The Ruxton Murders: the true crime case that shaped forensics

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Buck Ruxton, Murder, Dalton Square, Lancaster
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Buck Ruxton, Suicide, Dalton Square, Isabella Kerr
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Edinburgh, Dalton Square, Isabella Kerr, Lancaster
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Mary Jane Roger, Moffett
5. 20:00 – 25:00: Edinburgh University, Moffett, Edinburgh
6. 25:00 – 30:00: Lancaster, Dalton Square, Sunday Graphic
7. 30:00 – 35:00: Photographic Superimposition, Lancaster, Forensic Entomology, Moffett
8. 35:00 – 40:00: Buck Ruxton, Murder, Lancaster, Photographic Superimposition
9. 40:00 – 43:34: Buck Ruxton, Murder, Murder Case, Dalton Square

Notable quotes from "The Ruxton Murders: the true crime case that shaped forensics"

• Of his birth name. He was very determined to fit in Britain to fully assimilate. Ruxton was a man who was all about appearances and in the 1920s taking on an English sounding…

  about Buck Ruxton · at 2:38

• That meant when they were bad, it was really bad. On several occasions, neighbors would overhear the screaming rous from two Dalton Square and they'd end up calling the police.…

  about Dalton Square · at 7:07

• Unwitting victim. It's thought that both women died on the landing of two Dalton Square. Ruxton's motivation being Isabella's alleged unfaithfulness.

  about Murder · at 13:34

• And the family friends obviously said yes. And at that point, Ruxton drove home and started the process of dismembering Isabella and Mary's bodies, placing them in the bathtub and draining their blood before dismembering them.

  about Lancaster · at 14:31

• Involved, everything just started to unravel. On October 1st, about two weeks since they'd seen her, Mary's family finally reported her as missing. Knowing all of this was so…

  about Mary Jane Roger · at 19:42

• They knew that and that is probably why the trial went the way it did. Within the next couple of days, the body parts would start arriving at the anatomy department of…

  about Edinburgh University · at 22:18

• Was her skull. And then they did the same with Mary. And it was also a very good match. This was the first major criminal case in Britain to use superimposition as evidence of…

  about Photographic Superimposition · at 33:08

• Thanks to the innovative forensic techniques used to pin down the identities and the killer. This was a landmark case that laid the foundations for many more that would come after.

  about Murder Case · at 41:26

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Buck Ruxton — Person · Core topic · 8 mentions · first at 0:43
  Central figure in the Ruxton murders, a landmark case in forensic history.
• Isabella Kerr — Person · Core topic · 4 mentions · first at 2:58
  Victim in the Ruxton murders, her death led to significant forensic advancements.
  Exactly what happened in the early hours of the 15th September, but we do know that Isabella likely didn't survive to see the sunrise, and neither did the 19-year-old housemmaid, Mary Jane Roger.
• Mary Jane Roger — Person · Core topic · 5 mentions · first at 5:00
  Housemaid and victim in the Ruxton murders, her death was pivotal in the case.
• Robert Edmonson — Person · Referenced individual · 3 mentions · first at 9:41
  Alleged by Ruxton to be Isabella's lover, though no evidence supports this.
  Misogyny was rife. The police felt sorry for him time and time again, and they believed him. Now, Ruxton was convinced Isabella was specifically having an affair with a…
• BHA Chompa Rastami Ratanji Hakeim — Person · Contextual background · 1 mention · first at 0:48
  Buck Ruxton's birth name, indicating his Indian heritage.
  That was unheard of. It was magic. And this story begins with a man called Buck Ruxton who was born in Bombay in India, now Mumbai in March 1899 as BHA Chompa Rastami Ratanji…
• Edith Holm — Person · Referenced individual · 1 mention · first at 34:16
  Identified clothing belonging to the Ruxton children, aiding in the investigation.
  Holm. She knew the Ruxton family and Isabella and the kids had stayed with her for quite a few times. Edith immediately recognized the romper because she herself had just so…

Companies & orgs

• Edinburgh University — Company · Core topic · 1 mention · first at 22:26
  Conducted the forensic analysis of the remains.
• University of Bombay — Company · Contextual background · 1 mention · first at 1:17
  Ruxton's alma mater, where he studied medicine.
  He ended up going to the University of Bombay to study medicine graduating as a bachelor of medicine in 1922 and then just one year later as a bachelor of surgery. He went on to work in a Bombay.
• Royal Colleges of Surgeons — Company · Contextual background · 1 mention · first at 2:12
  Ruxton attempted to join this organization, highlighting his medical ambitions.
  He wanted to join the fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons and although he did fail his entrance exams, he was able to present all of his qualifications that he got in India and.

Concepts & topics

• Murder — Concept · Core topic · 6 mentions · first at 0:13
  The central crime discussed, highlighting forensic breakthroughs.
• Murder Case — Concept · Core topic · 1 mention · first at 41:30
  The Ruxton murders are a landmark case in forensic history.
• Photographic Superimposition — Concept · Core topic · 4 mentions · first at 31:51
  Used to identify the victims, a pioneering forensic technique.
• Forensic Entomology — Concept · Core topic · 1 mention · first at 30:36
  Used to estimate the time of death, a key forensic technique in the case.
  The use of maggots in this case became a landmark example of the use of forensic entomology in British criminal history.
• Suicide — Concept · Contextual background · 2 mentions · first at 7:51
  Isabella's attempted suicide highlighted the domestic abuse she suffered.
  She did survive, but the baby she was carrying at the time did not. I don't know if she had maybe found out that she was pregnant and that was the last straw or if maybe she didn't know she was.
• Common Law Marriage — Concept · Contextual background · 1 mention · first at 3:14
  Describes Ruxton and Isabella's relationship, though not legally recognized in the UK.
  Relocate back down to London in 1928, Isabella naturally joins him. The pair never got married, and most sources will say that their relationship eventually became a common law…

Places & events

• Dalton Square — Place · Core topic · 7 mentions · first at 3:32
  Location of Ruxton's home and the murder site.
• Lancaster — Place · Core topic · 12 mentions · first at 3:32
  Location where Ruxton lived and committed the murders.
• Moffett — Place · Core topic · 3 mentions · first at 17:42
  Location where the dismembered remains were discovered.
  Likely knew they'd been found, too. On the morning of the 29th September, 1935, a woman called Susan Haynes Johnson was out walking in Moffett, just taking in the sights. As…
• 1930s — Event · Contextual background · 2 mentions · first at 8:23
  The era in which the Ruxton murders occurred, influencing societal and forensic practices.
  Bridge, the savage surgeon. The press have attributed a lot of different names over the years to this case. It was one of Britain's most high-profile murder cases of the 1930s.…
• Lancaster Police Station — Place · Core topic · 2 mentions · first at 34:51
  Location where Ruxton was arrested and questioned.
  Moves. He went home that day relatively happy, unaware that just 3 days later he would be arrested. On the 12th of October 1935, Buck Ruxton was arrested by Lancaster police…
• Strangeways Prison — Place · Core topic · 1 mention · first at 40:23
  Location where Ruxton was executed.
  Some sources say he confessed to the crime beforehand. Others say he professed his innocence until the end.
• Edinburgh — Place · Contextual background · 8 mentions · first at 2:08
  Location associated with Ruxton's early career and Isabella's family.
  It's 1926 and Ruxton is in London where he attends University College Hospital under a new name Gabriel Hakee. He studies there for a year before moving to Edinburgh in 1927.
• Bombay — Place · Contextual background · 2 mentions · first at 0:45
  Ruxton's birthplace, highlighting his early life and education.
  He ended up going to the University of Bombay to study medicine graduating as a bachelor of medicine in 1922 and then just one year later as a bachelor of surgery. He went on to work in a Bombay.

Media & podcasts

• Sunday Graphic — Media · Core topic · 1 mention · first at 26:46
  Newspaper used to wrap the bodies, crucial in identifying the location of the crime.
  Specific area, giving more relevant news as to what's been going on in your town or city or county. So, this specific slip edition was only sold in Morham and in Lancaster.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Rarely do I cover solved cases on my platforms, but today's story was just too interesting to miss. Today, I want to tell you a case that is considered to be the birth of modern-day forensics, the basis for so many murders that are solved nowadays. These are the Ruxton murders, the Jigsaw murders, the Moffat Ravine murders, the bodies under the bridge, the savage surgeon. The press have attributed a lot of different names over the years to this case. It was one of Britain's most high-profile murder cases of the 1930s. You couldn't open a newspaper without seeing this incredible story. How fingerprints and maggots were able to solve a murder in the 1930s.

0:40 That was unheard of. It was magic. And this story begins with a man called Buck Ruxton who was born in Bombay in India, now Mumbai in March 1899 as BHA Chompa Rastami Ratanji Hakeim. He would obviously change his name later in life, but I will refer to him in this video as Ruxton throughout this just to make sure the story is easy to follow. He was born into a wealthy middle-class family and had a very privileged upbringing. He had the best education money could buy and it also helped that he was highly highly intelligent, just a very very smart man.

1:17 He ended up going to the University of Bombay to study medicine graduating as a bachelor of medicine in 1922 and then just one year later as a bachelor of surgery. He went on to work in a Bombay hospital specializing in medicine, midwiffrey and gynecology before being commissioned into the Indian medical service, the military medical service with which he would travel across Asia to Bazra and Baghdad. In May 1925, Ruxton had an arranged marriage which wouldn't end up lasting all that long. He simply didn't want to be married and the next year he moved alone to Britain hiding all evidence the marriage ever happened and this would turn out to be a very lucky escape for his wife. So now it's 1926 and Ruxton is in London where he attends University College Hospital under a new name Gabriel Hakee. He studies there for a year before moving to Edinburgh in 1927.

2:11 He wanted to join the fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons and although he did fail his entrance exams, he was able to present all of his qualifications that he got in India and so he was allowed in. There's no doubt that he was an incredibly accomplished man already at this time and the general medical council agreed to authorize him to practice medicine over here in the UK. And it's around this time that he decided to change his name to Buck Ruxton, a much more amplicized version of his birth name. He was very very determined to fit in in Britain to fully fully assimilate. Ruxton was a man who was all about appearances and in the 1920s taking on an English sounding name likely would have afforded him a lot more respect. It's around this time in Edinburgh that he meets a local cafe manager called Isabella Kerr. They begin dating and soon they're in a serious relationship. When Ruxton decides to

3:05 relocate back down to London in 1928, Isabella naturally joins him. The pair never got married, and most sources will say that their relationship eventually became a common law marriage. However, fun fact, common law marriage is a myth here in the UK. It just doesn't exist. At no point are you automatically granted the same legal standing as married couples. But regardless, Isabella would take on the Ruxton name. She became known as Mrs. Roxton. The pair move to London where Ruxton works as GP Locom, which is a doctor who temporarily takes on the duties of another. And whilst they're down in London, they have their first child, a daughter. The next year, the family moved to Lancaster, which is where they would settle. I never know whether to say it, Lancaster, which is how I would automatically say in my southern accent, but I think people living in Lancaster will call it Lancaster. So, I

3:56 automatically want to say Lancaster, but then that sounds wrong in my voice. But Lancaster also sounds wrong. Maybe I'll switch between the two. We'll see. So they moved to Lancaster, Lancaster, and set up home to Dalton Square where they would go on to have two more children, a son and another daughter. Ruxton set up a GP practice within their own home. And they really seemed to be the perfect successful family. He had a really good reputation as a GP in this area. He was hardworking. He was compassionate. He really seemed to listen to the people who came in to see him. And in a pre-NHS England, he would even wave the fees for sick people who couldn't afford to see the doctor. From the outside, he seemed to be a really good man. People really liked him. But to those closer to him, he was very unpredictable. He was volatile with a temper that could blow at any given moment. His family often

4:53 walked on eggshells around him and not many people knew what was actually going on inside that house. Only the family and the living housekeeper, Mary Jane Roger. Roxton and Isabella's relationship was fraught with violence. It turns out he was a very insecure man who was always convinced Isabella was cheating on him. He accused her constantly, almost every single day, always interpreting every little thing she did as a clue that she was cheating. He was one of those people that would just absolutely explode. He would rant and rave, scream, and shout, and then he'd break down into hysterical tears, the whole self-pity act. Feel sorry for me. I'm so insecure, and you're cheating on me. This is your fault. And as far as I could find, she wasn't. Isabella was a very charismatic woman. She was bright.

5:45 She was full of life. She could make friends in any room. She was the life and soul of any party. And Buck Ruxton just simply wasn't that. He was definitely a very accomplished man for sure, but he was reserved and he was quiet. He couldn't make himself known in a room like Isabella. And I think this probably fed into his jealousy, but there's never been any evidence whatsoever that Isabella ever cheated on him. The juxtaposition of a man who's so volatile but so calm and composed at work, so revered in the local community is particularly impressive when you think about the fact that he likely would have been one of the only, if not the only Indian doctor in Lancaster.

6:26 He would have had to have worked twice as hard as his white counterparts to earn that respect in his field. But he did it and then he would lose it all, any composure he had as soon as he got home. This wasn't a happy home life for Isabella or any of the children. And as a result, she would often pack a bag and take them all back up to Edinburgh for days at a time. But she always returned the allure of Buck and the family life. And their kids having a dad was just too much. And apparently when the pair were good, they were really, really good.

6:58 There was this undeniable spark, a real chemistry between the pair that neither of them could seem to resist. They really were drawn to one another. But that meant when they were bad, it was really bad. On several occasions, neighbors would overhear the screaming rous from two Dalton Square and they'd end up calling the police. Even the police turning up at the door often wouldn't be enough to quell the fight. And the pair would have to be taken to the police station to sort out. And the same would happen every single time.

7:28 Ruxen would talk erratically at the officers, telling his side of the story. His wife was cheating on him. He's just a poor man with a horrible cheating wife, etc., etc. It was a pity party every single time. And then the police would just let him go, let them both go. They never did anything. And Isabella was not happy. She was downright suicidal. In 1932, she attempted to take her own life through gasphixiation. She did survive, but the baby she was carrying at the time did not. I don't know if she had maybe found out that she was pregnant and that was the last straw or if maybe she didn't know she was pregnant at all. She likely knew though that she couldn't bring another life, another child into this horrible home life. But she still couldn't bring herself to leave. Roxton had such power over her. She hated him, but she loved him. Plus, they had children together.

8:23 And this was the 1930s. She couldn't be a single mom. Isabella's sister, Jean, would report how after Isabella returned to hospital after her attempted suicide, Ruxton threatened her once again, saying that if she took the children away, he would cut all of their throats. And then, almost like nothing happened, his demeanor just switched. And Isabella's sister saw this. She said he just suddenly calmed down and became very, very nice. And it's so disconcerting to live with someone like this whose entire mood can switch on a dime. You never know what version of a person you're going to get. And Buck Ruxton was the most extreme of examples. When he was nice, he was the nicest person in the entire world. When he wasn't, it was awful. In 1933, Isabella went to the police, reported that her husband had been beating her. But of course, when the police turned up to investigate, Ruxton just went on one of his rants

9:19 about how she's cheating on him. He was in a marriage with an unfaithful wife. It was so hard on him. And once again, the police didn't do anything about it. This was the 1930s. There was like misogyny was rife. The police felt sorry for him time and time again, and they believed him. Now, Ruxton was convinced Isabella was specifically having an affair with a 25-year-old man called Robert Edmonson. The whole Edmonson family was very close with the Ruxons, and they spent a lot of time together. But eventually, Buck Ruxton deemed it was too much. He was absolutely convinced to his core that Isabella and Robert were having an affair, even though there was no evidence of it.

10:00 There's never been any evidence of this affair. In April 1934, after yet another neighbor called the police to report a fight, he told an officer something along the lines of, "My wife has been unfaithful. I will kill her if it continues." How he wasn't reprimanded for this, like he said this to an officer. This is a direct threat. I don't know. I can only imagine the officers were sympathetic to his plight. A poor man with a cheating wife. He was really good at the self-pity game, but he was dangerous. At his later trial, spoiler alert, house workers would report how he kept a revolver under his pillow at all times. He was always poised. He was always ready to kill if he needed to. This was just a very paranoid man. An entry in his diary from the 24th of November, 1934 read, "My evening coffee tasted sharp. I inadvertently told Isabelle that my coffee was peculiar in taste at the bottom of the cup. Soon after taking it,

11:01 I felt ill. She left me alone in the house. I vomited the whole night." Isabelle deliberately put liquid morph hydrochloride in my coffee as I found my pupils pinpoint soon after drinking the coffee. Their relationship would just continue to spiral downwards. In September 1935, Isabella traveled up to Edinburgh to go and see her sister and took the kids with her, but couldn't take the time off work, so he remained in Lancaster. But the Edmontons as a whole family decided to travel up with Isabella. Now, I don't know if the family, the Edmonsons, were also close with Isabella's sister Joan and also wanted to go and visit her, or if they just wanted to take a trip to Scotland, but it worked out well that Isabella didn't have to travel on her own with the children. Rumor has it that Buck turned so incandescent with rage and jealousy that he actually ended up following Isabella up to Edra, he

11:52 trailed her in his car the entire time and watched from a distance as her, Robert, and the entire family went for a walk. Isabella had no idea that she was being watched, as she was being followed by her own husband, but he was at breaking point. Hotel records would later show that Isabella and Robert had booked into the same hotel, but into separate hotel rooms, as did everyone else in the family. Again, there was no evidence of any sort of affair. And the fact that Ruxton couldn't go up to Edinburgh because he was too busy with work, but he was able to because he took the time off anyway to go and stalk her.

12:29 He was just losing it by the day. And over the next couple of weeks, he would spiral into a really dark place. On the evening of the 14th September 1935, just a week or so after the Edinburgh trip, Isabella decides to go down to Blackpool to visit a couple of her other sisters and go and see the Blackpool Illuminations. Her sisters would report that she left to go home at around 11:30 p.m. It's a 50 60 minute drive, so she should have been home by 12:30 a.m. But unbeknownst to them, to her sisters, Isabella's husband was waiting at home, seething in jealousy. He was convinced that she had been out with her non-existent lover. We'll never know exactly what happened in the early hours of the 15th September, but we do know that Isabella likely didn't survive to see the sunrise, and neither did the 19-year-old housemmaid, Mary Jane Roger.

13:22 Again, it's not entirely known how Mary also became a victim here. It's assumed she either saw Buck killing his wife or saw something going down in the aftermath, and she also became an unwitting victim. It's thought that both women died on the landing of two Dalton Square. Ruxton's motivation being Isabella's alleged unfaithfulness. He most likely strangled her before realizing that Mary had bore witness and so killed her too. Whether or not he pre-planned both or one of the murders is unknown, but what we do know is just the day before, so on the 14th, Ruxton had told one of his cleaners, that she didn't need to come to the house until Monday, which was unusual, as she would usually have been there over the weekend. In the morning, just hours after the murder, he would also go to that other cleaner's house and tell her that she also wasn't required until Monday, saying that Isabella and Mary

14:18 had traveled to Edinburgh last minute, and he was home alone. He didn't need a cleaner. And what about the kids, I hear you ask? Because remember, they had three children. Well, he drove them to a family friend's house and asked if they could look after the kids for the day. And the family friends obviously said yes. And at that point, Ruxton drove home and started the process of dismembering Isabella and Mary's bodies, placing them in the bathtub and draining their blood before dismembering them limb by limb, ensuring that he removed each and every fingertip as he did so.

14:52 He wasn't willing to just dispose of these bodies whole. He knew that he had to make sure that they could never be identified and traced back to him. Everything he did was planned. Everything he did was thought about. This was very organized. It's kind of clear to me at least that he'd been thinking about this for a very long time. As we know, Roxton had canled his two cleaners who would have known this house inside and out. They would have known what was an unusual amount of mess. But he soon realized that the cleanup was going to be too much on his own. And so he ended up turning to one of his patients for help, a Mrs.

15:30 Hamshshire. At 4:30 p.m. on the 15th September, he walked to her house and asked her and her husband to help him prepare for the decorators. He told them the decorators were coming to the house the next morning. His wife was away and he needed help getting everything clean and organized. Why would he go to this random patient of his for help? Well, it turns out that she was paying off a debt to him and Mrs. Hamampshire was generally just a very humble woman who he likely thought would keep her mouth shut. She was, of course, more than willing to help and turned up to find the house in absolute shambles. She said there was straw littered all up the stairs and all the upstairs rooms. She noticed carpets in the back garden spread out as if somebody had been trying to clean them and then dry them.

16:15 She said there were burnt towels. There were rolled up carpets in the waiting room. And the bathtub was stained a very strange shade of yellow, which she herself had to scrub clean. And then after all of her hard work, as she was leaving, Ruxton handed her a blue suit that was covered in blood stains, telling her that he cut his finger open whilst opening a can. He told her that if she was able to clean it, she could keep the suit, presumably for her husband. Mrs. Hampshire would say that the waist coat in particular was so badly stained that she couldn't imagine there was any way of saving it. The only thing she could think to do was just to burn it. But she did believe Roxton when he said he'd cut his finger. Like you don't immediately assume that your GP is murderer who has killed his wife and housemmaid and that's why his suit is covered in blood. Like your mind doesn't go there. Even if he hadn't cut his

17:05 finger, it is a hazard of his job that he might find himself covered in blood at any given time. This wasn't necessarily weird in Mrs. Hampshire's eyes. Like not at all. At some point in the next couple of days, Ruxen decided to go and dispose of the dismembered remains, all of which he'd wrapped up in newspaper, in old sheets, and even in his children's clothes. He bundled all of these remains in his car before heading north into Scotland, apparently with his son in tow sat in the back of the car. Ruxton drove incredibly erratically for around 2 hours about 120 miles north from his home before he deemed himself in a remote enough location in an area just north of a town called Moffett. Once there, he threw the remains off a bridge into the stream below in the hopes that they would never be found. They'd just be washed away into the river. He thought he was a genius. He thought that if he drove this

17:58 far away from home to dispose of these remains which he had cut up so meticulously that he had removed the fingerprints from, nobody would ever know what he'd done. But you would think with everything here being seemingly so thought out, Ruxton might have come up with a good story to explain the very sudden disappearance of his wife and housemmaid. But this is kind of where things would start to unravel for him because he just couldn't seem to make a single story stick. He told a number of neighbors and friends that Isabella had gone away because they'd had a big argument and she needed to cool off, which was something very usual in the household. Some though he alluded that she was staying with families. To others, he didn't say where she'd gone, that she just walked out and he hadn't seen her since. He told plenty of people as well that Mary had chosen to go with Isabella wherever Isabella had gone, or

18:46 that she'd simply gone on holiday. At one point, he turned up at the Rogerson's house and told Mary's parents that she had run off to get an abortion and Isabella had gone with her as moral support. Seeing as abortion was illegal at this time, he urged the Rogers not to call the police. He told other people that he'd received letters from his wife while she was on her travels. And when people eventually started to question the destruction and the stains inside his home, he would make a number of really strange excuses. But importantly, they were always different. He just couldn't stick with one single story.

19:24 Sometimes he said the blood was nose bleeds. Sometimes it was menstrual blood. Sometimes it was household injuries. Also remember that he had a GP surgery inside his home. So he could quite easily explain away blood to a regular person. But to the police, not so much. Most people would believe him in passing. But as soon as police got involved, everything just started to unravel. On October 1st, about two weeks since they'd seen her, Mary's family finally reported her as missing. Knowing all of this was so out of character for their daughter, Ruxton had also given them multiple very strange accounts, and they just didn't trust him in his story.

20:01 And with this, Ruxton realized that he couldn't get away with ignoring his own wife's disappearance because that was really suspicious. So eventually, about 3 days later, he reported Isabella as missing, too. But by this point, the remains had already been found, and he likely knew they'd been found, too. On the morning of the 29th September, 1935, a woman called Susan Haynes Johnson was out walking in Moffett, just taking in the sights. As she walked over this old stone bridge, she decided to take a look down at the stream below, and that's when she noticed a very strange looking bundle up against a boulder, something wrapped up in fabric. Upon closer inspection, she saw there was a decomposing human arm sticking out of it and obviously called the police to the scene. Officers soon realized that Susan hadn't been mistaken. This was definitely a human arm. So, the question was, where was the rest of this body? A

20:58 massive search of the surrounding areas ensued, searching the streams, all the surrounding ravines, and even the nearby Anen River. It was clear that whoever had disposed of this arm had very purposefully placed it in the water, hoping it would be washed away. So, it only made sense that the rest of the body would also be found in the water as well. And they were right. They found two human heads and four further bundles, all of which contained a mixture of human remains in a severe state of decomposition. There was thigh bones, legs, a torso, a pelvis, random bits of flesh. In total, they found 70 separate body parts. And they had all been wrapped in different fabrics, a pillowcase, children's clothing, and also newspapers from several different dates. And this investigation really lucked out with the officers that attended this particular scene. Because in a time before forensics were what they are now, it was

21:55 quite easy for officers to get laxed because what did it really matter? that forensics weren't this huge important thing, but the officers that came to this scene made sure that the crime scene was as secure as it could possibly be. They made sure that all of the evidence was handled safely and security and they made the subsequent forensic investigation possible because nothing here was inadvertently tampered with and they knew that and that is probably why the trial went the way it did. Within the next couple of days, the body parts would start arriving at the anatomy department of Edinburgh University, and these body parts revealed a lot about the deaths. These remains were so incredibly mutilated that nobody thought there would ever be much luck in identifying them. Police at the scene initially thought these remains were of a man and a woman, but Dr. Gilbert Miller and forensic scientist John

22:45 Glacer Jr. soon realized they were actually dealing with two separate female bodies. females of notably different heights and ages. Body number one was a female of around 20 years old and body number two was a female of around 35. So, one younger and one a bit older. The older woman had five stab wounds to the chest. It was her torso that was found. But it seems like this wasn't the cause of her death. Her hyoid bone had been broken and her lungs were also remarkably congested, suggesting that her cause of death was actually strangulation.

23:18 All of the other injuries, the stab wounds came after her death. Whoever had killed her had been so absolutely blinded by rage, they attacked her body again and again. The limbs and head of the other woman, the younger woman, also had signs of excessive blunt force trauma. She had been bludgeoned with an unknown instrument, and she had also been strangled. It was very, very violent. Any attempt they made to try and identify these remains though, to try and understand the remains would be scuppered because clearly whoever had mutilated these bodies knew what they were doing. It was very clear that this was somebody who knew human anatomy very well. They had made a very clear effort to try and prevent identification, removing the eyes, skin, lips, soft tissue, and several teeth from both of the heads. So, they couldn't even be identified via dental records. The murderer also cut off all their

24:13 fingertips to try and hide their fingerprints. But in trying to hide his victim's identity, Ruxton actually revealed quite a lot about himself. He was somebody with medical knowledge and that he knew that if these bodies were identified, it would end up leading straight to him. I mean, if you've murdered a stranger off the street, you're not going to go to so much effort because their identification doesn't necessarily lead straight to you. But if you kill your wife, it's going to be quite obvious. So the investigators here knew that the killer had a vested interest in these bodies not being identified. They also knew that it was very unlikely that these victims were from the local area thanks to the place in which they were found being so close to a major arterial road. They speculated very early on that the killer had driven in from somewhere else to dispose of these remains. So, they

25:07 immediately drew their search parameters really, really wide. They knew that they could have come from anywhere. I actually found a really interesting source I'll link down below as always in the form of an account written by a Bertie James Hammond. He was the head of the fingerprint bureau of the Glasgow Police Department until 1942 and he was involved in this case. He wrote, "Upon first looking at these remains on the 1st of October, some portions were on a small trestle table in appalling condition, flesh decomposed, a black mass seething with maggots and stench overpowering."

25:43 But he of course was there interested in the fingers or in the fingerprints. But he also wrote, "Owing to the soden and decomposed state of the flesh, no digital or Palmer impressions could be taken." In this time, fingerprinting was kind of the biggest forensic tech at use. This had been in use since the early 1900s and had helped solve countless crimes and investigators relied on it really heavily. Any fingerprints identifying these bodies seemed like a lost cause, so they had to get creative. But he did try really hard to get some prints. Like the fact there wasn't any fingertips didn't seem to deter him. Like he tried and he did get some. So, for investigators, the first most obvious place to look was at the wrappings that the body parts were found in. We're talking random pieces of clothing and fabric and some newspapers.

26:34 And it's these papers the investigators focused on the most. And they provided the first step towards these identities. They just had to dry them out first. It was soon determined that these sheets were from an edition of the Sunday graphic, a newspaper which is sold nationally, all or was sold nationally all across Britain. However, it just so happened that these particular pages were from a local slip edition of the paper. In this time, maybe even now as well, I don't know. I don't buy papers. Sometimes papers would have a few pages inside that were more localized to a specific area, giving more relevant news as to what's been going on in your town or city or county. So, this specific slip edition was only sold in Morham and in Lancaster.

27:18 But, incredibly, they were able to get even more specific than that because it just so happened that one of the pages Roxton used had a distinctive misprint. A damaged printing plate had caused some splotchy text on the paper. And it turns out you are able to trace things like this back to the exact area in which it was printed and distributed. Once again, it showed Lancaster and one of the streets to which it was delivered was Dalton Square. So almost immediately in this investigation, they were able to narrow it down to a really specific area. And when police later searched to Dalton Square, they found identical copies of the same newspaper with the same printing defect and torn edges that match the shape of paper fragments found with the remains. They literally puzzled the pieces back together and they fit perfectly. As we'll come to find out, no stone was left unturned in this investigation. And this was a really

28:14 unique case for this time because forensics had never been used like this before. Like they knew it was going to be a hard job to convince any jury of Ruxton's guilt with the evidence that they had because nobody had seen him kill these women or dump these remains. So investigators knew they had to provide as much evidence as they possibly could that led them back to Ruxton. Nowadays, you probably wouldn't need as much to convince a modern jury who understand forensics. Although you should have as much, but like you don't need as much convince a jury that forensics are a good thing. But in this time, this was just unprecedented. And the newspaper is just the beginning here. So with the newspaper, the next thing they focused on were maggots. Many of the remains being overtaken by maggot colonies who were handed over to forensic entomologists and lies. Now, the key here is that maggots develop at

29:05 a very predictable rate. You can tell a lot from the life cycle of a maggot. Blowflies tend to lay eggs on dead tissue within just hours of exposure. And those eggs will develop into maggots depending on three main categories. So, you have species, temperature, and humidity. If you know those three things, which are pretty easy to determine in a case like this, you can quite easily estimate when the eggs were laid and therefore when the remains were exposed to the flies, aka dumped in the ravine. In this case, a species of maggot was found to be one that colonized the bodies very quickly, and they were at a stage of development that suggested they've been feeding for about 10 to 12 days before discovery. Seeing as the remains were discovered on the 29th, this meant the remains had likely been dumped around the 17th to the 19th.

29:53 And this would turn out to be very interesting information because when Buck Roxton was eventually arrested, he denied having been in Scotland at all in the past few weeks. However, what he didn't know is that his car registration number had been taken down by a cyclist who he knocked off his bike whilst driving erratically in Kendall on the 17th of September. Kendall just so happens to be on route to Moffett. Witnesses in the Moffett area would also report seeing a car of the same color and description on the day not far from where the remains be found just 12 days later. With the maggot evidence and the eyewitnesses, it was hard to deny that he had been in Scotland in this window.

30:36 The use of maggots in this case became a landmark example of the use of forensic entomology in British criminal history. It was huge. And that's not even everything. There's more forensics to this case. As you would expect, police initially started focusing on any missing person's reports from across Scotland and England. They were looking for pairs of women who were either reported as missing together or where two women reported as missing from the same area at a similar time. And when the newspaper helped narrow down the location to Lancaster, they zoomed in specifically on this area and found the reports for Mary and Isabella. They also pretty quickly honed in on Ruxton as the main suspect around this same time. He was a GP, had the surgical knowledge they were looking for in whoever had cut up these bodies. And also, it was his wife and housemate who were missing.

31:30 They'd last been seen just 3 days before the suspected remains had been disposed of. A GP with a bachelor in surgery whose wife and housemmaid were missing. It worked. They were pretty certain it was Ruxton from early on. But of course, they needed actual evidence first before they arrested him. And they needed to be sure of the identities. So that's where photographic superimposition comes in. And this one is super cool. Photographic superimposition is a process where a photograph of a skull is taken in a standardized position and then a photograph of a suspected victim, obviously taken whilst they were still alive, is overlaid over the skull to see if the anatomical landmarks match. Now, this alone isn't enough to prove an identity, but combined with everything else they had in this case, the evidence here would turn out to be pretty damning. Two experts at the University of Glasgow actually developed an

32:24 advanced version of superp position specifically for this case. There's lots of technical stuff that I didn't really understand about the angle of the skull and the camera and essentially they used dual projection for the first time. So a lantern slide projector displayed the photograph of the skull whilst another projector overlaid the photo of Isabella precisely over the top of the skull image. And you know what? It was a perfect match. Undeniably, Isabella's face and the skull were the same. It also did help that Isabella had very unique facial features. She had a quite uniquely shaped skull. Her eye sockets aligned with her eyes perfectly. The dental pattern aligned with the shape of her mouth. The nose aperture matched her nasal shape. It was undeniable that this was her skull. And then they did the same with Mary. And it was also a very good match. This was the first major criminal case in Britain to use

33:17 superimposition as evidence of identification. It provided an actual scientific basis for identification where everything else they had was purely circumstantial. Obviously, this isn't quite DNA matching, but it was 1935. It was huge. On the 9th of October, the police, pretty sure of their identifications, went to the Rogerson's household to ask Mary's parents to take a look at some clothes in which the body parts had been wrapped. This was a hugely traumatic ask for her parents, I'm sure, but it was really important that they got this. So, immediately, Mrs. Roger was able to identify Mary's blouse. She had bought it herself for her daughter from a jumble sale. And there was also a patchwork repair under one of the arms that Mary's mom had done herself. There was no doubt in her mind that this was 100% Mary's blouse. Police then presented her with a pair of child's rompers, which she said she couldn't

34:13 identify, but she knew somebody who might be able to. She suggested they went to talk to a woman called Edith Holm. She knew the Ruxton family and Isabella and the kids had stayed with her for quite a few times. Edith immediately recognized the romper because she herself had just so happened to buy it for one of the children just the summer before. And for police, this was the final piece of the puzzle. There was no denying who the remains belonged to, nor who was the one responsible for their deaths. Throughout this entire time, Buck Roxton had continued to act slightly insane. with so much pressure on him, he was slowly beginning to unravel. And on that very same day, on the 9th of October, he even went to Lancaster Police Station and cried to an officer, saying that he was hearing rumors that the remains found in Scotland were his wife and housemade.

35:01 And even worse, rumors were saying that he was the one responsible. It was ruining his reputation, his GP practice. He simply couldn't have it any longer because that was his number one priority. Apparently, he demanded that the authorities conduct their investigation discreetly and ensured his name didn't come up. And obviously, at this point, he was already the number one suspect. He had been for a while. And authorities already all knew that they were about to come after him. But they placated him, ensuring that he wasn't about to make any more stupid moves. He went home that day relatively happy, unaware that just 3 days later he would be arrested. On the 12th of October 1935, Buck Ruxton was arrested by Lancaster police and questioned throughout the night. He denied having been in Scotland in recent years, saying he hadn't been there since he set up his practice in Lancaster. However, he

35:53 didn't know that the cyclist he'd knocked down on Route Mat had taken down his registration plate, proof that he, or at least his car, was indeed in Scotland just two weeks beforehand. Caught in his own lies. He was already backed into a corner at this point. Police had enough evidence to arrest him regardless of a confession, but he needed a chance to be interviewed. So, they spoke to him and he just made it so much worse. It was revealed to him in interview that during the police's search of his home just one day earlier, they had found extensive traces of blood all across the house, but particularly on the landing. They had also found traces of human fat and body tissue in the drains of his home. in the trains leading from the main bathroom, the main bath. And he wasn't quite able to explain away any of it. And then as he's being interviewed, Lancaster police received word from their Scottish

36:46 counterparts that they had found a match for Mary's handprints. During the search of the home, they taken items from the house that Mary handled regularly and compared them. And this was, excuse the expression, the final nail in Ruxton's metaphorical coffin. On the 13th of October, he was officially charged with the murder of Mary Jane Roger. It would take a further few weeks to be charged with his wife's murder, though, and it was only once they done the photographic superimposition that they were able to 100% confirm the body as Isabella.

37:17 Investigators knew it was her, of course, but they needed evidence, and this was it. In the interest of leaving no stone unturned in this case, they even constructed replicas of the victim's left feet and then placed them in the shoes they'd worn in life. And of course, they fitted perfectly. They were perfectly molded. His trial wouldn't start until the 2nd of March 1936 at Manchester's High Court of Justice, and it would go on for 11 days. His defense based their entire argument on the bodies, saying they'd been misidentified. And this was a problem because the jury was already going to need to be convinced about the validity of all these new forensics. However, apart from this, his defense was very weak. The only person to testify on the defense's behalf was Ruxton himself. He stood on the stand and sobbed through his story, explaining how Mary had needed an abortion and his dear wife had

38:07 traveled with her, that he was sure they would return home very soon and all of this would be over. Or if not, maybe the bodies were theirs. But he had nothing to do with it. He said he rambled. He went off track. He accused other witnesses of lying. It was just an absolute shambles. The prosecution presented each forensic argument with witnesses one by one. Expert after expert took the stand and explained their specialtity in detail and why it meant what it did. It also presented the motive for the murder being Ruxton's jealousy, his violent temper, and obsession with the idea that Isabella had been cheating on him. Finally, on the 13th of March, the closing arguments were delivered, and the judge instructed the jury to go away and deliberate, telling them, "If there is an avenue, let him walk down its freedom, but if there is not, he cannot." The jury ended up deliberating for just one hour before

39:02 returning with their verdict. Guilty. The judge then swiftly sentenced Buck Ruxton to death for his crime to be hung by the neck. When asked if he had anything to say in response, Ruxton simply replied, "I am very sorry." and then saluted with an upright arm. As he was led away from the dock, he then did the same to the jury. Articles from the time say, "When the judge's voice had ceased and the chaplain's armen had echoed away, Ruxton raised his right arm from the elbow in what appeared to be a Roman form of salute. I'm sure a lot of us now in 2025 have heard of the Roman salute thanks to a certain infamous event, but this was preWorld War II, so it didn't quite have the same connotations it might have now, but it was still considered to be very strange for the time. It was a strange thing for him to do." Ruxton did file an appeal based on some of the instructions from the judge. The judge urged the jury to

39:56 consider the testimony about the blood stains on the suit, but he hadn't instructed them to also consider the testimony that the blood could have come from something else, from something innocent. And Ruxton's lawyers argued that this was misdirection and therefore the sentence should be overturned. Of course, this didn't stand up in appeals at all. Like, it was very quickly dismissed on the same day it was presented. He was going to die for his crime. There was no denying that he'd done it. Roxton was hanged at Strangeways Prison in Manchester on the 12th of May, 1936.

40:28 Some sources say he confessed to the crime beforehand. Others say he professed his innocence until the end. But it didn't matter. The forensic evidence here was clear. Buck Ruxton killed Isabella and Mary, blinded by jealousy and anger. There has never been to this day any evidence Isabella cheated. But even if she did, death isn't the consequence there. And you're probably wondering as well what happened to the children because through this crime, they lost both of their parents. During the trial, apparently they were sent to a children's home, and little was known what became of them after that point. Some sources say that Roxson's defense lawyer, Norman Burket, made it his mission to make sure the children were cared for and educated. Other sources say that nobody knows at all.

41:12 The truth of what happened to the children is embargoed by the British government until 2035 when it is more than likely that all of them will have passed. They'd be over a hundred years old. This was one of Britain's most publicized legal cases of the 1930s thanks to the innovative forensic techniques used to pin down the identities and the killer. This was a landmark case that laid the foundations for many more that would come after. Isabella and Mary, although they met a brutal end that neither of them deserved, have likely inadvertently provided justice for so many other people. If you have to have a dark legacy, that's probably the one you want. And two, Dalton Square still stands today. After the events of 1935, it did remain empty for almost 50 years.

41:58 Rumors of haunting whispered around Lancaster. Nobody wanted to touch it with a barge pole, but it couldn't be knocked down because it is a listed building. It's a historical building and so eventually it was purchased by the council and is currently used as an office building for the planning department. A very unglamorous job for a very unglamorous building. I love learning about forensics and landmark cases that have changed the way that we investigate cases today. So I found this endlessly interesting to research but also broke my heart. This was a man who was so deeply jealous, so deeply deeply secure. And I did find myself wondering whilst I was researching this, if mental health wasn't so stigmatized in this time, if mental health was spoken about more, if there wasn't the British culture of the stiff upper lip and keep calm and carry on, how different this case might have turned out. Imagine if

42:47 he was able to get therapy. I still think he was a terrible man through and through, but I wonder how much of it could be fixed in a different time, in a different society, perhaps. Just something to ponder on. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Hey, if you like what I'm doing here on this channel, then please make sure you subscribe. I try and upload at least two videos a month at the moment. Leave a comment down below. Comments tell the algorithm that you like what I'm doing, and maybe they should tell more people to watch my videos. Thanks for watching.

43:11 I'll see you in the next one. Bye, guys.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "The Ruxton Murders: the true crime case that shaped forensics"?

In order: 0:00 Buck Ruxton, Murder, Dalton Square, Lancaster; 5:00 Buck Ruxton, Suicide, Dalton Square, Isabella Kerr; 10:00 Edinburgh, Dalton Square, Isabella Kerr, Lancaster; 15:00 Mary Jane Roger, Moffett; 20:00 Edinburgh University, Moffett, Edinburgh; 25:00 Lancaster, Dalton Square, Sunday Graphic; 30:00 Photographic Superimposition, Lancaster, Forensic Entomology, Moffett; 35:00 Buck Ruxton, Murder, Lancaster, Photographic Superimposition; 40:00 Buck Ruxton, Murder, Murder Case, Dalton Square.

What is mentioned in this Georgia Marie episode?

24 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Buck Ruxton, Murder, Murder Case, Dalton Square, Isabella Kerr, Photographic Superimposition. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "The Ruxton Murders: the true crime case that shaped forensics"?

The episode runs 44 min; the transcript is about 7,921 words in 56 timestamped sections.

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