Inspector Edmund Reid
Inspector Edmund Reid - H Division - Whitechapel
Inspector Edmund Reid was known as the ‘Local Inspector’. Inspector Reid was Head of CID in the Metropolitan Police’s H or Whitechapel Division. Reid took charge of the Martha Tabram murder investigation.
The Martha Tabram Investigation
The Martha Tabram investigation was always going to be a tough one:
- There were no witnesses
- Martha Tabram was not known to any of the George Yard tenants
- There was no obvious motive
- There was no immediate suspect
- None of the tenants heard the murder take place
An Inspector, Ernest Ellisdon, reported in the days after the murder that there was no blood on the stairs leading to the landing - meaning that Martha Tabram was most likely killed in the position she was found.
The dwellings were managed by superintendent Francis Hewitt, who occupied an apartment with his wife. Francis Hewitt was reported to have told reporters that 'we never heard a cry'. During the previous evening Mrs Hewitt was said to have heard a cry of 'Murder' - something she said happens rather frequently in the area.
Witnesses
Whilst on his rounds on the night of Martha Tabram's murder PC Thomas Barrett 226H had questioned a soldier loitering in George Yard.
PC Barrett provided the following details of the soldier:
- He was dark haired
- He was five feet nine or ten inches high
- He had a moustache
- He had a fair complexion
- He was a private in the Grenadier Guards
- He had one good conduct badge, but no medals
- His age was between 22 and 26
