Dark Stories: On This Day In True Crime History - Dark Stories True Crime Tours

1888: Martha Tabram Slain in Whitechapel, Possibly Jack the Ripper’s First Victim

In the early hours of 7 August 1888, Martha Tabram was found dead in George Yard Buildings, Whitechapel, stabbed 39 times. The 39-year-old had spent the previous evening drinking with a companion and two soldiers before separating in the early hours, never to be seen alive again. Though not among the canonical five Ripper victims, she is widely regarded as the most likely additional candidate.

Born Martha White in Southwark in 1849, she had lived a troubled life marked by a failed marriage, heavy drinking, and poverty. By 1888, separated from her long-term partner Henry Turner and evicted from their Commercial Road lodgings, she had been forced into street prostitution. Her killer was never identified.

Portrait of Martha Tabram victim of a Victorian era murder case

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Cold Case London Murder Serial Killer UK Unsolved Whitechapel

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1985: Jeremy Bamber Kills Five Family Members at White House Farm

At 3:26am on 7 August 1985, Jeremy Bamber called Essex Police claiming his adoptive sister Sheila had gone berserk with a rifle at the family farm in Tolleshunt D’Arcy. Officers arrived to find a scene staged to look like a murder-suicide: Bamber’s adoptive father Neville shot multiple times in the kitchen, mother June dead in her bedroom, and Sheila’s six-year-old twins shot in their beds. Sheila herself lay dead, clutching a rifle and a bible, shot through the throat.

The scene appeared so convincing that police initially accepted the murder-suicide theory and even helped Bamber burn bloodstained carpets and bedding. It was Bamber’s former girlfriend who broke the case, telling police he had confessed the killings to her. Forensic evidence, including a silencer found at the farm bearing traces of Sheila’s blood inside the barrel, proved she could not have shot herself with it attached. Bamber was convicted in 1986 and sentenced to five concurrent life terms, later made whole life, meaning he will never be released.

Jeremy Bamber Kills Five Family Members at White House Farm

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Essex Europe Family Crime Murder Trial UK

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1867: Joseph Ballam Hanged at Ballarat for the Piggoreet Road Murder

Thomas Ulick Burke, manager of the Bank of Australasia at Smythesdale, was shot and killed on 10 May 1867 while travelling alone by buggy through the bush near the Coach and Horses Hotel after purchasing gold from claims along the Break-o’-Day road. His valise was found empty, all gold and banknotes taken. Joseph Ballam, an unemployed lodger at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Piggoreet, had spent the days before the murder quietly canvassing the local claims for yield information, noting that the Break-o’-Day Company would have a good haul that fortnight.

At the Ballarat Circuit Court, before Judge Barry, Ballam and co-accused George Searle, keeper of the Cosmopolitan Hotel, were charged with the wilful murder. Witnesses placed both men on horseback near the route Burke had taken on the afternoon of the killing, their horses shod with shoes of distinctive shape that a farrier could identify. Ballam was convicted and hanged at Ballarat on 7 August 1867.

Piggoreet murder prisoners Ballan and Searle Smythesdale police court

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Australia Ballarat Execution Murder Piggoreet Robbery Trial VIC

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1867: George Searle Hanged at Ballarat for the Piggoreet Murder

Thomas Ulick Burke, manager of the Bank of Australasia at Smythesdale, was ambushed and shot dead on 10 May 1867 while travelling alone by buggy after buying gold along the road toward Bulldog. His body was found the following day in the bush near the Coach and Horses Hotel, slumped in the buggy with his valise emptied of all gold and notes. Evidence placed George Searle and his associate Joseph Ballan near the scene that afternoon, with a witness confirming Ballan had been scouting goldfield yields in the days before the murder.

At the Ballarat Circuit Court, before Judge Barry, both men were tried for wilful murder. Searle, keeper of the Cosmopolitan Hotel, and Ballan, a lodger there, had been seen together at key locations along the murder route on the day of the killing. Horseshoe markings provided further physical evidence linking the pair to the crime. Searle was convicted and hanged at Ballarat on 7 August 1867.

Murder of Mr Burke native trackers finding the pistols

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Australia Ballarat Execution Goldfields Murder Robbery Trial VIC

1888: Martha Tabram Slain in Whitechapel, Possibly Jack the Ripper’s First Victim

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1985: Jeremy Bamber Kills Five Family Members at White House Farm

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1867: Joseph Ballam Hanged at Ballarat for the Piggoreet Road Murder

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1867: George Searle Hanged at Ballarat for the Piggoreet Murder

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