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For the activist, see Ruth Ellis (American). Ruth Ellis ( July 23, 1899 - October 5, 2000) was the oldest known open Lesbian, and an LGBT rights activist.

Ruth Ellis (October 9, 1926 — July 13, 1955) was a British murderess who was the last woman to receive the death penalty in the UK. Events 768 - Carloman I and Charlemagne are crowned Kings of The Franks. Year 1926 ( MCMXXVI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1174 - William I of Scotland, a key rebel in the Revolt of 1173-1174, is captured at Alnwick by forces loyal to Year 1955 ( MCMLV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar) The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Murder is the unlawful killing of another human person with Malice aforethought, as defined in Common Law countries Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located She was convicted of the murder of her paramour, David Blakely, and hanged at Holloway Prison, London. Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death HM Prison Holloway is a Prison in the London Borough of Islington, London, United Kingdom. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom.

Contents

Biography

Ellis was born Ruth Neilson in the North Wales seaside town of Rhyl. North Wales (Gogledd Cymru is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales, bordered to the south by Mid Wales and to the east by England. Rhyl ((ə r̥ɨl Welsh Y Rhyl) is a seaside town on the Irish Sea, in the county of Denbighshire (within the preserved Her mother, Bertha, was a Belgian refugee, and her father was Arthur Hornby, a cellist from Manchester who had spent much of his time playing on Atlantic cruise liners, though he had long since given this up by the time Ruth was born. The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those The violoncello (abbreviated to cello, or 'cello, plural cellos or celli —the c is tʃ Arthur changed his surname to Neilson after the birth of Muriel, Ruth's elder sister. Ruth was one of five children. At the age of fourteen she left school to work as a waitress. In 1941, at the height of The Blitz, the Neilsons moved to London. The Blitz was the sustained bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941 in World War II. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom.

At 17, Ruth was impregnated by a married Canadian soldier, and gave birth to a son, Andre Clare [1]("Andy"), in 1944. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page The father visited and paid support for the child until he returned to Canada. Via low-level modelling work, Ellis became a nightclub hostess, which paid significantly more than the various factory and clerical jobs she had had since leaving school. A model is a person who is posed or displayed for the purpose of Art, Fashion, or other products and Advertising.

In 1950 she married 41-year-old George Ellis, a divorced dentist with two sons at the registry office in Tonbridge, Kent [2], who had been a customer at the Court Club in Duke St, London. Dentistry' is the "evaluation diagnosis prevention and/or treatment (nonsurgical surgical or related procedures of diseases disorders and/or conditions of the oral cavity Tonbridge (historic spelling Tunbridge) is a Market town in the English county of Kent, with a population of 30340 in 2007 KENT (1400 AM) is a Radio station broadcasting a Adult Standards/MOR format Unfortunately, George was an alcoholic who became violent when drunk, and Ruth was jealous and possessive. Alcoholism is a term with multiple and sometimes conflicting definitions She became convinced he was having an affair and the marriage deteriorated rapidly. Ruth gave birth to a girl, Georgina, in 1951 but George refused to acknowledge paternity, and they separated shortly afterwards. Ellis moved in with her parents, and went back to hostessing to make ends meet. That same year she appeared in the film Lady Godiva Rides Again, which starred her friend Diana Dors, but was uncredited. Lady Godiva Rides Again was a 1951 film starring Diana Dors, about a small-town English girl who wins a beauty contest and heads for greater fame Diana Dors ( October 23, 1931 &ndash May 4, 1984) was an English actress and Sex symbol. [3]

David Blakely

In 1953, she became manager of a nightclub, and met David Blakely, three years her junior. He was a well-mannered former public school boy, but also a hard-drinking racing driver with expensive tastes. The term public school has two distinct (and virtually opposite meanings depending on the location of usage in the United States, Australia and Within weeks he moved into her flat above the club, despite already being engaged to another girl. According to documents stored at the National Archives, Blakely was actually a known homosexual[4]: what is more, Ruth knew this. Homosexuality refers to sexual behavior with or attraction to people of the same sex or to a Homosexual orientation. She eventually accepted Blakely's proposal of marriage, although she was still married to George Ellis. Blakely became progressively more jealous of the attention she gave male customers, and spent more and more time in the club to keep his eye on her. Her earnings fell as a result, and he blew his inheritance on a playboy lifestyle and the development of a racing car called The Emperor. Rows about money, fuelled by alcohol, became violent — on both sides. He also maintained another mistress, and each was extremely jealous of the other's affairs and activities. Ruth also had another older lover, Desmond Cussen, who strongly disliked Blakely.

In March, Ruth discovered that she was pregnant. David seemed happy about it; however, at the end of the month, he happened to hit her in the stomach during a quarrel. A few days later, Ruth miscarried. She later said that she was unsure if this was due to the blow. In spite of the miscarriage, she came to watch David race on the 1st of April. His car blew up before the race and he blamed her. After that, she fell ill for a week following the miscarriage and David "was kind and appeared devoted"[5]. They were planning to spend the Easter weekend together. Easter ( Greek: Πάσχα Pascha or Pasxa) is the most important religious feast in the Christian Liturgical year. On Friday, David left the house and promised to return in the evening to take her out for a drink with his friends, the Findlaters. However, he never returned and although his car was in front of the Findlaters' house, her attempts to contact him through them failed, as they either denied that he was there or simply hung up the phone. Ellis spent the weekend, increasingly "obsessed by his absence and the unexplained change in his behaviour"[6], and by Sunday evening she had developed, in her own words, "a peculiar idea" that she would kill him.

On the night of Easter Sunday, April 10, 1955,[4] Ellis took a .38 calibre revolver from her handbag and fired six shots at Blakely outside The Magdala, a public house in Hampstead. Easter ( Greek: Πάσχα Pascha or Pasxa) is the most important religious feast in the Christian Liturgical year. Events 879 - Louis III becomes King of the Western Franks. 1407 - the lama Year 1955 ( MCMLV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar) rEVOLVEr is the fourth studio album by Swedish metal band The Haunted. In American English, a purse is a small Bag, also called a handbag or a pocketbook. Hampstead is an area of London, England, located north-west of Charing Cross. Blakely was taken to hospital with multiple gunshot wounds and was subsequently pronounced dead. The term ballistic trauma (generally referred to by the type of weapon such as gunshot wound, etc Gladys Kensington Yule, a passer-by, also sustained a slight wound when a bullet fired by Ellis ricocheted off the pavement and hit her in the hand. A ricochet (ˈrɪkəʃeɪ RICK-uh-shay) is a rebound bounce or skip off a surface particularly in the case of a Projectile. Ellis made no attempt to leave the scene, asking a witness to call the police. She was arrested and charged with Blakely's murder.

Trial and execution

It's obvious when I shot him I intended to kill him. [7]
Ruth Ellis, in the witness box at the Old Bailey, 20 June 1955. A witness box is part of a Court room. It is the section of the room set aside for witnesses to stand or sit in while giving their Testimony or presenting Evidence The Central Criminal Court in England, commonly known as the Old Bailey, is a court Events 451 - Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius ' defeats Attila the Hun. Year 1955 ( MCMLV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar)

This was her answer to the only question put to her by Christmas Humphreys, counsel for the Prosecution, who queried "When you fired the revolver at close range into the body of David Blakely, what did you intend to do?"[7] The importance of this question and Ruth's fatal answer are essential to understanding why she was convicted: in order to secure a guilty verdict in a British murder trial, the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused intended to kill the victim, otherwise it is the lesser offence of manslaughter. Travers Christmas Humphreys QC ( 15 February 1901 &ndash 13 April 1983) was a British Barrister who prosecuted The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being in a manner considered by law as less culpable than Murder. The defending counsel, Aubrey Melford Stevenson supported by Sebag Shaw and Peter Rawlinson, would have advised Ruth of this before the trial began, because it is standard legal practice to do so. Sir Aubrey Melford Steed Stevenson (1902 &ndash 26 December 1987) was a British Lawyer and High Court Judge who served Hon Sir Sebag Shaw, QC (1902 - 1982 was a British lawyer Shaw served from 1958 to 1968 as Honorary Recorder of Ipswich, succeeding the Hon Sir Stephen Peter Anthony Grayson Rawlinson Baron Rawlinson of Ewell, PC, QC ( 26 June 1919 &ndash 28 June 2006) was an English In the event, Ruth's reply to Humphreys' question in open court guaranteed a guilty verdict and the mandatory death sentence which followed.

The circumstances of her obtaining the gun and learning how to use it were never fully explored at the trial. Reluctantly, the day before her death, Ruth Ellis, having dismissed Bickford, the solicitor chosen for her by her friend Desmond Cussen (a prosecution witness who visited Ellis daily in Holloway prison up until her trial), made a statement to her original solicitor Victor Mishcon (later Lord Mishcon) and his clerk Leon Simmons. Victor Mishcon Baron Mishcon, QC, DL ( 14 August 1915 &mdash 28 January 2006) was a leading British solicitor She said that the gun had been provided by Cussen, and he had actually driven her to the murder scene. The authorities made no effort to follow this up and there was no reprieve.

The jury at the trial took just 23 minutes to convict her,[7] and she received the mandatory death sentence. Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment. She went to the gallows at Holloway Prison on July 13, 1955, aged 28, the last woman to be hanged in England. A gallows is a frame typically wooden used for execution by Hanging. HM Prison Holloway is a Prison in the London Borough of Islington, London, United Kingdom. Events 1174 - William I of Scotland, a key rebel in the Revolt of 1173-1174, is captured at Alnwick by forces loyal to Year 1955 ( MCMLV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar) Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death She was executed by Albert Pierrepoint and his assistant, Royston Rickard. Albert Pierrepoint (30 March 1905 &ndash 10 July 1992 is the most famous member of a family from Yorkshire who provided three of the United Kingdom 's official

John Williams was the Church of England chaplain at Holloway prison between 1951 and 1957 and responsible for the pastoral care of Ruth Ellis. The Bishop of Stepney (in the diocese of London) at that time was Joost de Blank. Joost de Blank (1908-1968 was the Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa from 1957 to 1963 and was known as the "scourge of apartheid " He visited Ruth Ellis just prior to her death. The visit is mentioned in both published biographies of de Blank. After the visit he said that he "was horrified and aghast beyond words" when he learned "that prisoners could hear the hammering as the scaffold was being erected. " Also, he could not forget Ruth Ellis's words to him: "It is quite clear to me that I was not the person who shot him. When I saw myself with the revolver I knew I was another person. " These comments were made in the old London evening paper The Star. The Star was a London evening newspaper founded in 1788.The first edition was printed on 3 May 1788 under the editorship of one Peter

Public reaction

The case caused widespread controversy at the time: on the day of her execution the Daily Mirror columnist Cassandra wrote a famous column attacking the sentence, writing "The one thing that brings stature and dignity to mankind and raises us above the beasts will have been denied her - pity and the hope of ultimate redemption. The Daily Mirror, often referred to simply as The Mirror, is a British Tabloid daily Newspaper founded in 1903 Sir William Neil Connor ( 26 April, 1909 - 6 April, 1967) was a left-wing journalist for The Daily Mirror who wrote under " A petition to the Home Office asking for clemency was signed by 50,000 people, but the Conservative Home Secretary Major Gwilym Lloyd George rejected it. The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for security and order The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the United Kingdom Home Office Major Gwilym Lloyd George 1st Viscount Tenby, ( 4 December 1894 &ndash 14 February 1967) was a politician and cabinet minister in the

A published question in the House of Commons regarding the hanging was asked by a member of parliament named Hyde on 8th December 1955. He asked the Home Secretary if he was aware that prisoners and staff were disturbed by the noise of scaffolding being erected for Ruth Ellis's hanging. Lloyd George stated: "No scaffold was erected in Holloway prison before the execution of Mrs Ellis. " Hyde replied that what the Home Secretary had said would reassure those members of the public who were alarmed at the statement to the contrary sense made by the Bishop of Stepney, who visited Ellis shortly before her execution.

Legacy

The hanging of Ellis helped strengthen public support for the abolition of the death penalty, which was halted in practice for murder in Britain nine years later (the last execution in the UK occurred during 1964). Reprieve was by then commonplace. According to one statistical account, between 1926 and 1954, 677 men and 60 women had been sentenced to death in England and Wales, but only 375 men and seven women had been executed. [8]

Factors which counted against a reprieve for Ellis included her appearance, her lifestyle, her apparent lack of remorse, plus the fact that a passer-by was slightly wounded. Blakely's murder and Ruth's arraignment also occurred during the 1955 General Election campaign, which was won by the Conservatives on a strongly pro-death-penalty platform. Arraignment is a Common law term for the formal reading of a criminal Complaint, in the presence of the Defendant, to inform him/her of the charges Results |} Total votes cast 26759729 All parties shown Conservatives include National Liberal Party and Ulster Unionists Votes The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is a Political party in the United Kingdom.

In the early 1970s John Bickford, Ruth Ellis's solicitor, made a statement to Scotland Yard from his home in Malta. He was recalling what Desmond Cussen had told him in 1955: how Ruth Ellis lied at the trial and how he (Bickford) had hidden that information. After Bickford's confession a police investigation followed but no further action regarding Cussen was taken.

In his book Anthony Eden (1986), Robert Rhodes James states that Eden, who was the British prime minister at the time, makes no reference to this matter in his memoirs and there is nothing in his papers about the case. Sir Robert Vidal Rhodes James ( 10 April 1933 &ndash 20 May 1999) was a British historian and Conservative Member of Robert Anthony Eden 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC (12 June 1897 &ndash 14 January 1977 was a British Conservative Politician Eden accepted that the decision was the responsibility of the Home Secretary, but James suggests there are indications that he was troubled about it.

The execution brought worldwide condemnation. Foreign newspapers observed that the concept of the crime passionnel seemed foreign to the British. A crime of passion, in popular usage refers to a crime in which the perpetrator commits a crime especially assault or Murder, against a Spouse or other loved one One French reporter wrote: "Passion in England, except for cricket and betting, is always regarded as a shameful disease. "

Family aftermath

The tragedy of David Blakely and Ruth Ellis was not confined to them. Within weeks of her execution, Ruth's 18-year-old sister died suddenly, allegedly of a broken heart. Ruth's husband, George Ellis, descended into alcoholism and hanged himself in 1958. Her son, Andy, who was 11 at the time of his mother's hanging, suffered irreparable psychological damage and committed suicide in a squalid bedsit in 1982. It is said that the trial judge, Sir Cecil Havers, had sent money every year for Andy's upkeep. Sir Cecil Havers, KC (1889 - 1977 was an English Barrister and Judge. [1] Christmas Humphreys, the prosecution counsel at Ruth's trial, paid for his funeral. [1]

Pardon campaign

The case continues to have a strong grip on the British imagination and was referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. The Court of Appeal of England and Wales is the second most senior court in the English legal system, with only the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords above The Criminal Cases Review Commission is an Non-Departmental Public Body set up following the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice itself a continuation of the The Court firmly rejected the appeal, although it made clear that it ruled only on the conviction based on the law as it stood in 1955, not on whether she should have been executed.

On 15th September 2003, the night before the Appeal at the Royal Courts of Justice, The Evening Standard published a short article in which they reported, "Former nurse Maureen [sic] Gleeson claims she met an emotional Ellis before the shooting who told her she had a gun and was planning to use it on Blakely. " However there was no mention in any of Moreen Gleeson's official statements that Ellis intended shooting David Blakely. On the contrary, she thought Ellis intended to shoot herself.

On May 21st 2005, The Mirror newspaper published an exclusive story, claiming: "Hanged killer Ruth Ellis has been secretly denied a pardon by the government, documents reveal. The decision has been kept under wraps for fear of unleashing protests which could embarrass ministers. ".

Muriel Jakubait, Ellis's sister, has questioned the safety of Ellis's conviction. [1] She claims her sister would have been unable to fire the heavy gun that killed Blakely. According to information stored at the National Archives at Kew, Ellis contracted rheumatic fever as a teenager which destroyed many of the bones in her left hand. List of archives A national archive is a central Archive maintained by a Nation. Kew is a place in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in South West London. Rheumatic fever is an Autoimmune inflammatory Disease which may develop two to three weeks after a Group A streptococcal infection (such as [1] Jakubait and writer, Monica Weller, have therefore claimed, that Ellis would have been unable to fire the six cartridges discharged from a gun that had a cumbersome 10lb trigger. Three out of four bullets were fired accurately from a distance and on target, one at point blank range, in the dark. [1] Jakubait and Weller also criticise the fact that this information was never brought to the attention of the jury in 1955.

In July 2007 a petition was published on the 10 Downing Street website asking Prime Minister Gordon Brown to reconsider the Ruth Ellis case and grant a pardon in light of new evidence that the Old Bailey jury in 1955 was not asked to consider. Downing Street is the street in London, England, which for over two hundred years has contained the official residences of two of the most senior British cabinet ministers This article is about the government position For other uses see Prime Minister (disambiguation. WikipediaManual of Style (biographies#Academic titles --> James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951 is [9] [10]

Burials

The body of Ruth Ellis was buried in an unmarked grave within the walls of Holloway Prison, as was customary. The phrase Unmarked grave has Metaphorical meaning in the context of cultures that mark burial sites. HM Prison Holloway is a Prison in the London Borough of Islington, London, United Kingdom. In the early 1970s the prison underwent an extensive programme of rebuilding, during which the bodies of all the executed women were exhumed for reburial elsewhere. Burial, also called interment and inhumation, is the act of placing a person or object into the ground Ellis's body was reburied at St Mary's Church in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. Amersham is a Market town and Civil parish within Chiltern district in Buckinghamshire, England, 27 miles north west of Buckinghamshire (abbreviated Bucks) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The headstone in the churchyard was originally inscribed 'Ruth Hornby 1926–1955'. However, in 1982 her son Andy (Andre) destroyed the headstone shortly before he committed suicide. Ellis' grave is now overgrown with yew trees. The family Taxaceae, commonly called the yew family includes three genera and about 7 to 12 species of Coniferous Plants or in other interpretations

The remains of the four other women executed at Holloway, Styllou Christofi, Edith Thompson, Amelia Sach and Annie Walters were reburied in a single grave at Brookwood Cemetery. Styllou Pantopiou Christofi ( 1900 - 13 December 1954) was a Greek Cypriot woman Hanged in Britain for Murdering Edith Jessie Thompson ( 25 December, 1893 &ndash 9 January, 1923) and Frederick Edward Francis Bywaters ( 27 June, Amelia Sach (1873-1903 and Annie Walters (1869-1903 were two British Serial killers better known as the Finchley baby farmers Brookwood Cemetery is a burial ground in Brookwood Surrey, England.

Coincidentally, Styllou Christofi, who was executed in December 1954, lived at 11 South Hill Park in Hampstead[11], with her son and daughter-in-law, a few metres from The Magdala public house at number 2a, where David Blakely was shot four months later.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

Ruth'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. Albert Pierrepoint (30 March 1905 &ndash 10 July 1992 is the most famous member of a family from Yorkshire who provided three of the United Kingdom 's official It premièred at the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh in 2007 as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Edinburgh Fringe (officially the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, commonly just The Fringe) is the world’s largest Arts festival.

Ruth's story was told in the 1985 film Dance with a Stranger (director Mike Newell), featuring Miranda Richardson as Ellis. Dance with a Stranger (1985 is a drama Film, directed by Mike Newell. Michael Cormac Newell (born 28 March 1942 is an English director and producer of motion pictures for the screen and for Television. Miranda Jane Richardson (born 3 March 1958 is an English stage film and television actress.

In the film Pierrepoint (2006), Ellis was portrayed by Mary Stockley. Pierrepoint ( Pierrepoint The Last Hangman in North America) is a 2005 British film directed by Adrian Mary Stockley is a British Actress. She is a former member of the National Youth Music Theatre with whom she performed in London Edinburgh and

The 1956 film Yield to the Night, starring Diana Dors as a doomed murderess bears a close resemblance to the Ellis case; however, the work is in fact based on a 1954 book of that name by Joan Henry. The 1956 Film Yield to the Night stars Diana Dors as a Murderess sentenced to hang and spending her last days in the condemned Diana Dors ( October 23, 1931 &ndash May 4, 1984) was an English actress and Sex symbol. Unknown to most people until 2005, Diana Dors was a close friend of Ruth Ellis. They socialised in the London clubs in which Ruth Ellis was employed. Dors had previously written to the family of Derek Bentley - shortly before his execution in 1953 for his part in the murder of a policeman - to express her sympathy. Derek William Bentley ( 30 June 1933 – 28 January 1953) was hanged for a murder which was committed by a friend and accomplice of

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Muriel Jakubait and Monica Weller, Ruth Ellis: My Sister's Secret life, 2005
  2. ^ Ruth Ellis: The Last to Hang
  3. ^ Lady Godiva Rides Again (1951) - Full cast and crew
  4. ^ a b Melford Stevenson « Searching for the Truth about Ruth Ellis By Monica Weller
  5. ^ Court of Appeal decision
  6. ^ Court of Appeal decision
  7. ^ a b c Block, Brian P. and Hostettler, John. Hanging in the Balance. 1997, page 164
  8. ^ Block, Brian P. and Hostettler, John. Hanging in the Balance. 1997, page 165
  9. ^ Author May Prove Hanged Womans Innocence (from This Is Local London)
  10. ^ Petition to look again at the 1955 Ruth Ellis case
  11. ^ According to the 1954 Electoral Register for England

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