Matha Tabram
An Early Victim of Jack the Ripper
In the early hours of the morning of 4 April a 45-year-old prostitute named Emma Smith was walking through Whitechapel when she was savagely attacked.
Her assault was the opening chapter in what is now known as the autumn of terror. A wave of extraordinary violence that horrified and shocked the world.
Though Emma Smith did manage to make it back to her lodgings telling friends that she'd been attacked by three men it was too late to help her, by the
next day she was dead.
Emma Smith
Richard Jones, Author & Historian "They robbed and subjected her to a savage assault, in fact, they thrust a blunt object into her and then they left."
The police began investigating her death not realising that it would become part of one of the biggest murder hunts in history.
Richard Jones
Richard Jones "You had drunken brawls, you have domestic violence and street robberies and so the attack on Emma Smith wouldn't have seemed that
unusual at the time."
Robert Anderson, Website moderator jtrforums.com "Emma Smith certainly fits, you are geographically, within what one might think of as Jack's kill zone."
Robert Anderson
Robert Anderson "London in 1888 was the largest and wealthiest city on Earth. The financial and commercial heart of the British Empire. Yet,
rubbing shoulders with the financial powerhouse of the city of London was an area of extreme deprivation, the East End. Yet, for all the poverty,
violence and hardship murder itself was still uncommon in Victorian England. On average, the number of women murdered in London barely got into
double-figures."
Martha Tabram was probably typical of thousands of women struggling to survive in the East End. After getting married to the warehouse foreman
she had been relatively well-off but, following the birth of two children she began drinking heavily. She ended up on the streets selling trinkets
to survive.
Monday, 6 August was a bank holiday and Martha had spent the evening drinking with her friend Mary-Anne Connelly, known by the nickname Pearly Poll.
Martha Tabram
They'd ended up in one of the many local pubs. Tabram and Connelly had met up with two soldiers, a Private and a Corporal and spent until 11:45
drinking with them. Connelly said that Tabram took her soldier to a narrow street called George Yard, which was entered through a covered archway
from Whitechapel High Street.
That night the residents of George Yard heard noises and unruly behaviour but, they paid no attention. Mrs Mahon passed the murder spot at 1:50,
seeing nothing unusual. PC Thomas Barrett saw a soldier loitering near the Wentworth Street entrance to George Yard. The gap of almost 4 hours
separated Martha Tabram leaving the pub and her body being seen in a stairwell by a cab driver at 3:30 AM, but he paid no attention. If Martha had not
been killed by her soldier companion, then there was plenty time for her to have met someone else. The body was found lying in a pool of blood and
Dr Timothy Killeen was sent for.
Dr Killeen "She had been dead for some three hours, her age was about 36 and the body was well nourished. The left lung was penetrated in five
places and the right lung was penetrated in two places. The heart was penetrated in one place and that would be sufficient to cause her death.
My opinion was that one of the wounds was inflicted by some kind of dagger and that all of them were caused during the life."
Martha Tabram had been a victim of a frenzied attack, stabbed nearly 40 times. The police became convinced she had been murdered by a
soldier. PC Barrett who'd seen a soldier was certain that he would be able to recognise the man. He did identify two men, but both had cast iron
alibis. Police attention moved to Pearly Poll but, she failed to identify anyone at an identification parade.
The murder of Martha Tabram received a fair amount of press coverage, and comparisons were made with the brutality of the assault on Emma Smith, the
similarity of their professions and the geographical proximity.
Martha Tabram's inquest ended with the verdict of wilful murder against person or persons unknown, a phrase that would reoccur with frustrating
regularity as 1888 progressed.
In their brutality and the targeting of prostitutes the murders shared similarities with the Ripper's later killings but were they the Ripper's work?
Some are convinced that they were. And he would strike again a few weeks later.
