Buck Ruxton

Buck Ruxton
File:Buck Ruxton.jpg
Born	Buktyar Rustomji Ratanji Hakim (1899-03-21)21 March 1899 Bombay, India
Died	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 Rustomji Ratanji Hakim in Bombay, India. He was a Parsi, and was also of French descent. He earned his medical degree from the University of Bombay. In 1930, he moved to the United Kingdom and set up as a practising doctor in Lancaster. Around the same time, he changed his name to "Buck Ruxton" by deed poll. Ruxton 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.

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. Kerr was an outgoing lady who enjoyed socialising with Lancaster's elite (the "Town Hall Set") and was a popular guest at functions.

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

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 likely strangled her too. 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 road, 2 miles (3 km) north of the town of Moffat in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. They were found wrapped in 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.

Identification of the bodies

The bodies were identified 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

• 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 James Couper 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.

Arrest and conviction

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, 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 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.

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 its headquarters in Manchester.

In popular culture

• For some years, Dr. Buck Ruxton's waxwork was exhibited in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussauds in London.

• Many years later after the murders, a pub called "Ruxton's" was opened less than 50 metres from where Dr. Ruxton lived. Its name was later changed to "The Square", partly from public disapproval.

• A very popular stage play about the case was performed at the Duke's Playhouse in Lancaster.

• 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

External links

• Ruxton at murdersdatabase.co.uk
• Various photographs relating to the crime at Forensic Medicine Archive project