Buck Ruxton
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The case of Dr Buck Ruxton, aka Buktyar Rustomji Ratanji Hakim is one of the UK's most infamous murder cases of the mid-1930s, and gripped the nation at the time. The case is famous not so much because of the nature of the crime, but because of the innovative new forensic techniques employed in solving it.
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[edit] Background
Buck Ruxton, a Parsi born in Bombay on 21st March 1899, was originally named Bukhtyar Rustomji Ratanji Hakim but later changed his name by deed poll. In 1930 he moved to the UK as 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 where he felt patients could not afford to pay them. He lived in a large house at 2, Dalton Square (still a popular area for practising doctors) with his common-law wife Isabella 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 obsessionally jealous, Dr Ruxton became convinced that she was having an affair behind his back, though there is no evidence of infidelity.
[edit] 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, Ruxton 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 north of Lancaster, dumped in "Gardenholme Linn" a stream running into the river Annan crossed by the Edinburgh-Carlisle road, 2 miles North of the town of Moffat in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. They were found wrapped in newspapers (these being "Daily Herald" dated 6th & 31st August 1935, "Sunday Graphic" dated 15th September 1935 and "Sunday Chronicle") on 29th 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 only sold in the Morecambe and Lancaster area. The police were quick to investigate this lead.
[edit] Identification of the bodies
The bodies were identified using the fledgling techniques of fingerprint 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.
[edit] Experts involved in the identification of the bodies
- Professor John Glaister, Regius Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Glasgow
- Dr Gilbert Millar, Lecturer in Pathology at the University of Edinburgh
- Professor Sydney Smith, 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 J C Brash, 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.
[edit] Punishment
Ruxton was arrested at 7.20 a.m. on 13 October 1935. His trial started on 2 March 1936 and lasted for 11 days. He was defended by Norman Birkett K.C. & Philip Kershaw K.C., who were instructed by Edwin Slinger, a solicitor in Lancaster. The prosecution were J.C. Jackson K.C., David Maxwell Fyfe K.C. and Hartley Shawcross. The trial ended on 13 March 1936 when the jury had returned a 'Guilty' verdict 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.
[edit] 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 Overton, a small village near the neighbouring town of Morecambe.
- 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 was 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 there was even a song about it as follows:
Bloodstains on the carpet,
Bloodstains on the knives
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.
[edit] References
- Hodge, James H. (1964). Famous Trials 10.
- Blundell, R.H. (1937). Trial of Buck Ruxton.
