Buck Ruxton

Buck Ruxton
Born Buktyar Rustomji Ratanji Hakim
(1899-03-21)21 March 1899
Bombay, India
Died 12 May 1936(1936-05-12) (aged 37)
Manchester, England
Occupation Physician
Criminal charge Two counts of murder
Criminal penalty Death by hanging
Criminal status Executed
Children 3
Partner(s) Isabella "Belle" Kerr
Killings
Victims Isabella Kerr
Mary Jane Rogerson
Date 15 September 1935
Country United Kingdom
Location(s) Lancaster, Lancashire
Killed 2
Date apprehended
 13 October 1935
Imprisoned at Strangeways

Buck Ruxton (21 March 1899 – 12 May 1936), also known as Buktyar Rustomji Ratanji Hakim, was an Indian-born British physician and executed murderer. Ruxton was the perpetrator of one of the United Kingdom's most publicised murders of the 1930s, which gripped the nation at the time. The case is remembered now for the innovative forensic techniques employed in solving it.

Background

Ruxton was born Bukhtyar Chompa Rustomji Ratanji Hakim in Bombay, India. He was a Parsi of partly French descent. He earned his medical degree from the University of Bombay.[1] In 1930, he moved to Britain and set up as in practice as a doctor in Lancaster. Around the same time, he changed his name to "Buck Ruxton" by deed poll. Ruxton was reputedly a diligent general physician well respected and popular with his patients, and known to waive his fees when he felt patients could not afford to pay them.

Ruxton lived in a large house at 2, Dalton Square, with his common-law wife, Isabella ("Belle") Kerr, and their three children: Elizabeth, William, and Diane.[1][2] Kerr was an outgoing woman who enjoyed socialising with leading Lancaster residents (the "Town Hall Set") and was a popular guest at functions.

Mary Rogerson lived in Poulton Square, Morecambe, and was walked to the bus stop that morning by her cousin Richard Towers.[3]

Murder

Ruxton became increasingly jealous of Kerr's supposed infidelity, allegedly exploding into fits of rage behind closed doors. Eventually his jealousy overwhelmed him and, on 15 September 1935, he most likely strangled Isabella with his bare hands. To prevent their housemaid, Mary Jane Rogerson, from discovering his crime before he could dispose of the body, or because she witnessed Kerr's murder, he most likely stabbed her to death, or cut her throat after a blow on the head. The amount of blood on the stairs indicates a knife crime. "Medico-Legal Aspects of the Ruxton Case" – Glaister & Brash. Ruxton then proceeded to dismember and mutilate both bodies in the bathroom to hide their identities. His problem then was to find somewhere to get rid of the remains.

Various human body parts were found over 100 miles (160 km) north of Lancaster, dumped in Gardenholme Linn – a stream running into the River Annan crossed by the Edinburgh–Carlisle, Cumbria road, 2 miles (3 km) north of the town of Moffat in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. They were found wrapped in bedsheets, children's clothing and newspapers (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.

One of the newspapers Ruxton 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, pored over the subscription list, which greatly assisted in tracking Ruxton. When initially questioned, Ruxton denied he had ever been to Scotland. However, whilst he was on his way back from Scotland disposing of the evidence, his car had knocked over a cyclist in Kendal, and he was stopped by a police officer in Milnthorpe nearby, who had made a record of the registration number in his pocketbook, vital evidence at the later murder trial.[4]

Identification of the bodies

The bodies were identified by Prof John Glaister Jr. using the fledgeling 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. The local dentist James Priestley also gave evidence to identify the victims. 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

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.

Arrest and conviction

Ruxton was arrested at 7.20 a.m. on 13 October 1935 and charged with the murder of Mary Rogerson; on 5 November he was further charged with the murder of Isabella Ruxton.[6] His trial, for the murder of Isabella Ruxton only, 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 Jackson K.C., David Maxwell Fyfe K.C., and Hartley Shawcross.

The trial ended on 13 March 1936, when the jury returned a verdict of "guilty" and Mr Justice Singleton sentenced Ruxton to death. A petition urging clemency for Ruxton collected over 10,000 signatures. However, on 27 April 1936 the Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed Ruxton's appeal and he was hanged at Strangeways prison, Manchester, on the morning of 12 May 1936.

Aftermath

The dismembered remains of Mary Rogerson were buried in the churchyard at Overton, a small village near the neighbouring town of Morecambe.

The area where Ruxton disposed of the body parts would become colloquially known in Moffat as "Ruxton's Dump".

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, particularly the bathroom: it became architects' offices, and remains non-residential. 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 Lancashire County Police headquarters, Hutton, Preston.

In popular culture

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

References

  1. 1 2 Fields, Kenneth (1998). Lancashire Magic & Mystery: Secrets of the Red Rose County. Sigma. p. 122. ISBN 1-850-58606-3.
  2. ↑ Fields 1998 p.123
  3. ↑ elderly relatives
  4. ↑ Evans, C., French, JL., Crime Scene Investigation, Infobase Publishing, 2009, pp. 30–39.
  5. ↑
    • Mitchel P. Roth, "Historical dictionary of law enforcement", Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, ISBN 0-313-30560-9, p.130
  6. ↑ Hodge (1950) pp.207–208
  7. ↑ Jonathan Goodman, Bloody versicles: the rhymes of crime, Kent State University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-87338-470-9 pages 112–114

External links

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