Adding oomph

Innovations in Parsiana are always welcome, like the new "So they say” section. It all adds a bit of "oomph” to what is essentially a very serious magazine. Maybe another innovation could be for the editorial staff to dig up some obscure details relating to Zoroastrians, past or present (also known as "useless information!”), and ask your readers a question relating to this obscure bit of detail.

I read in The Sunday Times (May 22, 2005 magazine section) of Dr Bukhtyar Rustomji Ratanji Hakim (aka Buck Ruxton). I wonder how many of your readers have heard of him?

The article titled "Secret Britain: What you won’t find in the guidebooks” relates: "It was the perfect property for the perfect couple: a three-storey Georgian terraced house bought in 1930 by the Indian born Dr Bukhtyar Rustomji Ratanji Hakim, who’d changed his name to the catchier Buck Ruxton. The ground floor became his surgery and waiting room; the rest of the house was the domain of his common law wife, Isabella — Belle, who raised their three children with the help of a housemaid, Mary Rogerson. Ruxton’s practice prospered, while Belle held dinner parties for the upper end of Lancaster society. But privately the pair would row furiously; Ruxton was jealous of Belle and accused her of having affairs. On September 14, 1935, he throttled her – and when Rogerson rushed to investigate, he murdered her too. He dragged their bodies up to the bathroom, leaving one on the floor while dissecting the other in the bath. He wrapped up the body parts in newspaper, and a fortnight later they turned up in Dumfriesshire. Some of the wrapping came from pages from a particular edition of the Sunday Graphic circulated only in Morecambe and Lancaster, eventually leading police to 2 Dalton Square. Pioneering forensic technique using photographs of Belle and Mary matched them to the skulls found in Scotland. Ruxton was executed at Strangeways prison on May 12, 1936. The house remained empty for 40 years. Today it is occupied by Lancaster town council’s planning department.”

So in respect of the aforementioned doctor, the question could be, "Who was Buck Ruxton and why was he famous, or infamous?” The answer could then be provided either in the next issue of Parsiana, or indeed hidden away on one of the back pages of the same issue.

Food for thought? Some lighthearted diversion maybe?

S. RUSTOMJI

Middlesex, UK

The editors reply

We will keep in mind S. Rustomji’s suggestion.

Edited by Parinaz M. Gandhi