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Ned
It was the 13th of July 1955, 9am, when a 28 year old woman was hanged in Holloway Prison. Before her the media hadn�t paid much attention to other female executions, but Ruth Ellis was special because she was the last woman to be hanged in Britain. What�s also interesting is how she got there in the first place and her family�s recent efforts to get her verdict
Born in Rhyl, in Wales, Ruth was the daughter of an alcoholic father and French-Belgian mother. When she was in her late teens she had a son, Andy, by a Canadian soldier who had gone back to his family in Canada. She moved to London and by now had turned into someone who had peroxide blonde hair, refused to wear glasses even though she needed them and loved dancing. She moved to London, leaving her son with her older sister, and ended up posing nude, becoming a call girl and a hostess for a seedy nightclub. In 1950 she married George Ellis, a dentist who she met from her club and went on a sympathy date with. They ended up having a daughter, but Ruth�s jealousy and George�s drinking ended up with a divorce. She returned to working at the club, where rich clients would come, and Ruth was good at helping them part with their money.
It was 1953 when she met racing driver David Blakely. He was wealthy, educated and full of himself. Ruth took a shine to him. She was given her own small club to manage, in Knightsbridge. She claimed Blakely was the first client to be served in her new club, although he soon became engaged to her friend Linda. To make things even more confusing in 1954 she began an affair with his friend, Desmond Cussen. Blakely became jealous of his friend, and Ruth moving in with Cussen whilst staying nights at a hotel with Blakely made the situation even worse. She gave them identical Christmas presents, and Ruth and Blakely were equally jealous of each other, suspecting more affairs. One night there was a fight, with both ending up black and blue after Blakely claimed Ruth had tried to stab him, to stop him leaving she took his car keys, sat in the car and laid down in the road, but gave up. Ruth became pregnant (it could have been any number of men) and miscarried after Blakely apparently punched her in the stomach. Blakely, having promised her marriage and respectability, eventually would become the reason they both died. On April 6th she followed him to another woman�s house. On Easter Sunday, April 10th, Blakely emerged from the Magdala pub in Hempstead, the couple�s local pub. It was 9.30 and Ruth went over to Blakely as he reached the drivers door of his car. He saw her, ran towards the front of the car and tried to hide. She took out a gun which was probably Cussen�s, and shot him dead with at least 4 bullets.
In June, 1955 she was tried in a day and a half. She was found guilty after 14 minutes of Jury deliberation, despite pleading not guilty.
People petitioned, but the Home Secretary wouldn�t repeal her sentence, and she was hanged. Other countries around the world scorned Britain for executing an unstable woman with children who at the time were under 10. Most of the other people in her story quit their jobs after being involved in the case or committed suicide, and Ruth eclipsed Blakely, because most people vaguely know her name, but almost none of those who do can remember the name of the her victim. Recently her family have been campaigning to get Ruth�s name cleared by reducing the sentence to manslaughter.