Fred Dinenage: Murder Casebook - Season 1, Episode 8 - Ruth Ellis | Forensic Files

many people think that Ruth Ellis is the victim she's not the victim she's a cold-blooded killer
I feel an enormous sympathy for her because I feel that she was a victim of her time as far as the law was concerned
she pulled the trigger she killed a man in cold blood and therefore she should be found guilty and hanged in 1955 a
murder was committed outside this pub at Hampstead in London the victim was David
Blakely and what made his killing so shocking was that his attacker had been his lover Ruth Ellis what I want to know
is what would drive a woman to hunt down and kill in cold blood the man that she loved and just how
responsible washy for her actions [Music] I'm Fred Danish and I'm the official biographer of the cratons well in 1955 I
was just a teenager when the case of Ruth Ellis hit the headlines I still remember the story it provoked a
national outcry even today the murder Ruth committed and the punishment she received divides public opinion her name
remains in the history books as the last woman to be hanged in Britain Ruth Ellis
was born Ruth Wilson in rill North Wales on the 9th of October 1926 she was one of six children brought up
in a traditional working-class family her father Arthur was a jobbing musician and as a family they followed him around
the country sadly most of the people involved in the Ruth and his case have now passed away but there's one man who
interviewed several key witnesses for a book he co-wrote in 1977 he's the award-winning writer Lawrence Marx we're
actually Lawrence in the bar of the Magdala public house in Hampstead let's go back to Ruth Alice's childhood her
young life what sort of life was it she was a bit rebellious a difficult child she was not academically gifted in any
way and the family tended to move around I mean the life of her father really dictated how the family lived when he
was in work they lived fairly well and when he wasn't which was quite a lot of the time things were very very difficult
Ruth left school at the age of 14 and move with her family to the heart of London where she found work in a factory
it was wartime but far from restricting Ruth it gave her a new lease of life the
mousy brown girl dyed her hair blonde by the age of 16 she was beginning to frequent the dance halls it was here
that she was to meet her first boyfriend [Music] well Ruth was a very keen social dancer
and on this particular evening in 1943 she met a Canadian soldier not what you would call attractive but probably with
a very full wallet and they danced and I think their relationship developed and it was really Ruth's first love I've
arranged to meet a lady who was brought up surrounded by the nightclubs and dance halls of London author pip Granger
has made a study of the life of Ruth Ellis and can give me a real insight into what actually went on I mean she
was 16 17 she was dazzled it was something she'd never come across before and all the glamour in the ballrooms you
know the glitter ball the lovely Frost's because it was a time when English girls
have had six years of war no money they were using gravy browning instead of stockings to make their legs look dark
and you know they couldn't afford nylons so it would have been extremely glamorous to her
ten years older than Ruth Canadian Claire Andre introduced Ellis to the luxuries she was far from use to he sent
her carnations and would Wine and Dine her in the restaurants of Soho Claire told her that he really would
like to marry her and Ruth was probably exceedingly flattered that this man in uniform would want to give his life to
this young blonde woman Ruth's life changed forever at the age of 17 when she fell pregnant Claire Andres promises
of marriage would avail to be nothing more than false hope what Ruth didn't move course and she didn't get to know
this until some investigation into his background was conducted by of all people her mother was that Claire was
married with children in Canada Ruth experienced for the first time rejection and how easily she could fall in love
and I think how easily she could fall in love really was the thread that ran through this story at the age of 17 Ruth
had a baby boy whom she named Claire Andria Neilson she was now a mother with a child out of wedlock frowned upon by
others Ruth made a conscious decision she wasn't going to be a victim she wanted to take control of her life
leaving her baby boy in the care of her family she went back into the heart of London in search of work she would have
had a real trouble getting a job so she ended up applying for and getting a job at the Camera Club which involved her
posing naked yeah men used to go down to this club with their cameras and that few had film in them and she would just
disrobe and sit there in a static pose and be photographed by men and she knew that the movement of her body the eye
contact her youth her pertness could affect men and I think that was the first time she
really really discovered that she had this control over men Elvis's striking blonde looks a newfound
sexuality had financial benefits she was soon offered employment as a hostess at
the Court Club in London many believe it was a combination of events during Ruth's life that caused her to commit
murder one man who studied what it takes to drive people to kill is criminologist
professor David Wilson Ruth Ellis is making very conscious decisions about it the kind of lifestyle that she wants so
we can almost see her journey from rill to London from London into factories she
becomes a photographer's model she takes her clothes off and from there it's actually a relatively short step to work
in Mayfair nightclubs as a hostess she was responsible for selling drinks at exorbitant prices I'm told
that cider looks like champagne in a float and you can charge three guineas for it
that's what you did she was an incredibly hard worker you know when she was working in in Woolworths in Brixton
she was earning two pounds a week when she was working in the clubs as a as a hostess she was taking home 20 pounds a
week well we mustn't try and think that this is somehow a poor woman who's kind of blinded by the lights the glitter the
glamor the glitz of London this is something who's very consciously making a decision that she can earn more money
provide better for her family and she can be the person that she wants to be the role of hostess involved more than
selling drink a Ruth earned extra money by having sex with the clients of the court club she started as a nude model
at the Camera Club but once she'd done that she crossed an invisible line so it wasn't a really big step then taking
money for something that I think she quite enjoyed I mean I think she likes sex in
a time when women weren't supposed to ruth was leaving behind the life of poverty she'd experienced as a child her
ability to make money from her clients enabled her to move on and become manager of the Mayfair hotspot the
little Club this seemingly glamorous life wasn't easy though Ruth underwent several
illegal abortions during her time working as a hostess Ruth's had made it clear that she would never get
personally involved with any of the gentlemen that visited her club however one man proved persuasive in changing
her mind George Ellis was a dentist who regularly frequented the club he was 21 years older than Ruth and infatuated
with him as with all of Ruth's love interests things weren't quite what they seemed George was an alcoholic there's a
sense in which George Ellis is an older man alcoholic dependent upon her she must have felt in some way that she
could control that relationship better than she'd been able to control the relationship with Claire Andrea who had
abandoned her Ruth married George Ellis at a registry office in Tunbridge in Kent to unsuspecting passers-by were the
only witnesses to the ceremony they have a child Georgina although George Ellis denies that Georgina could be his he
thinks that Ruth Ellis has clearly been sleeping around alternatively Ruth Ellis
thinks that he's been sleeping around so we're back to the sense in which she doesn't trust the men in her lives
the marriage would only last for a year and it wasn't George's alcoholism that would split them up
Ruth jealousy was to blame she was pathologically jealous I mean when George Ellis was taken into wallingham
Park which was a drying out hospital really for alcoholics Ruth got it into her head for no good reason
that George far from drying out was having affair after affair with nurses in wallingham Park and she used to stake
out the hospital by 1951 the ellis marriage had disintegrated even though Ruth was pregnant she left George less
than a year after their wedding day and Ruth's dreams of a life of security were
in tatters but it wouldn't be long until she met the man who would be the love of
her life and ultimately her downfall I'm Fred damage and I'm investigating the case of Ruth Ellis I want to know what
made her shoot down the man she loved in cold blood the blond-haired nightclub hostess caused controversy when she
became the last woman to be hanged in Britain so she'd had two children she'd been divorced and despite everything
she's still returned to being a hostess and leading a life in the clubs why would she do that
was it money well I think by that stage she's been given this glimpse of the lifestyle that she could lead by working
in this way so of course she's going to return it's a very conscious decision to
return and once you've cut off your roots once you've said I don't want that past I want something different
could you really go back to that past could you really go back with your tail between your legs Ruth Ellis wasn't
somebody to look backwards Ruth Ellis was somebody who wanted to look forwards Ruth's role as a nightclub hostess gave
her the opportunity to party with the motor racing fraternity it was amongst this group of young
Playboy's that she met the man she would go on to kill his name was David Blakely
on first seeing David Blakely Ruth said installed David wearing a coat and flannel trousers I did not like his
manner from the start I thought he was too hoity-toity by far she rather hoped she'd never meet him again but he turned
up her club I think and they were still a bit cool towards each other cause she didn't like his behavior but within a
month he was living with her and living off her David Blakely was three years younger than Ruth he came from a wealthy
family and had been left 7,000 pounds when his father died he spent the majority of his time
working on sports cars and had an ambition to become a professional racing driver she was a groupie I mean she was
a groupie before her time and she latched on to this guy and she was taken by his voice his good looks and his
desire I suspect to be a racing driver which she saw as being quite glamorous here's the kind of man that she feels
she deserves here's the kind of man who's aspirational for this girl the strictly brought up girl from real in
Wales but looks can be deceiving blakeley's inability to keep a job and his obsession with motor racing drained
his inheritance his drinking increased he was soon left penniless he relied on Ruth to provide him with free booze at
her club and also her bed for the night it was one of those awful sort of cyclic
all relationships grand passion great lust followed by extreme violence huge makings up and back on the old treadmill
again neither of them understood each other or themselves Ruth and David's relationship wasn't monogamous and its
continued to work as a hostess providing sexual services to the men who visited her club Blakely already engaged to an
heiress spent time with various women this complicated arrangement caused jealousy and led to violent fights it
was a stormy relationship on both sides Ruth Ellis when she was drinking could be very violent herself Blakely was
clearly very violent to her but she was particularly jealous of him she was incredibly possessive David took Ruth to
race meetings and exclusive parties but David's friends weren't impressed by the
blonde haired woman who hung on his arm one couple who frowned upon the relationship were
David's friends the Finn laters they kind of mothered he fathered him and they just thought that this blonde
manager asset at the little club was not the sort of girl that they wanted to see
him with so they in time started talking him out of the relationship you know what she's a good screw that's really
what she isn't so screw her and get rid of her by 1954 David Blakely was having a
negative impact on Ruth's lifestyle the owner of the club made her pay extra rent because Blakeley was living with
her it was then that Ruth took up with another man Desmond cousin at 33 he was a few years
older than Ruth and many believe he would play an integral role in the murder of David Blakely there was a man
who I think genuinely loved her he cared for her nothing was too much for cousin
where Ruth was concerned and Ruth really appealed him I can imagine why I mean again she was very good-looking and she
was very kind to him and he in turn was very kind to her in fact the only man I suspect in her life including her father
that treated her like a woman and but there was Blakely and Blakely was the excitement and cousin was the
reliability and at 26 7 years old you don't want reliability she always had to be the center of attention she didn't
and whenever Blakely looked as if he was straying a bit which he did with monotonous regularity she would use
Desmond cousins to goad him you know to make him jealous ruse plan to make Blakely jealous worked he ended his
engagement with the heiress and began to talk to Ruth about marriage it was exactly what she hoped would happen
but this didn't end the violent jealous Rao's all stop Ruth from seeing her alternate lover
Desmond cousin she treated custon badly dude she treated cousin in my opinion as
badly as Blakely treated her and this became a very dangerous triangle because in the middle was Ruth and on one side
was unreliable excitement that at any minute could flare up and punch her in the face in front of people I mean this
wouldn't be done in private and there sitting there was a man who could give up really everything that would have
suited her life watching and thinking why is that man there who I hate that sight of hitting the woman I love full
in the face with his fists and kicking her in the stomach their relationship spiraled out of
control it was affecting Ruth's job she was given an ultimatum by her boss to choose between her career as a hostess
or her lover Blakely she chose Blakely in doing so she became homeless Desmond cousin saw his opportunity and
offered her the chance to move in with him with no other choice she accepted when Blakely drank her and misbehaved
her really out of her job she was homeless cousins gave her a home gave her an income and would allow unless a
plant understand allow Blakely to come and visit and sleep with her in his flat I've often wondered if he might be a
voyeur but there's been no evidence of that it's just that he was besotted and he was prepared to go to any lengths to
keep hold of us so he would drive her all over the place looking for Blakely when she was in one of her jealous rages
in 1955 Ruth told Blakely she was pregnant nobody knows if she planned to keep the baby but the pregnancy ended in
tragedy it was in late March that David and Ruth had yet another violent Rao it was then according to Ruth that David
punched her in the stomach days later she miscarried the love triangle came to a head during
Easter 1955 David Blakely had promised to spend the weekend with Ruth she dressed for an evening out but he didn't
turn up fueled by Pernod Ruth's jealousy began to rise she thought she'd tracked
Blakeley down to his friend's house the fin laters she made endless phone calls to the fin lady's house and they either
ignored her insulted her she turned up at the house they wouldn't let her in she had a feeling that he was nothing
off their nanny again it's all about jealousy is all about possession it's all about the sense in which Ellis feels
that she's going to be abandoned you start with a Canadian serviceman you go on through George Ellis you go on
through David Blakely and therefore this anxiety this worry that here again is another man who's prepared to leave her
Ruth damaged David's car outside the fin laters in an attempt to bring him out of
hiding it failed the police were called and persuaded a furious Ellis to go home
as she was driven away by Desmond cousin she made the deadly decision that would
change her and David Blakely's lives forever I'm Fred diamond and I'm investigating what drove Ruth Ellis to
kill her lover David Blakely here outside the Magdala pub in London just what were the events that led to this
tragic case that resulted in Ruth being the last woman to be hanged in Britain the year was 1955 and nightclub hostess
Ellis had been abandoned by her long-term lover David Blakely fuelled by alcohol and in a jealous rage she made
the decision she wanted him dead it's alleged it was at this point she turned towards her alternate lover
Desmond cousin for help what I now know to have happened next was they left in cousin's car to
somewhere like Burnham beeches I think it was Burnham beeches and cousin produced a loaded gun and he's taught
Ruth and how to fire a gun with the view to killing Blakely because Ruth had professed the desire to shoot the
bastard quite frankly it was Easter Sunday since Good Friday David Blakely had been hiding from a frantic Ellis now
she set out to hunt him down for three days Ellis has been drinking taking tranquilizers is in a heightened
emotional state the adrenaline would be running through her veins cousin is going to drive her to the pub we don't
know what his cousin st. her as he's driving her to the pub this is a man who's shown her how to fire the weapon
has loaded the weapon for her is he encouraging her as they reached the pub in Hampstead is he saying oh
don't be daft you know let's just drive on or is he in fact propelling Ruth Ellis to go forward with her plan of
shooting David Blakely she discovered Blakely's car parked outside the Magdala pub in Hampstead London as she peered
through the window of the pub she saw he was inside drinking with a friend he then paid for his drink walked out
the door over there outside and there was Ruth standing with a Smith & Wesson loaded six bullets in the barrel and she
called David and David looked round and saw Ruth with a gun in her blakeley's first instinct was to run but
he didn't get far Ruth pulled the trigger she fired two shots and then a third that cut him down
Ruth coolly walked up to David's body and emptied two more shots into him Blakeley Lay Dying with her mission
accomplished she then turned the gun on herself but the gun jammed by this time there crowded gathered and it just so
happened that a member of the crowd was an off-duty policeman and she turned to him and said called the police and he
said the immortal line I am the police and she handed in the gun and gave herself up quietly I've worked with a
number of murderers and even if they adrenaline is pumping through their veins once they achieve the kill they're
almost deflated they're almost flat and I do get that impression that Ruth Ellis
had achieved what she wanted to achieve and that was all she wanted to achieve so yes please arrest me I've done what
it is I set out to do professor David Wilson has arranged an experiment to demonstrate the emotions
that would have faced Ruth Ellis on the night of the murder so friend I've brought you to the
National Shooting Center in bisley have you ever fired a gun before never fired a gun in my life in fact to be honest
never held one really gun culture is not really part of British culture but here
we are in a legitimate place where you can fire for the first time a gun I'm trying to recreate Easter Sunday 1955
Ruth Ellis goes to the Magdala pub in Hampstead and she's going to shoot and kill David Blakely so what I would like
to see you is obviously shoot the gun and ask you about the the power that took to pull the trigger I want to know
how you felt when you have done that obviously we can't use the gun that Ruth Ellis would have used which was a 38
Smith & Wesson we're not allowed to use that type of weapon since Dunblane but this is the closest we can get to the
type of firearm to defuse so I want to see you shoot this at that target okay [Music]
I think you fit the target should we go and see yes so how did that feel the gun
is ever so heavy but it's feather-light the trigger the moment you touch the trigger back but you've never fired a
gun before what sort of emotions were you going through when it fires in an incredible
sensation of power power you know that Big Bang and the smoke and having done that you want to carry on firing the
adrenaline running yes imagine if you had been drinking Pernod imagine if you've been taking tranquilizers imagine
if it was your lover that had just dumped you I can understand how it happened the Ruth Ellis and of course
women by Lodge don't murder people in this way they usually use poison they use other types of ways of killing their
victims so here we've got a woman at the edge of a nervous breakdown almost firing at her lover
well this is where David Blakely was murdered outside the Magdala pub in London shot by Ruth Ellis it must have
been a truly horrific occasion I'm about to meet a witness of the aftermath his name Martin Hart you were here that
fateful Easter Sunday night tell me what happened I was 8 years old I was walking home with my father past
habit he's stationed and then to South Hill Park when we heard the shots it sounded like a car backfiring and my
father bought me up the road and we saw baton his body lying lying there with the blood pumping out of him and but I
think my father forgot I was with him but he went over to see if he could do anything and I saw Ruth Ellis being
taken into the pub what were your impressions of Ruth Ellis a striking lady she looked as cool as a cucumber
she looked relieved somehow it is though what she'd intended to do was finished with and it was it was over I mean you
were an eight-year-old boy at the time how did it all affect you were you shocked it dawned on me Oh someone it
isn't just a game so something real has happened Ruth was taken to Hampstead police
station telling the police she was guilty and a little confused within hours she made a confession
outlining how she'd set out to kill Blakely at no point did she mention Desmond cousin when asked where she got
the gun Ruth told the police she'd been given it by one of her clients from the club to pay off a debt Ruth Ellis was
charged with the murder of David Blakely if found guilty she would face the death
penalty as far as Ruth was concerned at the moment she was arrested by PC Alan Thompson and taken to Hampstead police
station which is two minutes three minutes away from here she had no desire to live at all she had killed the man
she loved and now she wanted to be with him so the quicker she could die the better the judge allocated to her trial
was Lord Justice Cecil Havers his daughter baroness butler Schloss has agreed to talk to me about his
involvement he was very much of the old school also say born in the Victorian era he was a kind man he was entirely
fair he had very clear guidelines as to how judges should behave and he was a traditionalist so he applied the law as
he thought the law was on the 20th of June 1955 Ruth Ellis stood trial for the murder of David Blakely at the Old
Bailey it was up to Ruth to convince the jury that she didn't know what she was doing when she killed Blakely but Ruth
Ellis was unwilling to play the role of victim Ruth had redyed her hair platinum blonde
to the horror of her solicitors as she was brought into the courtroom members of the gallery was shocked and one was
even heard to exclaim tart I think one problem was that she was dressed as a hostess I think in court with peroxide
hair which in those days was not so usual she had a a career which was of a certain type of woman and therefore she
was much less likely to have public sympathy the decoder a brassy blonde and it's no accident that the slang for a
prostitute at the time was brass because people who dyed their hair must be loose
women in those days and she would have been seen as a glamour puss and therefore glamour puss would
automatically be seen as a girl with loose knicker elastic Ruth initially wanted to plead guilty but her defense
believed there were mitigating circumstances that had led her to kill Blakely when she finally took to the
stand she pleaded not guilty her trial would last only two days and proved to be one of the most
controversial in British legal history I'm Fred Danish and I'm reeling the events that led to Ruth Ellis killing
her lover in 1955 why did her hanging lead to a change in the law and contribute to the end of capital
punishment the murder trial at the Old Bailey lasted for just two days Ruth pleaded not guilty her defenses aim was
to persuade the jury that Ruth hadn't been of sound mind when she pulled the trigger
however in 1955 diminished responsibility wasn't on the statute book all they could hope for was for
Ellis to be found guilty of manslaughter her defense was pretty meager to say the
least various issues did not come out at court that might have put this the circumstances of her life in a better
context we might have heard more about the tranquilizers that she was using we might have heard more about the baby
that she lost so there was quite a lot that didn't come out at court that probably would have helped her the court
called Desmond cousin his testimony would be crucial in determining Ruth's guilt he should probably have been in
the dock with Ruth Ellis he provides her with the gun he loads the gun for her he
shows her how to fire the gun he drives her to the Magdala pub and of course in the background cousin has been this love
rival for alice's affection Desmond cousin was questioned by the prosecution about his relationship with Ruth Ellis
he admitted they were lovers the defense lawyers cross-examination was surprisingly short his questioning
focused on whether cousin had ever seen bruising on Ruth's body he confirmed he had at no point was he asked about his
whereabouts on the night of the murder or if he provided Ruth with the gun many believe it was Ruth Alice's own
testimony that sealed her fate when asked by the prosecution what she intended to do when she fired the gun
she replied it's obvious when I shot him I intended to kill him what's your father do recall surprised that she
hadn't made more of a defence I think he couldn't quite believe it was such a straightforward case but he applied the
law and his job was to tell the jury what the law was and the facts the facts are extremely simple she had a gun she'd
been given it and she shot her lover absolutely out in the open in the street and once the jury
had that information and no mitigating circumstances they had to convict the jury took just 23 minutes to come to a
decision they found Ruth Alice guilty mr. justice Havers sentenced Ruth to death by
hanging she calmly accepted her fate there was a very cold quiet sort of feeling in court nobody moved absolute
silence for the death penalty was pronounced the press and public took up her case a petition was signed by 50,000
people was handed to the Home Secretary they didn't think this woman should be executed for murdering her lover some
questioned whether a woman could even be responsible for such a premeditated crime I want to know why so many people
supported a convicted killer Professor David Wilson has a psychological experiment to explain why people find it
so hard to believe that a woman can kill a boy and his father are driving on the
m25 and unfortunately there is a dreadful accident and the boy's father dies luckily the ambulance gets to the car
crash quickly enough to stabilize the boy and take him to the nearest hospital as he's being wheeled into the operating
theatre for emergency surgery the surgeon stops and says I'm sorry I can't conduct this operation this boy is my
son what's going on in that story I honestly haven't got a clue he's my son yes his
father was in the car crash yes and his father has died his father has died mistaken identity
no but he can't be his son because his father the father of the boy is dead so how can his father be the surgeon well
Fred you're not the only person who argued that I've been asking lots of people the same question I've just asked
you and just watch what they say as well but no idea - no idea better surgeons like God what something like that I'm
not the wiser the surgeon says I can't conduct this operation because this boy's my son because that is his mother
the surgeon is a woman and the gender assumption is as soon as I said surgeon you thought man what does that tell you
about me and my thought process well it tells me this because these people were told the answer in the way that I've
just told you and here's what they said yeah okay I just assumed it was a man you automatically think surgeons gonna
be a man well yeah I guess yeah a little bit wrong for me to assume but so we all
assumed the same thing and we were all wrong why do we do that well the key thing was what the last
interviewee he said of course a woman can be a surgeon and of course a woman can be a killer
only a day before her execution Ruth was persuaded to appeal she revealed the extent of Desmond cousins role in the
murder of Blakely the call was put out from the Home Office to find cousin cousin must have been in a state of
absolute panic he went into hiding and they never found him and at midnight they called off the search and and Ruth
was doomed at 9:00 a.m. on the 13th of July 1955 prisoner number nine six five six was taken to the gallows
Ruth Ellis was hanged for the murder of David Blakely she was the last woman in Britain to be put to death
[Music] On June 21st Ruth Ellis was found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey and
sentenced to death in accordance with the law on July the 13th she was executed in accordance with the law but
Britain's conscience was uneasy during those three weeks while public controversy mounted one man had a
terrible decision to make Home Secretary William Lloyd George as he went about his public duties he had
to decide whether or not to write the grim words the law must take its course but in the end he had no choice as the
law stands and as precedent dictates Ruth Ellis had to die all the hundreds who waited at Holloway jail on execution
morning and for the millions who stayed away three questions remain so the woman
hang showed anyone hang at all or should there be degrees of murder Ruth was executed by the famous hangman Albert
Pierrepoint he had concerns about hanging Ruth and told them later to Laurence Marx he said to me that she
gave me the sort of smile I would have expected that I'd gone down to the little Club a welcoming smile and I
didn't feel right about hanging this woman not because I thought she was innocent but because there was something
fundamentally wrong and he could never quite put his finger on it but I do know he wrote its letter of resignation after
that execution after she was hanged Desmond cussin moved to Australia in the UK the impact
of Ruth Alice's death eventually played a part in changing the legal system she changed two laws really she contributed
hugely to the abolition of capital punishment the year after she was hanged the defense of diminished responsibility
was put on the statute books because it was obvious to everybody that she was not in her right mind however comes she
might have appeared she was not in her right mind sad story and awareness it is it is I've got enormous sympathy for
Ruth Ellis because she just didn't have the self-awareness to be able to drag herself out of the mire she'd got
herself in and I think the only way out was to kill herself and being a good Catholic girl she
couldn't do that so she let the hangman do it for I don't think this was a woman
that ever harmed anybody in her life and probably would never have harmed anybody
again in her life except for that moment of madness were she here sitting with us
today would have said it wasn't madness Lawrence it was excessive provocation at
the root of the Ruth Ellis story is this idea of gender assumption the idea that
we have to justify how women might kill because the the balance of their mind is
temporarily to start or because it's a crime of passion nonsense it's just that some women can be violent because of
Ruth Ellis the phrase crime of passion is used in our everyday parlance the law now takes into account the circumstances
leading up to and surrounding an act of murder within the context of a relationship
you have to remember crime always has a victim but in the case of convicted murderer Ruth Ellis well some would say
she was just as much a victim as David Blakely the lover she killed [Music] [Music]
[Music]

Brief Summary

Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in Britain, killed her lover David Blakely in a fit of jealousy and violence, leading to significant legal changes.

Key points

The Last Woman Hanged in Britain. Ruth Ellis's case sparked national outcry and remains controversial today.
A Life of Glamour and Tragedy. Ruth's journey from a working-class background to a nightclub hostess is filled with highs and lows.
The Love Triangle. Ruth's relationships with David Blakely and Desmond Cousins created a dangerous dynamic.
The Fatal Confrontation. Fueled by jealousy and anger, Ruth made a decision that would lead to murder.
The Moment of Truth. Ruth confronted David Blakely with a gun, leading to a tragic end.
Ruth Ellis's Confession. After the murder, Ruth Ellis confessed to the police, stating she was guilty and confused.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Ruth's dreams of a life of security were in tatters.

Describing Ruth's emotional state after her marriage failed.

1:10WatchOct 4, 2019

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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