The inquest into the murder of Martha Tabram began on the 9th of August 1888. Martha Tabram was murdered in George Yard Buildings in the Victorian Whitechapel area of London in 1888, she might have been the first victim of Jack the Ripper.
There were eleven Whitechapel murders, five of them were thought to have been at the hands of Jack the Ripper. These five victims were known as the canonical five victims. Martha Tabram is not one of the canonical five victims. However, her murder has some similarities to the canonical five women. Martha Tabram was a local prostitute, she was a similar age to most of the other victims, she was stabbed to death in the early morning hours in Whitechapel. The difference in her murder is that the canonical five victims had their throat slit and most were mutilated. The Inquest Of Martha's Murder The inquest of Martha's murder opened just two days after she was murdered. She was murdered on the 7th of August 1888, though the culprit(s?) of her murder were never caught, leaving her death unsolved to this day. Her murderer could have been Jack the Ripper. During her inquest, it was discussed how Martha had suffered 39 stab wounds by her attacker. A witness statement from a local in the buildings, John Reeves, said that he was leaving for work that morning at around 4.45am and discovered the body of Martha. The building where she was found, was essentially Victorian flats were people lived. John Reeves found her body in a pool of blood and went immediately to the police. However, he was not the first person to notice Tabram's lifeless body. That was a man named Alfred Crow, who was also giving evidence at the inquest that day. Alfred Crow had noticed Tabram lying at the bottom of George Yard Buildings at around 3.30am, just an hour and 45 minutes before John Reeves found her. Crow had said to the inquest that he noticed her body, but didn't think anything of it - he thought she was a homeless person. When Alfred Crow would have discovered the body of Martha, it would have been pitch black, when John Reeves discovered her, daylight would have been breaking, so it would explain why Reeves saw the pool of blood and not Crow. There were three other statements made at the inquest, made by three other men, beside the two witness statements of Alfred and John. One statement was made by the police officer who was alerted to her murder, PC Thomas Barrett. Another statement was made by a doctor, Dr Killen, who examined Martha's body. And, the final statement was made by the coroner. There was no identification of the murderer and the inquest was adjourned for two weeks after that. The name 'Jack the Ripper' wasn't even created at this point. But the murder of Martha Tabram has been speculated by some, to have been at the hands of Jack the Ripper.
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