On 7 August 1888, the body of Martha Tabram was discovered inside George Yard Buildings in Whitechapel, London. The brutal killing is regarded by some historians as the first murder committed by the unidentified killer later known as Jack the Ripper, although Tabram is not included among his five generally accepted victims.
A body discovered before dawn
Shortly before 5am, dock labourer John Saunders Reeves found Tabram’s body on a dimly lit stairway landing. Another resident had passed the body earlier but apparently mistook her for someone sleeping.
Police Constable Thomas Barrett was called to the scene, followed by Dr Timothy Robert Killeen. The doctor concluded that Tabram had been killed several hours earlier after suffering 39 stab wounds to her neck and body. Her lungs, heart, liver and other organs had been pierced.
Most of the injuries appeared to have been inflicted with a relatively small knife, but one deeper wound may have been caused by a larger blade, possibly a dagger or bayonet.
The final hours of Martha Tabram
Tabram was 39 years old and living in severe poverty. She had separated from her husband and was staying in a common lodging house in Spitalfields. Like several women later associated with the Whitechapel murders, she occasionally sold sex to survive.
On the evening before her death, Tabram had been drinking with another woman, Mary Ann Connelly, who was known locally as “Pearly Poll”. The two women reportedly met two soldiers and later separated, each leaving with one of the men.
Investigators questioned soldiers stationed nearby, but no reliable identification was made and nobody was charged with the killing.
Was she the first Ripper victim?
Tabram’s murder occurred three weeks before Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols was killed in Buck’s Row on 31 August. Nichols is officially regarded as the first of the five canonical victims attributed to Jack the Ripper.
The other four were Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly. All were murdered between August and November 1888 in or near Whitechapel and Spitalfields.
Tabram is usually excluded from this group because the method of her killing differed from the later murders. Her throat was not deeply cut and her body was not subjected to the extensive abdominal mutilation that became associated with the Ripper.
However, the location, timing and ferocity of the attack have led some investigators to argue that Tabram may have been an early victim, killed before the murderer developed his later pattern. Several contemporary police officers also believed that her death was connected to the subsequent Whitechapel murders.
A mystery that has endured
Jack the Ripper was never identified. The name originated in a letter sent to a news agency during the murder investigation, although the message may have been a journalistic hoax.
More than a century later, numerous suspects have been proposed, ranging from local tradesmen and doctors to members of the British establishment. None of the theories has produced universally accepted proof.
Whether Martha Tabram was the first victim remains unresolved. Her murder nevertheless marked the beginning of the period in which fear spread through London’s East End and one of history’s most notorious criminal mysteries took shape.
Newshub Editorial in Europe – 7 August 2026
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