Cussen was then questioned by one of Ruth’s defense team, Melford Stevenson. She was subsequently charged with murder. On Easter Sunday, 10 April 1955,[8] Ellis took a taxi from Cussen's home to a second floor flat at 29 Tanza Road, Hampstead, the home of Anthony and Carole Findlater, where she suspected Blakely might be. His boorish behaviour with other customers soon wore thin, and after one of numerous incidents at the club, Conley sacked Ruth. During her childhood, her family moved from Rhyl, to Basingstoke in Hampshire, and, in 1941, to Hampstead in London. Surrender! Her headstone was simply inscribed ‘Ruth Hornby. The Findlaters were snobs and well known to look down on Ruth and think of her as common. Ellis's husband, George Ellis, descended into alcoholism and died by suicide, hanging himself at a Jersey hotel on 2 August 1958. After readily admitting at her trial that she intended to end Blakely's life, Ellis was sentenced to death and was executed by the infamous hangman Albert Pierrepoint at Holloway Prison, three months after the murder. Much was made of her choice of employment, reference was made to the fact that she was having simultaneous sexual relationships with two different men and living on and off with both of them. At this time, she was lavished with expensive gifts by admirers, and had a number of celebrity friends. [24], Foreign newspapers observed that the concept of the crime passionnel seemed alien to the British. Among their services are a drop-in center, street outreach program, licensed foster care home and an integrated Health and Wellness Center that provides medical and mental health care. [32] Maxine Peake played Ellis in an adaptation of Whittington's play, broadcast on 5 November 2016 by BBC Radio 4.[33]. Block, Brian P. and Hostettler, John (1997). The Register of Marriages gives Arthur Hornby as marrying Elisa B. Goethals, at Chorlton, in 1920. The triangular situation provoked fierce jealousy … With her full peroxide rinse and smart black suit, Ruth made sure she looked her best as she came before Mr Justice Havers on the morning of her trial. On the opposing side was Mr Christmas Humphreys, a brilliant orator who had recently been responsible for gaining the death penalty in several high profile cases. In 2009, she was inducted into the Michigan Hall of Fame. © DC Thomson Co Ltd 2020. When Blakely failed to contact her Ruth spent the entire weekend trying to track him down in his usual haunts. [4] He had been a customer at the Court Club. The Court firmly rejected the appeal, although it made clear that it could rule only on the conviction based on the law as it stood in 1955, and not on whether she should have been executed.[27]. He ignored her when she said "Hello, David," then shouted "David! His cross examination was over. or debate this issue live on our message boards. Ellis spent her days working for a printing company in Springfield but moved elsewhere for higher pay. But the relationship became rocky when Ellis became pregnant for a fourth time and terminated the pregnancy. But true to form, it was Blakely who she fell obsessively in love with. Ellis then married George Johnston Ellis on … According to Gunnell, she then raised the gun to her head and pulled the trigger. As a child Ruth along with her family moved to Basingstoke Hampshire, and then in 1941 to Southwark in South London. 17-year-old Virginia Christian was the first and last female juvenile to be executed in the... Jan 12, 2018 Sometimes they’ll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. During the early part of that year, as well as the miscarriage, Ruth endured many instances of physical violence from Blakely. Ruth left her baby boy in the care of her mother and her older sister Muriel much of the time. Ruth was certain that it was the Findlaters’ influence that made Blakely often ignore her and treat her in such a despicable manner. Having reached her lowest ebb, Ellis' fortunes changed for the better when she became the manager of the Little Club in Kinightsbridge in 1953, where she came into contact with the stars of the day. Her work as a nightclub and glamour model in 1950s London led her to become acquainted with motor-racer and former public-schoolboy David Blakely, and the two became involved in a passionate affair. She said that she had taken a taxi to Tanza Road where the Findlaters lived and that she had walked from there to the Magdala Tavern with the gun in her handbag. He called out to Clive Gunnel, but Ruth followed him and told Gunnell to get out of the way. She continued to speak of her guilt and she was adamant that she wanted to die. When called to the witness box, Ellis was asked by prosecutor Christopher Humphreys: "When you fired the revolver at lost range into the body of David Blakely, what did you intend to do? She claimed to remember nothing about what she had done earlier that day before her final call to Ant Findlater. It is said that he knew exactly what he was doing and he knew that his actions would probably result in the death of his bitter rival for Ruth’s affections. This was against the best advice of her lawyers, who had wanted to present her as an abused downtrodden victim who had endured much suffering at the hands of the man she murdered. He was appointed a director of the family business Cussen & Co., a wholesale and retail tobacconists with outlets in London and South Wales. In the film Pierrepoint (2006), Ellis was portrayed by Mary Stockley. "[17], The Bishop of Stepney, Joost de Blank, visited Ellis just before the execution. During her childhood her family moved to Basingstoke in Hampshire. Her solicitors wrote to the Home Secretary Gwilym Lloyd George, pleading for mercy, but no such mercy came. The jury retired to consider their verdicts after the two-day trial had finished, but after just 214 minutes they found Ellis guilty of murdering Blakely and she was sentenced to death. [citation needed]. Both Ellis's story and the story of Albert Pierrepoint are retold in the stage play Follow Me, written by Ross Gurney-Randall and Dave Mounfield and directed by Guy Masterson. Shortly afterwards, in 1941, the Neilsons moved to London. It wasn’t until the day before she was hanged that Ruth dictated a statement from the death cell, which revealed what really took place on that fateful day. • She also phoned the house on numerous occasions asking for Blakely but Ant Findlater told her he wasn’t there and Blakely never returned her calls. She also stated that her intention was to ‘find David and shoot him’. It featured Monica Weller, ghost writer of Ruth Ellis My Sister's Secret Life. He accepted that the decision was the responsibility of the Home Secretary, but there are indications that he was troubled by it.
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