The identification and ownership of each lay at the heart of the case.
    The prosecution now turned its attention to the first of these hats. Several spectators stood to get a better look as the insolent cabman, whose appearance had been awaited with excitement, was summoned. Matthews entered the court to a buzz of interest, looking altogether more nervous than on any previous occasion. In the dock, Müller visibly brightened. Leaning forward with strained attention, taking up his pen, he passed notes to Parry throughout the hour of Matthews’ examination.
    Matthews mumbled as he outlined the circumstances surrounding his purchase of a hat for Müller from Walker’s of Crawford Street, the distinguishing curl to the brim, and the thumbmark on the underside. His evidence was peppered with interjections from Parry urging him to Speak up, sir, do! , and when Ballantine’s questions were done Parry rose to cross-examine. Müller had admitted that Matthews once bought a hatfor him. Parry’s intention now was to disprove that the hat in court was the one.
    Allow me that hat, please , he snapped, turning it over in his hands calmly as he took possession of it.
    I believe your own hat is like it?
    As nearly as possible.
    Musing on this answer, Parry repeated it aloud. But if Matthews was expecting a repetition of the bludgeoning he had taken from Müller’s solicitor Beard in the earlier hearings, he was now surprised. Instead, Parry asked for copies of the depositions given by the cabman both to the coroner and the Bow Street magistrate. Instead of fixing ownership of the hat on Matthews, he aimed to show that Matthews’ evidence varied each time he was under oath.
    Can you tell me how many hats you bought within six or twelve months of the 9th of July?
    I cannot tell you.
    What has become of your last hat at the time of this one?
    I cannot say. I think I left it at a hatter’s shop where I bought another.
    Where did you buy the hat you now wear?
    In Oxford Street, at Mr Mummery’s.
    Have you not stated that you left it at Mr Down’s in Long Acre three weeks before 9th July?
    I said that I left one there. I did not say the time I did so … I did not state the time.
    Did you not say this: ‘I purchased the hat at Down’s Long Acre. I left the old one there.’
    I did say so.
    That is not true?
    No, it was not it exactly. It was longer ago. I cannot remember exactly.
    Parry’s team had discovered that Down’s hatters had gone out of business. Matthews could not have bought his new hat thereat the time he said, and could not have left his old one behind. What, then, had become of Matthews’ Walker hat? And how could he account for what appeared to be lies under oath?
    Under Parry’s badgering, Matthews sputtered that, until he came to consider it on his return from New York, he had not realised how many hats he owned. He admitted that his evidence to the coroner had contained mistakes. He could not remember what he did with his Walker hat and was unable to describe the lining in any of his own hats, despite being so particular about the lining in Müller’s. Initially he swore that he was not a public house visitor, perhaps I may go there sometimes , but he soon confessed that he usually visited an inn daily. Moving on swiftly, Parry then expressed sarcastic astonishment that a cab driver in London could claim to have heard nothing about the murder until over a week after it occurred. His questions came like bullets.
    Do you take in a newspaper? Did you not see notice of the murder in large, conspicuous letters on the placards? Do you attend the station at Paddington? Do you pass the police station every day?
    Now, can you tell me what you were doing on Saturday the 9th of July?
    I was out in my cab, I find.
    Did you not say before the coroner ‘it is impossible for me to say where I was’?
    I did say so. I have made enquiries since.
    So, since you were before