Eastern Argus & Borough of Hackney Times.
Saturday, 25 August 1888.
On Thursday afternoon, Mr. G. Collier resumed the inquiry at the Working Lads' Institute, Whitechapel, into the circumstances surrounding the death of Martha Tabran [Tabram], a hawker, who was found on Tuesday morning, the 7th inst., lying dead on the first-floor landing of some model dwellings, known as George Yard Buildings, Spitalfields. When found the woman presented a shocking appearance, there being thirty-nine stabs in the body, some of them apparently inflicted with a bayonet.
Henry Samuel Tabran, of 6, River Terrace, East Greenwich, said he had identified the body as that of his wife. He was 39 years of age, and they had been separated for 13 years.
Henry Turner, a carpenter, living at the Working Mens' Home, said that until the last three weeks he had been living with deceased, they having cohabited for nearly 9 years.
Mary Ann Conelly said she had known the deceased for four or five months. The last time she saw her alive was on Bank Holiday at the corner of George Yard, Whitechapel. They were together in a public house until about 11.45. They were with two soldiers, one a corporal and the other a private. She could not say what regiment they belonged to, but they both had white bands round their caps. When they separated deceased went up George Yard with the private, and witness went with the corporal up Angel Alley. Before they parted witness and the corporal had a quarrel and he hit her with a stick. He did not hear deceased have any quarrel, and never saw her alive again.
The Coroner said the crime was one of the most brutal that had occurred for some years. For a poor defenceless woman to be outraged and stabbed in the manner which this woman had been was almost beyond belief. They could only come to one conclusion, and that was that the deceased was brutally and cruelly murdered.
The jury returned a verdict of "Wilful Murder, against some person or persons unknown."
