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Hand of Victim, Buck Ruxton Murder Trial

The tips of the fingers of the victims were cut off to prevent fingerprint identification, 1935. The skill with which the fingers were mutilated led police to hypothesize that the murderer had anatomical training and knew how to use a scalpel. Buck Ruxton (1899-1936) was a Parsi doctor and murderer who strangled his wife Isabella. In order to prevent their housemaid, Mary Jane Rogerson, from discovering his crime before he could dispose of the body, he suffocated her too. Ruxton then proceeded to dismember and mutilate both bodies to hide their identities. The case is remembered now for the innovative forensic techniques employed in solving it. 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. This was one of the first cases where such forensic evidence was successfully used to convict a criminal in the United Kingdom.
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Title:
Hand of Victim, Buck Ruxton Murder Trial
Caption:
The tips of the fingers of the victims were cut off to prevent fingerprint identification, 1935. The skill with which the fingers were mutilated led police to hypothesize that the murderer had anatomical training and knew how to use a scalpel. Buck Ruxton (1899-1936) was a Parsi doctor and murderer who strangled his wife Isabella. In order to prevent their housemaid, Mary Jane Rogerson, from discovering his crime before he could dispose of the body, he suffocated her too. Ruxton then proceeded to dismember and mutilate both bodies to hide their identities. The case is remembered now for the innovative forensic techniques employed in solving it. 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. This was one of the first cases where such forensic evidence was successfully used to convict a criminal in the United Kingdom.
Credit:
Album / NLM/Science Source
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Image size:
3900 x 2668 px | 29.8 MB
Print size:
33.0 x 22.6 cm | 13.0 x 8.9 in (300 dpi)
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