6th Aug 1888 - Martha Tabram's Final Hours
The story of "Jack the Ripper" starts on this evening with the final hours of Martha Tabram, who is killed in the small hours of the following day. Was this crime committed by the same man as those that came later? It is a question which divides opinion in the modern day however, at the time, it was perceived as the beginning of a series of murders. Martha's tragic demise is not to be ignored.
7:58pm
For over a century to come, the importance of the events of tonight, Monday 6th August 1888, will be debated over.
We will be following Martha Tabram tonight. History will be uncertain about the role she played, but her fate remains important.
It's Bank Holiday Monday today in 1888. Martha Tabram is going to meet Pearly Poll later in Whitechapel for a night of drinking. After the breakdown of her marriage due to drink, Martha lived intermittently with one Henry Turner but he left her last month. Martha had been living at 19 George St but was seen destitute on Leadenhall St two days ago. Her ex-partner had given her money.
Martha was born in Marshall St in 1849. It no longer exists but this is the next road along today. This is where Martha had been sighted destitute a couple of days ago. Martha's ex-partner's current address is Victoria Working Man's Home on Commercial Street pictured here. For 4d in a Common Lodging House (or doss-house) you'd get a bed, or a share of one. They were over-crowded and unpleasant. Martha attempted to make money by selling trinkets and through prostitution but what she made was squandered on drink.
Henry Turner, with whom Martha lived said, "If I gave her money she generally spent it on drink. In fact it was always drink." Such was the way for many in the crowded, busy streets of Whitechapel where prostitution and drink were both common. Some violence & disorder was expected, but prostitutes didn't fear for their lives with men. Poverty and disease were real threats. Despite the desperation, the terrible overcrowding and rough conditions, murder was surprisingly rare in the East End of London.
Martha has a drink in the Two Brewers pub
Tonight Martha Tabram is out on the town in Whitechapel. For the next few hours she'll be chatting up men & drinking heavily.
11:00pm
Martha Tabram meets her friend Mary Ann Connelly, known by the alias of "Pearly Poll" - she is a big woman with a low voice and a ruddy complexion. She's about 50, a prostitute, and has known Martha about 5 months.
The pair go for a drink in the Two Brewers public house which is a seven minute walk up Brick Lane from Martha's house. Click here for Street View.
Martha Tabram & Pearly Poll have met 2 guardsmen, a Corporal & Private, in the Two Brewers public house.
They begin a pub crawl and head south down Brick Lane back towards where Martha lives.
11.45pm
Martha goes with her soldier man into George Yard to have sex, just over the road from her lodgings.
Pearly Poll goes with hers into the ironically-named Angel Alley which is immediately adjacent. It is one of the most notorious passages for vice.
1.50am
In the early hours of August 7th, Elizabeth Mahoney comes home to George Yard and goes up the stairs, seeing nothing unusual.
Martha and a solider went here: First-Floor Landing, George Yd Buildings (right)
Angel Alley (left) was a notorious haunt for prostitutes
2.00am
PC Thomas Barrett stops a Grenadier Guard near George Yard. The soldier says he's waiting for a chum who went off with a girl.
2.30am
Martha Tabram is on the 1st floor landing of a house at George's Yard. She is not alone.
The man before her produces a blade ... Martha tries to struggle away in the dark stairwell, but her attacker stabs her over and over again in her chest and stomach, and stabs her groin.
3.30am
Alf Crow comes home to George Yard and sees an apparently homeless person sleeping on the 1st floor landing. He goes up to bed.
4.45am
John Reeves leaves for work and he too sees the "sleeping" body. But in the dawn light sees blood, and runs to get a policeman.
4.50am
John Reeves returns with PC Barrett to check the body. It is Martha Tabram, murdered. Her fists are clenched, her legs spread-eagled.
5:10am
Others arrive on the murder scene in the buildings in George Yard, Whitechapel.
Arrangements are made to move the body quickly.
5.15am
Within 45 mins of Martha's body being discovered, she is moved for examination.
Her body arrives at the mortuary for the attention of Dr Timothy Killeen. Dr Killeen performs a post-mortem, estimating Martha's time of death at around three hours ago, and he discovers 39 stab wounds on her. Martha had been stabbed in a frenzy about the chest, belly and groin. The weapon appears to have been a short blade, like a pen-knife, however there is evidence to suggest one wound was slightly different. Could two weapons have been used?
The story continues when Whitechapel wakes to news of the murder...