Ruth Ellis- the last woman to hang.
On Wednesday, the 13th of July 1955 at London's Holloway Prison, Ruth Ellis secured her place in history becoming the 18th and last woman to be executed in Britain in the 20th century. Her case is memorable because she was hanged, had she had been given a life sentence she would have been forgotten in a few weeks by most people.
Ruth Hornby was born in the seaside town of Rhyl in North Wales on the 9th of October 1925, the third of six children. She moved to London in 1941 and in 1944 became pregnant by a Canadian soldier, giving birth to her son Clare Andrea Neilson. Ruth became a model and also a night club hostess, working initially at the Court Club where she met, and in November 1950, married dentist George Ellis.
In 1951, she gave birth to a daughter, Georgina, whom George refused to acknowledge. The couple split up soon afterwards and Ruth went back to nightclub work, becoming the manager of the Little Club in 1953. This was a popular club with the motor racing fraternity and it was here that she met 25 year old, former public school boy, David Drummond Moffat Blakely, who was trying to build a racing car with his friends, the Findlaters.
He was soon living with Ruth in her flat above the club and they had a passionate and tempestuous relationship which led to physical violence on occasions. During one of these altercations, in January 1955, he punched her in the stomach which caused her to miscarry. David was known to be a heavy drinker and was jealous of Ruth’s flirting with other club members, as she was of his other relationships.
Ruth began seeing Desmond Cussens, who was some four years her senior. He had been a bomber pilot during World War II and when Ruth knew him, he was a director of Cussens & Co. She lived with Desmond for a time but continued to see David as well.
As stated above David was building a racing car with Ant Findlater, and over Easter weekend of 1955 consistently refused to see Ruth, having promised to do so and despite repeated visits and phone calls by Ruth to the Findlater's home.
They had, unfortunately, taken on a nanny whom Ruth suspected David was having an affair with, although in truth he wasn't.
So in a pique of jealousy and rejection on Easter Sunday afternoon (the 10th of April 1955), Ruth persuaded Desmond to drive her to Hampstead where she lay in wait for David outside the Magdala public house in South Hill Park where he and Findlater were drinking.
When they came out to the car at around 9.30 p.m., she called out to David who ignored her, so armed with a 38 calibre Smith & Wesson revolver she fired a first shot and then pursued him round the car firing a second shot, which caused him to collapse onto the pavement. She then stood over him and emptied the remaining four bullets into him, as he lay wounded on the ground.
At least one bullet was fired from point blank range and left the tell tale powder burns on his skin. Another bullet injured Mrs. Gladys Yule in the thumb as she was walking up to the pub.
Other drinkers came out of the pub to see what had happened and Ruth was arrested by an off-duty policeman, Alan Thompson, still holding the gun.
She was taken to Hampstead police station where she appeared to be calm and not obviously under the influence of drink or drugs, which she is alleged to have been taking by some, on the afternoon prior to the shooting. She made a detailed confession to the police and was charged with murder.
Ruth appeared at a special hearing of Hampstead Magistrates Court on the Easter Monday, (April11th) where she was remanded in custody to Holloway Prison to await trial.
She was placed in the hospital wing and kept under observation day and night. During her initial interview on the Monday afternoon, she again described the details of David’s killing. The Principal Medical Officer, Dr. Mervyn Ralph Penry Williams, examined her and interviewed her twice, finding no evidence of mental illness. Ruth consented to and undertook an electro-encephalograph examination on the 3rd of May.
PThis also failed to find any evidence of brain abnormality. While on remand in Holloway, she was also examined by Dr. D. Whittaker, a psychiatrist for the defence, on the 4th of June and by Dr. A. Dalzell on behalf of the Home Office, on the 9th of June. Neither man found any evidence of insanity. Ruth discussed her feelings on the days leading up to and including the murder with Dr. Dalzell, and he reported to the Home Office that he found no evidence of delusions, hallucinations or other form of mental illness.
These examinations were required by law to ensure that Ruth was legally sane and therefore fit to plead at her trial. Under the Trial of Lunatics Act of 1883 where evidence existed of insanity at the time of the crime was committed, the accused was to be committed to Broadmoor at Her Majesty’s Pleasure. Some 428 people were found to be insane out of 3,130 people (13.6%) who were committed for trial for murder between 1900 and 1949.
Her trial opened on Monday, the 20th of June 1955 in the Old Bailey's No. 1 Court before Mr. Justice Havers. The prosecution was led by Mr. Christmas Humphries, assisted by Mervyn Griffith Jones and Miss Jean Southworth, whilst the defence was led by Mr. Aubrey Melford Stevenson, assisted by Mr. Sebag Shaw and Mr. Peter Rawlinson
Ruth appeared in the dock in a smart black two piece suit and white blouse, her hair re-dyed to her preferred platinum blonde in Holloway with the special permission of Dr. Charity Taylor, Holloway’s governor.
Hardly the image of the poor downtrodden woman!
She pleaded not guilty, apparently so that her side of the story could be told, rather than in any hope of acquittal. She particularly wanted disclosed the involvement of the Findlaters in what she saw as a conspiracy to keep David away from her.
In her defence she testified that “He (David) only hit me with his fist or hands, “I bruise easily.” She also described her recent miscarriage: “A few weeks or days previously, I do not know which, David got very violent. I do not know whether that caused the miscarriage or not. He thumped me in the tummy.”
When the prosecuting counsel, Mr. Christmas Humphreys asked her, "Mrs. Ellis, when you fired that revolver at close range into the body of David Blakely what did you intend to do" she replied, "It was obvious that when I shot him, I intended to kill him." So the jury were presented with a tacit admission to the shooting plus the all important admission of intent to kill.
There were legal submissions made by Mr. Melford Stevenson, QC, counsel for the defence, regarding provocation. Mr. Justice Havers said he had given careful consideration to these but ruled that there was "insufficient material, even upon a view of the evidence most favourable to the accused, to support a verdict of manslaughter on the grounds of provocation."
Mr. Melford Stevenson said that in view of that ruling it would not be appropriate for him to say anything more to the jury.
The jury were then brought back into Court and in their presence Mr. Melford Stevenson said, "In view of the ruling which your Lordship has just pronounced I cannot now with propriety address the jury at all, because it would be impossible for me to do so without inviting them to disregard your Lordship's ruling."
Mr. Christmas Humphreys indicated that in the circumstances, he would not make a final speech to the jury either.
The Judge then summed up. After reviewing the evidence for the prosecution, his Lordship said: "You will remember that when Mr. Stevenson made his opening address to you he told you that he was going to invite you to reduce this charge of killing from murder to manslaughter on the grounds of provocation.
"The House of Lords has decided that where the question arises whether what would otherwise be murder may be reduced to manslaughter on the grounds of provocation, if there is not sufficient material, even upon a view of the evidence most favourable to the accused, that a reasonable person could be driven by transport of passion and loss of control to use violence and a continuance of violence, it is the duty of a judge, as a matter of law, to direct the jury that the evidence does not support a verdict of manslaughter.
I have been constrained to rule in this case that there is not sufficient material to reduce this killing from murder to manslaughter on the grounds of provocation." “It is therefore not open to you to bring in a verdict of manslaughter on the grounds of provocation.”
Referring to the evidence for the defence, the Judge said: "This Court is not a court of morals, this is a criminal court and you should not allow your judgement to be swayed or your minds to be prejudiced in the least degree against the accused because according to her own admission she had committed adultery, or because she was having two persons at different times as lovers. Dismiss those matters wholly from your minds."
Mr. Justice Havers continued, "But I am bound to tell you this, that even if you accept every word of Mrs Ellis' evidence there does not seem to be anything in it which establishes any sort of defence to the charge of murder." The jury then retired and not surprisingly found Ruth guilty after deliberating for only 23 minutes.
To convict a person of murder two things have to be proved, 1) that the person actually killed the victim (known in law as the "actus reas" or the "guilty act") and 2) that they intended to kill the victim (known as the "mens rea" or the "guilty mind") - clearly there was no question as to whether Ruth had actually killed David Blakely and by her famous answer to Mr. Christmas Humphreys’ question as to her intention when she fired the shots, there could be no question as to her intent.
If it had been possible to show that she had not intended to kill him, the correct verdict would have been guilty of manslaughter.
Mr. Justice Havers had no alternative but to sentence her to death. The black cap was placed on his head and she was asked if she wished to say anything – she remained silent and stood impassive as he then sentenced her to be taken to the place where she had last been confined and from there to a place of execution where she would suffer death by hanging. To which she replied, "Thank you".
Unlike many people who have just heard their death sentence, Ruth did not faint or become hysterical but rather turned on her heel, smiled to her friends in the public gallery and walked calmly down the stairs at the back of the dock. She was taken back to Holloway in a prison van and placed in the Condemned Suite where she was guarded round the clock by shifts of two female warders.
It has been stated by Nigel Havers (the actor and grandson of Mr. Justice Havers) that as trial judge, his grandfather had recommended a reprieve for Ruth in his post trial report to the Home Office but, unusually this recommendation was rejected.
Like all condemned prisoners Ruth was permitted to have visitors and was visited by the Bishop of Stepney, Joost de Blank, in whose diocese the prison is situated, as well as her family and friends.
The High Sheriff of London provisionally set Wednesday, July the 13th 1955 for the execution pending an appeal. Ruth decided against this and there were really no legal grounds for an appeal. The final decision on her fate therefore rested with the Home Secretary, Major Gwilym Lloyd George, later Lord Tenby. Despite very considerable public and press pressure, he decided against her. His decision was announced on the afternoon of Monday, the 11th and communicated to Ruth by the governor, Dr. Taylor. She was visited by her mother and her friend, Jacqueline Dyer, within an hour of hearing there would be no reprieve. Petitions containing several thousand signatures were sent to the Home Office requesting a reprieve.
There was to be one final attempt to save Ruth. She had requested a meeting with Leon Simmons who had represented her at her earlier divorce, to discuss her will, and he and Victor Mishcon went to see her in the condemned cell at 11.15 a.m. on the Tuesday morning. Unbeknown to Ruth, they had been asked by her trial solicitor, John Bickford, to make one final attempt to find out from her where she got the gun. Victor Mishcon was surprised at the woman he saw in Holloway who had by now less than 21 hours to live.
He recalled that she greeted him saying, “how kind of you to come. I wanted Mr. Simmons to know certain facts which I think may have some bearing on my will.” Mishcon asked her about the gun and she told him that, “I am now completely composed. I know that I am going to die, and I’m ready to do so. You wont hear anything from me that says I didn’t kill David.
I did kill him. And whatever the circumstances you as a lawyer will appreciate that it’s a life for a life. Isn't that just?” Victor Mishcon was so struck by these words and her calm demeanour that he never forgot them. However, she did reveal some more details of the case against a promise from Mr. Mishcon that he would not try and use them to save her.
She told him that she had been drinking with Desmond Cussens over the weekend and had told him that if she had a gun she would shoot David. He told her that he did indeed have a gun and took her and her son Andrea to show her how to use it. Andrea was later to say that his mother couldn’t hit a tree when she fired the revolver.
All this was taken down in writing and Ruth finally and grudgingly allowed it to be taken to the Home Office. But warder Griffin, who was present during the interview, told the Home Office that Mr. Mishcon omitted a statement by Ruth that she had asked Desmond for the gun.
The Permanent Secretary, Sir Frank Newsam, was out at the races that afternoon and her statement was left with another senior official. They had the police check this new story but it really didn’t make matters any better. All it actually did was to show even clearer evidence of planning and intent to murder on her part. Sir Frank Newsam later wrote - "This uncorroborated statement by the prisoner does not add anything material to the information before the Secretary of State when he decided not to interfere.
The discrepancy between the officer's report and Mr. Mishcon's statement is interesting and illuminating."
Ruth had her last meeting with her parents and brother on the Tuesday afternoon and they left Holloway around 5.15 p.m. Her brother, Granville Neilson, told reporters that “she seemed absolutely calm and unafraid of what was going to happen to her.”
The news of her new statement had made the evening papers and there was now even greater agitation for a reprieve. Ruth began a final letter to Leon Simmons that evening in which she said, “I did not defend myself. I say a life for a life.” She wrote a postscript to it the following morning telling him that she had not changed her mind at the last moment (about being hanged). She also wrote a moving letter to David’s mother.
It has been disclosed from Home Office files in the National Archives that as Ruth awaited her execution, she only once cried when an MP tried to persuade her into seeking clemency. Warder Griffin was once again present when Labour MP, George Rogers, tried to persuade Ruth to appeal for clemency and the warder claimed he had browbeaten her into agreeing. Dr. Charity Taylor, the then governor of Holloway, reported, "I have never seen Ruth Ellis so distressed, and the officers reported that for the first time she had cried.
She told me she supposed it was too late to change her mind as he was going to the Home Secretary in the morning. "I did not ask her, but I formed the strong impression she did not wish Mr. Rogers to pursue the subject of a reprieve." Mr. Rogers had taken up the case at the request of one of his constituents in North Kensington, Ruth’s friend, Jacqueline Dyer.
The Home Secretary noted "Our law takes no account of the so-called crime passionel, and I am not prepared to differentiate between the sexes on the grounds that one sex is more susceptible to jealousy than the other. "In the present circumstance, the woman was as unfaithful to her lover as he was to her. "If a reprieve were to be granted in this case, I think that we should have seriously to consider whether capital punishment should be retained as a penalty."
The police view, expressed by Detective Chief Inspector Leslie Davies, was that it was entirely Ruth’s decision to kill David.
He wrote, "It is certain that her action was coldly premeditated because, without thought to her son to whom she is said to be very attached, she left him alone to come to Hampstead with her mind made up to commit this murder."
He went on "On meeting Blakely and realising that his class was very much above her own, and finding he was sufficiently interested in her to live with her, it seems she was prepared to go to any lengths to keep him. Finding this impossible, she appears to have decided to wreak her vengeance on him."
Ruth's father, Arthur Neilson (he had changed his name from Hornby), wrote a brief, poignant letter to the Home Secretary, adding his voice to those demanding a reprieve.
"I respectfully beg of you to use your great influence to spare my poor daughter's life. This terrible tragedy has been a terrible shock to me. I was injured in the Blitz of May 10th 1941. I received a blow on the head which paralysed me down the left side of my body and Sir you will understand my nerves have gone to pieces under the strain.
"My daughter I would have thought to be the last person to become involved in such a crime as a child she was shy and reserved and never gave me any cause for anxiety and later on she was a devoted mother to her two children. I blame the whole sequence of events to the fact of such an unhappy experience of three bad men, the details of which you will know.”
"I ask you as a distraught father to show her mercy.
Yours respectfully . . ."
Death came quickly in those days, Prisoner 9656 Ellis spent just three weeks and two days in the condemned suite at Holloway.
There was much public sentiment at the time for a reprieve and thousands of people had signed petitions asking for clemency, including 35 members of London County Council who delivered their plea to the House of Commons the day before Ruth was to die.
On the Tuesday evening, the eve of the hanging, the Governor at Holloway was forced to call for police reinforcements because of a crowd of more than 500, including the veteran anti capital punishment campaigner, Violet Van de Elst, who had gathered outside the prison's gates singing and chanting for Ruth for several hours. Some of them broke through the police cordon to bang on the prison gates, calling for Ruth to pray with them.
Inside the usual preparations had been made.
Ruth had been weighed at 103 lbs., clothed, and a drop of 8’ 4” set. The gallows had been tested on the Tuesday afternoon using a sand bag of the same weight, which was left overnight on the rope to remove any stretch. Around 7.00 a.m. on the morning of execution, the trap was reset and the rope coiled up so as to leave the leather covered noose dangling at chest height above the trap.
A cross had been placed on the far wall of the execution room at Ruth's request.
In her cell, Ruth wrote a letter to David's mother, Mrs. Cook, apologising for killing him and finished her letter to Leon Simmons. She was given canvas pants to wear which had been compulsory for female prisoners since the Edith Thompson debacle. She was also given a glass of brandy just before 9.00 a.m. by the prison doctor to steady her nerves. She was attended by the Rev. John Williams, the chaplain of Holloway.
At about 8.55 a.m., a telephone call was received at Holloway from a Miss or Mrs. Holmes purporting to be the private secretary to the Home Secretary, saying that a stay of execution was on its way. Dr. Taylor (the Governor) immediately telephoned the Home Office and discovered that the call was a hoax. Dr. Taylor consulted Mr. Gedge, the Under Sheriff of London, and they decided to proceed. This led to a delay to the execution of one minute. Thus a few seconds before 9.01 a.m., Albert Pierrepoint entered her cell, pinioned her hands behind her back with his special soft calf leather strap and led her the 15 feet to the gallows, accompanied by a male warder from Pentonville holding her elbows on either side.
Pierrepoint recalled that Ruth said nothing at all during her execution. When she reached the trap, a white cotton hood was drawn over her head and the noose adjusted round her neck. His assistant, Royston Rickard, pinioned her legs with a leather strap and when all was ready, stepped back allowing Pierrepoint to remove the safety pin from the base of the lever and push it away from him to open the trap through which she now plummeted.
The whole process would have occupied no more than 12 or 15 seconds and her now still body was examined by the prison doctor before the execution room was locked up and she was left hanging for the regulation hour. The law required that a female governor or deputy governor be present at the execution of a woman.
Thus Dr. Charity Taylor together with Ralph-Penry Williams, the prison medical officer witnessed the hanging, and Dr. Penry-Williams would have examined her body afterwards.
Around a thousand people, including women with prams, stood silently outside the prison that morning, some praying for her. At 9.18am, the execution notice was posted outside the gates and after that the crowd dispersed.
Ruth's body was taken down at 10.00 a.m. and an autopsy performed by the famous pathologist, Dr. Keith Simpson, which showed that she had died virtually instantaneously. Unusually, the autopsy report was later published and Simpson noted the presence of brandy in her stomach. The official inquest report of her execution read as follows, "Thirteenth July 1955 at H. M. Prison, Holloway N7": Ruth Ellis, Female, 28 years, a Club Manageress of Egerton Gardens, Kensington, London - Cause of Death - "Injuries to the central nervous system consequent upon judicial hanging."
An inquest was held by Mr. J. Milner Helme, the then Coroner for the City of London, later on the Wednesday morning and Ruth’s brother made a formal identification of her body. A scarf had been put round her neck to hide the rope marks.
Ruth’s body was buried within Holloway prison around lunchtime, in accordance with her sentence, but later disinterred and reburied in the churchyard of St Mary's Church in Amersham Buckinghamshire when Holloway was rebuilt in the 1970's. Her death was registered on the 14th of July 1955 (the day after the execution) on the basis of a Certificate issued by the Coroner in the Registration District of Islington, Sub-district of Tufnell as Entry Number 25 for the September Quarter 1955.
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