Ruth Ellis

A little over 60 years ago, Ruth Ellis became the last woman hanged for murder in the UK. Since then, she’s become the subject of television and radio dramas, movies, plays, and books. Why should we bother telling a story of a woman executed over six decades ago?

When Ruth murdered her rich, race car driving boyfriend, David Blakely, the Daily Mail reported: “Six revolver shots shattered the Easter Sunday calm of Hampstead, and a beautiful platinum blonde stood with her back to the wall. In her hand was a revolver.” Ruth’s case was Hanukkah, Christmas, and their collective birthdays all rolled into one giant, tragic blood-letting to reporters. They couldn’t get enough, and the story of Ruth Ellis eclipsed all other news.

No one disputed that Ruth shot Blakely outside the Magdala pub in Hamstead on April 10, 1955. The real question was, why? Was Ruth, a former model and night club manager, a crazy, low-class femme fatal who led a man of privilege astray, or was there something more profound to this platinum blond?

Ruth's Life

Ruth Hornby was born in the seaside town of Rhyl, Wales, on October 9, 1926. It was a working-class town. Elisaberta (Bertha) Cothals, Ruth’s mother, was a Belgian refugee who had fled from her home country during the German occupation of World War I. Ruth's father, Arthur Hornby, played in orchestras on Atlantic cruises, sending him away from his family for extended periods.

Ruth’s upbringing took place in a traditional and strict Catholic household, which was pretty standard for the times until her uncle died suddenly in an auto accident in 1928, followed by her baby brother a year later. Her father began drinking heavily and transformed into a violent and abusive alcoholic. Unable to keep steady employment, Ruth’s father moved the family around until they landed in London during the Blitz in 1940 when Ruth was 14. 1940s London wasn’t a location that many people sought out. It is an odd move to relocate your family to a war zone.

London During the Blitz

The Blitz consisted of air raids by German Luftwaffe planes from 1940 to 1941. London was the main target, but not the only city bombed. The Blitz sought to demoralize the British, but the German forces deeply underestimated the English. The body count was twice that number throughout England due to the Blitz.

At any moment, the wail of air-raid sirens could fill the air, followed by the sound of German planes overhead. Bombs could fall anywhere and at any time.

By 1944 Ruth’s father lands a job as a chauffeur in Suffolk. The position also came with a flat, so the family had a home.

Ruth quickly became enamored with London’s nightlife. Like many teens at the time, she didn’t let the threat of the Blitz keep her from having a good time. At fourteen, Ruth leaves Fairfields Senior Girls' School in Basingstoke to work as a waitress. In 1944, at age 17, she met a French-Canadian soldier named Clare Andrea “Andy” McCallum, and she fell hard. Ruth soon became pregnant, and McCallum proposed marriage. Ruth excitedly agreed and prepared for the wedding and married life with a new baby. What she didn’t know was that McCallum was already married with three children back in Quebec.

At the end of the war, with her son not yet nine months old, Ruth learned McCallum’s truth. Andy sent money to his son for about a year, but the payments stopped. Ruth sends her son to live with her parents.

Life After Andy

Life as a single mother in London after the war wasn’t easy, and jobs were hard to come by. England, hard hit by the war, made supplies short and rations brutal. Ruth couldn’t be picky about work and answered an ad for modeling work at the Camera Club near Bond Street (Murder Maps, 2017). In post-war London, a single mother who had a child out of wedlock wasn’t seen as fit to hold a respectable job. Regardless of your background and education, you couldn’t be a secretary or a teacher. It could be challenging to make a high enough wage to support yourself and your children.

Morris Conley

Through the Camera Club, Ruth met Morris Conley, masquerading as a respectable businessman but was one of London’s largest vice bosses. He invited Ruth to become a hostess at the Court Club, one of his many nightclubs, and she took the job.

Ruth’s job description was simple: look good, entertain the guests, and have sex with whomever Conley told her to, including himself (Murder Maps 2017). If a hostess refused to sleep with clientele, they would lose their job.

Early in 1950, Ruth became pregnant by one of her regular customers. She had the pregnancy terminated (illegally) in the third month and returned to work.

London Nightclubs

Nightclubs filled post-war era London. Pubs had a strict closing time, which occurred early in the evening, so everyone would switch over to their favorite lounge to keep the party going. Nightclubs quickly became linked to the London sex trade encouraged by the club owners to boost club-goers, usually wealthy men, to spend more money.

Marriage to George Ellis

Tired of the club life and determined to be an upstanding citizen, Ruth married George Ellis in 1953, whom she’d met through Connolly’s clubs. Ruth and George had a daughter together, but the marriage ended soon after her birth. George Ellis refused to acknowledge the child as his own, convinced that Ruth had cheated on him. George began beating Ruth, and she left him multiple times but kept returning before filing for divorce. She and the baby moved back in with her parents. Soon after, Ruth bleached her hair the platinum blond that became her signature.

A New Job and a New Man

After her divorce, the single mother of two moved back in with her parents and began working at another of Conoley’s nightclubs, the Little Club in Knightsbridge. No longer a hostess, Ruth was now the manager and the youngest club manager in London. She finally felt in control of her life then David Blakely walked through the door.

David Blakely

Loaded with family money and looks to match, Blakely aspired to be a professional race car driver. Within a few weeks, Blakely would move into Ruth’s flat despite being engaged to another woman. Shortly after the two moved in together, Ruth found herself pregnant for the fourth time. She had this pregnancy terminated.

Ruth and Blakely came from different worlds. Ruth, a self-made woman, hailed from a working-class family. Blakely came from privileged and social standing. Those coming from Blakely’s side of the tracks saw him as slumming it and that nothing good would come from a relationship with a woman of ill-repute and no social standing. Blakely enjoyed his time with Ruth, but he wasn’t about to introduce her to his family or his inner social circle. The few friends who did know Ruth openly mocked her working-class background.

Their relationship revolved around the club lifestyle: dancing, drinks, parties, sex. The freedom Blakely experiences was the polar opposite of his stuffy childhood. Even though the pair fell hard for one another, it wasn’t long before they were both engaging in affairs. Blakely pursued other women, and Ruth was the center of the club scene, with men fawning over her.

Desmond Cussen

Wealthy, thirty-year-old account Desmond Cussen entered Ruth’s life before Blakely. He frequented the Little Club and hung with the racing crowd. Cussen was unfailing in love with Ruth and sought to marry her. The pair began an affair while Ruth continued her relationship with Blakely.

An Ill-fated Relationship

A year after it began, Ruth’s and Blakely’s relationship turned abusive. Blakely threw all of his money into racing and became increasingly dependent on Ruth for cash. The abuse started small and then became routine, yet, no matter how caustic the relationship, neither seems able to break it off completely.

Eventually, these fights spilled over into public life, threatening Ruth’s position at the Little Club as customers complained and stopped coming to the club. In 1954, with profits half of what they had been, Morris Connelly fired Ruth, and she lost the flat that came with the job.

Ruth, homeless and unemployed, moved in with Desmond Cussen, but she still couldn’t give up David Blakely. In early 1955, Ruth started French lessons in the hopes of impressing Blakely and his friends. Ruth’s French tutor would recount the black eyes and bruises the covered Ruth’s arms and legs.

Leading up to the Murder

In February of 1955, Ruth left Desmond Cussen’s home with the 10-year-old son and rented a small bed-sit in Kensington. She hoped David Blakely would move in with her, and they could start afresh. Blakely would join Ruth at her new home, but he always brought arguments and violence.

During one particularly violent altercation, Blakely punched Ruth in the stomach, causing her to miscarry. Ruth became sick after the miscarriage, and she stayed in bed with a fever.

Anthony and Carol Findlater

David Blakely’s friends, Ant and Carol Findlater decided to intervene with the couple. The Findlaters had never liked Ruth and had urged Blakely to end the relationship several times with the working-class Ruth. The Findlater’s decided to keep the pair apart over the long Easter weekend of 1955.

Around 10 a.m. on Good Friday, Blakely left Ruth’s bedsit to visit with friends ( the Findlaters). He told Ruth that he’d return later that night. He never does. His absence pushes Ruth’s jealously into high gear. Ruth believes that Blakely is romantically involved with someone he’s enjoying the evening with. Ruth heads over to Cussens, where she spends the weekend where the on-again, off-again lovers drink heavily. It’s here that Ruth confesses that she wants to shoot Blakely.

The Murder Weapon

The time Ruth spent with Desmond Cussens only fueled her rage toward Blakely. Cussen offered to give Ruth a gun, a .38 Smith & Wesson revolver before taking a taxi to the Hampstead where she suspected Blakely was (Murderpedia, b.d.; BBC, 2018; CapitolPunishment.org, n.d.). Prior, Cussens showed Ruth how to fire the gun and loads the revolver. Cussen sees this as a perfect opportunity to remove the competition and punish Ruth for not reciprocating his affections.

The Magdala Pub

Ruth’s taxi dropped her on Tanza Rd in front of the Findlater’s home. The Findlaters were hosting a party that evening, and by 9 p.m., party supplies ran low. David Blakely volunteered to run out for more. He and Clive Gunnell got into Blakeley’s car and made the short drive to the Magdala pub near the Hampstead Heath Station.

An Ill-fated Coincidence

As the taxi arrived, Ruth caught Blakely and Gunnell leaving. Ruth paid the driver and made the quarter-mile walk to the Magdala Club. By chance, Ruth spots Blakely’s car parked outside the Magdala pub.

Ruth waited for Blakely outside the Magdala pub. A few minutes later, Blakely exited, juggling three large beer bottles as he groped for his pocketed keys.

Ruth lifted the gun and fired twice. Both miss. One bullet ricocheted and hit Mrs. Gladys Yule in the thumb as she passed by.

Blakely tries to escape around his parked car, but Ruth follows him, fires again, and hits him. Blakely fell face down. Ruth stands over Blakely and fired two more shots into his back, killing him.

Ruth steps away from Blakely and places the gun to her head but can't pull the trigger. She then fires the last bullet into the sidewalk and tells Clive Gunnell to call the police.

Ruth’s Arrest

Off-duty police constable, Alan Thompson, sat in the Magdala enjoying a pint when he heard the commotion and ran to lend assistance. Ruth asks if he called the police. He replied, “I am the police.” Constable Thompson takes the gun, and Ruth asks him to arrest her.

The Trial

On the 20thof June 1955, Ruth’s trial began at the Old Bailey. The media portrays Ruth as a good-time girl and a tart. Most headlines read, “Blond shoot boyfriend” and “Man Murder by Model.” When the prosecution cross-examined Ruth, they only needed to ask one question: “When you stood over the body of David Blakely and fired into his body, what did you intend to do?” Ruth answered, “I intended to kill him.” They had all they needed to convict: intent, physical evidence, and eyewitnesses, and confession of premeditation.

The defense ignored the violence Ruth suffered at David Blakely’s hand, and they also did little to correct the misinformation slung by the media. The defense released witnesses with little cross-examination. Overall, Ruth’s barristers didn’t reveal Blakely’s violent streak. Instead of depicting Ruth as a woman pushed to the brink by an abusive and lover, they framed the murder as a run-of-the-mill act of female hysteria, whatever that means.

The jury never hears about Ruth’s hospitalization from Blakely’s beatings, the miscarriage, or how he stalked her at the Little Club, getting in the face of any man who spoke to her.

Neither the defense nor the prosecution investigated the origins of the gun. When asked about it by the press, Desmond Cussens said he knew nothing about the weapon.

The jury deliberates for less than half an hour and returns with a guilty verdict.

Despite the media’s portrayal of Ruth, many UK citizens didn’t agree with her death sentence. They felt that the legal system wasn’t fit for the modern era, and executions had to go. A Royal Commission had recently investigated the death penalty as a deterrent on crime and found little evidence to support the idea. Also, several severe miscarriages of justice had occurred where innocent people were hanged, including a minor who was found to be an accomplice to murder but had not committed it. Those who supported capital punishment balked at the idea of executing a woman.

Londoners petitioned for Ruth’s pardon, but Ruth had no desire to escape her sentence. She just wanted to be with David Blakely again. The home secretary agreed with Ruth and saw no reason to execute her.

The Execution of Ruth Ellis

On July 13, 1955, at 28 years of age, Ruth Ellis was hanged. Her executioner, Albert Pierrepoint, who had carried out 430 hangings, 30 of which were women, could never erase Ruth’s image. She stood there and smiled at him.

Within a decade after Ruth’s execution, capital punishment would end in Britain. However, the prejudices of gender and class would be much more stubborn.

References

BBC FOUR, (2018). “The Ruth Ellis Files: A Very British Crime Story,” https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p060vzvf

CapitolPunishment.org, (n.d.). “Ruth Ellis - the last women to be hanged in Britain.” http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/ruth.html

Cavendish, Richard. “Ruth Ellis Executed.” History Today Volume 55 Issue 7 July 2005, https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/ruth-ellis-executed

Cosgrove, Ben, (2014). World War II: London in Color. Time, Life, http://time.com/3880719/world-war-ii-london-in-color-photos/

Ganatra, Shilpa, (2018). "Ruth Ellis: The model who smiled at her executioner,” The Irish Times. https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/visual-art/ruth-ellis-the-model-who-smiled-at-her-executioner-1.3690704

History Extra, (2018). Ruth Ellis and the hanging that rocked a nation, https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/ruth-ellis-hanging-capital-punishment-death-penalty/

“Ruth Ellis.” Murder Maps. Season 4, Episode 4, November 4, 2017. Netflix.

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