sweasel.com

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?”