RUXTON CRIME REVELATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 151, 27 June 1936, Page 4 (Supplement)

RUXTON CRIME REVELATION.

STORY BEHIND A MURDER

KILLED HIS "BELLE" BECAUSE SHE KNEW HIS SECRET — TRIFLES THAT EXPOSED "THE PERFECT SLAYER" — PARSEE DOCTOR BIGAMIST. UNSCRUPULOUS BORROWER AND MURDERER — BROKENHEARTED WIFE IN INDIA — LOYAL TO FAITHLESS HUSBAND.

Now it is possible to fell the real story of Dr. Buck Ruxton. Parseo doctor, bigamist, unscrupulous borrower, and convicted murderer, recently hanged for slaying his wife, a Scottish woman, •whose body, along with the remains of a maid, was found dismembered and rolled tip in a number of parcels in a lonely glen in Dumfriesshire. Dr. Ruxton practised in Lancaster. And vet. but for the strategy of a Lancaster policc chief, Chief-Constable Yann. it is doubtful whether there would ever have been a trial at all. Scottish pathologists, detectives and finger-print experts all played their part in welding the case against Ruxton, but it was Chief-Constable Yann, softvoiced and gentle-mannered, who persuaded Ruxton to call at "the local police station, sublimely unconscious that he would never leave it a free man again. Whether Ruxton, a clever doctor, would ever have slipped into the police net as quietly as lie did is a question that Lancaster must debate for years to come. It is a certain but hitherto unrecorded fact that when the detectives searched Ruxton's house in Dalton Square,-only a stone's ■ throw from the police station, a loaded revolver was found beneath the pillow of his bed! Chief-Constable Yann probably had some presentiment when he decided to take no chances of the doctor slipping through his fingers, and it is clear now why the chief expressed his willingness at Ruxton's request to issue a statement to the effect that the remains found at Moffat had no connection with the disappearance of Isabella Ruxton and Mary Rogerson, lief maid.

Because the chief constable so ingenuously persuaded Ruxton that there was

110 breath of suspicion against him, the guilty man walked cheerily across Dalton Square to th& interview which led to a double charge of murder. The second charge was dropped after the proceedings in the Police Court. The Wife in India. Many guesses have been made at the real reason for the murder of Isabella Ruxton. It has been suggested from time to time that an intrigue with Mary Rogerson led to the double tragedy on that September day; and also that Ruxton, a. notoriously jealous man, ..believed his "wife" had a lover or lovers, and killed her rather than "share" her. Neither of these suggestions is true. Isabella Ruxton was murdered because she had found out that Ruxton was already married and that his real wife still lived in India. Although Ruxton was not tried • for the murder of Mary Rogerson, it is obvious that h£r. death was an inevitable sequel to the killing of Isabella. Properly to understand this most sinister figure in modern crime, it is necessary to go back over the years. Ruxton's real name was Bukhtyar Rustomji Hakim. He was born in Bombay in 1899 and a brilliant student in youth he early showed signs of an aptitude for medicine. After qualification he secured a commission in the Indian Medical Service and in three years was promoted captain. In Baghdad, Captain Hakim is still remembered as. a dapper, debonair officer. About this period—some time in 1925 -—Ruxton hiet Motibai J. Ghadiali, a young Parsee woman. He had already been engaged to another girl, but broke it off. In 1925 he ' married Motibai, the daughter of a then comparatively wealthy ,watch and clock maker.

A Badly Treated Woman. * To-day Mrs. Hakim is living at Cumballa Hill, Bombay, with her "brother, a solicitor. She declares she-is still fond of the doctor despite the fact that he treated her so badly. In an interview she said:— "It was in 1920 that he suddenly left for England, and I never, had a elianve of seeing him again. He explained he wished to further his medical knowledge and improve his position. "After 1927 his letters became irregular. and Sn TeHruary, 1928, I received a cablegram asking for £300. My people were against sending anything, but he was my husband and I persuaded them. He was sent £80, the idea being that he could buy his jiassage and return to India. "He had all along, of course, promised to .return to me as soon as lie could." Then another cablegram came and this time he wanted £200. When no more money was sent my husband ceased to correspond, but I continued writing to him until 1933. Although Mrs. Hakim's faith in the doctor was supreme, her father was under 110 illusion concerning the character of his,son-in-law. Indeed, in a letter written from Bombay in 1929, Motibai's parent upbraided Ruxton in words which could not be misunderstood: — My son Bommie; —Your letter after a long time to hand ... Re your request for" financial help. I am very sorry 1 cannot do anything for you in the matter. You know what sort of financial position I am in at present, but even if I were better off I would flatly refuse you on various grounds. Regarding your suggestion that, if I helped you, "therein lay the happiness of my daughter," this is, indeed, very mean

and low of yon, and an educated person like von should lie ashamed of it. What happiness have von given to my daughter after marrying Tier? When she • was unmarried and staying with us she had every comfort. The New ' Soul-Mate." Thirteen months passed, and although Moti had been writing to Ruxton with great regularity, she did Jiot iiear from him. But her father did. Ruxton had again been importuning Mr. Ghadiali for money. Xo doubt the doctor was too busy writing passionate love-letters to his newly-fouml ".soul-mate," Belle, to bother about Moti in Bombay. Isabella Kerr was manageress of an Edinburgh cafe, a. favourite rendezvous of medical students. There she met Hakim, who. about this time, changed his name to Ruxton. That he had planned to cut himself completely adrift from his Indian associations seems plain from that change of name. Anyhow, he conducted a whirlwind courtship, and was quickly accepted as the acknowledged lover and future husband of Isabella Kerr. But there was one snag. Isabella already possessed ji husband, a Dutchman named Cornelis Van Ess.

Accordingly she .had her previous -marriage dissolved, and then went through a Scots marriage by declaration. For a time after this Dr. Ruxton worked in London and lived with; Isabella in Grove Pai'k Road.

Events moved swiftly thereafter. In 1 !K!0 Rnxton bought his practice in Dalton Square, Lancaster, and 111 April of that year entered into possession of the house. A heavy gambler and extraordinarily extravagant in personal comforts. Ruxton was seldom out of debt.

Isabella Ruxton helped to drive him further into the mire, and quickly their relationship changed from the aft'eetionato couple who had "plighted their troth on tho banks of Loch Lomond" —to quote from an early entry in one of Ruxton's diaries—to a man and woman living a "hell on earth," as. another entry confesses. That Isabella did attempt to poison Ruxton, as shown by diary entries already published, there is little doubt. That Ruxton'was the victim of a score of fears is equally true. Devoted to his growing family, he :knew his life was a living lie. Vain and ambitious, he dreaded the terrible crash which would follow the exposure of his Indian obligations and English debts. Then, one day Isabella Ruxton discovered the inevitable truth. It may be surmised that the sudden knowledge of the illegitimacy of her three children precipitated her attempt at suicide and drove her to seek the death of Ruxton by poison. Horror of Scottish Ravine. Tho discovery of the human remains in the picturesque ravine at Moffat, and tho subsequent hue-and-cry which led to Ruxton's arrest are familiar history. The "inside story" connected with the .arrest and conviction of Buck Ruxton, however, is now told here for the first time. It opens in the lonely gorge. Rain had fallen heavily, and the burn was :n flood. „

A tweed-clad, pretty Glasgow' girl on holiday gazed idly over the tiny bridge, and presently saw something which faintly resembled huipan remains. The police were called, and within a few hours 40 separate packages of flesh and bones had been found.

The last package was recovered ten miles away from the first. Quickly messages were flashed to | Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dumfries for assistance. Senior officers. dashed to the spot. At first it was believed that the bodies ijvere those of two men, and it was then that Ruxton, expert chess player though he is, made one of his false moves. He gave away a blood-stained blue suit. Tell-tale Sheet of Newsprint. For a few days the Scottish polic:: were at their wits' end, and then a "News of the World" representative made a casual suggestion which led : indirectly to the arrest of Ruxton. The suggestion was that tho newspaper in which the head of one of the bodies was wrapped should be dried and ; submitted to the circulation department of the newspaper. That torn and ragged Sheet of newsprint was quickly identified as one of a limited edition delivered in the Lancaster and Morecambe area. Then came the sensational in forma tion that the experts had changed their minds and were no longer working on the theory that the remains were those of two men or of a man and a woman, but were really those of two women. The fact that Mrs. Ruxton and Mary Rogers oil were unaccountably missing from Lancaster assumed a new significance, especially when coupled with the discovery that the sheet of newspaper came from the same area. In Edinburgh Professor Glaister was busy. Quickly he was able to give approximate details of the characteristics of the two women, and the descriptions tallied with those of Mrs. Ruxton and Mary Rogerson. Detective-Photographer Stobie, of Edinburgh, and Lieutenant Hammond, finger-print expert, of Glasgow, started 011 the most gruesome undertakings they had ever been called ou to perform.

Shockingly disfigured heads had to be posed and photographed, together with portions of the human frame and decomposing flesh. Hour after hour Stobie, a comparatively young officer, worked steadily at his task. Every now and then he had to seek the refuge of the outer air.. Yet he completed his job, and the subsequent books of photographs, numbering nearly "200. form the most complete pictorial record of crime the police have ever possessed. Following Stobie, Lieutenant Hammond was faced with the well-nigh impossible task of securing prints from fingers which had been flayed almost beyond belief. While a delicate camera remained fixed to catch the slightest sign. Lieutenant Hammond painted the dreadfully disfigured finger tips every 20 minutes with a special solution designed for this In some cases lie spent as long as 14 hours in securing one print—and his complete list of prints came to nearly a hundred. When at a. later date finger-print impre.ssions were secured from various articles in the Ruxton home in Dalton Square, they were found identical with those taken from the fingers and' palms of the dead. Lieutenant Hammond's success on this occasion will go down in police records jas among the most remarkable ever achieved by a finger-print man. The Spider and the Fly. Ruxton, for his part, continued to make more mistakes in Lancaster. The murder he had thought "the perfect crime" became too involved even for his slick and clever brain. Operations had shifted to a quiet little office in Whitehall, where keen-faced men, directed by Mr. Gerald Paling, one of the cleverest members of the staff of the Director of Public Prosecutions, were working out the Moffat jig-saw. Before them they had the reports of every person engaged in the investigation* They found that each part fitted. There followed then a quiet telephone conversation between London and Lancaster, and the genius of Chief-Constable Vanu proceeded to its triumph. Casually he telephoned Dr. Ruxton. "I am sending out that disclaimer you asked for. Dr. Ruxton," the chief-con-stable said. "I am announcing that this Moffat business is not connected in any way with your wife . . . "Maybe,* if you have a minute to spare, you would like to step across and see what I am saying." Safely it may be said that never before in a case of murder has so casual and innocent an invitation been extended to a suspected man to deliver himself into the hands of the police. Yet, as Mr. Vann had guessed, so anxious, was Buck Ruxton to convince himself that he had fooled the authorities that within a very few minutes he was crossing the street liatless from his house to the station.

Within a second of his entrance Ruxton must liave guessed that he had been tricked. Facing him were a group of police chiefs. That night he spent in a locked and guarded cell, a double charge of murder hgainst liira.