The next Ever Present Past History and Heritage talk on Tuesday 23rd September 2026 will focus the infamous Buck Ruxton Murder Case, looking at what happened, what Ruxton did and the mistakes he made. The talk will also provide some insights into why this was a landmark case in forensic investigation.
The talk will be presented by local historian, Andrew Reilly and will take place at The Park Hotel, Lancaster on from 8.00pm.
Buck Ruxton, born Bukhtyar Chompa Rustomji Ratanji Hakim, who changed his name by deed poll in 1930, murdered his common law wife, Isabella, and maid, Mary Rogerson, in 1935 in 2 Dalton Square, Lancaster, “in a fit of jealous rage”. It wasn’t until 29th September 1935 that the remains of their bodies were found in a ravine near Moffat in Dumfriesshire.
After his conviction, one of the first instances of new forensic techniques playing a major role in securing a murder conviction in Britain, he was hanged at Strangeways in Manchester the following year, on the morning of the 12th May 1936.
2 Dalton Square was the home of Doctor Buck Ruxton, before being converted into offices in the 1980s and very little of the original house is still intact, essentially completely rebuilt internally when it was combined with the old cinema, with only the original front of the house remaining. Only the backyard still remains, to some degree.
The bath in the house, possibly where Ruxton dismembered the women’s bodies was reportedly used as a horse trough at Hutton police headquarters for many years.
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• Buck Ruxton: Wikipedia Entry
• Ruxton: The First Modern Murder by Tom Wood
Two dismembered bodies discarded in the borderlands of Scotland, hideously mutilated to avoid identification. Forty-three pieces of rotten flesh and bone wrapped in rags and newspaper. A jigsaw puzzle of decomposing human remains.
A glamorous young wife and her dutiful nursemaid missing. A handsome, mild-mannered town doctor insanely jealous of his wife’s friendships with other men.
It is 1935 and the deaths of Isabella Ruxton and Mary Rogerson would result in one of the most complex investigations the world had ever seen. The gruesome murders captured worldwide attention with newspapers keeping the public enthralled with all the gory details.
But behind the headlines was a different, more important story: the groundbreaking work of Scottish forensic scientists who developed new techniques to solve the case and shape the future of scientific criminal investigation.
With access to previously unseen documents, this book re-examines the case and reveals for the first time the incredible inside story of the investigation and its legacy.
This is the first modern murder.