General Chat

I agree with Muffix. It was murder.

I also feel that unless there is a mental health issue which can be proved to be in exicstence at the time of the killing, that those who kill someone after snapping, following many months/years of abuse should be considered as murderers. Help is available for those who are abused, although I am aware there is a point where the confidence has been so eroded that an abused person is not likely to seek it. In my opinion if you pass that time and kill someone you have in fact murdered them

The message to women should be to seek help to get out of abusive relationships rather than live in a world where the law says its acceptable to kill someone and destroy your life after the event and that of others involved.


Vera

I've seen the bullet hole i the pub wall - still there for all to see

" caused her to miscarry by punching her in the stomach just ten days before"...seems to me that now there would be a strong case that she did it while 'the balance of her mind was disturbed' ? ( Edit before anyone says...I don't know if that is the correct wording of a legal defence ...but I'm sure you'll know what I mean...based on recent-ish cases where women have taken a knife to an abusive husband etc).

And knowing she would hang was no deterrent.

On the day before she was executed "She revealed more evidence about the shooting and said that the gun had been provided by Cussen, and that he had driven her to the murder scene. Following their 90-minute interview in the condemned cell, Mishcon and Simmons went to the Home Office, where they spoke to a senior civil servant about Ellis's revelations. The authorities made no effort to follow this up and there was no reprieve."

"The Bishop of Stepney, Joost de Blank, visited Ellis just before her death, and she told him, "It is quite clear to me that I was not the person who shot him. When I saw myself with the revolver I knew I was another person." These comments were made in a London evening paper of the time, The Star."

She took a gun and searched him out to kill him....that's murder. ..premeditated as far as I'm concerned...she knew what the possible outcome would be at the time and did it anyway.

Provocation was not and is not a defense to murder. Manslaughter is the offense of causing death illegally without malice aforethought. That was hardly the case with Ruth Ellis.

If provocation was a reasonable defense to murder then it would be open season on all kinds of unreasonable people.

It was obviously wrong that the sentence was not commuted to a life sentence as the Home Secretary had the power to do so.

This case together with those of the Bentley Boys and the A6 Murders (James Henratty) called time on capital punishment.

"What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that policemen are my friends.
I learned that justice never ends.
I learned that murderers die for their crimes.
Even if we make a mistake sometimes.
That's what I learned in school today.
That's what I learned in school."

April 10: Driven to desperation by an abusive and drunk partner, Ruth Ellis - the last woman to be hanged in the UK - shot and killed her lover David Blakely.

The 28-year-old blonde model and nightclub hostess had been involved with Blakely for two years but their relationship was marked by infidelity on both sides and domestic violence on his.

Her partner, a racing driver and three years her junior, was a violent drunk and had caused her to miscarry by punching her in the stomach just ten days before the killing in 1955.

It is not known what was in the troubled young woman's mind as she put a gun in her bag and went to a pub in Hampstead where Blakely was drinking with a friend.

She waited outside for him and finally at 9:30pm Blakely and his friend emerged from the pub and went to the car.

Ellis ambushed him and fired her first shot - but she missed. As he sought cover behind the car she pursued him and her second shot met her target, causing him to collapse onto the pavement. Standing over him she fired three more bullets into his body, killing him.

The high-profile case received much attention as it became clear she would face the death penalty if found guilty. The model from Wales took full responsibility for the crime throughout her trial and she was found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey in London on June 21.

Less than a month later she was hanged at Holloway Prison.

The debate surrounding the death penalty had been gaining momentum at this time and the case of the skinny murderous woman captured the imagination of the British public. This Pathé clip shows the nation torn in two regarding whether Ellis should have faced execution or not.

Sombre crowds wait outside Holloway Prison as the narrator asks: "Should a woman hang? Should anyone hang at all? Or should there be degrees of murder?"

The death penalty in the UK was suspended in 1965 and finally removed in 1970.

Since her murder Ellis's family have campaigned for her murder conviction to be reduced to manslaughter on the ground of provocation.