Nobody can tell me Robert Perry and James Gillies were just friends/classmates/co-murderers.
GILLIES FLAT OUT COMES OUT AS GAY WHEN HE KISSES MURDOCH.
Murdoch and Brackenreid have a whole "are they classmates or something more?" conversation, and then at the end Julia asks why Murdoch thinks they did it and Murdoch says "Gillies had a theory, and Robert Perry followed him for some reason which I don't know".
Perry was blind enough to write the note, get all the supplies, and do everything else that would place the blame on him because he was clearly in love with Gillies and was blind to what he was doing. He blindly followed Gillies into murder because he loved him!
They weren't necessarily all too good at hiding it either- they were always together and very clearly closer than the average friends of the time. After Perry's first interrogation he's clearly shaken, and him and Gillies walk out of the station with Gillies' arm on his back. Then after his second interrogation, Perry looks heartbroken because he believed that Gillies was actually trying to kill him- and when he rushes past Gillies the latter immediately storms after, looking completely upset and confused. And Robert's alibi fell through for both days in question because he was with Gillies both nights- first studying ("alone, with Gillies) then at the bar ("with Gillies... and other people"). They clearly hung out more than average chums, even if they were best friends.
Say it with me folks: gay people in the 1800s can exist.
(This rant comes from the fact that the wiki deemed their relationship as "classmates".)
