A gripping new crime drama is set to air about Ruth Ellis – the last woman hanged in Britain.
‘A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story’, which streams from 6pm, on Sunday, July 6 on 7plus, reveals the hidden truths about Ellis’ murder of her lover, the legal case surrounding it and those who were also complicit.
What is the true story of Ruth Ellis?
On Easter Sunday in April 1955, David Blakely stepped out of The Magdala pub in Hampstead, in London’s northwest, with a friend.
It was about 9.30pm on a cold and clear evening. As he walked towards his car and reached for his keys, a woman appeared from the shadows and pulled a gun from her handbag.
She fired five shots. Seconds later, Blakely, a 25-year-old racing car driver, lay dead on the pavement. His killer, Ruth Ellis, then told Blakely’s friend to call the police.
Ellis and Blakely had been lovers for a couple of years after meeting at the nightclub where Ellis worked.
She was smitten with the tall, good-looking man who swept her off her feet. However, after a honeymoon period, the relationship became toxic.
Ellis’ family allege that Blakely was physically abusive and that she miscarried his baby shortly before the shooting. Ellis also learned that he’d developed friendships with other women.
“Ruth didn’t mean to kill him,” Ellis’ late sister, Muriel Jakubait, told the media in the 1990s.
“I think she only intended to frighten David. It was all done on impulse and I doubt very much that she knew what she was doing until it was too late.
“Afterwards she held the gun down by her side and said, ‘What have I done?’”
What happened to Ruth Ellis?
Ellis, 28, was found guilty of Blakely’s murder. And only 22 days later, on July 13, 1955, she was hanged at London’s Holloway Prison.
On the morning of her death, Ellis woke just before 8.30am, received Communion, sipped a brandy and calmly walked to the gallows where a white hood was placed over her head.
Before she died, Ellis asked her family to lay pink and white carnations on Blakely’s grave. Muriel was in her mid-thirties at the time and had just had a baby.
“The last thing Ruth said to me was, ‘Don’t worry, Muriel. Don’t upset yourself. Whatever takes place I will take it. Just accept it,’” Muriel recalled.
“The morning of the execution I didn’t know what to do. [Ellis’ son] Andre was playing with a train set and I walked from room to room.
“I knelt on the stairs and prayed to God that they wouldn’t hang her. But then my neighbour knocked on the door and said, ‘It’s all over now.’
“Once Ruth died, it broke my mother’s heart. Ruth was on her mind, as she was on mine all the time. I can’t forget her and I can’t get over the fact that they hung such a lovely girl.”
What happened to Ruth Ellis’ children?
Eliis left behind two children – son Andre, who was 10 when his mother was executed, and daughter Georgina, who was only three.
Sadly, Andre took his own life in 1982 and Georgina died of cancer in 2001 at the age of 50.
Was Ruth Ellis wrongly convicted?
Seventy years after her execution, Ellis’ family continue the fight for her to be pardoned. Lawyers are still reviewing evidence presented at the trial, along with new evidence the original jury didn’t hear.
“Securing a posthumous pardon for Ruth Ellis is not just about correcting a historical wrong; it is about acknowledging the systemic failures that led to her unjust conviction and execution,” Katy Colton, a lawyer at legal firm Mishcon de Reya, recently said in an online post.
Until her death in 2013 at 93, Muriel remained committed to clearing her sister’s name.
“I would ask people to forgive her and to try and understand her,” Muriel said. “Some people said she got what she deserved, but that’s not true. It was a tragedy.”
Where can I watch A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story?
‘A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story’ streams from 6pm on Sunday, July 6 on 7plus.
