S1 52 The Mail on Sunday June 21 • 2020

By katherine

sutherland PAPER TRAIL: Diary outlines the rage of Buck Ruxton, right, before his wife was killed LOOKING in horror around the densely wooded ravine, the detectives took stock of a gruesome and tragic crime scene. The remains of two women had been wrapped in newspaper, dumped, then scat- tered by the river’s rising flood waters. The painstaking process of piecing together the body parts, found by the River Annan at Moffat, , earned the appalling crime a ghoulish Chilling nickname, the ‘Jigsaw ’. But pioneering forensic techniques soon enabled police to snare their prime suspect – Dr Buck Ruxton. Advances by Scottish investigators found Isabella Ruxton and her maid, Mary Rogerson, had been killed by Isabella’s common-law husband. He was tried and convicted of and hanged a year later, on May 12, 1936, at the age of 37. diaries Now, an unearthed diary has offered a chilling insight into how the mind of a respectable family GP unravelled into paranoia and eventually murderous rage. The journal, dating back to 1934, of the describes his mounting gambling debts and growing fears Isabella was unfaithful and was trying to poison him. For years, it nestled unnoticed amid archive materials at Lancaster Library but was uncovered by journalist Jeremy Craddock, 51, who is writing a book about the case. It has yet to be published, but has jigsaw He was a Jekyll and Hyde type... kind in public yet violent behind closed doors murderer already been optioned for television by the producers of BBC’s Shetland. Mr Craddock, also a multimedia lecturer at Metropolitan University, asphyxiated her, fractured her said: ‘You can see his paranoia growing. skull and stabbed her. He believed Isabella was having affairs He then tried to drain their blood with local men. He was starting to suspect in the bath before driving to Scot- her of poisoning his tea. It was never land the next day to dispose of the proved that she was, but you could see in bodies. After removing identifying the diaries the breakdown of his mind.’ features such as fingertips, he Ruxton, the son of Indian and French threw the women’s remains off an parents, was born Buktyar Rustomji old stone bridge located on the Ratanji Hakim in Mumbai, then known as main road to , two miles Bombay, in 1899. He qualified as a doctor north of Moffat. and came to Britain in 1926, moving to However, he made several mis- Edinburgh and changing his name the takes, including wrapping body following year. parts in a little-distributed local He became friendly with a married newspaper supplement. Within woman who managed a cafe, Isabella Kerr. weeks he was arrested and charged She never divorced but the two were soon GRISLY FIND: Police search Moffat in 1935 for clues after the remains of Isabella Ruxton, right, were found with murder – which he denied. living as man and wife and had Mr Craddock said: ‘That’s another three children together – Elizabeth, after he begged her to come home. her before two men with whom she giddy. She left me alone in the tragedy really, that [the children] Diane and William. Mr Craddock said: ‘Isabella had danced. When I said I was heart- house. I vomited the whole night.’ were left without parents. It’s a ter- By 1935, Ruxton was practising in tried to commit suicide a couple of broken she said, “I do not care”.’ Mr Craddock said: ‘The thing is rible domestic family story really.’ Lancaster and the family lived in times. She tried to gas herself – this Mr Craddock said: ‘The detail in with Ruxton, you don’t know. He Ruxton was hanged on May 12, an elegant house with servants. is in the diary as well. The police the diary does really give you an was telling lies about Isabella – 1936, with 5,000 people crowded Mr Craddock, from Lancaster, were called to the house a number insight into his state of mind. certainly after the murder he was outside the jail. A newspaper then said: ‘After the murders, there was of times because of rows.’ ‘Obviously he was still keeping it trying to lay a false trail. So it’s published his confession. It was a lot of sympathy for Ruxton. Ruxton was spending lavishly, together, publicly. But if you read hard to tell how reliable those diary dated shortly after his arrest, but ‘Not because of what he did, but losing money gambling, and he this diary you see his jealousy over entries are, whether he was trying he had given orders that it was to because he was seen as being a became convinced Isabella was Isabella, and his paranoia.’ to lay a false trail even then.’ be handed over only if he was compassionate doctor. having affairs. A diary entry from On November 24, 1934, Ruxton In the early hours of September executed. He had written: ‘I killed ‘He was a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde April 4, 1934, reveals that when the wrote: ‘My evening coffee tasted 15, 1935, Ruxton flew into a jealous Mrs Ruxton in a fit of temper character. In public, he was kind, couple went out to a local dance, sharp. I immediately told [Isabella] rage, and beat and strangled his because I thought she had been very well respected and popular. Isabella refused to leave with him. my coffee was rather peculiar in wife. Caught in the act by their with a man. I was mad at the time. But obviously behind closed doors Later, Ruxton demanded to know taste. Soon after taking it I felt children’s nursemaid, Rogerson, he ‘Mary Jane Rogerson was present he was controlling and violent.’ if she danced with any men. at the time. I had to kill her.’ To outsiders, the couple seemed She insisted she had not, but he • The Jigsaw Murders: The True happy. But the pages of Ruxton’s did not believe her. Story Of The Ruxton Killings And personal diary reveal otherwise. He wrote: ‘I made inquiries and You can see his jealousy over The Birth Of Modern Forensics, is Isabella once fled to her sister’s found out she danced nearly the due to be published by History house in Edinburgh, only to return whole time. I even confronted Isabella, and his paranoia Press next year.