THE gory jingles relating to Dr Buck Ruxton hanged for murder in 1936 (Letters, February 27 and March 4 ) remind me of the infamous Lizzie Borden, who was tried and acquitted of the murder of her father and stepmother in Massachusetts in 1892 and was a cause célèbre throughout the United States:
"Lizzie Borden got an axe, and gave her father 40 whacks.
When she saw what she had done, she gave her mother 41."
On a more academic note the renowned professor of forensic medicine and public health at Glasgow University, Dr John Glaister, Jnr (1892-1971), with an international reputation for innovative forensic technique, had been involved in the Ruxton case and would often refer to it when lecturing to medical students. It was a whodunit brought to life by a master of his craft, and all the more interesting when the perpetrator was a member of the healing profession.
R Russell Smith,
96 Milton Road, Kilbirnie.
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