I wondered. She was convicted of shooting to death her lover David Blakeley, a racing driver. Why didnt he ask Nickolls about the distance from which the other bullets were fired? Andre secretly taped their three-hour conversation at the Buddhist Society in London.Just weeks later Andre, aged 38 committed suicide.Humphreys was blinkered; for it was exactly what was going on in the background, amongst the shady characters in Ruths circle, that led to the shooting of her ex public schoolboy lover David Blakely outside the Magdala pub in Hampstead in 1955 and to Ruths execution three months later.Ruths friends, some were prosecution witnesses at her trial, were more complicated than you would imagine from simple statements they made at the Old Bailey.As I read the transcript of the trial and police statements it was clear that nobody was interested in witnesses backgrounds. Home Office documents released only in 1999 reveal that Ellis made a dramatic death-cell revelation on the morning before her execution to a prominent solicitor, Victor Mishcon. Ruth made Muriel promise never to tell anyone about his obscene behaviour.Ward, the "vice peddler" created Ruth Ellis. "I could see her hair was very blonde and she wore a light coat." Ruth with her beau Desmond Cussen. Ruths defence counsel made nothing of this at her trial. It would appear he deliberately omitted the reference to the effort needed to fire the Smith and Wesson gun. Suspiciously he didnt mention the gun breaking during testing. ", she sealed her fate by responding: "It is obvious that when I shot him I intended to kill him.". They regularly practised shooting 303 rifles on a local rifle range. The Sevenoaks Chronicle, Warrington-Worldwide, Cornish Guardian and Northumberland Gazette are just a few of the local papers that published reports about the book. "As a barrister for fifty years I was just putting the facts of the actual murder. He was the marksman that killed Blakely - and got away with it. 1940 is a long time ago. They said, "The Home Office does not hold the information that you have requested.". It was the night he and his colleague Guy Burgess defected to Russia. She was protecting someone.The two-day murder trial was a travesty. I used to think Ruth was behind me doing it. These thick padded calico knickers were brought and I was told they had to be put on her. If that had succeeded, she would have been found guilty of manslaughter and spared the gallows. The appeal asked that the murder conviction be changed to that of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility . I suspect that forensics were not carried out on Ruth, and the gun conveniently broke during testing because the results would have saved her and proved she could not have killed Blakely. He does just that, saving Earth, and seemingly ending his story. It was accepted at the time that the residue from an exploding cartridge is driven backwards on to the hand that pulls the trigger. Hanged killer Ruth Ellis has been secretly denied a pardon by the Government, documents reveal. "Would you pull these tapes Evelyn, Ill pull the others." Melford Stevenson QC, assisted by Mr Sebag Shaw and Mr Peter Rawlinson instructed by Messrs Cardew-Smith and Ross appeared on behalf of the prisoner Ruth Ellis. Edward married Caroline Alice Cussen in month 1885, at age 21 at marriage place. "Prior to the drop Ruth wanted to go to the toilet. Bear in mind foreign travel then was fairly limited apart from business matters. At the end of the first day of the trial, Melford Stevenson, with no jury present, gained a new lease of life. As stated earlier he was a director of the family business, a wholesale tobacconists called Cussen & Co. Cussen, her "alternative" lover, wound her up like a spring, got her drunk, drove her to the scene of the crime and put a gun in her hand. It was word perfect. This key witness did not see who shot Blakely, "but listening to him being questioned by Humphreys" youd think he did. She said, after being cautioned, "I am guilty. Looking at the transcript of the trial released over forty years after Ruths death its clear how Ruth Ellis, who pleaded not guilty, was given scant help by our judicial system. Now Desmond shared with Blakely and Ward a love of motor-racing, however, he also shared the affections of Ruth Ellis. Its clear to me he had some sort of immunity. He had no idea, until our book was published three years later, that his Home Guard partner was the same man who would play an important role in Ruth Elliss life and death in 1955. 27,814: He lied again at Ruths trial when he said on oath that hed known Blakely "Approximately three years.". It all went according to plan. In Tales of Tatsfield, author Doris Geary wrote, "I had known Ruth Ellis as a kind, good looking woman; we had laughed and talked together and we had liked each other." She recalled that on occasions "Ruth would come in on her own, invariably crying saying David had vanished. The latter, 31, was a bachelor. Evelyn told me categorically that "No prisoner in the condemned cell was allowed to use a pen, everything had to be written in pencil and was strictly supervised.". At her trial, her hair freshly dyed platinum and wearing a well-cut black suit with astrakhan collar and cuffs, she seemed unnaturally cool. Desmond Miles (1987 - 2012) was a member of the Assassins and a descendant of numerous familial lines that had sworn an allegiance to the Assassins, including individuals such as Aquilus, Altar Ibn-La'Ahad, Ezio Auditore, Edward Kenway, and Ratonhnhak:ton. It would appear that he was doing nothing. I met Mr Wallis, a retired Leatherhead dentist with an interesting story to tell about the very private Paddock Club at the end of a long gravel drive in the Surrey village of Ashtead. Therefore she was guilty. Service records for RAF personnel after 1921 are MOD property. Carrinho; upper canada soap hand sanitizer Norman Beaton's wasn't the only tragic death to come out of the Desmond's cast. The judge took away power of the jury.". There are more than enough invisible clues to show Ruth was set up. Clare Dyer talks to Ellis's sister, who is leading the fight to have the conviction changed, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. I struck lucky. "Ruth had no reason to want Blakely dead, but Cussen did." However I strongly suspect he grew up in a family that was used to deception. Ruth had protected Cussen in her police statement, claiming a man gave her the gun in a club three years previously. I have become even more fascinated by information that Id not found before. David Blakely was away at the Le Mans races. That day Melford Stevenson applied for the case to be postponed until after 14th June, "Owing to the large number of enquiries still to be made by the defence." He was usually portrayed as Blakelys scathing rival for Ruths affections. "In effect she signed her own death warrant. But there was more to the story than came out at the trial. Again Ruths barrister had no questions. I can only guess there was an unwritten law that exempted them from being properly cross-examined. Born 1923 Add or change photo on IMDbPro Add to list More at IMDbPro Contact info Agent info Credits IMDbPro Archive Footage Previous 1 The Ruth Ellis Files: A Very British Crime Story Self (archive footage) TV Series 2018 3 episodes Personal details Edit Born 1923 Too many crucial questions were left unasked. Andre, who was nearly 11 years old, added quite innocently that Uncle Desmond that same day, "drove him and his mother (who was in a state) to a forest to teach his mummy how to shoot. ", Ruths defence counsel, Melford Stevenson, stated categorically that Ruth was guilty. Watch popular content from the following creators: Brayton(@braytontheschoolbullyvip), Desmond Dennis(@desmonddennis), Desmond Dennis(@desmonddennis), Desmond Dennis(@desmonddennis), Desmond(@desmond__2006) . In the press she had already been portrayed as a peroxide blonde tart. OK 100%100 56 50 669/10 221AW what happened to desmond cussen. Also the "Letter officer" at Holloway prison would have blanked out names on letters that Ruth sent from prison, yet names are clearly mentioned in Ruths correspondence. He merely said, "To fire each shot the trigger has to be pulled as a separate operation." At the time she was employed as a hostess at Carrolls Club in Duke Street in Mayfair. Statements Mrs Yule made between 11th April and 20th June were inconsistent. Desmond Cussen, a potential murder suspect, was never interrogated Credit: Alamy Blakely, who had lived with her on and off for two years, had seemingly left her. His character was best known for his "old African sayings". She was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. I contacted anyone who might spread the word about our new findings, from editors of parish magazines and village newsletters to local newspapers in areas connected with the story.Three years of detective work has taught me there will always be more to discover. The impression of the "ineffective drip" was quite misleading. According to a Home Office note, Ellis told Mishcon: "I didn't say anything about it up to now because it seemed traitorous, absolutely traitorous." are takis halal; derrick stafford nba referee; what does it mean when a guy sends you a picture of himself shirtless. Jakubait could be in line for compensation - awards are discretionary - as could her niece Georgina's six children. According to another, recently opened, Metropolitan Police document dated 24th June 1955 (two days after Ruth was found guilty at the Old Bailey) Hampstead police handed her property to her solicitor Mr Bickford against "Receipt number 99.". On the surface, the platinum-blond model may. But Ruths list of property and clothing is noticeable by its absence. So they take him in. During one of many visits to the Public Record Office (PRO) I was surprised to find buried in a Home Office document, that Ruths lover was actually homosexual. Ellis, her lawyers argue with backing from a leading forensic psychiatrist, was suffering from post-miscarriage depression. It seemed stranger than fiction that I should come across Ruths alternative lover, at exactly the same time as I was investigating the area around Leatherhead hospital. He was an ARP warden based in General Ironsides house that had been commandeered by the government for the Home Guard when it was first formed. At her first court appearance she saw a youngish man run out of the saloon bar of the Magdala, "followed, almost on his heels, by a blonde woman. Statements from new witnesses had one thing in common. What is more, Cussen was not the docile character wed been led to believe even as a young man he was a crack shot. "Ruth had clearly been brainwashed.To the police it was an open and shut case of cold-blooded murder. He told me on the telephone that Cussen had told him in the early 1960s [at the time of the Profumo scandal] of Ruth Elliss friendship with Dr Stephen Ward. He was the older, sugar-daddy, type character that Ellis had turned to when Blakely started getting a bit handy with his fists. What is even more interesting is an important discovery I made in a Metropolitan Police document recently released at the Public Record Office and has never been made public: the gun broke during testing. Cussen had one gun and gave another to Ruth. What happened to Ruths blood spattered clothes? There was no need for forensics on Ruth or her possessions or for investigating the case properly. Like Ellis, Challen was subjected to decades of abuse at the hands of her husband and this was recognised in her appeal, which took into account the insidious nature of coercive control. She had not admitted it before because of getting "someone into possible trouble. He groomed and transformed them into somebodies. Scotland Yard were ordered to search for Cussen, but he was not at home and they gave up after an hour. He said, "No scaffold was erected in Holloway prison before the execution of Mrs Ellis. I dismissed the taxi and walked back down the road to the nearest pub where I saw Davids car outside.". The list certainly existed. In the 90s, however, judges softened the law on provocation, opening it up to battered women and others whose self-control was affected by despair or depression. Desmond Miles was born into the Assassin Order, but he ran away from the lifestyle, hoping to pursue his own dreams. She was executed by hanging in July 1955, and indeed, was the last woman executed in Britain. He asked if he would ensure that this type of thing would not happen again. Two days before the hanging, Ellis's lawyers had submitted evidence, including the testimony of witnesses that Blakely had inflicted repeated beatings on her and that she believed he had caused the miscarriage she suffered just 10 days before the shooting with a punch to the stomach. Id uncovered a treasure-trove of spies addresses all in the same Kensington street - some dating back to 1932. Extraordinarily Stevenson had, "No Questions.". Eventually I was permitted to view the file that contained Christmas Humphreys set of magistrates court documents at the Royal Court of Justice in the Strand. The statement was changed to read "The accused was firing the gun into his back," not the same. So the question of their stay near Westerham remains a mystery. A further new discovery is that Ruth occasionally visited Tatsfield, a village north-west of Westerham and home to Soviet Super Spy Donald Maclean. Her parents Berta and Arthur Neilson, Ruths son Andre and Desmond Cussen arrived on her doorstep unexpectedly. The decision has been kept under wraps for fear of unleashing protests which could embarrass ministers.". The pavement outside the Magdala was covered in blood when I looked the following day.". Originally he described Ruth pursuing Blakely and pointing the gun at his back. Stevenson stuck to his word. He said, "Ive remembered the young mans name, it was Cussen.". Ruth asked what they were for. He told the jury that she had been "driven to a frenzy which for the time being unseated her understanding". Finally, in Ruths letter dated 12th July 1955, to Mr Simmons, her original solicitor, she refers to remarks made by David Blakelys brother in a newspaper article following her trial. Fandom General Counsel. I recently came across a question in parliament dated 8th December 1955. It was a place where the best people from London secretly congregated when there were parties on. She could have followed Blakely in her taxi if murder, "was on her mind." The authorities considered prosecuting Cussen, who later died in Australia, as an accessory, but decided it would be impossible without Ellis as a witness. The real killer was probably standing there in full view, but totally invisible to them. I couldnt tell her.". Much later it emerged that her friend and "sugar daddy", Desmond Cussen, an accountant with whom she had had a brief sexual liaison, had driven her to the pub and provided the gun. This painful condition stayed with Ruth for the rest of her life. Nobody has ever put two-and-two together before.The trumped up murder charge that Ruth admitted to and for which she was hanged obscured the truth about Britain "in the grips of a spying scandal.". He was no ordinary tobacconist businessman. After the visit he also said he could not forget Ruth Ellis's words to him: It is quite clear to me that I was not the person who shot him.When I saw myself with that revolver I knew that I was another person."". A publicity still showed a beauty queen line-up. In her letter to Muriel Jakubait she wrote, "When Cussen, as I believe he is named, appeared behind her I was frightened. Its clear from a Holloway hospital case paper (opened since the publication of our book) that Ruths condition was known about. In January 2006 I managed to make contact with Mrs Hogg. But in 2019, she had her conviction overturned and finally walked free. He rather resembled Ellis in looks. When questioned at the Old Bailey he merely repeated that on receipt the gun was in working order, and "The barrel was foul and consistent with having been recently fired." More than 17 books and the 1985 film Dance with a Stranger have looked at the events leading up to Ellis's execution, but answers to some of the puzzles that remained unsolved have emerged only in the past few years. However as we know now that Ruth lied at her trial from start to finish, it would be fair to assume she lied when she claimed shed only known Blakely for two years. But it was not. Secondly he was wealthy, became a director of a family-owned retail and wholesale tobacconist business called Cussen and Co. And thirdly from the early 1950s he lived in a prestigious apartment in Goodwood Court near Harley Street. He drove Ruth to Hampstead - that is not in doubt. Its obvious now; Cussen lied about their friendship to cover the secret world theyd actually been part of for several years; a world that Ruth could have blown wide open if she had lived. Related Hubs. In a Prison Service file, recently opened for public scrutiny, I read that Ruth told the medical officer at Holloway prison hospital that her left hand and ankle had been affected by rheumatic fever. DesmondCussenFalls for Ruth. "She was clean, smart, and certainly did not have stains down her clothes. David Blakelys list of property in possession of the Hampstead police in 1955 was recently released for public scrutiny. "Let me make this abundantly plain: there is no question here but this woman shot this man.You will not hear one word from me or from the lady herself questioning that.". It's the middle of the night, I can't sleep so I'm going with option #4. They knew each other for nearly six years, regularly visiting a risky club together in Surrey from the late 1940s. Recently released hospital prison records reveal that Ruth fabricated the main thread of her defence. So too were Desmond Cussen and David Blakely. Cussen seemed to be following Ward around.When the names Ward, Keeler and Profumo cropped up later in the Atlantic hotel, I realised that Cussen whod been staying there for two years was not there by accident. I wrote to the Home Office for further details about the passport but after "thorough searches" nothing could be found. I would say it was a set up from start to finish. Berta told Muriel that Ruth had shot and killed Blakely. Newsam advised the home secretary: "It would be a bad day for this country if we adopted the doctrine of crime passionelle This was a deliberately planned and cold-bloodedly executed murder.". She was very calm. 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And clothing is noticeable by its absence shot Blakely, `` Ive remembered the Mans.
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