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Was Ruth a murderer?
• ISLINGTON is the only London borough which has two prisons – Holloway and Pentonville. When Newgate was demolished in 1902 to make way for the Old Bailey, each prison became a place of execution.
The last execution at Pentonville was that of Edwin Bush, aged 21, hanged on July 6, 1961, by Harry B Allen assisted by Harry F Robinson, and the last execution at Holloway was that of Ruth Ellis, aged 28, hanged on July 13, 1955, by Albert Pierrepoint, assisted by Royston L Rickard. She was the last woman to be hanged in Britain.
She had been charged with the fatal shooting of David Blakely, aged 25, on April 10, 1955, outside the Magdala public house in Hampstead. It was an open-and-shut case. Or was it? Witnesses saw her fire the murder weapon, a Smith and Wesson revolver, six times into Blakely – or did they? She believed, herself, that she had killed Blakely, but could she have been wrong? Or could she have lied?
Could it be that she never fired the murder weapon at all? Perhaps the weapon she fired was specially adapted to fire blanks, needing a low pressure at the trigger.
Perhaps her arthritis of the hand made it impossible for her to have fired the murder weapon.
Perhaps a high-ranking police office replaced the gun she’d fired with the real murder weapon. Perhaps the real weapon had been fired by a sniper so that Blakely was already dead when Ruth Ellis shot at him. Perhaps Blakely had been a spy who had turned, and Ruth Ellis was an expendable pawn.
Perhaps the bullet which injured a bystander, Gladys Yule, aged about 60, wasn’t fired by Ruth Ellis at all.
Or is this all one conspiracy theory too far?
Not according to Ruth Ellis’s sister, Muriel Jakubait, in her book Ruth Ellis: My Sister’s Secret Life, published by Robinson in 2005. She writes that Ruth Ellis was closely associated with Stephen Ward (who went on to apparently kill himself over the 1963 Profumo scandal).
Long before this book came out, one thing in particular had puzzled me. On being cautioned at about 11pm on April 10, 1955, by Detective Superintendent Crawford, Ruth Ellis said: “I am guilty. I am rather confused.”
I am researching a book covering executions between 1950 and 1964, such as those of Evans and Bentley, who were later pardoned, and some who perhaps should be pardoned.
The last Ruth Ellis appeal, on grounds of provocation, in 2003, was bound to fail.
I should like to hear from anybody with something to say about Ruth Ellis – and promise to answer all letters.
Please write to me at 175 Manor Road, Stoke Newington N16 5PB.
Dr HARRY G MOSS
N16
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