1939-11-22 — Page 15

THE CHINA MAIL, NOVEMBER 22, 1939

TO-DAY'S STRANGE STORY OF REAL PEOPLE

THE CASE OF THE DEVIL'S BEEF TUB

'BY VANCE WYNN

of

Dr. Buck Ruxton, a highly capable and successful physician of Lancaster, England, was born in British India, the son of an eminent doctor Bombay. His real name was Bakhtyar Rustomji Ruttonji Hakim, « buts when. he moved to England to take up a lucrative practice he changed it to the shorter and more casily pro- nounced Ruxton.

But the mysticism of India still clung to him, and brought him many eager patients. His dark, smooth skin, his lustrous black eyes, his thick, vivid red lips and his wiry black hair overhanging one side of the face, fascinated women visitors, He had about him what has

been

"Dr. Ruxton Accused of Hitting Boy."

described as the "inextinguishable the yard of the house, some of them, and then burned the garment. He cast of the Orient."

partly burned. Worst of all, Dr. was much agitated, talked in a dis- Ruxton had given her husband a connected way and intimated that the blood-stained suit. He explained the suit of clothes was not good enough marks by saying he had cut his hand for Mr. Hampshire, and that he would while opening a fruit tin.

give him something fit to wear later Ruxton's on.

To add to the uncanny effect pro- duced by his personal appearance

he had furnished his office with the garish splendour of the East. The heavy, carved furniture of gaudy Most incriminating were colours furnished a frame for the actions on the following day. He The police were kept busy piecing physician that was suggestive of his hurried to the Hampshires early in all of these bits together, until the birthplace. He sat in a red plush, the morning, removed the identifica-final connecting link was furnished high-backed chair, as one patient des- tien marks from the suit of clothes by a humble eountry police constable. cribed it "with the air of a potentate upon his throne.

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He had married Isolbella Kerr, manager of a Leith restaurant. She had been the wife of a Dutch seaman, but had divorced him.

The girl from Leith lived life of luxury with her dark-skinned hus- band. They had three children who were the pride of the Lancaster home.

About September 15, 1935, Mrs. Ruxton disappeared strangely. The Doctor told friends that she had gone away for a prolonged visit. At the same time, Mary Jane Rogerson, a maid in the household also disap- peared. The presumption was that she had gone with her mistress.

Не

Some days afterward the doctor was found in his study in tears. told one of his intimates in strict confidence that his wife had run away with another man. There was general sympathy for him and it was obvious that he no longer got the thrill he formerly experienced in the reactions of his patients to the sur- roundings of his queer locking office,

One afternoon, boys playing in a ravine along the Scottish borde found some paper-wrapped parcels, To their amazement, they contained parts of a human body. When the police were summoned, they found thirty other parcels in the ravine each containing other parts.

Dr. John Galister, Glasgow medical examiner, was called in, and his opinion was that they represented parts of two bodies which had been dissected with great surgical · skill. The history of what he did will go down as a triumph of medical juris- prudence. He made two thousand tests of every conceivable kind. Working with the aid of a laboratory perfectly equipped for the purpose, he finally came to the conclusion that these relics of humanity represented the bodies of Mrs. Ruxton and her missing maid.

In the meantime, the police had been following out various clues, but without result: They suspected Dr. Ruxton, or at least felt that he had much to explain, but there was no proof upon which he could be arrest- ed. One bit of evidence which gave

them

ray

а

of light was the testimony of a maid who said Dr. Ruxton was in- sanely jealous of his wife. She de- clared that upon one occasion when he discovered his wife out walking with another man he attacked her viciously and tore every shred 1 clothing from her.

The police made a real find, more- over, in the person of Mrs. Mary Hampshire, who had worked in the Ruston household. She testified that on the day following the disappear- ance of Mrs. Ruxton, she had, found the bath tub stained "a very dirty yellow." She said the doctor had instructed her to get cleaning ma- terial and give it a thorough polishing. That was not all. Sho had discover- ed a bloodstained shirt and lowels in

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He testified that on the morning of September 17, 1935, he received a tele- phone message from a fellow cons- table on the road beyond Lancaster telling him to be on the lookout for a gaudily painted car that had knock- ed down and slightly injured a boy. The constable stationed himself on the side of the road to watch for the hit-and-run driver. Presently a car came along that reminded him of a circus wagon. He healted. it and found that it was being run by dark-shinned man, with wide cheek bones and a pointed chin. He ac- cused him of hitting the boy. The man, who proved to be Dr. Ruxton, admitted it, gave him his card and said he was willing to see that every- thing was attended to according to law. But all the time he talked he was in a state of extreme agitation, crying again and again: "Don't get excited, my man; don't get excited!"

a

Inasmuch as the constable was per- fectly calm he regarded this as a bit peculiar and when the bits of human flesh came to light in the ravine, which went by the name of "The Devil's Beeftub, he somehow con- nected Dr. Ruxton with the crime. As a matter of fact, the doctor was on his way from that ghastly glen when he was halted by the policeman.

The Jury convicted him of what since become known as "the most gruesome crime England has experi- enced since the turn of the century."

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