This episode may contain content of a graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals. Listener discretion is advised. Hi everyone, I'm Talia and I'm Tanya, and together we are Crimes and Consequences, a true crime podcast. Welcome back, everyone to another episode of Crimes and Consequences. I am Tanya and this is my lovely co host, Talia, and we are attorneys in real life. Yesh love to dive into
these cases. I don't know if love is the right word, but are fascinated, faded and you must be too since you're watching. So before I get into today's story, just like to remind everyone to hit like or subscribe if you're watching us on YouTube on the True Crime Daily YouTube channel. Thank you, yes, thank you True Crime Daily. Please hit the like. And today's story that I'm going to tell is about a red hot love affair that ended in murder. Oh but not in the way you think, okay,
because you're probably thinking a certain stereotypical way of murder. But anyway, passion, yeah, passion. So the woman in the story, her name is Ruth Ellis. She met David Blakely in August of nineteen fifty three, after she initially met him. I don't think she liked him very much, because she said, like, I hope I just never see that little shit again. Oh well, I don't know if he's obnoxious or what have you. But however, this initial dislike turned into attraction. Oh because within a
few weeks they started their romantic affair. That's weird. David was described as being a very self confident type of guy. He you know, he was popular with the ladies. Let's say, he was handsome, and he was kind of like the playboy type. Okay, a little arrogant, manipulative, Yeah, maybe a little bit. And it just seemed like he was the type of guy that would never love a woman more than he loved himself. Ah okay, yeah, narcissist. Maybe I'm not a psycho. Yeah,
he exactly. And unfortunately Ruth the type of man she was attracted to, they were usually were heavy drinkers, and David was also a heavy drinker, and he wasn't a very fun drunk. In fact, he just really couldn't hold his liquor at all. He became destructive and crude and just that's really yeah, just yes, exactly, really unattractive and not a very likable person when he was drunk. He you know, I told you this, This love affair moved quick. So within a few weeks I told you, they
started their affair. And then not soon after, David moved in with Ruth, even though he was already engaged to another woman. Damn right, they're romance. You know. It wasn't all roses and sunshine. Okay, right, you're thinking, oh, they're really into each other, but then it turned violent. Well how can they be that much into each other if he's engaged, right, and she never wanted to see the little shit? Yeah, right, Like it's like a love hate kind of thing. I don't
know, right, right. They both were driven by severe jealousy. A mutual friend said about them that they were just two people who should have never booked up, booked up right. Ruth was working trying to make the ends meet, and David was jobless. Okay, but his big hobby was he building a race car that he had named the Emperor, and I we have
a picture of it. It was a really expensive hobby, and David did come from money, so I think part of the reason why he really didn't work is because you know, he received an inheritance and it wasn't huge, but it was enough for him to be comfortable. But he still mooched a lot off of Ruth, so you know, he's not really contributing to the bills. And Ruth is working in a nightclub. That's your waitress. Yeah,
she's a hostess, waitress. And he would show up at the nightclub trying to get free drinks, of course, and Ruth allowed it because he's her boyfriend, and she let him run a tab. But it became out of hand and she'd have to pay for it. Yeah, and she'd have to pay for it. And like I said, David wasn't a great drunk, so he'd be there, he'd get drunk, and he just would turn obnoxious an asshole. Actually, she lost her job because of him, and
then you know, they eventually she lost the apartment eventually too. Okay, before she lost her job, however, you know the club that she worked at, it was called the Little Club, a little club, and at the Little Club she met a really great guy whose name was Desmond Cussin. He was pretty much like everything you would ever want and a boyfriend. He was unmarried. That's yeah, sing number one single. Unlike David, he was. He was someone that had been in World War Two. He had
flown a bomber plane during the war. He was wealthy, He had his own apartment. You know, he had good standing socially. His family owned a tobacco business which he directed, so they had some money. Yeah back in the fifties, right, everybody was smoking. I mean tobacco companies today that money too. After he and Ruth began getting to know each other, he told her he wanted to marry her. Oh, and he wanted to adopt her two children, because I haven't mentioned Ruth was married before, and
she had two children with her ex husband. She had a girl and a boy, and I'll tell you a little bit about them later. And so, you know, he's telling her that he loves her and he wants to marry her, and he was really, like genuinely in love with her, but she is his boyfriend, right, And she wasn't in love with Desmond. She was basically using him to make David jealous. Right. But I told you she lost her apartment, so David went wherever, but Ruth moved
in with Desmond. Oh, and that was in June of nineteen fifty four. She like I told you, she lost her job, she lost her apartment, and that's pretty much the driving force of why she moved in with Desmond. But he was over the moon. Did she still have her kids? Yes, she still had her kids. And Desmond and Ruth were together for about two years, and you know, it was a rocky two years because you really even no exactly, and she was really in love with David.
Okay, sorry, you're okay, she's still in love with David. Yeah. And after two years, after two years, and he tried to give Ruth everything he financially, sup, I'm sorry. Yes, Desmond tried to give her everything. He supported her financially, He got her own apartment for her when she asked. He told her he wanted to pay for her children to go to private school, and he wanted to pay for like French lessons for her and modeling because she did do a little bit of modeling.
But so when she left Desmond for her own apartment, she let David move in with her of a bit. Yeah, and well, wild Desmond's paying for the apartment. Wild Desmond's paying for the apartment exactly, so that kind of pissed him off. As you can imagine, that's not a good idea. No, So during the following three months, her and David spent so much time together, and you know, she's trailing Desmond along and it's kind
of fizzling out because he knows he can't really compete with David. He's finally getting the yeah, I'm paying for an apartment where a man's living there. Yeah. And the sad part too. You know, Desmond is this great guy, he's in love with her, and she's in love with a piece of shit. Oh yeah, who who really didn't treat her well? He sounds like he was just using her kind of what she was doing with Desmond, and you know, it just started to spiral out of control. Ruth
just couldn't stay away from David. Toxic love. Yeah, even though you know she's on this rocky path with Desmond, but he you know, she just couldn't stay away from David. There was a pretty bad fight between Ruth and David on February sixth, nineteen fifty five. They it became violent and physical. Who was violent? They both were violent with each other. They actually when they were done, when all of a sudden done. They both had black eyes. What Yeah, Ruth was limping, she was bruised.
And two weeks later, another fight took place and Ruth ended up with another black eye and bruising that would just went like across both of her shoulders. So she she got beaten. Yeah, she got beaten really bad. A little over a month later, another fight took place, and during this one, David punched her so hard in the stomach that it caused her to have a miscarriage. Pregnant. Yeah, she was pregnant, and she was just heartbroken because was it's Yeah, it was David's and she was heartbroken. But
he always managed to worm his way back into her. That's a black No, Nope, after that happened, he just he knew how to get back into her good graces. He sent her some flowers, he apologized in the same routine. Yeah, it's really it was really sad, and they went they got back together. Their last night together was April eighth, nineteen fifty five. So this has been a really rocky couple of months. That following morning, David had decided, Okay, I'm fully going to commit to Ruth.
So he asked her to marry him. Oh okay, you know he knew this is what she'd been waiting for this whole time, even though they are incredibly abusive and toxic. Yeah. Right, And so along with the proposal, he gave her a picture of himself. Oh that's I know, that's so fucking I know, right, How nice of them, And on the back of the photograph he had hand written her a message telling her, you know, he was just I love you so much. It's this adoring
message, and you know, she just cherished it. Okay. Before he left her that morning, he made a promise to her that that night they were going to go out for drinks at a place called or excuse me, their friends were named the find Ladders. They're going to go over to their house, like we're going to after what the find Ladders. That's their last name, that's their last name. That they were going to go out that evening and go over to their friend's house and have some drinks and celebrate their
engagement. But he never came back, and when nine point thirty pm rolled around, she called over to her friend's house because maybe you know, he went there first and instead of picking me up, And when the phone was answered a night, eighteen year old nanny answered the phone and she told Ruth that nobody was home. Nobody, nobody. And a little while later Ruth called again, and this time someone else packed picked it up. It was the man of the house. His name was Aunt Finelander, and Ruth asked
if David was there. He said no, David wasn't here, and Ruth kind of felt like Aunt's wife, whose name was Carol, was trying to influence David in a way that would turn him against Ruth for some reason, like maybe, you know, she thought that Ruth wasn't good enough for David. For the rest of the night, though, you know, David never came home, and they asked, Hey, how come you guys didn't show up? I know, That's what I wondered. Also, no, like
I don't know if they really had a plan. Yeah, I'm wondering. I will never know. So Ruth kept calling looking for answers because David never comes home, and eventually they took the phone off the hook because she called so much and she's just knowing them. Yeah, when midnight rolled around, now Ruth was like, Okay, now she can't get a hold of anyone at their house. So she ends up going over there. She was convinced David was there for some reason and that they were lying to her about it.
When she got there, she walked up to the front door. She rang the doorbell just repeatedly, and she's banging on the door. Now this is midnight, right, Nobody answers the door. She they have kids too, because they got a nanny. She ended up smashing a window. Yeah, and a little out of hand. She actually it was the window wasn't on the house. The window was on a car that was parked in their driveway. And it was a green Vanguard and it was actually David's car.
Oh, and so she's like, why is his car here? Right? Why is this car here? Why are they saying he's not here? Why did she smash the window? I know, I don't in a fit of rage. I'm sure because she found his car there, and and i'd be a way to get someone's attention. Yeah, exactly, Now they'll come outside. So she stayed there for hours. She's outside of their house. Now at two am, the police are called. So Ruth, now, you know, I was like, okay, I guess I have to should go
gain my composure. You know, I got a little out of control. Yeah, I know, I kind of lost my shit there. But you know, she told them, nope, I'm fine, I'm fine, and they don't arrest her, which I'm surprised because she smashed a window. Vandalized. Yeah it's vandalized, right, she vandalized it. So the cops leave and Ruth just started up her shit again. She's knocking on the door, pounding on the door, ringing the doorbell, she's demanding the same night.
Yeah, I mean, she just doesn't get it, like David had just proposed to her. That's true, I get that right, like a girl. You gotta go home now. Yeah, he's recalled. The police were called again, and now finally Ruth had left before they even got there, and she's like, okay, fine, I'm just going to go home. The next day, which was Saturday, Ruth called the Fine Ladders again, but they they did put the phone back on the hook, but they just
stopped answering it. She went to their house three times around ten am that morning. David was there, by the way, he was the whole time. Didn't come out, she knew, Yeah, he didn't come out even when she smashed his windows. I know, that's what I don't understand it, Like, can you imagine, like this is total gas lighting? T this is not okay. I'm sure she's making she's feeling like, am I
crazy? Right? Yeah? I mean she was acting a little Yeah, they were going to celebrate and he's in the house and not coming out. Right, David and Aunt's about ten am. Like I said, David and Aunt go outside going to finally like check out the damage that Ruth has done to the car. But Ruth kind of she was in the neighborhood and she saw them come out of the house and they notice her. She's in her
car. So she's like, oh shit, they saw me. So she speeds away and she came back about two pm and she sat in her car and she's just stewing confront them, right, I know, she's just stewing. Now it's been a few you know, now this is I spent a day like what the fuck is going on? And she just you know, there she's driving herself crazy with all these thoughts that she's having. She just really had a bad feeling that you know, David's still there, and she
just started thinking that he's having an affair with the nanny. This is why he's over there. Like she just starts letting her mind run away with her. Didn't she just go home? I know, I'm asleep, I know, sleep girl. She did. She was like, okay, I like you said, I just have to go home and take a break. But she did show up four times that day, and the last time when she showed up, she noticed that the Fine Ladders were having a party. A
party. Yeah, the windows were open. I'm surprised they'd have a party knowing that they're being st I know, like maybe they couldn't cancel it. I don't know. The windows were open. So Ruth is listening. There's music playing, people talking and laughing, and oh yeah, she just was living seething, like she just the jealousy, the rage is just coursing through her body. You know. She was like, you know, after everything I've done for David, I supported is broke ass. I mean, he
doesn't really broke, but she was paying all the bills. You know, he he caused me to lose my job, I lost my apartment. You know, my kids have gone through all this bullshit. And he said he want to marry me. Yeah, Annie said he wanted to marry her andie cause her to have a miscarriage with their child. Now yeah, yeah,
son, asshole. She one of the times when she stopped home, she had drank a bit, so she's also drunk when she shows up, and she had taken a triquilizer, also taking a pill to kind of deal with everything. And here she is, she's feeling like she's on the edge of a nervous breakdown and here's David just partying his ass off, probably having sex with the nanny is what she's thinking. And she's just beside herself. So she decides she's gonna go home again and you know, maybe like try to
calm down. But even though, you know, she gets home, but this jealousy is just eating away at her. So the following day was April tenth, nineteen fifty five. It was Easter Sunday. She took a little drive to Hampstead. Now this story I didn't tell you take place in England. It's a UK story. So she takes this drive to Hampstead and she's going to wait outside for David who's in a bar. He was having a few drinks with her friends. How she knew. I'm not sure, but
she this might have been a place he frequented a lot. So he came outside of the bar about nine thirty and she saw him. She saw him, and she called out his name. She's like, oh, hey David, Yeah, oh hey David. He hears her because I don't think she's very far away, but he ignores her. And the next few events, you know, because she's like, Okay, I'm not going to be ignored because I'm I demand, I demand to answer right before I tell you more.
We're going to take a break. So, to the shock of everyone, Ruth pulls out a thirty eight caliber smith and lesson, Holy shit, she is not going to be ignored, no, and she fires it at David. He starts to run, and now she's chasing him with the stun. She's lost it. She fires her second shot and this one lands and
hits David and he falls to the ground. Shot him in the back, but she then walks over to him as he's on the ground, and she shoots him again and again and again, three more shots, and one of the shots left gunpowder burns on the skin of his back. So she was very close when she fired that shot. She ended up emptying this cylinder of all the bullets in the Smith and Wesson, but upon shooting the sixth and final bullet, she continued like. Patrons reported at the police later that she
was still firing because they could hear the clicks. Oh, she just like, I don't even care if there's a bullet. Nope, I'm getting you. Nope, I'm out of right. She's just yeah, she's consumed with anger and jealousy. The sixth bullet that came, actually it didn't hit David. It bounced off the road and hit a bystander whose name was missus Yule. It hit't a weird place. It hit her in the thumb, and she was walking into the bar. I know, it's kind of but he
hit by a bullet. I guess, I guess, and I think it's a thirty eight. It's a pretty big bullet. I don't know if Missus Yule had a thumb after that, but I guess, like you said, it's alive, right, and it wasn't, you know, in a delicate place. Right as David is lying in the street now bleeding, Ruth calmly walks over to a man that is staring in horror at this, and she hands him the gun. Here you go. I'd be like, no, thanks, yeah, and this and just so happened to be an off duty
police officer. His name was Alan Thompson. Okay. Upon receiving the gun, Ruth asked him, will you call the police, and he's like, well, guess what, girl, I am the police, right and I'm assuming somebody else would have already called, but I would think. But upon hearing that he is a police officer, she asked if he could please arrest her. She's done, done, yeah, exactly, take me away. So she was taken to the Hampstead Police station and David was still alive.
Believe it or not. He was taken to the closest hospital. He was pronounced dead on arrival, so he was lost before he got to the hospital. His body was taken to the Hampstead Public Mortuary so that an autopsy could be performed, and two of the bullets that had caused the most damage it pierced his body caused hemorrhaging. I'm thinking it grazed his heart. That was one of the bullets that did the most damage, and he ended up just
bleeding to death. At the police station. Well internally, probably externally too, may not know a lot about damage. But anyway, at the police station, three detectives questioned Ruth without a lawyer present. She didn't ask for one, and you know, the police don't have to furnish you one. You didn't have Miranda rights because you're in the fifties and it's in England,
so I don't know what their equivalent of the Marinda rights are. But yeah, you're probably right because that didn't happen till what the sixties or seventies, Yeah, the Miranda case. As she's being interviewed by the police, she says to the detective, I'm guilty. I shot him. And she said she had the gun in her per when she first went to the fine Lander's
home. Oh the first day. Yeah, the first day. Police asked her, well, what did you plan on doing with the gun at the Fine Ladders and she said, well, I planned on finding David and shooting him. Oh. So I imagine that if David had come out of the house he would have died. He probably would have died. So they did a smart thing mm hmm by staying inside. So she made a full confession and the police had tons of eyewitnesses. Anyway, I was clear. Yeah.
On April eleventh, nineteen fifty five, which was the day after the shooting, Ruth was charged with David's murder. In her final statement, she said that on the day that she murdered David, she had been drinking at Desmond's apartment and he was the one that had given her the gun. Okay. After he gave her the gun, he took her out to a nearby forest called Epping Forest so that he could teach her how to shoot it right, how to use it. Okay. When she made her first appearance in
court, she still didn't have an attorney. And you know, they didn't have a court appointed attorney. No, I don't know why. I don't know why. I don't I don't know what was going on in the fifties in another country. She they reigned her, They placed a trial date, They make a trial date, and she goes to jail. She was questioned by health mental health care professionals and she was determined that she had no signs
of any mental illness. No, she just snapped, oh yeah, and you know, she told I think she ends up getting a court appointed attorney. Because she does end up rejecting, like they want to go for the insanity plea, I mean temporary yeah, or like a yeah, definitely had a passion. That's like third degree, right, that's like a manslaughter. So but she refused any insanity plea in order to reduce her sentence. You know, she was like something right, diminished capacity, You're right, she
was that. She didn't even tell the police to that Desmond was the one that drove her to the the pub that David was at that he shot her at. He you know, she just didn't want to get Desmond in any trouble. At one point, there's an adjournment because she does get legal representation. They try to convince her to plead guilty to manslaughter, to take a
plea to get a lesser sentence to death. Yeah exactly. I mean, like we've just discussed, I mean, heat, a passion is a yeah, it is a circumstance and exactly, but she refuses, but granted a forty day adjournment. Ruth was sent back to prison, and however, her defense team never was able to convince her to take a guilty plea on a lesser charge. I don't know why like what about for her kids, I know, right, and their dad. They ended up obviously being sent to
their dad when she gets arrested. But she just I don't know if she's trying to like punish herself. Yeah, that's what it sounds like. Yeah, I'm guilty, I'll deal with the consequences. And her trial only lasted a day and a half and it and I don't know why she's having a trial if she's accepting like that she did it. Sentencing Yeah maybe, Yeah, you're right, it could have been her sentencing because if she's saying I did it and there's no not guilty plea, I mean, there's no point.
Trends. Yeah, it was a media circus, as you can imagine, because, as a kind of indicated at the start of our show, I mean usually when you hear like, oh, this red hot love affair and somebody died, you usually think that a man is the killer. I'm sorry to be stereotypical, but I mean, I mean, yeah, I mean a lot of times it is right. I mean, of course there's tons of women who murder, but like, to me, it's just what I think of when I hear the circumstance initially, Yeah, so, and
Ruth was only about twenty eight years old. She was considered to be beautiful. Like I said, she went to modeling school and she was getting modeling jobs and she kind of had like a Marilyn Monroe look like she had the platinum blonde and she kind of had that hairdo. When I saw a picture of her, initially, I couldn't believe she was only twenty eight. I mean it's yeah, she looked older just and I think it's probably the hairstyle,
makeup or something. I mean that looked like she was eighty, right, and she's forty exactly like seventies. I mean yeah, like I think, like sometimes I think we've all learned to look a little bit like I don't know, younger might not be the right word. Maybe maybe we're looking at real age and back then they just looked older. But yeah, so she I think this and she's a woman. It's just sensationalize woman with gone just out yeah and you know then yeah exactly like you know he's with someone
else and he's you know, gonna die kind of thing. So this trial lasted a day and a half, and I tell you, it's a media circus and there's just tons of people who want to come and watch, right, so they end up you had to get a ticket. A ticket, yeah, a ticket. They were a stub Hub or something ticket master and exactly, and people who are scalping them you fucked no. And the highest price at the time was like thirty pounds, which is a little less than
sixty bucks. So I mean, back nineteen fifty five, that was a lot of money. Right, it's even kind of a little bit of money now like sixty ticket. It's crazy. It's crazy, Okay. So eventually some of them went as high as like four hundred dollars. Wow. Yeah, so people were just inside the courtroom, you know. During this trial, Ruth was dressed in a black two piece suit with a white blouse,
and some people say she looked very chic. Her hair had been freshly bleached, Like I said, she was a platinum blonde, kind of like Marilyn asked, why does it even matter what she looks like? At this point, I don't know. I'm what's it. Yeah, it's gonna get sentenced to death, I know. But people are like, oh, she looks
like she's a Hollywood you star. The thing for her defense team. Their whole argument was that, you know, she's just beaten down, and she's down on her And as she walked into the courtroom, someone in the gallery yelled out blonde tart. Oh. And it was also said that when someone accused her of the murder, she said, thanks, I don't know, it's kind of unhinged to me. Thanks. Yeah, we kind of mentioned earlier that she was I kind mentioned earlier, you know, she has this
trial. At the trial, she was able to tell her side of the story and she just said, you know, I was treated badly by David and I just had had enough and I just kind of snapped. So the prosecution, Uh, the name of the attorney was Christmas Humphreyes, and that a great name, Christmas Humphrey. Christmas Humphreyes. He had already been involved in some high profile cases. He was an experienced litigator. He made the case. You know, he kind of rebutted what she had to say by
just bringing witnesses and the defense only cross examined two of them. Yeah, and so the defense team was made up of attorneys who the public had paid for public public defenders, so you know, sometimes they don't have a ton of experience. When it was time for her to finally take the stand. Her attorney's whole argument was when she first fired the gun, she was emotionally
upset do to you know, just the severe treatment. I mean, like I said, they were physical with each other and she would have bruises, heat of passion. Yeah, kind of testimony from her. Yeah, And she tried to make you know, he tried to make her like a good impression on the jury, but he couldn't really undo right, right, you can't undo the fact that she shot him six times or whatever and took up the thumb of yeah, missus yule, or yeah, missus yule. And
he's really trying to turn her into a sympathetic person to the jury. But she kind of when she answered, she was just there was really no sign, like emotional sign, like she didn't play up any kind of stereotypical behavior or anything. She's just very in control of her answers and seemed rational,
which is what her defention did not want her to act like. When she was cross examined by the prosecution, Christmas Humphries only asked her one question and he said, miss ellis when you fired the revolver at close range into the body of David Blakely, What did you intend to do? Kill him? And she said this was her answer, it was obvious that when I shot him, I intended to kill him. Okay, like prosecution rests her on
it, like, okay, you're done. The next day, the jury left the courtroom to deliberate, and it took them only twenty three minutes to find her guilty of murder. It was never mentioned at any point during her trial that you know, she suffered a miscarriage at the hands of David just ten days prior to her shooting them. It was never mentioned that he abused her physically on a regular basis. He had just proposed and then done all the like yeah, and it's ghosted her, ghosted her, I mean,
yeah, viciously, Like who does that. The judge really felt like he had no choice to sentence her to death, knew what she was. After sentencing, the judge asked her if she had anything to say, and the only thing she said was thank you. So I don't know, thank you. Yeah. After sentencing was past some kids, I know that's what I'm good. I don't know. I think I feel like maybe she just gave
up. I don't know. She remained really calm. Even after the sentencing, she turned around to smile at her parents, her brother, and her sister. They were in the gallery. She was then placed in a van and sent to Holloway Prison to await her death sentence. From the moment she killed David until the moment she was actually executed, she never sought percy. She never tried to feel She thought that she deserved the death sentence, kind
of like what we talked about earlier, because she did kill someone. She knew what she did. I mean, and maybe not at the moment, because I'm thinking if she's so like enraged, you're not thinking right. But I think like when you when you do something like that, you're kind of like, Okay, I'm probably gonna be sentenced to death, even though I really think she could have gotten a lesser sentence had she tried. Yeah,
had she tried. She told her attorneys do not seek any kind of appeal, and before her sentence was to be carried out, she was allowed to see her family one last time. Her brother noted that she was really calm. She was didn't seem afraid that she was going to be dying imminently soon, I mean the next day. She's much different than me. I know I would be crying, I'd be carrying on. Can you call a governor?
Right? Yeah? Please please, somebody do something. And at the time, England's method of execution was hanging still and Ruth was actually the last woman to be hanged in England. But in preparation for her hanging, they took her weight with clothes and she only weighed one hundred and three pounds. Tiny, you know, she was tiny. An eight foot four inch drop was set in the gallow. They tested it out before she was brought to her spot with sandbags. They were going to ask Yeah, they had a
sand volunteer. They had no, not a volunteer. They had a sand bag that weighed exactly one hundred and three pounds and they were left over overnight, attached to the rope that was to hang her, And that was done in order to prevent like stretching, like it was already being stretched, so that I guess when she was dropped, you know, there wouldn't be any mishaps. They want the net break, yes, they don't want them just dangling, yeah, dangling. Yeah, I know, it's very very morbid.
Yeah, very antiquated, I mean okay. On the morning of her execution, she wrote a letter to David's mother and in the letter, she apologized for killing him and said, quote, I've always loved your son and I shall die loving him. End quote. Around six thirty am, a priest took her last and final confession and gave her last writes. She then wrote a think you note to her lawyer. She did have a team of lawyers, but there was one that she really trusted and liked, and that's
the one that she wrote the letter to. His name was Leanne Simmons. About nine point thirty, Ruth was given a glass of brandy. Oh, to stabilize her nerves. Right, giving her the glass by a doctor more than one glass. Oh man, I'd need like the whole bottle, right please. She drinks the brandy, and not a minute later, the execution walked into her cell. When he walked in, she smiled at him. Her hands were bound around her back with a leather strap, and then she
walked the fifteen feet to the gallows. Breathe, I know anxiety. She didn't say anything as she walked over to the trap. Door and the cotton hood was placed over her hud oh Lord. The executioner's assistant then wrapped a leather strap around her legs and the trap door was open, and Ruth was dead within less than fifteen seconds, so it was relative. Fifteen seconds is a long time though, right, Well, yeah, her neck's gonna snap. Yeah, so she's gonna I mean, you're still gonna have a pulse
for a little bit while your blood goes. Yeah, that's true. But yeah, wow, yeah, wow, that's just crazy. I know. You know, as you mentioned, she had two children. She left them behind, her son Andy at the time of her execution, he was about ten, and her daughter Georgina was three. Her ex husband's name was George, so Georgina was named after him, and like I mentioned, Ruth was only twenty eight years old at the time of her hanging. Sadly, though,
the story doesn't end there. There's even more tragedy for this family. George ellis her ex husband. He died by suicide. He hung himself as well. He hanged himself, hanged himself, hung himself, hanging, tanged thank you on August second, nineteen fifty eight. So how wait, what year did she fifty five, so it's only three years later later. And her mother, Bertha Nielsen, was found in nineteen sixty nine unconscious in a
gas filled room in her apartment. So she committed suicide too. Well, she survived, but she never really recovered in that she couldn't speak after that. I think it may be damaged that part of her brain. Wow. I mentioned that Ruth said that Desmond had given her the gun. Yeah, he always denied that he gave her the gun. I know it wasn't me. I didn't give it to her. And he emigrated to Australia and died
in nineteen ninety one. In two thousand and three, after a posthumous appeal was brought by her sister Monica, the appeals Court concluded that it was right to have convicted her a first degree murder, so the appeal was denied. Yeah, her execution, like I told you, she was the last woman
to be executed in the UK by hanging. Her execution played a major part in the movement to just completely abolish the death penalty in England, although it really took like another decade after her death to for the lot to be changed. You know, the one of the newspapers in defense of abolishing the death penalty had said, quote, consider the task of explaining to the late Miss Ruth Ellis's eleven year old son, now at boarding school, what had happened.
This boy, who is also fatherless, has had something done to him that's so brutal. It's difficult to imagine. We should realize it. It's, you know, something that should be realized. Perhaps the most haunting part of what's included I'm sorry of the new law is that or the effect that it had on her son Andy, was that he made audio tapes later in life and he managed to interview Ruth's prosecutor because I think he just became obsessed
as I got older. I mean, it's hard to lose your mom, right, and you don't know what's going on on your Yeah, and he said that the that the prosecutor described his mother as cold blooded. Oh, and Andy didn't feel that way. No, it didn't feel that way. And he actually committed suicide in nineteen eighty two. But yeah, So that is really my sad story of jealousy and rage and was losing it, losing it and then the after effects of something that happens. I mean, that
was just something horrific. Yeah, and you can see the effects on other people, right right, Like I'm not sure why George, you know, her ex husband did it, but I mean I think her son was just riddled with grief and I don't know he was in the kids went into the foster care system too at one point, and I'm sure you know there was Oh man, this is a pisser. Yeah, I know, I know. Okay, So well, thanks for everyone for listening to today's story.
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