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A famous one

A weird footnote has been added to the Buck Ruxton murder case. Ruxton, a doctor of French/Parsi heritage, was married to this lady, Isabella. They lived in Scotland. His patients loved him, but his relationship with Bella was fiery because – get this – he was sure she was having all kinds of affairs.

He snapped and killed her one day in 1935, and also the nanny (she probably saw things) and, being a doctor, he skillfully cut them both up into 70 individual packages, wrapped them in newspaper and threw them down a ravine. Where most were found two weeks later.

He had removed any identifying characteristics – he hoped – like front teeth and fingertips and thought he had been very clever.

But it wasn’t good enough. The newspapers he wrapped the bits in were from an edition only published in his narrow locality. For the first time ever, they brought in an entomologist who precisely identified the age of various insects on the bodies to establish a time of death.

My favorite forensic pathologist, Sir Sydney Smith, (we all have a favorite forensic pathologist, I feel sure) hit on the idea of superimposing the photo on the right over the photo on the left to prove that landmarks on the two matched. There were a lot of firsts for forensics – worth looking up if you’re interested.

He was convicted and hanged.

Edinburgh University has recently realized the bones are still in their archive. They would like to give them a decent burial, because that’s what we do with medical specimens in 2024, but they don’t know what happened to the Ruxton’s three children. They’re not even sure the kids know how they became orphans.

How would that go? “Hello! Your granddad was hanged for murdering your grandmom. This is her skull. Want it?”

Comments


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: November 19, 2024, 8:30 pm

I fixed the Dead Pool.


Comment from ExpressoBold Pureblood
Time: November 20, 2024, 12:08 am

I wonder if Nana1 will notice…


Comment from Rich Rostrom
Time: November 20, 2024, 1:19 am

This reminds me of Shopping Bag Anna.

One day, many many years ago (1940s or 50s), someone in Chicago found a shopping bag with part of a corpse in it, wrapped in newspaper. Over the next few days, additional bags turned up with additional pieces. The police said “This is the work of a fiend!” Someone noticed the wrappings were all pages from the Daily Zgoda (a Polish language newspaper). The police said “Aha! This is the work of a Polish-speaking fiend!”

Eventually (probably by dumb luck) they caught up with the killer. Anna was a elderly Polish lady who got tired of being slapped around by her husband and did for him with a carving knife. Then she cut him up and left the pieces in bags.

(This is all from a Mike Royko column. He’d written that elderly Polish ladies didn’t figure in the murderer demographic, and someone wrote him “What about Shopping Bag Anna?” So he told the story.)


Comment from Uncle Al
Time: November 20, 2024, 1:29 am

I’m glad I live in Florida. If I ever have to dispose of a dismembered corpse, all I have to do is drive an hour or so in any random direction and I’ll run into a gator-infested swamp. Problem solved!


Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: November 20, 2024, 2:12 pm

That facial reconstruction immediately reminded me of this:

Battle-Scarred Viking Shield-Maiden Gets Facial Reconstruction for First Time

https://www.livescience.com/Viking-shield-maiden-facial-reconstruction.html

I’ve saved this article for a long time. It just fascinates me.

It’s so cool to know how the ability to do this started.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: November 20, 2024, 5:08 pm

No need, EspressoBold – I put her name and pic down.


Comment from Mark Matis
Time: November 20, 2024, 7:53 pm

Uncle Al:
Don’t need to go to a swamp. Feral pigs will do as good a job or better. Any wooded area will do. And you do not even need to dismember the corpse. Not for the gators, nor for the pigs.

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