Prime Crime: Solved Murders - David Blakely Pt. 2

Episode Date: December 9, 2020

After Ruth Ellis murdered her lover in April 1955, people throughout London thought she was guaranteed the death penalty. But as investigators began looking into her past, they found new information that cast her case in new light. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this murder case, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes dramatizations and discussions of murder, assault, pregnancy, loss, and suicide that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. In mid-20th century England, criminal trials were a big deal. For the most salacious cases, Britain's lined up outside the courthouse in the hopes of scoring a front-row seat to the proceedings. On the morning of June 20th, 1955, a long queue formed outside London's old Bailey courthouse. Public seats were limited, but the trial promised enough intrigue to make even the possibility of getting inside worth waiting for. When the door swung open, the crowd rushed in.

Those who couldn't get a spot walked away, dejected. Those lucky enough to enter the court sat on the edges of their seats, anxious for the defense to enter the room. Everyone in London had seen the defendant's face. Her name was Ruth Ellis, and her picture was plastered on newspapers all over England. She was beautiful, a smooth-faced woman with bright red lips and closely cropped platinum blonde hair. She was thin and always well-dressed. Ruth Ellis looked like a porcelain doll. But people weren't just interested in Ruth because of how gorgeous she was.

They were fascinated by the gentle-looking woman's capacity for violence. Ruth wasn't a doll. She was a murderer. And the city of London seemed to hold its breath as her trial commenced. Welcome to Solved Murders, True Crime Mysteries, a Spotify original from Parcast. I'm your host, Carter Roy. And I'm your host, Wendy McKenzie. Every Wednesday we step into the world of true crimes, most fascinating murder cases,

and tell the tale of how real-life detectives close the case. You can find episodes of Solve Murders and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free, exclusively on Spotify. This is our final episode on the 1955 murder of David Blakely. Last week, we covered how Ruth Ellis shot David dead on a busy London street. Ruth was clearly guilty, but law enforcement's investigation failed to determine her real motive. This week we'll see how Ruth's life ended, then uncover the truth behind the crime that defined her.

We have all that and more. Coming up, stay with us. On April 10, 1955, 28-year-old Ruth Ellis shot 25-year-old David Blakely outside of London's Magdella Pub. As he bled out on the cobblestone sidewalk, Ruth found an off-duty policeman and handed over her 38-calibular.

Smith & Wesson Revolver. She was taken into custody that night and charged with murder the very next day. Authorities determined that Ruth was a hostess, club manager, and sex worker. They believed her when she said that she obtained the murder weapon from a customer at London's Little Club

three years prior. Officers also believed Ruth when she told them that she shot David after and because he ignored her over that Easter weekend, April 8th, through the 10th. But Ruth's solicitor, John Bickford, discovered numerous details

that Hampstead police had glossed over. According to John, Ruth actually got the revolver from her other lover, 32-year-old Desmond Cousin. Moreover, the medical staff at Holloway Prison discovered that David had been physically abusing Ruth and noticed bruises on her body.

Ruth also claimed that about 10 days before the murder, David beat her so badly, she suffered a miscarriage. However, in another statement, Ruth claimed that she obtained an abortion at that time. Regardless of David's abuse, the prosecution was still determined to seek the death penalty. Ruth's trial was scheduled for June 20th. That morning, a group of Londoners waited outside the court doors hoping they might get to see the then-infamous Ruth Ellis. A lucky few got in. I heard she had her hair freshly bleached for the trial.

I heard she shot a man dead. Well, yes, but... But nothing. Haven't she read the papers? He was an awful man, really. And what has England come to when a woman gets to play judge, jury, and executioner? It was self-defense. It was evil.

Well, in any case. I hope they let her off. I hope to watch her hang. A hush fell over the courtroom as Ruth entered. The dark roots of her hair had been treated with peroxide, so her blonde was impeccable. She was smartly dressed in a black suit and elaborately made up. Although Ruth looked pristine, the prosecuting attorney tried to characterize her as jealous, amoral, cold-blooded, and greedy.

He emphasized the fact that she was of a much lower socioeconomic status than her victim. This was important because at the time, classism was common. Emphasizing Ruth's class was a way to dehumanize her and make her seem more desperate and conniving than she actually was. The prosecutor argued that Ruth was driven by jealousy. When she couldn't secure a promise of marriage from the wealthy David, she decided to kill him. In response, the defense tried to make the case that Ruth had been driven to violence

after prolonged abuse. But the proceedings didn't go as well as John Bigford had hoped. Ruth seemed to sabotage her own chances of freedom. In front of the jury, she minimized David's cruelty. David never used a weapon. He only ever hit me with his fist or hands. In any case, I bruise very easily. It's true that he thumped me in the tummy.

I don't know whether that caused the miscarriage or not. The phrasing Ruth chose, saying David thumped her in the tummy, didn't drive home the gravity of what he'd done. Several of Ruth's friends saw the couple engaged in brutal fights and noticed injuries that David had caused. However, they were not called to testify. It's unclear why Ruth censored her story in court. The most prominent theories are that she was either too ashamed to admit to the extent of the abuse or that she loved David so much that she didn't want to further tarnish his reputation.

In contemporary terminology, it seems that Ruth may have suffered from battered woman syndrome, a form of denial and learned helplessness that results from long-term domestic violence. During the trial, however, Ruth's reluctance to speak about abuse opened the door for the jury to question and potentially discount her experience. With David's abuse now under suspicion, all the prosecution had to do was prove that she shot the bullets that killed him. This was achieved with one simple question. Miss Ellis, what did you intend when you shot the revolver at the victim?

It is obvious when I shot him I intended to kill him. There you have it. With that single inquiry, Ruth's fate. was sealed. Still, more people testified, including a psychologist, who said Ruth was hysterical and jealous, and this likely clouded her ability to reason.

Surprisingly, Desmond Cousin, Ruth's other lover, also testified, but he wasn't cross-examined or pressed for more details. He echoed the statement he previously made to law enforcement, insisting that Ruth got the revolver from a man at the little club. Really, though, none of this testimony mattered. Nobody pressed Desmond on the real origin of the weapon, and in mid-20th century England,

research on the psychological effects of domestic abuse was still in its infancy. Although some people certainly sympathized with Ruth's pregnancy loss and general misfortune with men, David's abuse had not been described in enough detail to justify it as a motive for her actions. There was only the fact that Ruth brazenly admitted she shot the revolver with deadly intent, meaning she had confessed to a murder punishable by death.

Things looked grim. After less than a day and a half of testimony, the jury left to deliberate. Only 15 minutes later, they returned with their verdict. Ruth Ellis was guilty of murder. For her crime, she would be hung. Her execution was scheduled for July 13th, only three weeks after her verdict was returned. She left the courtroom exactly as she'd entered, quiet and poised. Her mask never fell, her resolve never faltered.

Ruth Ellis refused to break character. After her trial, Ruth was housed in a prison for the condemned. She was stripped of her makeup, her clothing, and her hair products. Without all of the glamour, she looked like a regular person, not the femme fatale she'd been made out to be. While sitting on death row, Ruth fell into a depression. What? You've got to eat something.

I'm not hungry. Ruth. Do you have a spare cigarette? I can let you out for a smoke if you promised to eat dinner afterwards. I'll have some tea. Tea isn't food. Tea with a biscuit then. Fine.

Despite her withdrawal, there were still people who cared about Ruth and wanted to make her last days brighter. She received flowers from numerous friends and acquaintances. Her solicitor, John Bickford, tried to convince her to appeal, but she refused. Ruth was utterly resigned to her own death. Yet newspapers and other media outlets were full of varying viewpoints on Ruth's fate. Many argued that death was far too cruel a punishment. How can the law be so savage? If Ruth Ellis is hanged, a day will certainly come when the act will be condemned as one of subservience to an outworn legal code.

This punishment originates from the depths of brutality. It seemed she was hardly given a chance. The public pushed back against the jury's verdict. Over Over 50,000 people from across Europe and the Americas signed a petition calling for Ruth's sentence to be lessened. Her mother and father wrote to the Home Secretary begging him to overturn the ruling. As fervent as Ruth's supporters were, however, her opponents were equally impassioned. They cited the fact that if Ruth got off, it would set a dangerous precedent. The Home Secretary agreed.

Ruth's verdict would not be overturned. On July 13th, she was headed to the gallows. Up next, Ruth meets the executioner. Hi, listeners, it's Wendy. When you think of a criminal, what do you picture? Do you picture a murderer, a gangster, a thief? I bet you didn't think it could be the mother around the corner or the little old lady next door.

In the hit series, female criminals, you'll investigate the lives of the world's most notorious female felons and explore the stories behind their dangerous crimes. From serial killers and assassins to bank robbers and drug lords, female criminals is like a mystery and crime documentary rolled into one. The psychology, the motivations, the atrocities. This Spotify original from Parcast examines it all. So start picturing criminals in a new light.

Follow female criminals free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. episodes air weekly every Wednesday. And now, back to the story. On June 20th, 1955, 28-year-old Ruth Ellis went to trial for the murder of her lover, 25-year-old David Blakely. The defense testified to David's physical abuse and argued that just 10 days before the crime, he beat Ruth so badly it resulted in a miscarriage. Unfortunately, Ruth was also upfront about the fact that she shot David with deadly intent, which effectively sealed her fate. After deliberating for just 15 minutes, the jury returned a guilty verdict. Ruth's execution was scheduled for July 13th.

Regardless of the considerable public outcry against the ruling, the Home Secretary refused to soften her punishment. The day before her execution, Ruth's mother and her sister Muriel came to visit her. When speaking about that day, Muriel said, Ruth was very calm. I believe she thought that at the last minute, they'd say, you'll go to prison instead. By the time our visit ended, I was so choked I couldn't even say goodbye.

I just collapsed on the steps and sobbed. That was the final day of Ruth's life. The next morning, she woke early, knowing a crowd was sure to gather at her execution, she applied a thin layer of makeup from a compact that played La Vian Rose when it opened, like a music box. Just like the investigation and the trial, everything moved too quickly.

The final moments of Ruth's life flew by, and by 9 a.m. it was time to go. One prison staff member offered her a sedative, but she refused the drugs. Ruth's noose was set up in the execution chamber. Outside, a crowd of over 800 people had gathered to witness her final moments. Some say that on the morning of her death, Ruth's face betrayed no fear and no regret. The whole affair was taken care of quickly and professionally.

One moment Ruth was there, and the next, she wasn't. Immediately following Ruth's death, there was quiet. Some Britons believed justice had been served. Others thought Ruth had been unfairly punished. Either way, there was nothing more to be done. After the execution, the British government heard, claims that Desmond Cusson played a larger role in the crime than they previously thought. Based on previously withheld information from Bickford and the testimonies of others, it seemed that Desmond might have pushed Ruth to commit the murder out of romantic jealousy.

In any case, if he gave her the gun and drove her to the pub that night, he had clearly been an accomplice. Unfortunately, there was no way to prove Desmond's involvement. A few years after Ruth's execution, he fled to Australia. Even if he had still been in England, the only person who could have testified against him was Ruth, and she was dead. It was an embarrassing situation to say the least. The rushed nature of Ruth's case resulted in gross mishandling. Worse yet, she was not the only one to suffer this experience.

At least two other people were unfairly executed between 1950 and 1955. In response, the British public pushed for justice system reform. Bible says, thou shalt not kill. The Bible says, Thou shalt not kill! State sanction hanging is against God's will. Ultimately, the protests and lobbying efforts worked. In 1957, Parliament passed the Homicide Act, which restricted the use of execution as a punishment for murder.

In addition, this law said that if a perpetrator committed a crime while suffering from a medical condition, Like Ruth's spattered woman syndrome, their charges could potentially be reduced. Eight years later, Parliament went even further. The Murder Act of 1965 abolished the death penalty as a punishment for murder across the entire United Kingdom. Ruth Ellis was the last woman in Britain ever hanged. Because of this, the Platinum Blonde became something of a legend. under laws instituted just one decade after her death, Ruth would have lived.

She was like a ghost hanging over London, the possibility of her life cut short, her memory tarnished by misinformation that she herself helped spread. Yet another tragic part of Ruth's story, which came after her own death and David's murder, was the family dissolution that followed her demise. At the time of Ruth's death, her son, year old Andy was away at boarding school. Her daughter, three-year-old Georgina, was living with her father, Ruth's ex-husband. Three years after the execution, Georgina's father died by suicide, leaving her an orphan. She was soon adopted and lived a relatively normal life until she died of cancer in 2001 at age 50.

Andy, on the other hand, was much more affected by the loss of his mother because he'd been away at boarding school, he never got to tell Ruth goodbye, a detail that haunted him for the rest of his days. There are very few records of Andy's life. According to Carol Ann Lee's book, A Fine Day for a Hanging, he spent much of his childhood and young adulthood under the care of a strict boarding school. During these years, Andy was understandably depressed and withdrawn. As an adult, Andy lived alone in a shabby, London flat. He drank heavily and obsessed over the details of his mother's case. Sometime in early 1982, 37-year-old Andy contacted Christmas Humphreys, the prosecutor who argued

against Ruth in court. The men met up and Andy recorded their conversation. ...paining to my mother's case, said something I believe to be untrue. What's that? About my mother. You do read. remember my mother, don't you? Yeah. I just said that she was cold-blooded. It's to be an untruth. If Andy wanted an apology from the man who helped send his mother to the gallows,

that wasn't what he got. However, Humphreys recognized Andy's distress and reportedly offered him financial help and an appointment with a psychiatrist. It's unclear if Andy ever accepted this assistance. Nevertheless, this meeting seemed to be one of the last things in Andy needed to do. He wanted to set the record straight, but after that he was finished with everything. 37-year-old Andy died by suicide in May, 1982.

And because Andy was so socially disconnected, it took weeks before anyone realized he was dead. Andy! Andy, you're a week late on rent. I can't keep making exceptions for you. If you don't open up the door, I'm going to get the master key and open myself. Fine. Oh my God. Andy's death was tragic, not only in manner but also in consequence. When David's murder was being investigated, not a single detective bothered to question Andy about the events of April 8th through the 10th. His potential as a witness was completely ignored. Any details Andy had to offer died with him, or at least that's how it seemed. After his death, a few determined journalists, authors, and documentary filmmakers revisited the original documents

from Ruth's arrest. They looked at witness statements, police reports, medical records, solicitor John Bickford's writings, and more. One thing became abundantly clear. The Hampstead police had failed from the get-go because they never established a complete and accurate timeline of the events leading up to David's murder. Author Carol Ann Lee and documentary filmmaker Jillian Pactor both played integral roles in revealing what really happened between Ruth and David. They not only established the timeline, but they also went back further before the crime. And what they found about Ruth and David's childhoods could have primed the pair for the destruction to come. Coming up, we learned the truth about Ruth and David's deadly relationship.

Now back to the story. A decade after 28-year-old Ruth Ellis was executed in 1955, the United Kingdom outlawed the use of capital punishment for murderers. Ruth was the last woman ever hanged in the United Kingdom, and because of this, her story took on qualities of myth and legend. In other words, she was sensationalized, stereotyped, and widely misunderstood. After her son Andy died by suicide in 1982, it seemed like the truth died with him. However, numerous journalists, artists and filmmakers, namely author Carol Ann Lee and

documentarian Jillian Pacter, worked to bring more facts about the Ruth Ellis case to light. To really understand Ruth and her victim, 25-year-old David Blakely, we have to examine their origins. Ruth was a child. Her father was a child, her father. made steady money as a professional musician. However, in the late 1930s, as World War II loomed on the horizon, he was no longer able to hold a steady job. According to Ruth's sister Muriel, he became physically and sexually abusive. In the early 1940s, a teenage Ruth dropped out of school and moved with family members to London. Once there, Ruth quickly realized that her looks were her power. Men liked her, and she could use that to her advantage.

But although her beauty and charm brought money, they also brought problems. At 17 years old, she got pregnant and gave birth to Andy, whose father was quickly out of the picture. Struggling to care for herself and her son, Ruth started modeling for a living. Let your blouse fall off your shoulder a bit. Like this? Perfect. Actually, let's just get rid of the blouse altogether. What?

You know, make it a little racy, it'll sell better. Um... Lose the blouse and I'll double your pay. Like this? Beautiful. Smile. Soon, Ruth was regularly modeling nude. After the war ended in 1945, she got a job as a hostess at a nightclub, where she eventually learned she was excited.

expected to engage in sex work for extra cash. Abuse and disrespect were so common that they became the norm in her life instead of the exception. By the time she was 25, in 1951 she had another child, her daughter Georgina. She had also gotten married, but divorced soon after the birth. Her ex-husband, like most of the men she knew in her life, was a heavy drinker with a penchant for violence. It seemed that nothing in Ruth's experience led her to believe that healthy relationships with men were possible. There was always an element of danger in her romances, and her love affair with David was no different. While Ruth was conditioned to accept mistreatment, David was conditioned to deal it out.

As a child, he saw his father beat up and cheat on his mother, normalizing domestic abuse. After his mother filed for divorce in 1940, she quickly married an extravagantly wealthy businessman who had a massive estate. Eleven-year-old David and his siblings finished their schooling at posh private institutions on their stepfather's dime. David, it seemed, absorbed the worst aspects of both his father and stepfather. He was short-tempered and pretentious. During school, he showed a complete lack of work ethic. After he graduated, he didn't have any professional ambitions. He only cared about race cars, and he had plenty of money to indulge that expensive interest.

David was a good driver, but he'd yet to achieve racing fame. In 1953, he was still struggling to make his mark and was seeking validation. Perhaps that's why he entered London's little club, where a recently divorced platinum blonde hostess was ready to offer him a seat. Hi there, bar or table? Table. Anybody else joining you? Just me tonight, unless you'd like to share a drink.

I suppose I could. My name's David. You can call me Ruthie. And what are you doing here, Ruthie? Working, of course. When do you get off? Soon? And then what will you do?

My flats just upstairs. 26-year-old Ruth and 24-year-old David soon spent the night together in her flat. She tried her best to hide her lower-class origins, while David did all he could to flaunt his wealth and status. As much as she wanted to shrug David off, Ruth liked him. A lot. Two weeks later, he moved in with her. Ruth and David were an item, but they hid things from each other. David wouldn't bring Ruth home to meet his family, likely because he didn't believe she was respectable. Ruth continued flirting at the bar with her customers when she needed to and was likely seeing other men.

The nature of her work was a point of contention from the beginning. I've never been very good at poker. Here, let me help you. Ruthie. What? Get your hands off the man's shoulders. I'm just trying to see his cards. Why would you look at his cards if we're playing poker?

Are you too stupid to know that's cheating? It's okay. I suppose you're quite comfortable with cheating anyway, aren't you? David. Aren't you? Or am I imagining things? Am I imagining the way all those men at the little club look at you, Ruth? They look at you like they know you very well.

I should be leaving now. David's jealousy and suspicion were constant. It was a strange dynamic and one Ruth didn't fully understand until a couple of months later, in November of 1953. One morning she opened up the newspaper to see a report that said David Blakely

was engaged to be married to another woman. Ruth was furious. Suddenly, their relationship made perfect sense. She realized she was never meant to be David's wife or even his girlfriend. She was meant to be his mistress, his secret, shameful lover. It's unclear whether Ruth was motivated by spite or by the desire to make David jealous. But around this time, she started growing closer to 31-year-old Desmond Cusson, who she believed was in love with her.

Soon, Desmond became more than just her close friend. They started sleeping together in the summer of 1954. She told him about the abuse that David had subjected her to. David gave me a black eye, you know? A black eye in the parking lot outside the pub where he said I could finally meet his mother. But he changed his mind and wouldn't let me in. We had a row about it. The problem was Ruth had grown accustomed to abuse.

It may have begun with her father and was followed by, predatory photographers, club customers, her ex-husband, and now David, Ruth had never been in a healthy relationship, and probably had no hope that one was even possible. So she continued to put up with David's behavior, even as seeds of resentment, fury, and self-hatred sprouted inside her. As 1954 continued, things became increasingly difficult to handle. In July, David told Ruth, he'd broken things off with his fiance and promised to be faithful, but only because his inheritance was running awfully low.

Somehow, he'd squandered the vast majority of his money on cars, alcohol, and of course, other women. Inside Ruth's flat, tensions were high. I know what you've been up to. You must really think I'm some kind of idiot. Unbutton your collar, David. Show me the marks all those other words. women laughed on you. What marks? Don't act stupid. These marks!

These marks right here. Get off me! Then get out of my flat! David left, but as usual, he came back. He and Ruth were caught in a cycle of violence. Ruth's body was spotted with bruises and scratches. She was so much smaller than David, it was practically impossible for her to defend herself.

The stress of the relationship took a major toll on her. During one period she reportedly drank around a half a bottle of gin and smoked up to 50 cigarettes a day. She was a nervous wreck, living in an alcoholic fog, slowly becoming unhinged from reality. Ruth lost her job at the Little Club in December, 1954. With nowhere else to go, she and Andy moved in with Desmond. Still, Ruth was very much in love with David.

They continued sleeping together every so often, and in March, 1955, Ruth found out she was pregnant with David's child. With a baby on the way, Ruth might have imagined the pregnancy would change David's behavior, but the patterns of the past prevailed. According to Ruth, in the final days of March, she and David had a horrible fight. He left her bruised and her ear temporarily deafened. At one point he hit her in the stomach, which may have resulted in a miscarriage. It's likely that this was Ruth's breaking point.

She'd spent her life being pushed around and abused. She could get past the bruises, but this was unforgivable. Ruth was grieving the loss of her child, but she was also nursing a new emotion, pure unadulterable. hatred. It might have been around this time during the first week of April, 1995, that she asked Desmond to take her out for target practice. Your aim's getting better. Still needs more work, though. Although she lied about where she got the gun, part of Ruth's story about the murder was true. David was supposed to pick her up around 8 p.m. on Friday, April 8th, but he never showed up. When she tried to get in touch, he ignored her. Desmond drove Ruth to David's friend's house,

the Finn Lutters, where she assumed he would be. Although his car was parked outside, he refused to come out and speak to her. Ruth saw red. David symbolized all of the abusive men in her life, people who used her and threw her away like she was nothing. She was tired of being treated like trash. If she couldn't hurt David, she would hurt his most prized possession. While hid inside the Finn Lutter's house, she bashed in his car windows. The next day, Saturday, April 8th, David didn't come home. Ruth, who had stayed up all night, waited until 8 a.m. to start calling him again. Then she sat by the phone waiting to hear from him. She didn't.

So Ruth called Desmond and asked Tim to pick her up. Throughout that Saturday afternoon, Ruth and Desmond drank, then drove around looking for signs of David. According to Carol Ann Lee's book about the case, 10-year-old Andy was sent by himself to the zoo. By early evening, Ruth was properly drunk. She decided they would continue their search for him on Sunday. He thinks he's clever. The man is a fool.

I bet, you know, Desmond, I bet if we drove down to Hampstead, we'd find his car sitting outside of some pub. I would, I'm telling you, I would kill him right this minute if I could. Ruth told the police she traveled in a taxi to find David on Easter Sunday evening, which seemed to be a half-truth at best. According to John Bickford, she did take a cab, but only because Desmond happened to own one.

Around 7 o'clock, Desmond drove Ruth and Andy back home where she tucked her son into bed. Then Ruth, still slightly intoxicated, grabbed a revolver, put it in her handbag, and left in Desmond's car. At approximately 9 p.m., Ruth and Desmond rolled through Hampstead looking for David's car. Just like Ruth expected, it didn't take long to find it parked outside of the Magdella pub. She hopped out of the cab. According to most reconstructions of the event, Desmond then drove away. With her platinum blonde hair peeking out from under the brim of her hat, Ruth paced back and forth in front of the bar.

It was time. She just had to wait for the perfect moment to strike. Around 9.20 p.m., David and his friend Clive walked out of the bar. They were smiling and chatting, already half drunk, and excited about the party they were heading to. Ruth watched the men for a moment, suddenly very sober, but awash with a feeling of unreality. Ruth followed David and Clive around the corner, then pulled the revolver out of her handbag and started firing. Six shots rang out in quick succession. Four of those struck David, who buckled and fell under the cobblestone sidewalk.

Immediately the street filled with onlookers. One man ran out of the Magdala pub and approached Ruth, who still had the murder weapon in her hand. It took her a moment to process what she'd done and asked the man to phone the police. As it turned out, that man was an off-duty metropolitan police officer. He called an ambulance for David, but it was already too late. In a matter of minutes, authorities arrived and brought Ruth to the station, where she immediately confessed to the murder. She neglected to mention Desmond's involvement, David's abuse, or her lost pregnancy.

Saving face didn't matter because Ruth didn't care what happened to her. Before she ever fired the revolver, she knew the death penalty might be her. her punishment. But that was a sacrifice she was willing to make. She was tired of living in a world that always seemed to be working against her. Three months later, Ruth Ellis became the last woman ever hanged in the United Kingdom. Her legacy lives on in part because her story could have ended so differently. Today, capital punishment is outlawed across the entire United Kingdom, and modern legal precedents better protect victims of domestic abuse. Without the toxic influences of his father's domestic violence

and his culture's misogyny and classism, David may have never been cruel, and Ruth may have never become a killer. Thanks again for tuning into solved murders. We'll be back next Wednesday with a new episode. For more information on David Blakely and Ruth Ellis, Amongst the many sources we used, we found a fine day for a hanging, the real Ruth Ellis story by Carol Ann Lee,

and the Ruth Ellis Files, a very British crime directed by Gillian Pachter, extremely helpful to our research. You can find all episodes of Solved Murders and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. If we live till next time. Solve murders, true crime. Mysteries is a Spotify original from Parcast. It is executive produced by Max Cutler, sound design by Brian Garlab, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Carly Madden, and

Freddie Beckley. This episode of Solve Murders was written by Karris Allen, with writing assistance by Giles Hofsef, fact-checking by Claire Cronin, and research by Mickey Taylor. The amazing cast of voice actors includes Tom Bauer, Joe Hernandez, Eddie Lee, Laura Faye Smith, and Rebecca Thomas. Solved Murder stars Wendy McKenzie and Carter Roy.