Ruth EllisOne of the last women to be executed in the United Kingdom was 29-year-old nightclub hostess Ruth Ellis, who was hanged after being convicted of shooting boyfriend to death in a London street in April 1955 in a crime of passion.
The case caused controversy, and there have been repeated calls for a pardon. The executioner, Albert Pierrepoint, retired shortly after the execution of Ruth Ellis. Despite her crime, the story that led Ellis to the hang man’s noose is one of tragedy and betrayal.
Born in Rhyl, Denbighshire, Wales, on 9 October 1926, Ruth was the fifth of six children born to Elisaberta (Bertha) Goethals, a Belgian war refugee, and Arthur Hornby. When she young, the family moved to England.
Shortly after the birth of Ruth’s sister Muriel in 1925, Arthur changed the family surname to Neilson. After the death of his twin brother in an accident, Arthur began to physically and sexually abuse his children.
Although their mother knew of this, she took no action to prevent it. At the age of 14, Muriel conceived a child as a result of this abuse, and despite being questioned by police, no action was taken and the child grew up as a sibling to the other children.
When Muriel reached puberty, their father turned his attention towards young Ruth, however she continually resisted this abuse. When she went to London and lived with her father during the 1940’s, the abuse started again.
At the age of 17, Ruth became pregnant. The father, was a married Canadian soldier named Clare Andrea McCallum who had little to do with their son, Clare Andria Neilson, also known as “Andy”, who was born on September 15th.
Towards the end of the 1940’s, Ruth had started nude modelling work, and through that had become a nightclub hostess in Hampstead. Her job at the Court Club in Duke Street paid significantly more than her previous jobs.
However, the manager often blackmailed his hostesses into sleeping with him. Ruth began making money working as a full-service escort by the 1950’s and soon became pregnant by one of her regular clients. This pregnancy was terminated and she returned to work.
In November 1950, Ruth married 41-year-old George Johnston Ellis, a divorced dentist who had two sons. George, a possessive and violent drunk was a regular customer at the Court Club, and soon became convinced Ruth was having an affair.
Although she left him several times, she always returned. They eventually divorced when Ruth gave birth to a daughter, Georgina, in 1951, and George refused to acknowledge paternity of the child.
After moving back home with her parents, Ruth became the manager of the Little Club, a nightclub in Knightsbridge. It was there that she was lavished with gifts by admirers and some celebrity friends, and later met David Blakely.
Despite being three years her junior, Ruth and the former public schoolboy and hard-drinking racing driver became lovers. Within weeks of meeting, Blakely moved into Ruth’s flat above the club, despite his engagement to another woman.
During this time, Ruth became pregnant for a fourth time, but terminated the pregnancy, feeling she could not reciprocate the same level of commitment that Blakely was showing towards their relationship.
The two began seeing other people, whilst remaining together. Ruth began seeing Desmon Cussen, a former RAF pilot who then worked as an accountant. But the relationship with Blakely was becoming increasingly violent as they each saw other people.
Blakely said he wanted to marry Ruth, something to which she consented, however in January 1955 she had another miscarriage after Blakely assaulted her by punching her in the stomach during an argument.
On April 10, 1955, Easter Sunday, Ruth travelled by taxi from Cussen’s home to a residence on Tanza Road in Hampstead, where she believed Blakely might be staying. However, as she arrived, Blakely’s car drove off.
She then walked the quarter of a mile distance to the Magdala pub in South Hill Park, and there found Blakely’s car parked outside. Eventually Blakely and his friend Clive Gunnel emerged, and they passed Ruth who was waiting on the pavement.
It was around 9:30pm, and when she saw them, Ruth stepped out of the doorway of a newsagents. While Blakely looked for his car keys, Ruth took a .38 Smith and Wesson Victory model revolver from her handbag and fired five shots at Blakely.
The first shot missed, and she pursued Blakely as he started to run around the parked car. Two more shots saw him collapse onto the pavement, and Ruth then stood over him and fired three more, one of which left powder burns on the victims skin.
Ruth was seen by witnesses standing over Blakely as she fired a six and final shot, which hit the ground, but ricocheted and hit a bystander, injuring her. Ruth was then arrested by an off-duty policeman and said, “I am guilty, I’m a little confused.”
After he arrest Ruth was ordered held on remand, and then twice examined in an effort to determine if she was suffering from mental illness. Neither abnormality nor any evidence of insanity was found during these examinations.
On June 20, 1955, Ruth stood in the dock at the Old Bailey before Mr. Justice Havers. She cut a striking figure dressed in a black suit and white silk blouse, and her coiffured hair was freshly bleached blonde.
The prosecutor asked her only one question, “When you fired the revolver at close range into the body of David Blakely, what did you intend to do?”. Her reply, “It’s obvious when I shot him I intended to kill him,” sealed her fate.
It took the jury twenty minutes to find her guilty, and she received the mandatory death sentence. While awaiting her execution at Holloway Prison, Ruth refused a petition for reprieve on her behalf.
An attempt by her family was denied by then Home Secretary Gwilym Lloyd George. The day before her execution, Ruth wanted to tell her side of the story. She divulged that it was Cussen who gave her the gun and drove her to the murder scene.
This information proved fruitless however, as it showed premeditation in her actions. Lloyd George later said of the innocent bystander who was wounded, “We cannot have people shooting off firearms in the street!”
Shortly before 9:00am on July 13, 1955, Ruth was taken by hangman Albert Pierrepoint and his assistant to the cell adjacent to hers, and there she was hanged. She was buried in an unmarked grave within the prison walls, but later exhumed and buried elsewhere.
The case of Ruth Ellis caused widespread controversy, and was even discussed by the British Cabinet. The petition for clemency had reached 50,000 signatures, but was rejected. Her death would help strengthen support for the abolition of the death penalty.
Shortly after her execution, Albert Pierrepoint resigned, but later stated his decision was in no way connected to the death of Ruth Ellis. No further action was taken against Cussen, and his involvement in the crime was never properly determined.
Tragedy struck Ruth’s family after her death. Her former husband committed suicide, her mother died after an apparent attempted suicide, while her son Andy, who was only 10-years-old at the time of his mother’s death, killed himself in 1982.
The campaign to gain a pardon for Ruth continued for decades after her execution. All attempts have so far failed. The revolver used in Blakely’s murder was originally taken as evidence and later ended up in the Metropolitan Police’s Crime Museum.
In a case of hell hath fury like a woman scorned, Ruth Ellis was the product of an abusive father, abusive partners, and eventually she paid the ultimate price for trying to keep the man she loved.
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