Published 19th Nov 2024, 11:46 GMT
The Scotsman published this piece by Tom Wood to coincide with the other media attention on Tuesday. See it online HERE. A full TRANSCRIPT follows:
Ruxton Murders: How discovery of dismembered bodies near Moffat created a forensic science revolution
By Tom Wood
The use of cutting-edge scientific techniques in the prosecution of Dr Buck Ruxton for the murders of his wife Isabella Ruxton and her maid Mary Rogerson in 1935 transformed how the police investigated crime.
As you walk through the ornate iron gates of the anatomy department at Edinburgh University’s Old Medical School, the first thing you notice is a massive elephant skeleton, standing as if on guard.
Then another display catches your eye, more modest but much more important. In an illuminated glass cabinet is a book inscribed with a list of names. It is a book of remembrance, not to war dead but those who have left the ultimate legacy: their bodies as a gift to medical science.
Within the medical school, they are known as the Silent Teachers, and their contribution is revered and deeply appreciated. Technology has brought much to medical training but there is no digital substitute for the hands-on reality of the human body. The Silent Teachers are just as important today as they were when the medical school opened, almost 300 years ago.
I was thinking about this when I heard the anatomy department was making efforts to return some remains of victims of an infamous murder case, which I have studied and written about.
Exhaustive investigation
The 1935 Ruxton Murders were the sensation of the age. The discovery of dozens of dismembered body parts in a ravine just north of Moffat set in motion one of the 20th century’s most complex and consequential murder investigations.
It brought together the police and the leading forensic scientists of their day in a brilliant episode that laid the foundation for modern, science-led, criminal investigations. After exhaustive investigation, the body parts were suspected to be those of society hostess Isabella Ruxton and her maid Mary Rogerson.
The main suspect was Isabella’s husband, the suave Dr Buck Ruxton. With a background of domestic violence, he had the motive and the ability to dismember the bodies, but the case rested on identifying the bodies. Long before DNA and with the body parts mutilated, this was a challenge even for leading scientists.
What followed was innovative brilliance that developed no less than three distinct branches of forensic science to identify the body parts and prove the case. Forensic entomology, dermal fingerprinting, and facial superimposition were presented as evidence for the first time in the case.
Search for relatives
Before the world’s media, the trial showcased the wonders of forensic science, which sent Ruxton to the gallows. In doing so, the case changed the way that serious crime was investigated. From then on, it was science led with regional forensic laboratories and specialised detective training becoming mainstream.
But the scientists’ work did not end there. In order to spread their learning worldwide, the professors wrote extensively about their work and retained some of the anatomical samples from the case at the anatomy department, where they remain in a private archive to this day.
Now, out of respect, present-day Professor Tom Gillingwater wishes to offer these remains back to their families and to assist with any arrangements for their committal. If the families of Isabella or Mary come forward, I hope they can take some pride and a little comfort – few have made a greater contribution to forensic science than these two tragic young women.
In their untimely deaths, Isabella Ruxton and Mary Rogerson have been Silent Teachers of the most extraordinary worth.
Tom Wood is a former police officer and author of Ruxton: The First Modern Murder published by Ringwood
If you think you, or someone you know, is a relative of either Isabella Ruxton or Mary Jane Rogerson, please contact Edinburgh University using the link below.
Edinburgh University statement on Isabella Ruxton and Mary Jane Rogerson