Whitechapel 1888The evidence, and its limits

The Whitechapel Murders file · 7 August 1888

Martha Tabram

George Yard Buildings, George Yard

← All cases · This case is in the police file but outside the conventional "canonical five".

The case

Born
1849-05-10
Died
1888-08-07
Also known as
Martha Tabran; Emma Turner; Martha Turner

Editorial summaryCompiled by the research team from the sources listed below. It summarises those sources and is not itself evidence.

Found on the first-floor landing of George Yard Buildings on 7 Aug 1888 with 39 stab wounds. Examined by Dr T. R. Killeen. Her inclusion in the series is disputed.

Timeline

  1. "a quarter to 12"23:35–23:55

    Connolly and Tabram part from each other; Tabram goes off with a private, Connolly with a corporal.

    Evidence and interpretation
    Time interpretation
    6 August 1888, 23:35–23:55. London local time = GMT (no summer time in this period). Connolly's estimate.
    Cited by this site's research
    none recorded
    Related testimony
    none linked yetLinked by matching names in the entry. This does not mean the testimony has been assessed as supporting it.
  2. "a quarter to 5"04:40–04:50

    John Reeves finds the body on the first-floor landing of George Yard Buildings and fetches PC Barrett.

    Evidence and interpretation
    Time interpretation
    7 August 1888, 04:40–04:50. London local time = GMT (no summer time in this period). Reeves left home at a quarter to 5.
    Cited by this site's research
    none recorded
    Related testimony
    none linked yetLinked by matching names in the entry. This does not mean the testimony has been assessed as supporting it.

Inquest

Editorial summary of the verdict

Resumed inquest (Deputy Coroner Collier): murder by person or persons unknown; rider on lighting staircases.

Reported: 23 August 1888 (afternoon).

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On the map

Base map: Booth's poverty map, published 1889 (a year after the murders), georeferenced by this site to about ±10–15 m. Colours are Booth's social classes, not crime data. Details and limits

Charles Booth, Descriptive Map of London Poverty 1889, North-Eastern sheet (Whitechapel and Spitalfields extract). Wellcome Collection (L0074439), via Wikimedia Commons. Charles Booth, Life and Labour of the People. Licence: CC BY 4.0. Source file.

Derived image Georeferenced by this site: the 1889 scan was warped to fit modern coordinates using 9 surviving street junctions (RMS error about 10 m, worst 15 m).

Published 1889, the year after the murders, and drawn on an Ordnance Survey base: details may differ from August 1888. Colours show Booth's 1889 classification of each street's inhabitants (his own, now-dated categories, from black 'lowest class' to gold 'wealthy'); they are not records of the murders. Location markers are positioned from this site's readings of the 1891-5 OS 1:1,056 plan, not from this image, so marker and image can disagree by 10-30 m.

Marker: George Yard Buildings, George Yard. Open on the full map

Claims

Each claim links to the passages it rests on, with its status (accepted, disputed, etc.).

Content notice: medical evidence

5 claims describing injuries or medical findings

This testimony contains clinical descriptions of injuries and post-mortem findings.

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Linkage debate: was this the same killer?

Nothing on this site assumes an answer. The claims below are those that bear on linking this case to the others; they are presented with their status, for and against.

Content notice: medical evidence

4 claims describing injuries or medical findings

This testimony contains clinical descriptions of injuries and post-mortem findings.

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In the workbench

The "which murders are linked" assumption offers these groupings. Martha Tabram is:

  • Not included under “Canonical five: Nichols, Chapman, Stride, Eddowes, Kelly”
  • Not included under “Four: Nichols, Chapman, Eddowes, Kelly (Stride excluded)”
  • Not included under “Four: Nichols, Chapman, Stride, Eddowes (Kelly excluded)”
  • Not included under “Three core: Nichols, Chapman, Eddowes”
  • Included under “Six: Tabram + canonical five”
  • Included under “Extended: Tabram + canonical five + McKenzie”
  • Not included under “Agnostic: each case analysed separately (unknown offender per case)”

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Sources for this case (11)

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