Case Files

‌Explore the case files taken from the records of the Department of Forensic Medicine and Science at the University of Glasgow and examine documents and photographs from some of the famous cases investigated by the forensic staff in the department.

Case against Oscar Slater: Murder of Marion Gilchrist (1908-1909), Glasgow

  • File GB 248 GUA FM/2B/5 consists of reports, correspondence with police forces all over the United Kingdom as well as Germany and Ireland, notes, and newspaper cuttings regarding the case of Oscar Slater.

Case against William and Helen Harkness: Murder of Elizabeth Benjamin, Whiteinch Murder (1922), Glasgow

  • File GB 248 GUA FM/2B/7 consists of case notes, production reports, post mortem notes and press cuttings.

Case against John Donald Merrett: Murder of Bertha Milner or Merrett (1926-1927), Edinburgh

  • File GB 248 GUA FM/2B/20 consists of notes, indictment, correspondence, post mortem notes, precognitions, scrapbooks.

Case against John Keen, Robert Fletcher, William Dayer, and John McCormack: Assault and Murder of Norrh Mohammed (1924-1925), Port Dundas, Glasgow

  • File GB 248 GUA FM/2B/15 contains production reports, post mortem notes, scrapbooks, and press cuttings.

Case against John Newell and Susan Newell: Murder of John Johnstone, Go-Cart Tragedy, Coatbridge Murder (1923), Glasgow

  • File GB 248 GUA FM/2B/9 consists of notes, reports, indictment, and scrapbooks of press cuttings.

Case against Charles Boyle: Maryhill Triple Murder (1924), Glasgow

  • File GB 248 GUA FM/2B/12 consists of a scrapbook containing press cuttings.

Case against John Mitchell Henderson: Kirkintilloch Murder (1924-1925), Glasgow

  • File GB 248 GUA FM/2B/13 contains scrapbooks and press cuttings.

Case against Dr Buck Ruxton: Murder of Isabella Ruxton and Mary Rogerson (1935), Lancaster, Moffat

  • File GB 248 GUA FM/2A/25 contains notebooks, correspondence, anatomical reports, witness reports, extracts from Ruxton's diary, photographs, and lantern slides.

The case files also display a range of forensic techniques developed over the fifty years represented.