Dr. KIlleen & The Bayonet Wound Theory

[bolo]

It would seem quite plausible to suggest that Martha was asleep on the landing when the killer came across her. It would make sense of some of the anomalous features of this case. We know it was usual for people to sleep on the landing. Imagine the killer coming across Martha lying there and stabbing her through the heart (the large wound) and killing her instantly. This would explain the lack of screams or other disturbance from the vicinity. The killer then inflicts the lesser wounds at his leisure and in perfect silence. He then makes his escape back down the stairs. This also avoids the rather unlikely scenario of a prostitute taking her client to the upper landing of an inhabited tenement block when an alleyway would be more convenient and less prone to unwelcome intrusion.

That means her attacker had a habit of searching staircases for possible victims but that does not sound plausible to me.

A sleeping victim would have made it easier for the attacker to close in to her but if you look at the post-mortem photos, you will see that her face looks swollen with the mouth slightly open and the tip of the tongue visible between the front teeth, so he suffocated her first before stabbing her. The post-mortem report also mentions an "effusion of blood between the scalp and the bone" (Complete History, paperback 2002, p. 17).

In my opinion, she got caught by surprise. The attacker hit her on the head with his bare hands or a blunt instrument when she walked past George Yard building, dragged her through the gateway to the landing and suffocated her. When the attacker started stabbing her, she probably was still alive but unconscious, then he hit her heart and she died.

She had no chance to scream or call for help, a blow to the head, a hand to the throat and that was that.

This scenario strengthens the case for Martha having been killed by the same man who killed the canonicals. The murder is now identical to the canonicals in one way at least in which it was not previously: the mutilations are post mortem and the killer is a signature killer rather than a sadist intent on torture and pain of a living victim.

If we follow Killeen's suggestion of two knives, at least one wound may have been inflicted post-mortem so small parts of the signature are there.

Maybe Martha was a victim of a killer who had yet to find a working MO. Don't know if that's enough to add her to the list of canonical victims but it's also too strong a point in my eyes to completely rule it out.

[Celesta]

Hi Bolo,

I was just about to post the passage from page 17 of Sugden's book on the "effusion of blood between the scalp and the bone," and make the same comment, when I saw your post. I, too, think she was knocked on the head. Depending on what he hit her with, there might not have to be abrasions on the scalp itself, would there?

[bolo]

I, too, think she was knocked on the head. Depending on what he hit her with, there might not have to be abrasions on the scalp itself, would there?

Not necessarily, the effusion of blood may have been caused by a well-placed punch that made Martha unconscious or at least unable to defend against the attack but it was not strong enough to cause a gaping wound. A knock-out hit, if you will.

[Celesta]

Not necessarily, the effusion of blood may have been caused by a well-placed punch that made Martha unconscious or at least unable to defend against the attack but it was not strong enough to cause a gaping wound. A knock-out hit, if you will.

Yes, and it would have been a fast, logical thing to do.

[Victor]

So how about a scenario where the killer delivers 37 stabs, then if the longer cut to the lower abdomen was the knife tip breaking on the pelvic bone, [further] enraging the assailant who then thrusts the knife with great force deep through the heart, which then had to be wiggled/rotated to get it out leaving the bigger wound?

[Fisherman]

Carrotty Nell states:
It was only Dr Killeen who believed the wounds were inflicted ante-mortem.

But that is not so “only”, Nell – it is the words of a medical doctor we are dealing with here, and he would have known. The piercing through the heart was NOT the first stab.

Bolo suggests:
“In my opinion, she got caught by surprise. The attacker hit her on the head with his bare hands or a blunt instrument when she walked past George Yard building, dragged her through the gateway to the landing and suffocated her.”

But why carry her up the stairs?? And why is it that nobody remembers the clear possibility that she could have received the effusion between scalp and bone by hitting her head when falling? And such a hit on the head would, like Celesta suggests, not have to result in an abrasion. In fact, it is perhaps the most probable type of hit on the head to answer to the description.

The best,
Fisherman

[bolo]

But why carry her up the stairs?? And why is it that nobody remembers the clear possibility that she could have received the effusion between scalp and bone by hitting her head when falling? And such a hit on the head would, like Celesta suggests, not have to result in an abrasion. In fact, it is perhaps the most probable type of hit on the head to answer to the description.

The best,
Fisherman

Since the body was found lying on on the first-floor landing, I wouldn't completely rule out that Tabram had been dragged (not carried) there during the first stage of the attack (pre-stabbing) when she was still more or less conscious but unable to fight back or scream because the killer got her by the throat. The attacker could have stood behind her, grabbed her round the chest with his left arm and the throat with the right and then dragged her up the stairs. Then he dropped the now quite dizzy Tabram and stabbed her to death.

Of course this is just a bit of speculation on my part... however, I find this (obviously flawed) theory more plausible than that of a sleeping Tabram getting spontaneously stabbed to death by a murderer who had a habit of peering into staircases at night.

In my opinion, Tabram either got attacked out of the blue (or dark...) or led her killer right to the staircase in question to service him, I don't believe in a random encounter.

[Fisherman]

Hi Bolo!

You speculate that Tabrams killer would have dragged her up the stairs, pre-stabbing, after which he dropped her on the first floor landing and stabbed away at her.

To me, this seems as risky at is seems awkward; if he had her on the ground in the doorway, at the base of the stairs, then he also had her pretty much concealed. Add to this that he would have left himself a chance to make a run for it
A/ if someone approached the door from the outside and
B/ if someone came down the stairs

What you suggest it that he left that favourable position, only to drag his victim up to a landing where any neighbour could have just opened a door and come upon him. Also, Tabram was a massive woman. Dragging that weight up the stairs would have been immensely heavy and certain to be anything but quiet.
To my view, your theory involves all the wrong decisions on his behalf, and though it is not impossible, I think it is improbable.

I agree that a random encounter on the landing is harder to believe in than a scenario where Tabram led her killer to the building, but I think we must be careful to rule it out. If Tabram was the Rippers first strike, and if he had been nurturing thoughts to kill a woman (maybe even a prostitute), then finding such prey sleeping on a landing would perhaps be the one thing that triggered him. Maybe he just could not resist?
If so, we must of course realize that there is an obvious possibility that the Ripper lived in George Yard or at least stayed with someone who did.

The best, Bolo!
Fisherman

[Celesta]

So how about a scenario where the killer delivers 37 stabs, then if the longer cut to the lower abdomen was the knife tip breaking on the pelvic bone, [further] enraging the assailant who then thrusts the knife with great force deep through the heart, which then had to be wiggled/rotated to get it out leaving the bigger wound?

Hi Victor, It might have been more than just the size of the wound but the depth of the penetration and the damage caused? Though I can see your point about how it would have had to be wiggled etc to remove it.

[Celesta]

Bolo & Fisherman,

Either notion of why she was on the landing could apply. I still think she might have led him up there and he punched her on the head to stun her, in which case he may have practiced on someone else before hand, just to get the knack of it so to speak. Some other person sporting a similar wound on the head.

He could have seen her go up with someone else and come up afterwards, possibly catching her by surprise.

[Gideon Fell]

Isn't it fun to speculate and hypothesise?

[perrymason]

Since it clearly cannot be concluded by the medical evidence that only one weapon was used, two distinct wound patterns existed, one carrying the earmark of a much larger sturdier blade, and since the night in question involves not one, but 2 soldiers, there seems a simple answer may be present if considered.

Bayonets were not exclusive to soldiers, you could buy one at that time, but many soldiers ex and current, carried around one on Holidays....2 soldiers, a Holiday, 2 types of wounds, one designed strictly to kill..one comes upon the other maniacally stabbing and whispering taunts, the other, because Martha had the private, so a superior officer, sees the activity, can see the woman is virtually dead anyway, steps in, finishes her, and orders his buddy/subordinate to come away with him quickly.

To never be mentioned by either again....and with good reason.

Cheers all.

[bolo]

Fisherman,

both of your options A/ and B/ apply in any case, no matter wether Martha led her killer to the 1st-floor landing, got dragged there or even was assaulted while sleeping (which still seems unlikely to me).

I would probably try to get her on the 1st-floor landing as well to lower the risk of getting seen or heard by a passer-by from the street. If I heard someone entering the house or come down the stairs, I still had a couple of seconds left to stand up and either try to catch the person by surprise and run him/her down (if (s)he just entered the house) or simply run away before (s)he reaches the 1st-floor stairs.

A staircase is a very risky location either way.

I wish there would be more information available on Tabram, her life and habits and her last movements. Can't really put my finger on it but there's something in the Tabram case that, once unearthed, might cast a new light on the other East End murders of that year.

Celesta,

your second scenario (Tabram going up with someone else, etc.) sounds very interesting, never thought of that.

Maybe it could be worth it to compile a list of possible reasons why the murder took place in that particular location and not in the gateway, on the street, in the GYB backyard (was it accessible through the staircase?), etc. I'm not really familar with the area but there must have been some alternatives.

[Celesta]

Hey Bolo, I have also been wondering about other women who may have been konked on the head or similarly assaulted in the weeks prior, in addition to the other factors to investigate that you mentioned.

[Mitch Rowe]

Maybe it could be worth it to compile a list of possible reasons why the murder took place in that particular location and not in the gateway, on the street, in the GYB backyard (was it accessible through the staircase?), etc. I'm not really familar with the area but there must have been some alternatives.

It was mentioned in the Chapman inquest that people would sleep on the staircase landing at times.
I think ther is little doubt that Annie led JTR to the backyard to conduct "business".
So..Unless some-one comes up with evidence that it was somewhat normal for the girls to use a staircase for such sordid affairs Im going to have to assume Martha was only trying to get some sleep.

I know the idea of a random encounter with JTR sounds a bit odd but in a sense they may have all been random encounters.