The last woman hanged: When Ruth Ellis met David Blakely

Public outcry surrounding the case of mother-of-two Ruth Ellis and wealthy playboy David Blakely in 1955 is said to have been the catalyst in finally abolishing the death penalty in the UK ten years later.

Ellis, who was the last woman to be hanged in England, has posthumously been described as a victim of mental illness exacerbated by a toxic relationship. A new ITV drama series, A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, is marking the 70th anniversary of the tragedy by recounting a chain of events that shocked the nation.

Who is Ruth Ellis?

When former cinema usherette Ruth Ellis met David Blakely, a successful racing car driver and former public schoolboy, they were soon swept up in what appeared to be a whirlwind romance.

Their first meeting took place in 1953, when they were introduced by mutual friend, racing driver Mike Hawthorn. Ellis was 27 and had two children from previous relationships. Blakely was 24 and engaged to another woman, Mary Dawson, at the time. However, despite their very different backgrounds, they had moved in together within weeks.

Born in Rhyl, Wales, in October 1926, Ellis left Fairfield Senior Girls’ School in 1940, aged 14, and found work as a cinema usherette. She befriended her older brother Julian’s girlfriend, Edna, and they moved to London together while he was serving in the Royal Navy.

Ellis had a series of disastrous relationships, beginning at the age of 17, when she fell pregnant to her boyfriend, a married Canadian soldier. She gave birth to their son Andy in September 1944 and he lived with his grandmother, although Ellis supported him financially through clerical and factory jobs. After taking modelling work because it paid better, Ellis became a nightclub hostess in the late 1940s and then an escort.

In November 1950, she married a customer, divorcee George Johnston Ellis, who was 17 years her senior. They had a daughter in 1951, Georgina, but George, an alcoholic, became violent and possessive. After he refused to acknowledge paternity, they divorced and she moved back to her parents’ home temporarily.

She continued working in London to support her family and in 1953 became manager of popular Knightsbridge nightspot, The Little Club, frequented by wealthy and celebrity clientele – the place where she first met Blakely, who was a customer at the time.

Who was David Blakely?

Born in June 1929 in Ecclesall, Sheffield, Blakeley attended public school, where he was gifted academically. After completing his National Service in the Highland Light Infantry, he planned a career in hotel management, but his true love was motor racing, a passion fuelled by his step-father, Humphrey Wyndham Cook.

A 1930s racing driver himself, Cook encouraged and financed Blakely’s fledgling career in motorsport and he enjoyed considerable success in races at Brands Hatch, Silverstone and Goodwood between 1951 and 1954.

Ellis’s Little Club was a popular haunt among racing drivers and soon after being introduced to Blakely there, they began a relationship. Ellis was determined to better herself and took elocution and etiquette classes. Her hard work paid off when she became one of the youngest female club managers at the time, aged 27.

Unfortunately, their relationship was a toxic one, with various reports later describing Blakely as a “heavy drinker, womaniser and narcissist”. Although he moved in with Ellis, he remained engaged to his fiancée Dawson and also continued to date other people, showing no real commitment.

“Toxic” romance led to tragedy

Their whirlwind romance deteriorated quickly, with Blakely’s drinking becoming a problem. He reportedly turned into a violent alcoholic, who subjected Ellis to domestic abuse. A subsequent report in the Women’s Sunday Mirror suggested she had to buy drink, cigarettes and food for Blakely, but when drunk, he attacked her on numerous occasions, “losing all control” and punching her.

Ellis’s emotional wellbeing suffered as a result and she was sacked from The Little Club due to being unable to do her job any more. She began seeing former RAF pilot and accountant Desmond Cussen and moved into his home near Oxford Street, but couldn’t completely break the ties with Blakely. Despite both being with other people, they continued to meet regularly at her old flat.

Finding out she was pregnant in January 1955, Ellis suffered a miscarriage following a violent confrontation with Blakely, who punched her in the stomach. Nobody knows what finally caused her to tip over the edge, but on 10th April 1955, she arrived at a Hampstead pub, The Magdala, where Blakely was drinking with his friend Clive Gunnell.

He had reportedly been ignoring her calls over the weekend, and as they left the pub at 9.30pm, Ellis pulled a gun from her handbag and shot him five times. She appeared to be in shock on realising she had killed Blakely and said to Gunnell, “Will you call the police?”

She was arrested and taken to Hampstead Police Station, where she gave a full confession. Her calm demeanour concerned officers, who had Ellis medically assessed by psychiatrists, who found no evidence of mental illness.

Trial and execution

Ellis made her first appearance before magistrates on 11th April 1955 and was remanded in custody until 20th June, when her murder trial began at the Old Bailey in London. She showed no sign of wishing to defend herself, and when the prosecution asked what her intentions had been when she fired at Blakely, she replied bluntly, “It’s obvious, when I shot him I intended to kill him.”

Her response guaranteed a guilty verdict, in an era where the death sentence was mandatory in such cases, despite her defence team pushing for the charge to be reduced to manslaughter on the grounds that she had suffered long-term domestic violence and abuse.

The jury took only 20 minutes to convict Ellis of premeditated murder. She remained emotionless, later telling her mother she didn’t want anything to do with a proposed petition asking for a reprieve from the death sentence.

John Bickford, Ellis’s solicitor, wrote to the Home Secretary asking for clemency and a petition signed by 50,000 members of the public was also presented, but the request was denied. Ruth Ellis became the last woman hanged in the UK on 13th July 1955 at 9.10am in Holloway Prison.

When was the death penalty abolished in the UK?

The case sparked many legal and public debates on the death penalty and caused a national outcry. In the aftermath, it was suggested Ellis was mentally ill and suffering from a type of post-natal depression following her miscarriage.

Respected media outlets including the British Pathé newsreel and public figures such as novelist Raymond Chandler, questioned whether hanging had any place in the 20th century, describing it as “medieval savagery”.

The death penalty was finally abolished in the UK in 1965 by the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act as a result of changing attitudes, sparked by the Ruth Ellis case.

Her death had a profound effect on other family members: ex-husband George and son Andy tragically committed suicide in 1958 and 1982 respectively. Ellis’s mother tried to unsuccessfully take her own life. Ruth’s daughter, Georgina, was placed in foster care and passed away in 2001.