Yeardley:  This episode contains dramatic recreations of historical scenes and depictions of violence that some listeners may find disturbing. So please take care when listening. Also, the words spoken by the actors in this series are taken from letters, diary entries, legal transcripts, and period newspaper interviews.

[music]

 Small Town Dicks presents Beyond Recognition, the First Modern Murder.

[somber music]

 We begin on Monday morning, September 30th 1935, in the small stone shed used to store coffins in a small cemetery in the small town of Moffat, Scotland. Forensics professor, John Glaister, oversees the local police force as they haul in armloads of human remains found in a nearby ravine. The police have tapped Glaister to lead their investigation.

Glaister:  Well, this isn’t exactly how I expected to start the week.

Constable:  Excuse me, professor. Where do you want these things?

Glaister:  Oh, on the table with the rest, constable.

Yeardley:  Glaister is looking at a big mess. The severed limbs, organs and hunks of flesh were discovered 24 hours ago under the Gardenholme bridge, about a mile away from the cemetery. The stench of rot fills the cramped room. Pathologist, Gilbert Millar, threads himself through a crowd of a dozen detectives and constables. He steps up to the table and waves off a veil of flies.

Millar:  Good God, John. No telling how many people this mess might add up to.

Glaister:  Indeed. And there’s more on the way.

Yeardley:  Dr. Millar teaches at Edinburgh University. Professor Glaister teaches forensic medicine at University of Glasgow. They know each other. They’re both experts in their fields. Summoned to Moffat early this morning to deal with, I don’t know, whatever the hell this is. Millar is floored.

Millar:  I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

Glaister:  Not since the war, anyway.

Yeardley:  Glaister is 43 years old. He’s as focused and rail thin now as he was in 1916 when he served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in World War I. The war isn’t something he talks about much. He was stationed in Egypt in a crumbling monastery turned into a makeshift hospital. There, Glaister dealt with hundreds of horribly injured men, their wounds infected and teeming with lies. A good surgeon was a fast surgeon, and the amputations seemed endless. But now, he’s not in Egypt. He’s in a sleepy farming village in Scotland, staring at another pile of mutilated humanity. And this time, there’s no war to blame.

Glaister:  Well, Gilbert, let’s get to work.

Millar:  Constable, you take notes.

Constable  Yes, sir.

Yeardley:  Glaister and Millar begin opening the bundles, calling out the contents.

Glaister:  One head, skin removed, two upper arms and four pieces of flesh.

Millar:  A torn sheet, containing 17 pieces of flesh, appears to be partially eaten. Fox most likely.

Yeardley:  This goes on and on. Even veteran cops leave the airless room with turned stomachs. But working methodically, Glaister and Millar separate the parts onto two stone benches. A hellish jigsaw puzzle slowly begins to take shape as they begin to assemble what they’re calling body number one and body number two.

Glaister:  I believe we are looking at two adults here, Gilbert.

Millar:  Agreed, but obviously missing some crucial pieces.

Glaister:  Indeed. The sexual features have been removed, but I believe we’re dealing with the remains of a male in his 50s and the woman in her mid-30s.

Yeardley:  Glaister turns to wash his hands. Only then does he realize there’s no running water in this makeshift mortuary. There’s just a rake and a shovel leaning in the corner.

Glaister:  Well, this is as much as we can do here. We need the proper lab facilities to do a full forensic investigation.

Millar:  That would be either Glasgow or Edinburgh.

Glaister:  Edinburgh is closest, so–

Millar:  Uh-huh. Edinburgh it is.

Glaister:  Constable, have your men get back to the dumpsite and collect any kind of plant life, leaves, twigs, moss, that sort of thing. Could be a source of evidence.

Millar:  Oh, and make sure you collect all the maggots.

Constable:  Right, sir.

Glaister:  Maggots.

Yeardley:  Glaister has his work cut out for him. He’s faced with putting together 70 portions of decomposed remains, including 40 chunks of flesh. The victims being a man and a woman makes sense because the bridge outside of Moffat is a well-known lovers’ lane. But at this stage, there’s no telling if this body dump has anything to do with romance.

 Glaister leaves the mortuary. He walks among hundreds of gray, crooked tombstones, sticking out of the ground like bad teeth. His mind is racing. This murder is already the biggest challenge of his career. It’s also an opportunity to bring together a dream team of forensic experts and the police, all highly skilled men with different talents who will work in tandem. It makes perfect sense.

 But such a scenario doesn’t happen in the UK. Egos and jurisdictions get in the way of collaboration. Even basic communication between branches of police and pathologists is a rarity. But this unified force is a vision Glaister’s had for years, just waiting for the right opportunity and the time is now. And with this violent, disturbing and downright bizarre case, Glaister is going to need all the help he can get.

[upbeat music]

 Previously on Beyond Recognition.

Sheila:  Susie had looked over the bridge and seen what she thought was a woman’s hand.

Janet:  It’s not something I’ve given a great deal of thought to about where to dump bodies.

Robert:  I think to actually go down into that gully where the body parts were, it must have been horrendous for him. It’s just unimaginable.

Yeardley:  I’m Yeardley Smith from Audio 99. This is Beyond Recognition. Episode 2, Doctor’s Orders.

[upbeat music]

 Whoever wanted these bodies to disappear didn’t realize, Gardenholme Linn is fed mostly by rain runoff. And when the rain stops, the rushing stream dries up. And that is exactly what happened. The body parts wound up scattered along the banks for yards downstream. At this stage, the police have no suspects, no motive, no witnesses, and virtually no clues. What they do have are brilliant, trailblazing forensic experts, men who will set the stage for the way we investigate crime today.

 But at the heart of this violent, bloody case is a love story, a very unusual love story, one that challenges the social norms of the 1920s and 1930s, one that crosses lines of race and class, one that will grow as dark and dysfunctional as a relationship can get.

 It’s the fall of 1927 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Downtown on Princes Street, Fairley restaurant is doing a brisk business with the lunch crowd.

[somber music]

 She’s tall, this woman who runs the place. That’s the first thing customer Gabriel Hakim notices. Tall and rangy and graceful as she moves across the busy floor, dodging busboys and commanding waiters like a field general. Hakim is fascinated by her. He eats there almost every day, sitting at a small corner table, poking at his smoked haddock with a fork, watching this assertive woman smile at customers and dominate the staff.

 Hakim is 28. Funded by his well-off family, he immigrated from his native India to become a doctor in the United Kingdom. And back home, he never saw a woman like this. This is Isabella Kerr. She’s 26, born in 1901 in Falkirk, just outside of Edinburgh. Here’s retired Edinburgh detective, Tom Wood.

Tom:  She’s born just a year after the 19th century, but with the ambition and the spirit that she’s got, she is very much a late 20th century woman, because right from the start, she’s not prepared to just be an ordinary shopgirl or an office girl or just settle down and get married. She wants to make it. She has ambitions to run her own business and to make her own money and to be her own woman. And this sets her apart. She was a head turner. Not because she was a classic beauty, just because her personality stood out. She had charisma and she had buckets of it.

Yeardley:  I love that, buckets of charisma. Our man, Gabriel Hakim, is a handsome guy, and there’s a magnetic attraction between him and Isabella. Soon, they’re dating. And soon, they’re doing more than that. But this isn’t just about sex. Hakim and Isabella are bonded by something much stronger. In great Britain’s rigid class and social structure, these two people are outsiders. Hakim is an immigrant of color from a country long colonized by Britain. Isabella is Scottish, white, and working class. But never mind, they’re both determined to reinvent themselves. They want to make money, and they want to work their way up the social ladder. In the UK of the 20s, this is difficult for anyone, but for a mixed-race couple, it’s a hundred times harder.

Tom:  Bella had this fire burning in her, this fire of ambition. And seeing and falling for the young Dr. Hakim, remember, extremely glamorous young man, beautifully dressed, beautifully mannered, and with prospects, a doctor, for Bella, it was a match made in heaven. But it wasn’t a cynical relationship. They were very, very deeply attracted to each other.

Yeardley:  Yeah, there’s just one little hiccup. They’re both already married. When Gabriel Hakim came to the UK, he abandoned his young wife from an arranged marriage back in Bombay, while Isabella had married a Dutch sailor when she was 19. It was an impulsive move, and by the time she met Gabriel in 1926, Isabella had no contact with her Dutch husband for seven years. But as Isabella and Gabriel’s passions ignite, there is no way they’re going to let a little thing like long-distance bigamy get in the way. And the fact that at this time, mixed race relationships are rare in the UK, well, they don’t let that bother them either.

[music]

 But before he began calling himself Gabriel Hakim in London, Bukhtyar Rustomji Ratanji Hakim was born in Bombay, India. He comes from a mixed-race background himself. His mother is French, and his father is an Indian Parsi. His father is also a successful doctor. And by the time Bukhtyar is in his teens, he wants to follow in dad’s footsteps, because a man of medicine is powerful, wealthy, and most of all, commands respect.

Tom:  Now, there was great expectations of him within his family. But they all recognized that if you were really going to make it to the top of the medical profession, the place to go was the UK, the motherland. And if you were going to the UK and you wanted to be a surgeon, then the place to go was Edinburgh. If you were a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, then you were recognized as being the very best of the best, the elite of the surgical world.

Jordanna:  That would be a pretty common trajectory for a son from an elite or wealthy family in India.

Yeardley:  That’s Jordanna Bailkin. She’s a Professor at the University of Washington, where she specializes in British, European and Imperial history.

Jordanna:  And there are a lot of examples, probably the most famous would-be Mahatma Gandhi, who follow that same exact path of coming to Britain to study law or medicine or politics, with the idea that they will bring that degree home and kind of contribute to the further development of their nation.

Yeardley:  But Bukhtyar is no Gandhi, and that is not his plan. Bukhtyar wants to assimilate and succeed in the UK. He wants to become an English gentleman. So, to launch this new anglicized version of himself, he chooses the name, Gabriel, like the archangel. You know, the mouthpiece of God. Dr. Gabriel Hakim. He likes the sound of it.

[intriguing music]

 It’s the fall of 1927, and Gabriel is obsessed with two full time commitments. His red-hot, all-consuming love affair with Isabella and his fledgling medical career. It’s a lot. He wants somebody, and he wants to be somebody. He gets a job as doctor’s assistant in London, while Isabella stays in Edinburgh, tied to her restaurant job. They write love letters back and forth, using their pet names for each other. She’s Belle and he’s Bommi, a play on his hometown of Bombay. In late November, a letter arrives from Isabella announcing that she’s traveling to Holland to get a divorce from the Dutch sailor. She says she only wants to be with Gabriel. So, you’d think he would welcome the news. He doesn’t.

Tom:  He was so enthralled by her that he was also threatened that he would lose her. And he doesn’t want her to go to Holland because he’s frightened that she’ll get back in tow with the sailor and that he’ll lose her.

Yeardley:  Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Gabriel’s fear is based on nothing, by the way, but his nerves are raw. In this state, he dashes off a reply. It’s, I don’t know, a love letter? Sort of?

[somber music]

Gabriel:  My ever beloved, devoted and truthful Belle. Listen very, very carefully and please obey without question. You are a damned fool if you think of setting foot in Holland. I command you not to go. And if you ever think of doing so, you will lose me forever. I shall die of a broken heart. My love forever. Always yours and yours only, Bommi.

Yeardley:  Isabella is no stranger to Gabriel’s volatile emotions. So, she doesn’t let them stop her. She reads the letter then she goes right ahead and makes a reservation at the Grand Hotel Central in Rotterdam and books her ticket to Holland. Once she’s arrived, Isabella writes Gabriel back.

Isabella:  My beloved Bommi, I have lived 1000 times over all our past joys and pray God to let me beside you very soon. I’m so lonely, dear. All my love darling. I’m breaking my heart for a sight of you. Always, your Belle.

Yeardley:  Isabella gets her legal split from the Dutchman and you’re probably wondering, so what about Gabriel’s estranged wife in India? Well, unfortunately, the stigma of divorce India prohibits Gabriel from severing ties with his first wife. But never mind, he has no connection with her whatsoever. But even though Gabriel and Isabella can’t make their relationship official in the eyes of society and the law, for all intents and purposes, they live as a married couple.

 Then, 1929 rolls in. Gabriel Hakim changes his name again, this time legally, picking the most English thing he can come up with, Buck Ruxton.

[intriguing music]

 In April of 1930, Buck Ruxton and Isabella decide that London’s too competitive and too pricey. So, they move north to Lancaster. There, Ruxton buys a medical practice at 2 Dalton Square.

[bell ringing]

 It is a great address. An elegant three-story Victorian townhouse with offices on the first floor, and living quarters on the second and third. The young couple decorate the place lavishly with ornate east Asian furniture. Ruxton hires a painter to recreate the night sky, complete with twinkling stars, on the ceiling of his office. Before the year is out, he and Isabella have a child, Elizabeth. Ruxton’s practice takes off. The young doctor is skilled at everything from dentistry to gynecology. He develops a strong reputation for birthing babies. And the fact that he’s an Indian immigrant in a predominantly white city doesn’t really seem to matter.

Tom:  He won the people of Lancaster over simply by virtue of being a very, very good doctor. And he was welcomed because he was an excellent physician, and he was particularly good with children.

Yeardley:  Even today, the stellar reputation Ruxton made for himself in the early 1930s hasn’t diminished in Lancaster. Just ask the locals.

Helen:  My name is Helen Metcalfe. I’m local, I’ve lived here all my life. I was born and bred here. My connection with Buck Ruxton is that he was my family’s doctor. My grandfather was actually a patient of his and I think my nana, his wife, actually saw him a few times as well, which is really weird because my nana was very, very prejudiced. But she loved this Buck Ruxton. She said, “He was the loveliest man. Very charming, very softly spoken.” And my granddad said he would never charge people if they didn’t have any money and they were frightened to go to see a doctor. He never took it off them. He just said, “Oh, well, we want to get you well.” Always put that first before money, which is not what a lot of doctors around here did.

Yeardley:  Even though Ruxton is driven by success, it isn’t just about the money. He actually cares about his patients. He’s respected as a benevolent man and a genuinely empathetic physician. And for Ruxton, that translates into acceptance. So, at this point, he’s pretty happy. He’s seemingly well-liked by everybody from working class folks to Lancaster’s local elite. His dream of assimilation and respect in England is totally coming true.

 There’s just one thing that’s bothering him and it’s a big thing. Ruxton is convinced that Isabella is cheating on him. In every other aspect of his life, he’s confident to the point of arrogance but not in his relationship with Isabella.

Tom:  Here we have a man who has been hugely attracted to a woman because of her sensuality, because of her attractiveness, because of her sexuality. All of these things which were enormous strengths while they were lovers become problems when they get married. It becomes a threat because if you see her as that, then so does everybody else.

Yeardley:  Ruxton’s distrust turns into a burning fixation. It seems to him like Isabella’s always out on the town partying way into the night, dancing with other men. She’s an independent woman in an era when that was not only unusual but questionable. And as far as Ruxton’s concerned, her lively socializing is a humiliating display of disrespect. Things have to change.

Tom:  And what Bella couldn’t do was change herself. She couldn’t be the housewife that stayed at home. She couldn’t be the dowdy hostess who dressed down so as not to threaten her husband. She couldn’t be that person because that was her nature. She didn’t want to lose him. She didn’t want her marriage and her status and her children threatened. She passionately loved Buck and so she tried to accommodate the jealousy, she tried to play it along and tried to minimize it.

Yeardley:  To the hundreds of patients coming and going at 2 Dalton Square, the Ruxtons are a perfect couple, an asset to the community. But that’s mostly them putting on a good front because behind closed doors, things are festering. Ruxton is losing control over his wife because Isabella is refusing to obey him. She won’t take orders from Dr. Buck Ruxton, which makes him furious. He’s the man of the house for god’s sake. His outbursts are explosive. Ruxton is convinced Isabella is having sex with other men and nothing she says or does can convince him otherwise. For him, it’s the ultimate betrayal. On many occasions, maids witness Ruxton manhandling Isabella, grabbing her, pushing her around. They hear the threats and screaming matches and sobbing.

Tom:  Things start to get more heated between them and we start to see a familiar pattern in domestic violence where the rows are more frequent with shorter times in between them and the rows are more violent. And as Ruxton’s paranoia and jealousy become more extreme, so the arguments become much more volatile.

[upbeat music]

Yeardley:  It’s close to midnight. Isabella is at yet another local dance. While Ruxton’s been pacing the floor for hours, waiting for her to return. Images of his wife engaged in unholy sex acts have been playing over and over in his mind. Finally, she’s back. Isabella could see her husband is in a rage. Before he can speak, she steps close and takes his hand, telling him once again how much she loves him. I mean, she was only out having some harmless fun, she says. It doesn’t mean a thing.

Ruxton:  Doesn’t mean a thing? Good God, woman, you’re trying to shame me, trying to run my name through the mud. I say this from the bottom of my heart, Belle, you need to be taught a lesson in respect.

Yeardley:  Ruxton turns and grabs something off the table.

Isabella:  Put down the knife, Bommi. There’s no need for that.

Ruxton:  Your clothes, take them off.

Isabella:  Take off my clothes? Bloody hell. What’s gotten in to you?

Yeardley:  Ruxton thrusts the long kitchen knife towards her.

Ruxton:  Just do it.

Yeardley:  Isabella decides it is not the moment to fight back. As she peels off her dress, Ruxton plants himself on an antique Chinese throne, literally, and motions for her to stand before him.

Ruxton:  Now, kneel and kiss my feet.

Isabella:  You can’t be serious.

Ruxton:  I couldn’t be more serious. And it’s because I love you.

Yeardley:  Isabella glances at the knife in her husband’s hand and kneels. His leather Oxford wingtips smell of cherry blossom boot polish. It’s his favorite. She buys it for him. As fast as she can, Isabella brushes her lips across his shoes. Upstairs, she can hear their young daughter call out in her sleep. Ruxton hears her too. [baby crying] And then as quickly as it came on, his rage is gone. He smiles at Isabella and sets the knife aside. She stands up, lifting her trail of clothes from the floor, covering herself. She feels sick.

[somber music]

 It’s a disturbing scene. Here’s Laura Richards to put it in perspective. Laura is a former criminal behavior analyst with New Scotland Yard.

Laura:  We have to think about the context and what society was like at that time.

Yeardley:  In 2013, Laura Richards founded Paladin, the UK’s first national advocacy service to assist high risk victims of stalking.

Laura:  What would be normal and acceptable was that there would be male privilege and male entitlement and that men would view their wives as an extension of them, property and ownership and possession. And it wouldn’t be uncommon for domestic abuse.

Tom:  He wanted to control her, and he felt he had to discipline her. But there’s no evidence whatsoever that she had extramarital affairs at all.

Laura:  And it’s not uncommon for where you have a man who is controlling, who’s attracted to a woman who is independent, strong minded and wants to make her own decisions, have her own autonomy, have her own agency and has high self-esteem, that they’re attracted to those women for that reason. And then when they’re together, they then try and undo them and make them do things that are acts to meet their needs rather than the woman’s needs.

Yeardley:  I think it’s fair to assume that Isabella’s needs are barely being considered, let alone met here. Ruxton is constantly watching for violations of his rules, real or imagined. His temper flares up like a roman candle. Then when it fizzles out, he begs forgiveness. There’s not much Isabella can do apart from threatening to leave him and take the kids.

Tom:  But she had no means of doing that. Nowadays, it’s very, very difficult for women to separate from an abusive man with her family. It’s very difficult financially to do that. Back in the 1930s, it was impossible to do that. She had nowhere to go. And the thought of her running away and abandoning her children was impossible. She just couldn’t have done it. And this, of course, is the ultimate tragedy because she’s trapped. She’s trapped in this cycle.

[bell ringing]

Yeardley:  It’s now December of 1931. Isabella’s pregnant for the third time. In Edinburgh, her older sister, Jeannie Nelson, gets an urgent telegram from Ruxton. He’s begging her to come to Lancaster immediately. He says, “Isabella has attempted suicide.” This news seems unbelievable, but Jeannie gets on the next train. Two hours later, she’s at the front door of 2 Dalton Square.

[door creaks]

Ruxton:  Oh, Jeannie, thank God, you’ve come. Isabella’s tried to gas herself.

Jeannie:  Gas herself? [door slams] Why on earth would she do that? She’s pregnant.

Yeardley:  I feel like I should tell you that Jeannie’s never liked Ruxton. Sure, he’s handsome and a successful doctor. So, in many ways he’s a catch. But Jeannie has always felt there was something off about him.

Jeannie:  So tell me, Buck, did you have anything to do with this situation?

Yeardley:  I love Jeannie. She takes no prisoners. Ruxton stares at her wide eyed

Ruxton:  Of course not. How could you say that? I’ll be honest, Jeannie. She’s threatened to do this before. Your sister is trying to ruin me.

Jeannie:  She’s trying to ruin you? By gassing herself? That’s nonsense. Nonsense. I want to see my sister now. Right now.

[footsteps receding]

Yeardley:  Ruxton follows Jeannie to the second-floor bedroom where Isabella lies in bed, hollow eyed, pale and obviously pregnant. Ruxton steps toward her.

Ruxton:  Now, Belle, tell your sister how you tried to kill yourself.

Isabella:  I did not try to kill myself. It was an accident. The gas was left on.

Ruxton:  Don’t make a fool of me. Tell the truth.

Isabella:  But Bommi, I–

Yeardley:  Ruxton leans toward Isabella and raises his palm. Jeannie watches in disbelief as he slaps Isabella across the face.

[tense music]

Ruxton:  In the name of God, tell the truth, woman.

Isabella:  Please, Jeannie, take me and the children with you back to Edinburgh. Get me away from this dirty pig.

Yeardley:  Ruxton glares at Jeannie and Isabella.

Ruxton:  I swear, you take her away and I’ll cut your throats, the children included.

Jeannie:  Do you have any idea what you’re saying?

Yeardley:  And then once again, it happens. It just happens. Ruxton’s rage evaporates just like that. And you can feel the energy in the room change.

Ruxton:  Oh, Jeannie, I’m so sorry. You must forgive me. Belle, you know I love you and the children. I could never hurt you.

[somber music]

Yeardley:  That night, Jeannie stays at 2 Dalton Square, sleeping beside her sister. The next morning, Ruxton is as pleasant as can be. He happily allows Isabella and the kids to go with Jeannie to Edinburgh. He even drives them to the train station, dropping them off with hugs and kisses.

[upbeat music]

Yeardley:  Despite the threats and abuse a few days later, Isabella returns to Dalton Square because she always does. Fast forward four months to April 1932. In the early hours of the morning, Isabella suffers a fall in her bedroom. She’s bleeding heavily. Ruxton calls a fellow physician to help. When Dr. Leonard Mather arrives near dawn, he finds Isabella in bed lying next to her full-term stillborn baby boy.

[music]

 In the coming months, Ruxton’s practice keeps him busy, but Isabella is consumed with depression and anger. Ruxton takes to his diary.

Ruxton:  She flew into a temper and made false allegations against my morality. God, free this woman of her wild temper. She called me a dirty, lowborn. I kept quiet and made allowances for her low upbringing. She said, “I pity your poor mother.” God, I pity her. She deserves a gold medal for having suffered you. I would not weep for you when you die, even if you were a prince.

Yeardley:  It’s now a year later, July 20^th, 1933. In the same bed where she’d lost her baby boy, Isabella gives birth to a healthy baby boy. They name him William and call him Billy for short. And with the family growing, the Ruxton’s add a new hire to their small team of servants. Mary Jane Rogerson is an 18-year-old nursemaid, basically a nanny. She’s quiet and sweet. She’s a working-class girl from the nearby town of Morecambe. Mary moves in at 2 Dalton Square, quickly becoming part of the family. Here’s Tom Wood.

Tom:  She worshipped Bella. Bella was everything that she would have liked to have been, but never could be. She was glamorous, she was confident, she was funny, she was attractive. And so, Mary lived her life almost by proxy through Bella. She was utterly devoted to her and to the children.

Yeardley:  Mary genuinely loves the kids, and they love her. As for Buck Ruxton, she respects him as a skilled, kind doctor. She also finds his behavior with Isabella disturbing. But she is in no position to speak up. Good jobs are hard to find.

Tom:  She would have certainly witnessed a lot of tension, but she didn’t ever speak about that or mention that to her family for a couple of reasons. One, she wouldn’t have wanted to draw the negative attention to the Ruxton household. The second thing is she wouldn’t want to worry her own family, and she would quite often sit and speak to Bella late into the night as it were almost comforting her after a tense evening with Buck.

Yeardley:  But other domestic servants at Dalton Square aren’t so discreet. Some even leave the household, driven off by the escalating friction between Ruxton and Isabella. And those servants are starting to talk. So, what does Ruxton do? He begins a whisper campaign against Isabella, dropping venomous hints to his loyal patients and other folks around town, telling them that his wife is seeing other men, blaming her for the tension in the marriage, painting her as a loose woman who’s making him the loyal husband suffer and it works. Despite Isabella’s local popularity and her many friends in Lancaster, the juicy dirt begins to take hold.

Tom:  Because she was effervescent, because she was outgoing, because she was chatty, it was thought that, “Oh, she must be having some sort of affairs with people or carrying on with men behind her back.”

Jeremy:  I think Ruxton saw himself as the victim. He felt that his pride, his reputation was being slighted by Isabella and the talk of her seeing other men.

Yeardley:  That’s author Jeremy Craddock. His family actually lived in Lancaster in the 1930s when the Ruxton’s were establishing themselves.

Jeremy:  That view of Isabella still persists in Lancaster and there are still people who kind of see Isabella as being, in the sort of vernacular of the time, a loose woman. You know, she was going out, seeing other people.

Helen:  She was having a lot of extramarital affairs. I don’t know if that was true, but that’s what we were always told, that she was not a very nice lady. She made him look very stupid a lot, apparently. A lot of the time, he was very embarrassed by her behavior.

Yeardley:  That’s Helen Metcalfe again. Remember, she’s a Lancaster native whose grandfather was a patient of Dr. Ruxton’s. He liked the doctor a lot and so did many folks in the city. And these days, nearly a hundred years later, Metcalfe finds herself defending Ruxton in online chat groups.

Helen:  A lot of trolls have been giving me a lot of stick because saying, “Well, he was a wife beater.” Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying I agree with wife beating, but in those days, it was more accepted. It was, there’s no doubt about it. Women were kept down, and men give you a clock around the head if you didn’t behave yourself, and it was just accepted as that. Whereas nowadays, they just wouldn’t put up with it.

Yeardley:  I have to say, it seems unimaginable to me that clocking your wife across the head because she displeased you was ever considered acceptable. Say nothing of the fact that a century after Ruxton’s whisper campaign about his wife began, the lore still lingers that Isabella was a loose woman, not a very nice woman, that she embarrassed her husband and that she was somehow responsible for his anger towards her. Anger that escalated into violence. It’s disgusting to me.

 And yet, no matter what kind of domestic horror show happened at Dalton Square, Isabella and Ruxton always seemed to make up afterwards. While in one of his good moods, Ruxton allows his wife to visit her sister, Jeannie, in Edinburgh. After a few days away, Isabella writes to him.

Isabella:  My dearest, beloved Bommi. I have an angel for a husband, and I am very grateful for it. But no matter whether you are devil or angel, I love you and will continue to love you lifelong. If my heart had been literally taken from my body and grafted to yours, I could not belong to you more completely.”

Yeardley:  It’s close to midnight. Isabella is at yet another local dance, while Ruxton’s been pacing the floor for hours, waiting for her to return. He’s been stewing about something. Someone, actually.

[upbeat music]

 Robert Edmondson is good looking. He’s a sharp dresser. He’s friendly, charming, in his early 20s and single. He’s also a rising attorney employed by the city of Lancaster. But nobody calls him Robert. He’s Bobby in the way that any Robert who’s friendly, charming and good looking is bound to be called Bobby. As the saying goes, “Women in Lancaster want to be with him, and men want to be him.” But not every man. No, no. Buck Ruxton wants to kill him.

Jeremy:  The one relationship that Ruxton absolutely fixed upon was their friendship with Bobby Edmondson. He was the young solicitor at Lancaster Town Hall.

Yeardley:  Author, Jeremy Craddock.

Jeremy:  Lancaster Town Hall is directly opposite Ruxton’s house on Dalton Square. But Ruxton got it into his head that Bobby Edmondson and Isabella were having an affair.

Yeardley:  After returning from a party one night in early April of 1934, Isabella endures yet another withering interrogation from her husband. He is mad as hell.

Ruxton:  Don’t blame me for a fool, Belle. You were with Edmondson. I know it.

Yeardley:  He grabs Isabella by the throat.

Isabella:  But Bommi, I–

Yeardley:  She pushes him off and runs from the room.

Isabella:  Please.

Yeardley:  Isabella doesn’t understand her husband’s anger. She never has. It’s almost like he wants her to be cheating on him just to justify his suspicions and uncontrollable fury. The following day, he unloads in his diary.

Ruxton:  When she came home, she told me she did not dance a single dance. I made inquiries and found she danced nearly the whole time. When I said I was heartbroken, she said, “I do not care what you are. I am so disgusted with you.”

Yeardley:  Of course, we don’t know exactly what they said to each other or even who was telling the truth, but Ruxton goes out of his way to paint himself as the victim, as usual. A paranoid victim who “made inquiries” about the dancing habits of his wife. Isabella is at a crossroads. She’s not going to stop doing what she wants to do dancing, partying, socializing. She’s going to be her own person. But at home, she’s terrified of her husband, who’s getting increasingly paranoid and violent. Then, as a desperate Hail Mary survival move, Isabella does something that’s almost unthinkable for a married woman to do in the 1930s. She goes to the cops.

Laura:  Well, it was certainly uncommon back in the day for women to go to the police.

Yeardley:  That’s domestic violence expert, Laura Richards.

Laura:  The police would see the woman as an extension of the husband, but they’d still see them as it’s the man’s rule and the man is the primary, if you will. So, it sounds to me like she was at the end of her tether, that she was going there as a last resort because she really needed an intervention, and she wanted them to act and keep her and her children safe.

[bell ringing]

Yeardley:  So, on a chilly gray morning, Isabella wraps herself in a long, wide-collared coat and sets out, heels clicking, across Dalton Square toward the police station. She turns the jackal fur collar, you heard that right, up to hide the bruises on her neck that have been left by the hands of her husband.

[door slams]

 Isabella meets with Detective William Stanton, a Lancaster borough police force veteran. She tells him she’d like to make a statement of attempted assault by her husband, Dr. Buck Ruxton. Stanton knows who Dr. Ruxton is, not only by his reputation as a good doctor, but his practice is literally across the square from the police station. He offers Isabella a chair. She sits and turns down her coat collar. He leans across the desk to inspect the bruises on her neck. His expression changes. He sends a detective to bring Ruxton into the station.

[music]

 These words are from the day’s police records.

William:  Mrs. Ruxton came into my office. Afterwards, Mr. Ruxton came in. He waved his arms in the air and commenced to shriek and foam at the mouth. I tried to calm him, and he said, “My wife has been unfaithful. I’ll kill her if it continues.” I took him into another room, and he said, “My wife is breaking my heart.” I tried to pacify him and told him he should give the man a good beating.

Laura:  And in front of the police, Ruxton says that he’ll kill his wife if he finds out she’s cheating, and they don’t bat an eyelid at that. And the fact that they then tell him to give the lover a beating, well, that tells you everything that you need to know. They’re not taking Isabella seriously.

Yeardley:  I mean, hindsight is 20/20, right? But the cop’s reaction to this domestic dispute is shocking to me. It’s shocking. Anyway, the police sent Isabella and her husband home. And that night, Ruxton writes in his diary.

Ruxton:  Isabella went to the police station and lodged a complaint against me for attempted assault. I told the police all about her affairs with other men, whereupon the inspector said, “Nobody’s more sorry for you, doctor, than I am.” Detective Thompson said, “I know you are heartbroken, but forgive and forget.”

Yeardley:  Forgive and forget? [groans] Also, Ruxton is totally making things up to suit his narrative of events. It’s disgusting. How can a woman go to the police with bruises on her neck, and they tell her to forgive and forget? No matter what decade we’re talking about, it’s shocking advice.

[upbeat music]

 Throughout 1935, Ruxton’s belief that Isabella is having an affair with Bobby Edmondson eats him alive. The thing is, even though the doctor hates Edmondson, he desperately wants to be a part of the social circle the young attorney and his family run with. And Ruxton knows his link to the family is through Isabella. So, while Ruxton punishes his wife for her suspected infidelity, he doesn’t stop her from hanging out with the Edmonsons either.

 Months later, Isabella invites her husband to go along on a trip to Edinburgh with her and the Edmondsons. He declines, saying he’s too busy, too tired. Ever the martyr, that guy. He portrays himself as sacrificing for his family. So, Isabella and the Edmondson family set out for Scotland, bound for the swanky Adelphi Hotel in Edinburgh, at which point Ruxton decides to stalk them.

 A couple of hours after Isabella leaves with the Edmondsons, Buck Ruxton drives north toward Edinburgh, passing through the tiny village of Moffat. He parks blocks away from the Adelphi Hotel and creeps into the lobby like a cheap detective. He glances through the registration book. There, he sees that Isabella has checked in as Mrs. Ruxton. She has her own room, as does everyone in the Edmondson family. But as far as the doctor is going concerned, this is just a ruse. He’s convinced the whole thing is a flimsy front for Isabella’s weekend of animalistic debauchery with handsome young Bobby. Ruxton’s head is spinning. His pulse is racing. Finally, he thinks he has the proof he’s been searching for. And nobody plays Buck Ruxton for a sucker. He leaves Edinburgh and drives back home to Lancaster without ever letting Isabella or the Edmundsons know he was even there.

[somber music]

 Once Isabella is back home at 2 Dalton Square herself, Ruxton keeps quiet about his conclusions. A few days later, he lets Isabella drive herself to the seaside resort town of Blackpool to meet her sisters. They have a great time. So great that Isabella lingers, starting the 25-mile drive back to Lancaster later than she’d originally promised her husband.

Tom:  Bella would get home midnight, half past midnight, something like that. And as was her way, if she was late, she would steal into the house very quietly, take off her shoes, open the door and pad up the stairs.

Yeardley:  And that’s exactly what she does on this night. Her three children are fast asleep. Isabella heads for their bedrooms to give each one a good night kiss. It’s a kiss her children aren’t going to get.

 On the next episode of Beyond Recognition, we’ll learn how this unconventional couple and their tumultuous relationship lead detectives to the discovery of the mutilated body parts in the ravine in Moffat and how that discovery changed the way we investigate crime scenes today.

[somber music]

 Beyond Recognition was written and produced by Peter Gilstrap. I’m your host, Yardley Smith. Thanks to our story editors, Barbara Bogaev and Sasha Khokha. Logan Heftel was our sound supervisor with editing and sound design from Soren Begin, Sarah Ma, Christina Bracamontes, and Aaron Phelps. Field recordings in Moffat and Lancaster were captured by Sean Kerwin and Kit Cummings. Original music was composed by Logan Heftel.

 The series was produced by Audio 99 under the direction of executive producer, Gary Scott. Our social media maven is Monica Scott. Beyond Recognition was inspired by the book, Ruxton: The First Modern Murder, written by Tom Wood. Among our many other sources are The Jigsaw Murders by Jeremy Craddock, Written in Bone by Sue Black, and the Trial of Buck Ruxton, edited by R.H. Blundell and G.H. Wilson, as well as original interviews and period news accounts.

 The actors in this episode are Ramesh Matani as Buck Ruxton, Francesca Manzi as Isabella Ruxton, Jason Kennett as Professor Glaister, Charlotte Milchard as Jeannie Nelson, Richard Green as the constable, Matthew Watterson as Gilbert Millar and William Stanton.

[Transcript provided by SpeechDocs Podcast Transcription]