Martha Tabram
Martha Tabram
Martha Tabram was brutally murdered in the early hours of 7th August 1888.
Her mutilated body was found on the first floor landing of George Yard Buildings by John Saunders Reeves as he left for work.
PC Thomas Barrett 226H was summoned by John Reeves, who in turn sent for a doctor. Dr Timothy Robert Killeen arrived to investigate the body.
As there wasn't a public mortuary in Whitechapel the police sent Martha's body to the 'deadhouse' belonging to the workhouse infirmary in Old Montague Street.
Post-Mortem
Dr Timothy Robert Killeen conducted the post-mortem.
The summary of wounds given to the inquest on 9th August 1888 were:
- An effusion of blood between the scalp and the bone
- The brain was pale but healthy
- At least twenty-two stab wounds to the trunk
- The left lung was penetrated in five places
- The right lung was penetrated in two places
- The heart was rather fatty
- The heart was penetrated once
- Blood was present in the pericardium
- The liver was penetrated in five places
- The spleen lung was penetrated in two places
- The stomach was penetrated in six places
- The lower portion of the body was penetrated in one place
- Death was due to haemorrhage and loss of blood
Dr Killen went on to make the following deductions:
- There was no evidence of a struggle
- One of the wounds, he contended, might have been made by a left-handed person, but the rest appeared to have been inflicted by a right-handed person * Two different weapons had been used
