A NEW ITV drama will reveal the harrowing true story behind the UK’s last woman to face execution by hanging.
Ruth Ellis, a peroxide-blonde club hostess with film-star looks, shot dead her posh cheating boyfriend outside The Magdala in Hampstead, north London on Easter Sunday 1955.
Ellis became notorious as the last woman to be hanged in Britain on July 13, aged 28, after she shot David Blakely outside the pub.
Her execution in Holloway Prison became a focus for campaigners and finally helped end the death penalty in Britain.
The story of one of Britain’s most famous female killers has fascinated and appalled for 69 years.
And now it is set to grace our screens as a new ITV drama – A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story.
Lucy Boynton will play the part of the mum-of-two who went down in the history books.
Glamorous Ellis had come to London from Rhyl, North Wales with dreams of becoming a movie star.
However by 18, she was a single mum, modeling for soft porn to make the ends meet.
And on the evening of Easter Sunday April 10, 1955, her life took a dark twist.
Her race driver boyfriend Blakely, who had lived with her on and off for two years, had seemingly left her.
Ellis, 28, put her youngest son Andre, 10, to bed, put a gun in her handbag and took a taxi to the Magdala pub.
On arrival she spotted Blakely, 26, and fired off six bullets.
However, huge questions remain to this day about exactly what happened in the pub – and why she did it.
POSSIBLE MOTIVE
Many believe the ‘femme fatale’ had endured years of abuse from her boyfriend before she snapped.
In a medical report from Holloway Prison where Ellis was held before her Old Bailey trial, she was explained a bruise on her thigh – and claimed it was from Blakely “knocking me about a bit”.
She also said he once hit her ear with such force that she was left temporarily deaf.
In a separate statement she said she had suffered a miscarriage after he punched her stomach.
None of this was examined thoroughly by the police and the chief inspector in her case claimed Ellis was with Blakely to get a “leg-up” in society and would go to “any lengths to keep him”.
PARTNER IN CRIME?
But history buffs believe Ellis may not have been the one to fire the fatal shots.
It’s thought she may have been acting alongside another of her wealthy lovers – Desmond Cussen.
In a tape recording between Ellis and Cussen, she confesses to him that Blakely had given her a black eye on New Year’s Eve, at the Crown Inn, Penn, Bucks, where his rich family had a mansion.
She is heard calling Blakely a “cheapskate . . . rotten to the core.”
Cussen was there for Ellis – paying for her son Andre to go to boarding school and she called on him every time she and Blakely fell out.
However, Cussen’s account of his whereabouts at the time of the murder are suspiciously vague.
And the day before her execution, Ellis told police that Cussen had given her a gun and taught her to use it.
Meanwhile, Ellis’ son, who was ten at the time, insisted to barristers as he got older that someone had “assisted” her with the murder.
Cussen died in 1991, still denying any involvement right.
Today, Ellis’ Smith and Wesson revolver is held at the Crime Museum at Scotland Yard.
This year’s ITV drama will not be the first time Ellis’ story is seen on screen.
Her story inspired 1985 film Dance with a Stranger, starring Miranda Richardson and Rupert Everett.
And in 2018 the BBC’s three part doc – The Ruth Ellis Files: A Very British Crime Story – examined the murder inquiry.
Ahead of the ITV release, Executive Producer for Silverprint Pictures, Kate Bartlett told The Sun: “Lucy Boynton is absolutely mesmerizing as Ruth Ellis, pictured here, at the height of her success as London’s youngest club manager.
“Aged 28, her ascendancy was brought to a sharp halt when she became enmeshed in an intoxicating love triangle which brought death and tragedy.”
