Martha Tabram- 124 Years On

[Howard Brown]

Was she the first Ripper victim ?
Was she a Ripper victim at all ?

We'll continue to debate that for many moons to come...

RIP Martha Tabram...murdered 124 years ago today.

[Adam Went]

First Ripper victim or not (and I believe she was), she was yet another unfortunate whose tragic life was cut needlessly short.....R.I.P. Martha.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Joe Chetcuti]

Today this thread gets a revival after 10 years.

On Sunday, it will be the 134th anniversary of Martha's passing. We can remember her in our thoughts this weekend as we start another season of paying our respects to the Whitechapel victims one by one. Every Aug 7th, Martha gets things started for us in this respect.

I hope her soul has found rest.

I do have something we can ponder about in regards to Martha's death. It is based on the possibility that the fiend who committed the crime was not the Ripper.

The thought to consider is how much did this crime in George Yard effect or persuade the Ripper to commit the atrocities, in the following weeks, to Nichols, Chapman, Eddowes, etc.

Again, this is all under the assumption that the Ripper and Martha's killer were not one in the same.

My thought on this is that Martha's murder would have had an effect on the Ripper. The George Yard crime might have hastened the Ripper's reign of terror. It may have pushed him into action, so to say.

It's tough for me to comment on this because I would wager that Martha's killer and the Ripper were the same person. But there are many who think otherwise, and it may be good to hear their opinion about how much of an influence Martha's death had on the Ripper.

[Christer Holmgren]

Today this thread gets a revival after 10 years.

On Sunday, it will be the 134th anniversary of Martha's passing. We can remember her in our thoughts this weekend as we start another season of paying our respects to the Whitechapel victims one by one. Every Aug 7th, Martha gets things started for us in this respect.

I hope her soul has found rest.

I do have something we can ponder about in regards to Martha's death. It is based on the possibility that the fiend who committed the crime was not the Ripper.

The thought to consider is how much did this crime in George Yard effect or persuade the Ripper to commit the atrocities, in the following weeks, to Nichols, Chapman, Eddowes, etc.

Again, this is all under the assumption that the Ripper and Martha's killer were not one in the same.

My thought on this is that Martha's murder would have had an effect on the Ripper. The George Yard crime might have hastened the Ripper's reign of terror. It may have pushed him into action, so to say.

It's tough for me to comment on this because I would wager that Martha's killer and the Ripper were the same person. But there are many who think otherwise, and it may be good to hear their opinion about how much of an influence Martha's death had on the Ripper.

If Tabram was not a Ripper victim (I think she was just that), then I strongly suspect that the Ripper found the press coverage Tabrams demise got irresistible, and embarked upon a string of open street murders. I think it caused him to take his murders out into the East End streets, after having set out as the Thames Torso killer.
Alternatively, Tabram was the Rippers victim, but not a pre planned one. If he planned to kill and eviscerate her, it seems he brought the wrong type of weaponry to George Yard. My guess is that it was likely not premeditated murder, but when he saw how much coverage the murder got in the press, the Ripper decided to embark on street killings to feed his narcissism.