Ruth Ellis met Albert Pierrepoint at HMP Holloway, where she was lead out onto the scaffold.
A 28-year old murderer stood briefly above the trapdoor. Her hands were tied behind her back and a hood covered her face. Pierrepoint secured the noose around her head, describing her neck as thin.
The father had already decided that eight feet four inches of fall would suffice for the death of the mother-of-two, who was 5ft 2ins tall and wore stockings.
She was pronounced dead at the scene with fractures of both her 3rd and 2nd cervical vertebrae.
There was also ‘little destruction of soft tissues’ and a ‘clean break of the spinal cord’ and almost one-and-three-quarter inches separation.
She had dropped eight feet six inches after the execution. Her head was only a narrow escape from being cut off.
Ellis had just received her last visitors, less than 24hours earlier, as Pierrepoint was driving down from Hoole’s Rose and Crown bar. Victor Mishcon, her solicitor, was also present.
Principal Officer Griffin was a prison officer who stood at the corner taking notes. These were then placed in her file, and kept sealed for over half a century.
These documents, which were declassified now reveal crucial details not mentioned during the one-day trial that condemned her to death by the Gallows.
Ruth Ellis (pictured left) was executed on July 9, 1955 for murdering her boyfriend David Blakeley. He was a 25 year-old racing driver from the upper classes.
It was fascinating to see the details of the Easter Sunday murder 1955, especially since Ellis (pictured one year prior to her execution) refused any repentance for having shot Blakeley five times.
An estimated 250 people protested outside Holloway Prison, North London. Ellis was executed there at 9am, on July 13th 1955. This happened just three months following the shooting.
Her prison file contained evidence that could have helped her sentence be commuted, but it was not acknowledged by Gwilym Lloyd George, the Home Secretary. He refused to delay execution.
The notes showed how her legal team still believed there was time to convince the Home Secretary Gwilym Lloyd George to commute the sentence. While Ellis and Ellis sat together, Harold Gedge (a representative of Queen Elizabeth II) was present in the hanghouse ‘for testing the apparatus’.
Gedge filled Ellis’ 103-pound sandbag with water and tied it to the rope. It worked flawlessly. The rope was not strained until the morning of execution to loosen any elasticity.
The note by PO Griffin that was taken from Ellis’ cell, and which is kept at the National Archives of Kew, states that ‘Mr Mischon was persistent in asking Ellis questions regarding the gun’.
According to Mr Mischon, ‘it was fair that the Home Secretary knew all the facts about the gun’.
Ellis stated to her lawyer she didn’t wish to speak of anything that could cause trouble for anyone. Even though this detail might help her case, Mr Mischon promised her that nobody would be adversely affected.
Some documents from her prison record suggest she believed her execution would enable her to “join Blakeley afterlife”.
The judge and jury were informed by Ellis’s testimony that Ellis had walked for a quarter-mile to The Magdala pub house in order to see David Blakeley during the trial. When the racing driver, aged 25, left the bar at 9.30 p.m. with a friend, she was hiding in the entranceway of a reporter.
Albert Pierrepoint and Thomas Pierrepoint are pictured at right. They described Ellis’ neck, according to National Archives documents. Pierrepoint executed Ellis.
Just hours before Blakeley’s death, Ellis admitted to Desmond Cousins that she had given her the gun to kill Blakeley. He drove Ellis to Hampstead so the crime could be committed. These are details that were never brought up in court
A notice was posted on the prison door, along with the statement of the surgeon declaring Ellis’ death, informed the public about Ellis’ execution
Ellis was the manager of The Little Club at Knightsbridge.
Ellis, her lover from the past, called for his keys and called “Hello David”, during the trial. She took out a .38 calibre Smith & Wesson Victory from her handbag and opened fire.
After the initial round was missed, he attempted to get around the vehicle’s sides. He was forced to fall when the second round hit.
Ellis approached her ex-love and stood in front of him, before firing four more rounds. One was from point blank range. A bystander was injured when the last bullet struck the ground.
Three months and three months later after her shooting, on the eve she died, PO Griffin said that Ellis was hesitant to speak out.
After more convincing, she said she would continue to talk with Griffin inside the room. Desmond Cousins had given her the weapon the night before the shooting. He wasn’t mentioned at the Old Bailey.
According to the report, “He [Cousins]Before handing it over, she loaded the gun and oil it. She said she had been drinking and was confused.
She stated that she used to drink Vernat, which is a yellowish liquid. Cousins took her to Hampstead, without any questions. According to her original court report she stated that she had walked all the way to the pub.
Ruth Ellis’ prison file contained detailed information about the horrific injuries she sustained during execution by hanging.
It was reported that Blakeley was jealous of Cousins, but had never seen the gun.
Ellis said that Ellis was unable to breathe and she didn’t want her life anymore. She could also have admitted that she would not be able to ‘pleading insanity’ at trial.
Around 250 protestors stood outside of the prison to oppose the sentence on the morning that the execution took place.
Despite the heated exchanges in the House of Commons, there was also accusations. Some teachers even brought their students to jail to see the spectacle.
Blackpool’s public opinion was “shocked” and “scandalized by the gross commercialism displayed in Blackpool by certain Blackpool showmen who put on display an effigy Ruth Ellis’s body one day after her death”.
Although the Home Secretary ruled against abolishing death penalty, he suggested that ‘if public opinion are really shocked’, it would have been more beneficial if people had not seen the exhibit.
In her case, Blakeley was violently abused Ellis. Ellis tried to explain the attack by saying that Blakeley ‘only hit me with my fist or his hands’ or that she ‘bruised easily’.
She described one incident at one point. She stated that David became violent a few days or weeks ago. It is not clear if that was the cause of my miscarriage. I was thumped in my stomach by him.
Blakeley confronted her and asked what was her intent. Blakeley replied that it was obvious she intended to kill Blakeley.
Ellis was interviewed by a psychiatrist ten days before she went on trial. The psychiatrist found no previous history of nervous disorder or mental illness.
Ellis is pictured in her London Brompton Road flat. She claimed she wanted to kill Blakeley after she killed him in Hampstead.
According to her prison file, she believed that the execution would make her children ‘better’ and she would like to see them die.
One week prior to her trial, a psychiatric report was conducted that found no evidence of mental illness. She could plead guilty.
The psychiatric report states that she became very angry at David Blakeley after standing up to her over Easter Weekend, having earlier arranged to spend some time with her.
Ellis was quizzed by the psychiatrist on the details of the shooting. Ellis replied that she had left home Sunday night with a loaded gun and the intent of shooting David Blakeley.
She acknowledged that she was having a miscarriage 10 days prior, but she did not need medical attention.
The psychiatrist told her that after shooting David Blakeley, she had no regrets and felt justified to have done so because of how he treated her. She felt so justified almost three months later.
The report by A C Dalzell concluded that there was no evidence Ellis ‘was suffering from, or had been suffering from delusions, hallucinations or other symptoms of mental disorder’.
According to him, Ellis was well aware that Blakeley’s shooting was wrong. According to him, Ellis was of sound mind and able to plead.
A Blackpool showman unveiled Ellis’ waxwork the day following her execution. This is Ellis in this flat, located above The Little Club, Knightsbridge. In outrage over the commercialization of her killer’s celebrity, the House of Commons was invited to exhibit the work.
Ellis was pictured refusing to identify her accomplice, until the hours prior to her execution, when Desmond Cousins admitted she had ‘cleaned oiled and loaded the gun’ before giving it to Ellis. Her lawyers told her that Ellis ‘didn’t wish to get anybody else in trouble.’