Ruth Ellis became the last woman hanged in Britain on July 13, 1955, at just 28-years-old – with her sentence outraging thousands of people who called for an end to the death penalty
Ruth Ellis left behind two children when she was sentenced to death and hanged on July 13, 1955. The nightclub hostess shot her lover dead after enduring relentless domestic violence in her secret relationship with David Blakley.
She was immediately arrested and sentenced to death two months later, causing uproar as people pleaded for the death penalty to be abolished. Aged just 28, the mother-of-two became the last woman ever hanged in Britain.
Ruth’s death had a long-lasting impact on her family. Her ex-husband George Ellis took his own life in 1958, and her mother Bertha is also said to have attempted to take her own life. Ruth’s son Clare Andrea Neilson, nicknamed Andy, was aged 10 at the time of her conviction and also tragically took his own life in 1982, while in his 20s.
Andy made a series of recordings of interviews he carried out with the man who had prosecuted his mother before his death. Andy wanted to tell him that his description of his mother as “cold-hearted” was completely false. He was taunted all his life about his mother to the point where he destroyed the marker on her grave at Amersham, St Mary’s Cemetery in Buckinghamshire. Andy’s ashes are now buried in his mother’s unmarked grave.
Ellis’ daughter Georgina (Georgie), who was only three when her mother was hanged, was adopted aged six after her father’s death. In 1995, forty years after her mother’s death, she released a memoir about her mother’s life titled Ruth Ellis, My Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir of the Last Woman to be Hanged.
It gave an intimate insight into Ruth’s life, supported by family anecdotes and photographs. Georgie’s life was said to have mirrored her nightclub manageress mother’s in many ways, seeking the bright lights of the entertainment industry.
She is said to have had relationships with celebrities including George Best, Richard Harris and property tycoon David Beard who was the father of her two youngest children. In 2001, Georgie died aged 50 of cancer after a long illness.
Ellis’ case caused mass revulsion and is widely believed to be one of the contributing factors to the abolition of the death penalty in the UK less than 10 years later. The life and death of Ellis is now set to be explored in a new ITV drama, with actress Lucy Boynton playing the role of the platinum blonde nightclub owner.
Ellis was born in Rhyl, Wales, before moving to Basingstoke with her family when she was a child. At 17, Ellis found herself pregnant to a Canadian soldier, who stopped sending money to support his son after a few years and the child went to live with his grandmother.
Desperate to support herself, Ellis started work as a nude model and eventually became a nightclub hostess. She again found herself pregnant at 23 by one of the customers in the nightclub after she started supplementing her income with prostitution.
Ellis made the decision to terminate the pregnancy illegally and later that year married divorced dentist, George Ellis. He was 41 and a violent alcoholic who was convinced she was cheating on him.
Despite leaving him on numerous occasions, Ellis always returned and had the couple’s daughter Georgina, in 1951. But her husband refused to accept the baby girl was his and the couple eventually divorced.
Ellis returned to her parents house and once again used sex to make ends meet. Three years later Ellis was back in London, this time as manager of the Little Club in Knightsbridge.
It was then that she began her relationship with Blakley and he moved her into a flat, despite being engaged to another woman. But Ellis was soon pregnant again and had a second illegal abortion before beginning a relationship with former RAF pilot, Desmond Cussen.
Then things took another dark turn in her life – she was sacked from the Little Club and moved in with Cussen but was still seeing Blakley on the side. The couple’s relationship was becoming increasingly volatile as jealousy at each other’s involvement with other people tore away at both of them
Blakley offered to marry Ellis and she agreed but still the violence continued. She suffered a miscarriage after falling pregnant for a fifth time – it was shortly after Blakley had punched her in the stomach.
Then on Easter Sunday, 1955, things reached a deadly boiling point. Ellis went to Hampstead in search of Blakley but when she arrived at the friends’ flat where he was, he sped off.
Ellis followed him to the Magdala pub and waited for him outside. When he emerged at 9:30pm with his friend Clive Gunnell, she shouted to him and when he ignored her she pulled a Smith & Wesson out of her handbag and opened fire.
The first missed and he tried to flee. But the second bullet hit his body and he collapsed onto the street. Ellis shot him three more times while standing over his body.
Ellis gave police a full confession and less than two months later found herself in the dock of the Old Bailey. When asked what she had intended to do when she pulled the gun from her handbag, Ellis replied “it’s obvious when I shot him I intended to kill him”.
It was the statement that sealed her fate and she was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. The verdict caused a public outcry with 50,000 people signing a petition calling for the death penalty to be abolished at the time.
It fell on deaf ears and Ellis was executed at Holloway Prison on July 13. She left behind her two young children, including her 11-year-old son, who was away at boarding school when she was hanged.
When Ellis’ son, Clare Andria Neilson, known as Andy, grew up he made a series of recordings of interviews he carried out with the man who had prosecuted him mother.
He wanted to tell him that his description of his mother as “cold-hearted” was completely false. Tragically, Andy killed himself in 1982.
A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story airs on ITV and ITVX from Wednesday 5 March.
