Ruth Ellis - The Last Woman to be Execucted

Ruth Ellis would become known in history as the last women to be hung in the United Kingdom and one of the reasons that the Death Penalty in England would become abolished. Since watching the TV drama 'A Cruel Love' that came out on ITV recently, I have felt drawn to Ruth's story and not only did I want to delve a bit more into her her life but I also wanted to put something together in her memory. I have also recently finished the book that went alongside the TV series and then re-watched the drama afterwards. I normally tend to look at and stick with more Victorian Crime and Punishment, but for some reason Ruth's life and case really gripped my interest. I also plan to post a review of the book 'Cruel Love' to go alongside this one. There is also another TV show on BBC that I need to watch, that at some point will cross reference with this. 

Birth and Early Life

Ruth Neilson was born on the 9th October 1926 in Rhyl, Denbighshire in Wales, she was born roughly four months after Marilyn Monroe who in turn would go on to influence Ruth in her adult life. Her parents Arthur Hornby and Elisaberta or Berta would have six children in total, with Ruth being the second to youngest. At some point during her childhood the whole family would move from Rhyl to Basingstoke, Hampshire, which isn't far from where I currently live. When her fathers twin brother Charles was murdered in 1928, it led to Arthur becoming physically and sexually abusive towards his eldest daughter Muriel. Their mother was aware of the abuse, but did nothing to stop it from happening. Due to the abuse, it led to Muriel conceiving a child by her father at the age of 14, which was passed to her mother to say that it was her child and not her daughters. Even though Arthur was questioned many times by the police, but each time he was released. When Ruth turned 11, her father started to make advances at her, so much so that her sister Muriel would get her out of the house whenever she suspected something was going to happen. It was something that was never discussed within the family again. 

Ruth was sent to Fairfields Senior Girls School in Basingstoke until 1940, she then went on to attend Worting Village School. Ruth would leave school once she reached 14 years old and soon gained employment as an usherette in a local cinema. Her father would soon move to London on his own for work as a live-in caretaker. Within the following year Ruth's eyes would be opened to the life that she would eventually live. 

Adult Life

She was introduced to her future life by Edna Turvey, who was the girlfriend of her brother Julian. Not long after, both Ruth and Edna would move to London where they went to live with Ruth's father Arthur. He would then re-start his advances on Ruth, while also starting to have an affair with Edna. The affair was discovered by Ruth's mother Berta who would then move to London to keep an eye on her husband. In 1944 when Ruth was seventeen she fell pregnant by Clare Andrea McCallum, who was a Canadian Soldier. Ruth had to check into a nursing home in Cumberland where she gave birth to Clare Andrea Nielson, known as Andre, in September of the same year. A year after the child was born she stopped receiving money from his father and Andre went to live with Ruth's mother Bertha. Ruth would send what money she could home to her mother to help support Andre.

By the end of the 1940's, Ruth had gotten work as a nightclub hostess in Soho while doing nude model work on the side. Her boss at the club, Morris Conley, used to blackmail female staff to sleep with him, which would also include Ruth. By the start of the 1950's Ruth was earning more money than ever working as an escort, but had also become pregnant by one of the regulars that frequented the club. In November 1950, Ruth was married to George Ellis, who was 17 years her senior, in a registry office in Kent. George had been a regular at the club, but was an alcoholic, violent and possessive man which caused him to believe that Ruth was having an affair. She tried to leave him on a few occasions, but always seemed to come back to him. When their daughter Georgina was born, George claimed that he was not the father. The pair separated shortly after and would later get divorced. Just before Georgina was born, Ruth took an unaccredited role in a film called 'Lady Godiva Rides Again'. Once she had split with George, Ruth would then turn back to prostitution and had to move back in with her parents along with her new baby.

Murder

By 1953, Ruth was the manager of the Little Club in Knightsbridge, where she was constantly receiving lavish gifts by the frequent and regular punters. It was here that she first met David Blakely, a race car driver three years her junior. Within a few weeks of first meeting and getting to know each other, David had moved in with Ruth, even though he was engaged to another woman, in the little flat that was above the club. It wasn't long before Ruth found out that she was pregnant for the forth time and would undergo her second abortion. At roughly the same time Ruth started to see Desmond Cussen, a former RAF pilot and accountant. Ruth had moved in with Desmond while her relationship with David still carried on, but it was at this point that David had started to become violent towards her. David proposed marriage to Ruth to which she accepted, but not long after he would punch her in the stomach during an argument causing Ruth the suffer a miscarriage in early 1955.

After David failed to turn up at Ruth's flat at the time they arranged, on the 10th of April 1955, Ruth took a taxi from Desmond Cussen's flat in Oxford Street in Soho to the home of Anthony and Carole Findlater, friends of David's, in the hope of trying to find him. As Ruth arrived at the address, David drove off in his car, this caused her to pay the taxi and then walk the short trip to The Magdala public house where she found David's car parked outside. Ruth seemed to hang around outside waiting for David to reappear. When she spotted him emerge with his friend Clive Gunnell, Ruth stepped out of the shadows of the newsagent that was next door. As David was reaching for his car keys, she pulled a revolver from her handbag and fired five shots at David. The first shot missed him, as he ran round the car, Ruth fired a second shot at him which caused him to collapse on the pavement. Ruth then stood over David and fired a further three more shots into his back. Ruth tried to fire a sixth and final shot into David, but instead she fired it at the ground causing it to ricochet into the thumb of Gladys Yule who was a bystander. 

Trial and Execution

It was Ruth who asked for the police to be called as she stood in shock over David's body, she had turned to Clive Gunnell and asked him to call them. Ruth was immediately arrested by an off duty policeman, as she was arrested she was heard to say 'I am guilty, I'm a little confused'. Ruth was taken to Hampstead Police Station where she handed over the revolver, while David's body was taken to hospital with multiple injuries. While she was at the police station she appeared to be calm and remained calm the whole time she was there under question. It was also evident to the officers that she wasn't affected by drugs or alcohol. Ruth would appear in front of the Magistrate Court the following day, where she was ordered to be held on remand. Ruth would be examined twice by medical officer M.R. Penry Williams, each time he could find no sign of mental illness. She was also examined by Duncan Whittaker, a psychologist, and Alexander Dalzell, from the home office, both men could also find no sign of mental illness. 

On the 20th June, Ruth appeared in Court Number One, wearing a black suit and her hair freshly bleached which caused her council to express concern. During that court session she was asked one really important question, 'When you fired the gun at Mr Blakley at close range, what was your intentions? Ruth's response was simple, 'I intended to kill him'. It was this answer that insured that Ruth received a guilty verdict and the death penalty was given out. Ruth was taken back to Holloway Prison, where she was to stay till her execution. She had made it clear that she didn't want a reprieve, yet members of her family and some of her council took it upon themselves to start a petition, even with a letter being sent to the Home Secretary Lloyd George by her solicitor. The letter was ignored and Ruth decided to fire her solicitor John Bickford and employ Leon Simmons and Victor Mishcon as replacement. Before they went to visit Ruth, Bickford paid both men a visit and told them to push her to tell them where she acquired the gun from. 

The day before her execution, Simmons and Mishcon went to visit Ruth as she had requested that she wanted to make her last will and testament. They both again pressed her for the full story, to which she told them that none of it should be used to grant her a reprieve. Ruth told them that Cussen had given her the gun and had shown her how to use it the weekend before the murder. She also stated that Cussen had driven her to the murder site that night. As soon as they left the prison both men went straight to the Home Office, where the Criminal Investigation Department was told to look into what Ruth had said. Lloyd George still did not change his mind on his stance, this news only made him feel worse on the fact that the murder was in fact premeditated. Ruth wrote one last letter to David's parents, in it she stated that she had always loved David and that she would die loving him. 

Prior to her execution on the 13th July, Ruth was visited by the Bishop of Stepney, Jooste de Blank, then hangman Albert Pierrepoint and his assistant entered Ruth's cell just before 9 am. They took her from her cell to the adjoining execution room. There was a slight delay due to a hoaxer calling the prison claiming to be the secretary to Lloyd George stating that Ruth had been granted a stay of execution. The government spent six minutes trying to call to the Home Office to confirm if it was a hoax or not. Because of this Ruth was executed at 9.01 am. The noose that was used is currently in the Metropolitan Police Museum along with the revolver that she used to kill David. As was the custom, Ruth was laid to rest in an unmarked grave within the walls of Holloway Prison. Due to refurbishments at the prison in the early 1970's, Ruth's remains were exhumed and were to be buried somewhere else. On the direction of her next of kin, her son Andre, her remains were taken to St Mary's Church in Amerhsam Buckinghamshire and placed roughly 4.8 KM from where David was laid to rest. On the headstone that was erected on her grave it simply reads 'Ruth Hornby 1926-1955.

Aftermath

Ruth's death led to changes being made in the English Justice System, her case caused mass interest with the media and the public, which in turn led it to be discussed in Parliament. Ruth would then become known as the last woman to be hanged in England. A petition was sent to the Home Office asking for Ruth to receive clemency, it was signed by over 50,000 people, but nothing came from it. Because of Ruth's execution, it helped to strengthen the support for abolishing the death penalty in England, as 10 years later it was stopped with the last execution taking place in 1964. In 1970 it came to light from Cussen that Ruth had lied during her trial when she denied that he had given her the gun, an investigation was opened, but nothing came from it. 

Not long after Ruth's death her ex husband, George Ellis, had committed suicide by hanging at a hotel in Jersey in 1958. Then roughly 10 years later her mother Berta was found unconscious in her London flat due to a gas leak. Sadly she never fully recovered from the incident and was unable to talk properly for the rest of her life. In 1982, Ruth's son Andre took his own life at his bedsit, this was shortly after he had desecrated his mothers grave. Ruth's daughter Georgina, who was 3 at the time of her death carried on living with her father George up until she was adopted upon his death, roughly 3 years after the death of her mother. She would appear on TV shows talking about her mother as well as campaigning for her to receive a pardon, but she too passed away in 2001 at the age of 50 from cancer. Georgina's daughter and Ruth's granddaughter Laura Enston is now fighting to get Ruth a conditional pardon.

In 2003, Ruth's case was referred again to the Court of Appeal. The case was uprightly refused by the court, but made it clear that they would only rule on the conviction as the law stood in 1955 and not if Ruth should have been executed or not. Then in 2007 a petition was sent to 10 Downing Street asking the current Prime Minister, Gordon Brown to consider Ruth's case and to grant her a pardon after new evidence came to light that wasn't used at her trial. The petition expired the following year. In more recent years her remaining relatives have been campaigning to have Ruth's case looked into again and for her to receive a pardon. On the 8th July 2026 it was announced in Parliament that King Charles III, along with members of Parliament, that Ruth was to be granted a conditional posthumous pardon. This doesn't pardon her of her guilt but it means that her sentence is replaced to life imprisonment to recognise the injustice that took place. This is a fantastic outcome for Ruth, her family and for those that suffer domestic abuse. 

In delving into Ruth's life and reading about her case I believe that she was wrongly executed and should have been given a different sentence. Everything that she went though in the build up to the murder led her to that moment, due to her mental and physical health along with wanting to defend herself. I'm not condoning what she did, but I also don't blame her for doing it as I feel she was at the end of her limit as well as really suffering causing her to see no other way as she blinded by love and hatred at the same time.