Buck Ruxton
Encyclopedia
Dr Buck Ruxton also known as Buktyar Rustomji Ratanji Hakim, was a Parsi doctor and murderer, involved in one of the United Kingdom
's most publicised murder
cases of the 1930s, which gripped the nation at the time. The case is remembered now for the innovative forensic
techniques employed in solving it.
. In 1930 he moved to the UK and set up as a practising doctor in Lancaster, England. He was reputedly a diligent GP, well respected and popular with his patients, and known to waive his fees when he felt patients could not afford to pay them. He lived in a large house at 2, Dalton Square (still a location for practising doctors) with his common-law
wife Isabella ("Belle") Kerr and their three children. Isabella was an outgoing lady who enjoyed socialising with Lancaster's elite and was a popular guest at functions. Emotionally unstable and obsessively jealous, Dr Ruxton became convinced that she was having an affair behind his back, though no evidence of infidelity was ever found.
Various human body parts were found over 100 miles (160.9 km) north of Lancaster, dumped in Gardenholme Linn – a stream running into the River Annan
crossed by the Edinburgh
–Carlisle road, 2 miles (3 km) north of the town of Moffat
in Dumfriesshire
, Scotland
. They were found wrapped in newspaper
s (the Daily Herald dated 6 and 31 August 1935, Sunday Graphic dated 15 September 1935 and Sunday Chronicle) on 29 September, 1935, by Miss Susan Haines Johnson who was visiting from Edinburgh.
Unfortunately for Ruxton, one of the newspapers he had chosen to use was a special 'slip' edition of the Sunday Graphic that was sold only in the Morecambe and Lancaster areas. Inspector Jeremiah Lynch of Scotland Yard, who had been called in to assist in the investigation, investigated the subscription list, which greatly assisted in tracking Ruxton.
identification, forensic anthropology
to superimpose a photograph over the X-ray
of a victim's skull and forensic entomology
to identify the age of maggots and thus the approximate date of death. This was one of the first cases where such forensic evidence was successfully used to convict a criminal in the UK.
A preliminary examination was made at Moffat by Professor Glaister and Dr Millar, after which the remains were taken to the anatomy department at Edinburgh University for a more detailed investigation.
K.C., David Maxwell Fyfe K.C. and Hartley Shawcross. The trial ended on 13 March 1936 when the jury had returned a verdict of 'guilty' and Mr Justice Singleton sentenced him to death. A petition urging clemency for Ruxton collected over 10,000 signatures. However, the Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed Ruxton's appeal on 27 April 1936 and he was hanged
at Strangeways prison, Manchester
on the morning of 12 May 1936.
Red stains on the carpet,
Red stains on the knife
Oh Dr Buck Ruxton
You murdered your wife.
Then Mary she saw you
You thought she would tell
So Dr Buck Ruxton
You killed her as well.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's most publicised murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
cases of the 1930s, which gripped the nation at the time. The case is remembered now for the innovative forensic
Forensics
Forensic science is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to a legal system. This may be in relation to a crime or a civil action...
techniques employed in solving it.
Background
Buck Ruxton, a Parsi born in Bombay on 21 March 1899, was originally named Bukhtyar Rustomji Ratanji Hakim but later changed his name by deed pollDeed poll
A deed poll is a legal document binding only to a single person or several persons acting jointly to express an active intention...
. In 1930 he moved to the UK and set up as a practising doctor in Lancaster, England. He was reputedly a diligent GP, well respected and popular with his patients, and known to waive his fees when he felt patients could not afford to pay them. He lived in a large house at 2, Dalton Square (still a location for practising doctors) with his common-law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
wife Isabella ("Belle") Kerr and their three children. Isabella was an outgoing lady who enjoyed socialising with Lancaster's elite and was a popular guest at functions. Emotionally unstable and obsessively jealous, Dr Ruxton became convinced that she was having an affair behind his back, though no evidence of infidelity was ever found.
Murder
Ruxton became increasingly jealous of Isabella's popularity, allegedly exploding into fits of rage behind closed doors. Eventually his jealousy overwhelmed him and, on 15 September 1935, he strangled Isabella with his bare hands. In order to prevent their housemaid, Mary Jane Rogerson, from discovering his crime before he could dispose of the body, he suffocated her too. Ruxton then proceeded to dismember and mutilate both bodies to hide their identities.Various human body parts were found over 100 miles (160.9 km) north of Lancaster, dumped in Gardenholme Linn – a stream running into the River Annan
River Annan
The River Annan is a river in southwest Scotland. It rises at the foot of Hart Fell, five miles north of Moffat. A second fork rises on Annanhead Hill and flows through the Devil's Beef Tub before joining at the Hart Fell fork north of Moffat.From there it flows past the town of Lockerbie, and...
crossed by the Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
–Carlisle road, 2 miles (3 km) north of the town of Moffat
Moffat
Moffat is a former burgh and spa town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, lying on the River Annan, with a population of around 2,500. The most notable building in the town is the Moffat House Hotel, designed by John Adam...
in Dumfriesshire
Dumfriesshire
Dumfriesshire or the County of Dumfries is a registration county of Scotland. The lieutenancy area of Dumfries has similar boundaries.Until 1975 it was a county. Its county town was Dumfries...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. They were found wrapped in newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s (the Daily Herald dated 6 and 31 August 1935, Sunday Graphic dated 15 September 1935 and Sunday Chronicle) on 29 September, 1935, by Miss Susan Haines Johnson who was visiting from Edinburgh.
Unfortunately for Ruxton, one of the newspapers he had chosen to use was a special 'slip' edition of the Sunday Graphic that was sold only in the Morecambe and Lancaster areas. Inspector Jeremiah Lynch of Scotland Yard, who had been called in to assist in the investigation, investigated the subscription list, which greatly assisted in tracking Ruxton.
Identification of the bodies
The bodies were identified using the fledgeling techniques of fingerprintFingerprint
A fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. A print from the foot can also leave an impression of friction ridges...
identification, forensic anthropology
Forensic anthropology
Forensic anthropology is the application of the science of physical anthropology and human osteology in a legal setting, most often in criminal cases where the victim's remains are in the advanced stages of decomposition. A forensic anthropologist can assist in the identification of deceased...
to superimpose a photograph over the X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
of a victim's skull and forensic entomology
Forensic entomology
Forensic entomology is the application and study of insect and other arthropod biology to criminal matters. It is primarily associated with death investigations; however, it may also be used to detect drugs and poisons, determine the location of an incident, and find the presence and time of the...
to identify the age of maggots and thus the approximate date of death. This was one of the first cases where such forensic evidence was successfully used to convict a criminal in the UK.
Experts involved in the identification of the bodies
- Professor John Glaister, Regius Professor of Forensic MedicineRegius Professor of Forensic Medicine, GlasgowThe Regius Chair of Forensic Medicine at the University of Glasgow was founded in 1839 by Queen Victoria.The Chair was occupied for over one hundred years by the same family, when John Glaister Jnr. succeeded his father as Regius Professor...
at the University of GlasgowUniversity of GlasgowThe University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the... - Dr Gilbert Millar, Lecturer in Pathology at the University of EdinburghUniversity of EdinburghThe University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
- Professor Sydney SmithSydney Smith (forensic expert)Sir Sydney Alfred Smith CBE , was a renowned forensic scientist and pathologist. From 1928 to 1953, Smith was Regius Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, a well-known forensic department of that time...
, Regius Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Edinburgh - Dr Arthur Hutchinson, Dean of the Edinburgh Dental Hospital and School
- Professor Thom Davies, Professor of Pathology at the University of Glasgow
- Professor James Couper BrashJames Couper BrashJames Couper Brash, M.C., M.D., F.R.C.S.Ed., D.Sc. LL.D., F.R.S.Ed. was a leading anatomist and embryologist in Britain.-Early life & family:...
, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Edinburgh
A preliminary examination was made at Moffat by Professor Glaister and Dr Millar, after which the remains were taken to the anatomy department at Edinburgh University for a more detailed investigation.
Punishment
Ruxton was arrested at 7.20 a.m. on 13 October 1935 and charged with the murder of Mary Rogerson; he was subsequently charged on 5 November with the murder of Isabella Ruxton. His trial started on 2 March 1936 and lasted for 11 days. He was defended by Norman Birkett K.C. and Philip Kershaw K.C., who were instructed by Edwin Slinger, a solicitor in Lancaster. The prosecution counsel were Joseph Cooksey JacksonJoseph Cooksey Jackson
Joseph Cooksey Jackson K.C. was a British barrister and politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Heywood and Radcliffe, 1931–1935....
K.C., David Maxwell Fyfe K.C. and Hartley Shawcross. The trial ended on 13 March 1936 when the jury had returned a verdict of 'guilty' and Mr Justice Singleton sentenced him to death. A petition urging clemency for Ruxton collected over 10,000 signatures. However, the Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed Ruxton's appeal on 27 April 1936 and he was hanged
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
at Strangeways prison, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
on the morning of 12 May 1936.
Trivia
- The house on Dalton Square where the murders were committed remained empty for decades because of its notorious reputation. Eventually, in the 1980s, the building was gutted and underwent substantial internal alteration. Thereafter, it became architects' offices. It remains a non-residential building: nobody sleeps there.
- The bath in which Buck Ruxton dismembered his victims was removed and used as evidence during his trial. Afterwards, it was used as a horse trough by the mounted police division at its headquarters in Preston.
- The dismembered remains of Mary Rogerson were buried in the churchyard at OvertonOverton, LancashireOverton is a village and civil parish within the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England. It is located to the south west of Lancaster, between Heysham and the estuary of the River Lune. Neighbouring villages include Middleton and Sunderland Point; Glasson is on the opposite side of the river...
, a small village near the neighbouring town of MorecambeMorecambeMorecambe is a resort town and civil parish within the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England. As of 2001 it has a resident population of 38,917. It faces into Morecambe Bay...
. - The area where Ruxton hid the bodies is colloquially known in Moffat as "Ruxton's Dump".
- The newspaper in which Ruxton wrapped the bones featured headline stories involving Morecambe Carnival.
- When initially questioned, Ruxton denied he had ever been to Scotland. However, whilst he was in Scotland disposing of the evidence, his car had been stopped by a police officer who had made a record of the registration number in his pocketbook, vital evidence at the later murder trial. This case took place long before the sophisticated forensic-evidence-gathering techniques of today.
- There was a pub called "Ruxton's" less than 50 metres from where Dr. Ruxton lived. However, the name was later changed to "The Square".
- The Ruxton trial caught the public interest to such an extent that the popular song "Red Sails in the Sunset" was adapted with new lyrics as follows:
Red stains on the carpet,
Red stains on the knife
Oh Dr Buck Ruxton
You murdered your wife.
Then Mary she saw you
You thought she would tell
So Dr Buck Ruxton
You killed her as well.