0:00:02 > 0:00:03This is a photograph of a bedroom,
0:00:03 > 0:00:08where the dead body of a 37-year-old man was found in 1982.
0:00:08 > 0:00:09OK, let's do it.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting
0:00:13 > 0:00:15I'm reconstructing it
0:00:15 > 0:00:18because I want to know more about the man who lived here.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25The man's family retrieved this photo from his room after his death.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32His body had lain undiscovered for weeks.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35There were flies and blood everywhere.
0:00:40 > 0:00:41Inside a drawer was a cassette,
0:00:41 > 0:00:46which the man recorded shortly before his death.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11You've probably never heard of this man, Andrea,
0:01:11 > 0:01:15who had a troubled life and went by different surnames -
0:01:15 > 0:01:18Turner, Nielsen, Hornby, McCallum.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20But you may well know something about his mother.
0:01:24 > 0:01:25Her name was Ruth Ellis.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30She's known for being the last woman hanged in Britain
0:01:30 > 0:01:33and after many months of investigation,
0:01:33 > 0:01:37that's one of the few facts about her case I can still be sure of.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46- NEWSREEL:- On June 21st,
0:01:46 > 0:01:49Ruth Ellis was found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey
0:01:49 > 0:01:52'and sentenced to death in accordance with the law.
0:01:52 > 0:01:53'On July the 13th...'
0:01:53 > 0:01:57Ruth Ellis is one of Britain's most famous female killers
0:01:58 > 0:02:03and her case is one of the most controversial in British history.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07Her execution was met with huge protest
0:02:07 > 0:02:12and a feeling among many that the legal system had let her down.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18The shockwaves created by her case helped change the law.
0:02:20 > 0:02:25Soon after, the defence of diminished responsibility was introduced
0:02:25 > 0:02:28and murder has never been tried in the same way again.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35My name's Gillian Pachter.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39Normally, I make documentaries about killers in America, where murder
0:02:39 > 0:02:42is still punishable by death in 31 states,
0:02:43 > 0:02:47so I'm fascinated by Ruth and her legacy in the UK.
0:02:50 > 0:02:55In this series, I'm going to take a look at her crime as an outsider,
0:02:55 > 0:02:59examining not only the law, but the forces in post-war society
0:02:59 > 0:03:02which both created and destroyed Ruth Ellis.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06She was a woman being judged by the standards of the day,
0:03:06 > 0:03:10which were shockingly discriminatory against women.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14And, secondly, she was the victim of class prejudice.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17With the help of top experts, I'm going to examine original
0:03:17 > 0:03:19evidence from the police investigation,
0:03:19 > 0:03:21trial and execution.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24Welcome to the Central Criminal Court.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27I want to know whether Ruth's fate was an inevitable consequence of her
0:03:27 > 0:03:32actions, or whether in 1950s Britain, Lady Justice got it wrong.
0:03:33 > 0:03:38The thing that keeps nagging people about this case is that things
0:03:38 > 0:03:41- were not put before the jury. - There was no injustice.
0:03:41 > 0:03:47The law was applied entirely justly for 1955.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52If the whole trial had been handled differently,
0:03:52 > 0:03:57even by the standards of 1955, she could have lived.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02I'm also going to try to piece together evidence that never
0:04:02 > 0:04:06appeared in court and recover the testimony of a key witness.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08GUNSHOT
0:04:08 > 0:04:12If they'd interviewed Andrea, even for ten minutes,
0:04:12 > 0:04:14they would've found out more.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21I've arrived at the scene of the crime...
0:04:23 > 0:04:25..about 60 years too late.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28The Magdala Pub in Hampstead, north London.
0:04:31 > 0:04:37It shut about a year ago and reminds me of a ghost town, a ghost pub.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45It was, on the face of it, an open-and-shut case of murder.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52Ruth Ellis, a 28-year-old working-class nightclub hostess,
0:04:52 > 0:04:55had been living on and off with David Blakely,
0:04:55 > 0:04:56a posh racing car driver.
0:04:58 > 0:04:59When he tried to leave her,
0:04:59 > 0:05:04she tracked him down to the Magdala Pub on the 10th of April, 1955...
0:05:04 > 0:05:08- Are you crazy? Put down that gun. - GUNSHOTS
0:05:08 > 0:05:10You...
0:05:12 > 0:05:16..and fired six bullets, four of which hit their target.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22I wonder if anyone around here still knows about Ruth Ellis.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25- Did you know about this pub? - Yeah, I know about this pub, yeah.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28What's the story of what happened? What do you know about this place?
0:05:28 > 0:05:33I think there were two lovers and the boyfriend was shot down
0:05:33 > 0:05:36on that corner, but I don't know about those spots.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38They are saying that it is fake ones.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40- The bullet holes? - The bullet holes, yeah.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43- What do you think? - It's a fake one, I think so.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48He's right. The bullet holes were an afterthought
0:05:48 > 0:05:50by an enterprising landlady.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55Ruth's crime sounds like a scene from classic film noir,
0:05:57 > 0:05:59right down to the Smith & Wesson gun she used.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06From the moment that she stepped into the dock, Ruth Ellis
0:06:06 > 0:06:10became a mythologised figure, written about as a femme fatale.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18An ambitious nightclub hostess.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20Please hurry, it's terribly urgent.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22A platinum blonde with a put-on accent
0:06:22 > 0:06:24to hide her working-class roots.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28A Diana Dors type would-be starlet.
0:06:28 > 0:06:30GUNSHOTS
0:06:32 > 0:06:36A vengeful harlot shooting her lover in a pair of stilettos.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42These caricatures of Ruth still persist
0:06:42 > 0:06:44over 60 years after her death.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49I want to find out how much of this is a fair reflection and how much
0:06:49 > 0:06:51was created by a nation
0:06:51 > 0:06:54both appalled and fascinated by her crime.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00My aim is to rebuild Ruth and her crime back up from the evidence.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04Normally, I'd start with the witnesses,
0:07:04 > 0:07:06but all the witnesses are dead.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10What does exist is an extraordinary paper trail that's held
0:07:10 > 0:07:12at the National Archives in Kew, south London.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18This is the folder from the Metropolitan Police investigation
0:07:18 > 0:07:20into the case.
0:07:22 > 0:07:24Inside it is Ruth's statement.
0:07:26 > 0:07:32Ruth Ellis, 44 Egerton Gardens, Kensington, W14.
0:07:34 > 0:07:35Occupation - model.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39"I understand what has been said.
0:07:39 > 0:07:41"I am guilty, I am rather confused."
0:07:43 > 0:07:44And now I'll summarise.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53She says she has been living with David for the past two years
0:07:54 > 0:07:58and when he failed to show up on the evening of Good Friday, the 8th of
0:07:58 > 0:08:02April, 1955, she rang his friends,
0:08:02 > 0:08:04a couple called Anthony and Carole Findlater,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07who lived on Tanza Road in Hampstead.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11Anthony says that David isn't there,
0:08:13 > 0:08:16so Ruth goes over there by taxi,
0:08:16 > 0:08:20discovers David's car parked outside and pushes in the windows.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25David doesn't return to her on Saturday.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30She rings the Findlaters' flat again on the morning of Easter Sunday,
0:08:30 > 0:08:31the 10th of April.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38At 8pm, she puts her son to bed, puts a gun in her handbag...
0:08:40 > 0:08:42..takes a taxi to the Magdala Pub...
0:08:43 > 0:08:45..and shoots David dead.
0:08:45 > 0:08:48GUNSHOTS
0:08:48 > 0:08:51So far, this actually seems pretty open and shut.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56We've got a motive, which is that she's angry at David,
0:08:56 > 0:09:00and the murder weapon and an admission of guilt.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04Yes, I killed him!
0:09:04 > 0:09:07I wish I could've done it a hundred times.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14So far, it still feels like the tidy plot of a film and the film's called
0:09:14 > 0:09:16Ruth Ellis - Guilty As Sin.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23I want to look into Ruth's statement further,
0:09:24 > 0:09:30but in order to interpret testimony from 1955, I need help.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32So I've recruited two retired Metropolitan Police
0:09:32 > 0:09:35murder squad detectives.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37Andy Rose joined the Met in 1980
0:09:37 > 0:09:42and holds a degree in investigative forensic psychology.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46Brian Hook joined in 1976, rising to the rank of a specialist
0:09:46 > 0:09:49crime scene investigator in homicide.
0:09:50 > 0:09:55Brian suggests meeting at the Crown Pub in Penn, Buckinghamshire.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57These days they teach forensic science
0:09:57 > 0:10:01at the University of West London, using Ruth Ellis as a case study.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04I want to start with Ruth's statement
0:10:04 > 0:10:07and your thoughts about it. I mean, anything that occurs to you
0:10:07 > 0:10:08that can help me...
0:10:08 > 0:10:12I want to see if Andy and Brian agree that this is basically
0:10:12 > 0:10:14a slam dunk for the prosecution.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18The interesting thing is that it's a confession to murder
0:10:19 > 0:10:21and it's three pages long.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24Three or fewer pages to confess to a murder,
0:10:24 > 0:10:28certainly in this day and age, would be unheard of.
0:10:28 > 0:10:30There's nothing in there. There's no timing in there,
0:10:30 > 0:10:34there's nothing about how long she was outside the pub,
0:10:34 > 0:10:35has she ever fired a gun before?
0:10:35 > 0:10:38There's nothing to kind of get below the surface,
0:10:38 > 0:10:42and effectively what you have here is a precis of events and it's
0:10:42 > 0:10:47almost a cherry picking, isn't it, of things that would go to prove
0:10:48 > 0:10:52the offence that she's been arrested for, which is, you know, murder.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55What initially seemed like a comprehensive statement
0:10:55 > 0:10:57actually lacks key information.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01Instead of taking down raw evidence to aid the investigation,
0:11:01 > 0:11:05the detectives seem to be trying to tie things up right from the start.
0:11:05 > 0:11:10- There's your man, Sergeant. Well?- We did it again.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14The interesting thing I find about this statement is that the very
0:11:14 > 0:11:17first line is, "I understand what's been said.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20"I am guilty. I am rather confused."
0:11:20 > 0:11:25And that's probably as close as it gets to some sort of explanation
0:11:25 > 0:11:28for why she did it. I'm guilty, but I'm a bit confused.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32That's my first question - why are you confused?
0:11:32 > 0:11:34And whatever it was she said,
0:11:34 > 0:11:38I would then want to unpick that piece by piece.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43I'd want to know what the circumstances were
0:11:43 > 0:11:45that led up to this single act.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50Andy and Brian have exposed big holes in the statement.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55It doesn't give enough information about the background to the murder,
0:11:55 > 0:11:57or Ruth's motive.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01Why were the original detectives in such a hurry to tie things up?
0:12:02 > 0:12:06I skip ahead to the report the detective chief inspector submits
0:12:06 > 0:12:08at the end of the investigation.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12He concludes that Ruth's action was coldly premeditated.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16How on earth did the investigation
0:12:16 > 0:12:19get from "I'm confused" to coldly premeditated?
0:12:22 > 0:12:24I look through the folders
0:12:24 > 0:12:27at the National Archives to see if they questioned her again.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30There's nothing else in the police files,
0:12:30 > 0:12:34but I do find something from Holloway Prison, where Ruth was held
0:12:34 > 0:12:36throughout the investigation.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39Ruth explains to the prison doctor
0:12:39 > 0:12:43that the bruise on her thigh is a result of David knocking her about.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48She says that David had hit her
0:12:48 > 0:12:52in the ear so hard that she went temporarily deaf.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56She also refers to an abortion or miscarriage that happened
0:12:56 > 0:12:58two to four weeks before the shooting.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04It seems extraordinary that neither came up in Ruth's statement
0:13:04 > 0:13:05to the police.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11Both the violence and the miscarriage or abortion are issues
0:13:11 > 0:13:12I want to investigate further.
0:13:16 > 0:13:21- Thank you.- I wonder whether they could undermine the DCI's conclusion
0:13:21 > 0:13:23that the murder was coldly premeditated.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28Across the road from the Crown Pub is the churchyard where David
0:13:28 > 0:13:32is buried. Do you know? That makes me quite sad.
0:13:32 > 0:13:33- It is.- It's really sad.
0:13:33 > 0:13:38It's saying he was born in '29, he died in '55.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40That made him...
0:13:40 > 0:13:42- 26.- Was he 26?
0:13:42 > 0:13:43Yeah.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46And people don't talk about the victim.
0:13:46 > 0:13:48No, no.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52David's murder made Ruth famous,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55but he wasn't there to give his side of the story.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03Seeing this picture is a shocking reminder
0:14:03 > 0:14:05of the brutality of Ruth's act.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11- NEWSREEL:- And there they go. It's a 680-mile course,
0:14:11 > 0:14:13so they won't be back until midnight.
0:14:13 > 0:14:14David was a racing car driver.
0:14:17 > 0:14:22This is Pathe newsreel from the 1952 Goodwood Races in Sussex.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27Almost at once, the Jaguars are in the lead.
0:14:27 > 0:14:29Stirling Moss, number one's lying second,
0:14:29 > 0:14:31with two HRGs close up behind him.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34That's him in number 39.
0:14:37 > 0:14:42Only around 15% of people in Britain even owned a car back then,
0:14:42 > 0:14:44let alone a racing car.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50This is a picture of Ruth at the races with David.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54She made champagne picnics for him and his friends.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59She seems like a working-class girl trying hard to fit in.
0:15:01 > 0:15:07I look for people who knew David and find this man, Laurie Manifold,
0:15:07 > 0:15:09who met him through a shared passion for Singer cars.
0:15:14 > 0:15:15Gosh, it's so pretty.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17- Oh, yeah.- I just hope I don't crash it.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20Well, the one I drove was the same as this to start with.
0:15:20 > 0:15:21It had a smaller engine,
0:15:21 > 0:15:23then I drove one with a slightly bigger engine.
0:15:23 > 0:15:28He agrees to let me take him for a spin in a 1953 Singer Roadster.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35So would David and Ruth have driven in a car like this?
0:15:35 > 0:15:38This was the sort of car a young man like that would have.
0:15:38 > 0:15:44Here was this chappie with a slightly plummy accent and obviously
0:15:44 > 0:15:48a bit classy. This would've been paradise to a working-class girl
0:15:48 > 0:15:52of those days to be taken out in a car like this.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55GEARS CRUNCH Argh!
0:15:55 > 0:15:57Laurie actually met Ruth, too,
0:15:57 > 0:16:01when David brought her along to a car club meeting.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04It was fairly shortly before the actual murder.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08It wasn't very long before that, and it struck me that there was
0:16:08 > 0:16:12something very strange and remote about her.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15Somewhat of a striking figure, I must admit,
0:16:15 > 0:16:20because she sat in a very rigid pose.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22She was very heavily made up.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26So heavily made up that her face was, to me,
0:16:26 > 0:16:32a blonde mask on a protective shell under which she disguised all her
0:16:32 > 0:16:35natural warmth and emotions.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38What you might call a hard case.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42This expression is new to me.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46A hard case, meaning a tough and intractable person.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49How did she become a hard case?
0:16:50 > 0:16:53The DCI's 20th of April report
0:16:53 > 0:16:56on Ruth's background doesn't really provide answers.
0:16:56 > 0:16:58According to this report,
0:16:58 > 0:17:02she was born on the 9th of October 1926 in Rhyl,
0:17:02 > 0:17:05North Wales, and later moved with her family to London.
0:17:07 > 0:17:08Her father was a musician
0:17:08 > 0:17:11and travelled the country playing in cinemas.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17Ruth fell pregnant by an American Air Force officer, who was killed
0:17:17 > 0:17:20in action in 1944.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24What the detective doesn't know or care to mention is that her father
0:17:24 > 0:17:28lost his work, drove the family into poverty and,
0:17:28 > 0:17:32as I find out from an old interview with Ruth's sister Muriel,
0:17:32 > 0:17:33was sexually abusive.
0:17:35 > 0:17:41Well, Ruth told me that he tried to put his thingy, she called it,
0:17:41 > 0:17:45between her legs and all that and tried to perform on her
0:17:45 > 0:17:49and he kept tight to her until he satisfied himself.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54I wish I could talk to Muriel, but she died in 2013
0:17:54 > 0:17:57and when I read her book, I discover that the American Air Force
0:17:57 > 0:18:02officer was actually a married Canadian soldier,
0:18:02 > 0:18:06who, after Andrea was born, went back to his family in Quebec.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11I can see how the freedom of London during the war created ambitions
0:18:11 > 0:18:15in Ruth for things that weren't truly on offer to a girl like her.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21- NEWSREEL:- This is Soho, catering for all tastes, low included.
0:18:21 > 0:18:23Even the cats are a bit furtive.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26It's the home of the drinking class...
0:18:26 > 0:18:30So by 18, Ruth's a single mother, modelling and making ends meet.
0:18:35 > 0:18:40She dreams of stardom, gets one part as an extra in a Diana Dors movie
0:18:41 > 0:18:43and ends up posing for soft porn.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46She has a brief, unhappy marriage
0:18:46 > 0:18:51to a dental surgeon called George Ellis, who's a violent alcoholic.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54The result is a second baby, Georgina,
0:18:54 > 0:18:57who goes to live with her father at the age of two or three.
0:18:59 > 0:19:00Yeah, a hard case.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05And she then regarded men after that as punters,
0:19:05 > 0:19:09except when she met Blakely,
0:19:09 > 0:19:12and he penetrated, some way,
0:19:12 > 0:19:15what the psychiatrist might call her armour,
0:19:15 > 0:19:20and she fell for him in an emotional way, which was very unusual.
0:19:24 > 0:19:29I suspect that, like lots of us small boys of all ages,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32he dreamt of being a big racing driver.
0:19:32 > 0:19:37He was a bit fey, not all that serious or determined.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39He was a poncing playboy?
0:19:39 > 0:19:43- Is that...?- Well, poncing means living off the woman.
0:19:43 > 0:19:49He was poncing in the sense that he was for quite a time living with her
0:19:49 > 0:19:52and she was paying the expenses from her earnings.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56He really wasn't all that reliable.
0:19:56 > 0:19:58A thin sort of character really.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04After he'd taken her to a race and he'd lost, he blamed her
0:20:04 > 0:20:09for losing the race because there was some issue she'd caused.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12Perhaps some slight delay when they were going there or whatever.
0:20:12 > 0:20:17Some piddling point, and he took it out on her.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20He beat her up.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26That showed her what a bad man he was at heart really.
0:20:27 > 0:20:28He wasn't a good fellow.
0:20:31 > 0:20:36It makes you reconsider the heavy make up and look a little closer
0:20:36 > 0:20:37at some of Ruth's photos.
0:20:42 > 0:20:47The evidence that Ruth was beaten by David was hiding in plain sight.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51I'm curious whether the detectives on Ruth's case knew about it.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54I discover that they found out the day after the murder, when they took
0:20:54 > 0:20:59an 11-page statement from Desmond Cussen, a close friend of Ruth's.
0:20:59 > 0:21:04Page five talks about her coming back after staying out the previous
0:21:04 > 0:21:05Saturday. She was limping,
0:21:05 > 0:21:08she had marks on her face, as though she'd been punched.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12She was bruised all over her body and had a black eye.
0:21:12 > 0:21:17There's lots of inference in here that she was a victim of domestic
0:21:17 > 0:21:19- violence.- Is that relevant?
0:21:19 > 0:21:26Oh, absolutely it's relevant because that will give some indication as to
0:21:26 > 0:21:32her mental state and a motive for her wanting to go out and kill him.
0:21:34 > 0:21:38The violence that took place between Ruth and David would be relevant if
0:21:38 > 0:21:40Ruth were being investigated today.
0:21:44 > 0:21:49Is it possible that in, 1955, the police made no connection between
0:21:49 > 0:21:52this violence and Ruth's motive for murder?
0:21:53 > 0:21:57"To sum up, this is clearly a case of jealousy on the part of Ellis,
0:21:57 > 0:22:00"coupled with the fear that Blakely was leaving her."
0:22:03 > 0:22:08Ken German joined Hampstead Police in 1960 and served for years in the
0:22:08 > 0:22:10area where the murder took place.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13I've asked him to help assess
0:22:13 > 0:22:15the original Chief Inspector's summing up.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20"The two people concerned, Blakely and Ellis,
0:22:20 > 0:22:22"are of completely different stations in life."
0:22:24 > 0:22:27He then goes on to describe how little her parents earn
0:22:27 > 0:22:31and that David represented a leg up.
0:22:31 > 0:22:36"On meeting Blakely and realising that his class was much above her
0:22:36 > 0:22:41own and finding he was sufficiently interested in her to live with her
0:22:41 > 0:22:45"and, if we are to believe Cussen, to promise her marriage,
0:22:45 > 0:22:49"it seems she was prepared to go to any lengths to keep him.
0:22:49 > 0:22:50"Finding this impossible,
0:22:50 > 0:22:55"she appears to have decided to wreak her vengeance upon him."
0:22:55 > 0:22:57Bloody hell!
0:22:57 > 0:22:59Who does he think he is?
0:22:59 > 0:23:01Chief Inspector, was it?
0:23:01 > 0:23:02God, that's awful, isn't it?
0:23:04 > 0:23:07Did he really write that? How did he get away with it?
0:23:07 > 0:23:09Couldn't do that now.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14My God, it shows you how powerful policemen were of rank then,
0:23:14 > 0:23:18doesn't it? He's damned her, hasn't he, really, you know?
0:23:18 > 0:23:19Terrible.
0:23:21 > 0:23:25I'm getting a sense of just how much the values of the day played a part
0:23:25 > 0:23:28in the investigation of Ruth's case.
0:23:28 > 0:23:34- What was the motive - love or greed? - A bit of both, I should think.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37I wonder what response victims of domestic violence
0:23:37 > 0:23:39got from the police in 1955?
0:23:39 > 0:23:41No cause for police action.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44NCPA was an abbreviated response
0:23:44 > 0:23:48to lots of instances of domestic violence.
0:23:48 > 0:23:50Go ahead and hit me, Sam. I've got it coming.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55Back then, society was different.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00You've only got to look at films of the period and, you know,
0:24:00 > 0:24:05the archetypal screaming hysterical woman gets a good slap.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08- Where's the dough?- And that brings her round and makes her apologise
0:24:08 > 0:24:10and, "I'm so sorry, I was..." I mean,
0:24:10 > 0:24:15it's just bizarre today to think that that was an acceptable way
0:24:15 > 0:24:17to behave, but it was.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21So at the time of Ruth's arrest,
0:24:21 > 0:24:26domestic violence was treated as a private affair, rather than a legal
0:24:26 > 0:24:31matter, which is why it wouldn't strike the DCI as nearly sufficient
0:24:31 > 0:24:33motive for murder.
0:24:33 > 0:24:38After all, it was still legal to rape your wife in 1955.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44But class was a different matter.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46Against the backdrop of post-war Britain,
0:24:46 > 0:24:50that's something the DCI would take seriously.
0:24:50 > 0:24:54He writes that David's family are of some standing and highly respected
0:24:54 > 0:24:57in the neighbourhood.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01David's family lived at the Old Park, one of the grandest houses
0:25:01 > 0:25:02in Penn, Buckinghamshire.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07Brian and I have permission to come as far as the driveway.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10That's as far as Ruth ever got, too.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13David never introduced her to his mother.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17- I'd like to live here. It'd suit me. - So would I.- Yeah.
0:25:17 > 0:25:19It'd be great, wouldn't it?
0:25:19 > 0:25:23I can see why Ruth didn't want to let it go.
0:25:23 > 0:25:28Yes, and it does perhaps give a certain rationale as to why there
0:25:28 > 0:25:31was that clinging on. I think that's what it was.
0:25:31 > 0:25:36I think, you know, David Blakely wanted things to end.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40But it would be quite something to come to the gates here and know that
0:25:40 > 0:25:44your boyfriend was never going to introduce you to his mother
0:25:44 > 0:25:46because you weren't good enough, you were trash.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51No wonder the second line of her statement, her confession,
0:25:51 > 0:25:52no wonder she was confused.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00The detectives who noted the standing of David's family
0:26:00 > 0:26:03can't have looked into them in much detail.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07If they had, they'd have discovered that David's doctor father had been
0:26:07 > 0:26:12charged with murder in 1934 after administering an abortion stimulant
0:26:12 > 0:26:14called Pituitrin to his mistress.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22Anyway, if social advancement really was something Ruth desired enough
0:26:22 > 0:26:25to kill for, she could've gone down a different route.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31Desmond Cussen, who had made the statement to the police about her
0:26:31 > 0:26:34violent relationship with Blakely, wanted to marry her.
0:26:37 > 0:26:42He was wealthy, having inherited the family's chain of tobacco shops.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46He paid for Ruth's son Andrea to go to boarding school and took her in
0:26:46 > 0:26:47when she lost her job.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52He may also have played a role in the murder,
0:26:52 > 0:26:56something never proved in court and which Cussen denied until his death
0:26:56 > 0:26:57in 1991.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01Well, this is the Ruth Ellis tape.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04What is this tape? Tell me about this.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06- What is it?- Mm. - Haven't you heard it?
0:27:06 > 0:27:08Not yet.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12In addition to being a petrol head, Laurie was a crime reporter.
0:27:12 > 0:27:17He reappraised the Ruth Ellis case in the 1970s and got this cassette
0:27:17 > 0:27:18tape from her solicitor.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20Shortly before the murder,
0:27:20 > 0:27:24little tape recorders came out, you could buy them in the shops.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27Sort of a great new thing, you could record yourself.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29- NEWSREEL:- Made possible by the development
0:27:29 > 0:27:31of precision-controlled RCA Victor
0:27:31 > 0:27:34sound heads and precision balanced motors...
0:27:34 > 0:27:38And Ruth and Blakely and Cussen
0:27:38 > 0:27:42all joined in talking
0:27:42 > 0:27:44into the tape recorder.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47"Here, it's our own voice. Here, hear yourself."
0:27:47 > 0:27:50It was very novel then, you see.
0:27:50 > 0:27:52INDISTINCT TALKING ON TAPE
0:27:53 > 0:27:55WOMAN:
0:27:57 > 0:27:59MAN:
0:28:00 > 0:28:02That's him, yeah.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05- That's Cussen?- That's Cussen, yeah. The quiet voice.
0:28:05 > 0:28:06Yeah, that's him.
0:28:06 > 0:28:08Desmond was a frequent visitor
0:28:08 > 0:28:11to the nightclubs where Ruth worked.
0:28:11 > 0:28:14And she's talking in a sort of fake accent.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16Well, that was the club accent, you see.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18Oh, yes, yes.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21She wouldn't talk as a working-class accent in the club,
0:28:21 > 0:28:24so to have the classy bird act, that's it.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28Oh, yes, that was part of her equipment.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48I'm struck by the casual way she threatens to give Desmond
0:28:48 > 0:28:51a black eye and talks about getting one from David.
0:29:25 > 0:29:29It sounds as though Ruth is in bed with Desmond,
0:29:29 > 0:29:32but she can't stop talking about David.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35It makes me wonder about the role Desmond played in Ruth's life.
0:29:37 > 0:29:40We're building up a picture here of two separate relationships,
0:29:40 > 0:29:43aren't we? One, our eventual victim, Blakely.
0:29:43 > 0:29:47And then Cussen, who seems to be the sort of person in the middle here,
0:29:47 > 0:29:51who's motivation is, certainly at this point,
0:29:51 > 0:29:55- is, I think, unknown and slightly suspect.- Mm-hm.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02If the police at the time regarded Desmond as suspicious,
0:30:02 > 0:30:08they made no note of it, but I find his statement strange.
0:30:08 > 0:30:11He gives a great deal of background information on the months leading up
0:30:11 > 0:30:13to the murder, including details
0:30:13 > 0:30:16of Ruth and David's violent relationship.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20But on Easter weekend itself, he's surprisingly vague.
0:30:22 > 0:30:26Good Friday, he says he drove her to Tanza Road, Hampstead,
0:30:26 > 0:30:29where she pushed in the windows of David's car.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32He can't remember Saturday.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35And there's very little detail on Easter Sunday,
0:30:35 > 0:30:36the day of the murder.
0:30:36 > 0:30:40Just that he spent the day with Ruth and her ten-year-old son Andrea,
0:30:40 > 0:30:43dropping them home at 7:30pm.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47Ruth's statement provides no more detail
0:30:47 > 0:30:49on the hours before the murder.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52Just that she put Andrea to bed at 8pm.
0:30:52 > 0:30:56One thing these statements do have in common is that they both mention
0:30:56 > 0:31:01Ruth's son, which makes me wonder what Andrea had to say.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04But there's no statement from him.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07Perhaps they thought a ten-year old wouldn't have anything to contribute
0:31:07 > 0:31:10or that asking him might be too traumatic.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16I ask an ex-colleague of Brian and Andy's called Louise Charrington,
0:31:16 > 0:31:18a retired Metropolitan Police detective,
0:31:18 > 0:31:22who specialised in interviewing children.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25Would you be interested in speaking to her son?
0:31:25 > 0:31:28100%, most definitely.
0:31:28 > 0:31:29Most definitely.
0:31:29 > 0:31:31From what we know,
0:31:31 > 0:31:38there are very few people who could give you information about the
0:31:38 > 0:31:41relationship that she was having with David Blakely,
0:31:41 > 0:31:45about the comings and goings
0:31:45 > 0:31:48immediately before the events took place.
0:31:48 > 0:31:52And one of them is her son.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57He's what would be referred to as a key witness.
0:31:59 > 0:32:02Female officers did exist.
0:32:02 > 0:32:07You know, it wouldn't have been beyond the realms of possibilities
0:32:07 > 0:32:08for somebody to say,
0:32:08 > 0:32:13why don't we send a female officer round to speak to her son?
0:32:14 > 0:32:19'The police have had to act swiftly, but they must be quite sure of their
0:32:19 > 0:32:22'justification for taking the children from home.'
0:32:22 > 0:32:24I find this BBC film from 1957,
0:32:24 > 0:32:29which shows WPCs taking neglected children into care.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34I wonder if they sent a WPC to check on Andrea.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37There's no note of it.
0:32:37 > 0:32:39It's like there's a missing child.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42One who could help me understand what happened.
0:32:43 > 0:32:47I discover one cutting from an article written after Ruth's death.
0:32:47 > 0:32:49He's even absent from his own photo.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55If Andrea's testimony isn't in the police files,
0:32:55 > 0:32:58I need to use other ways of discovering what he knew.
0:33:00 > 0:33:02Hi.
0:33:02 > 0:33:06I decide to enlist my neighbour Emma and her ten-year-old son,
0:33:06 > 0:33:08to help me piece together what Andrea witnessed.
0:33:13 > 0:33:15We found a house nearby,
0:33:15 > 0:33:19which has a lot of 1950s furniture and a willing landlady.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24I'm dressing the rooms as different places from Ruth's life.
0:33:24 > 0:33:29I'm going to reconstruct each piece of Andrea's story, in order to find
0:33:29 > 0:33:31out what it can tell me about the crime.
0:33:33 > 0:33:35I start with where Andrea appears in Ruth's statement.
0:33:37 > 0:33:42"About eight o'clock this evening, I put my son Andrea to bed.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46"I then took a gun, which I had hidden and put it in my handbag."
0:33:46 > 0:33:47Action.
0:33:48 > 0:33:52What kind of state of mind do you have to be in to kiss your son
0:33:52 > 0:33:55good night and then go out and kill someone,
0:33:55 > 0:33:57knowing that it could take you away forever?
0:34:02 > 0:34:04And cut.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07So that was the last time that Andrea saw his mum.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12He would probably think that moment over and over and over again,
0:34:12 > 0:34:14wouldn't he?
0:34:14 > 0:34:16Like, to...
0:34:16 > 0:34:19Maybe see he could have done something
0:34:19 > 0:34:20which would have stopped her.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24Like, shoot David, maybe.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32To discover anything more about what Andrea saw in the run up to the
0:34:32 > 0:34:36murder, I'm going to have to look outside the police investigation.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42Ruth's sister Muriel wrote a book where she mentions finding
0:34:42 > 0:34:46a cassette in Andrea's bedsit after he took his own life in 1982.
0:34:48 > 0:34:51I arrange to meet Muriel's co-author,
0:34:51 > 0:34:53true crime writer, Monica Weller.
0:34:54 > 0:34:56You've brought the tape? Or you have the tape?
0:34:56 > 0:34:58The tape is here, yes.
0:34:58 > 0:34:59The tape's here.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01Can I see it?
0:35:01 > 0:35:02Yes.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08The landlady had actually seen flies
0:35:08 > 0:35:13and so forth coming from under the bottom of the door.
0:35:15 > 0:35:17So, Muriel went in.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21And it was really ghastly.
0:35:22 > 0:35:27But included in his room were several cassette tapes.
0:35:27 > 0:35:31Andrea was very, very keen on recording stuff.
0:35:32 > 0:35:34Monica gives me the cassette.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38I'm hoping it might contain some insight from Andrea.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02The Andrea on this cassette is so troubled.
0:36:04 > 0:36:07It's 1981 or two, toward the end of his life.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11Somehow, he has tracked down Christmas Humphreys,
0:36:11 > 0:36:14the prosecuting barrister in his mother's trial.
0:36:33 > 0:36:38I want to know what happened to Andrea after his mother left him,
0:36:38 > 0:36:39never to return.
0:36:41 > 0:36:43What did Muriel tell you?
0:36:43 > 0:36:48She told me that on Easter Monday...
0:36:48 > 0:36:50That's the day after the murder.
0:36:52 > 0:36:59..her parents and Andrea and Desmond Cussen arrived at her flat.
0:37:00 > 0:37:02She certainly wasn't expecting them.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06They all came into the flat.
0:37:07 > 0:37:13Muriel was told that Andrea was to speak to nobody.
0:37:13 > 0:37:18If anybody came to the door, he must not be spoken to.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22But Muriel said it was more like a threat than anything else.
0:37:24 > 0:37:26In other words, you let him speak to anybody,
0:37:26 > 0:37:29and you'll be in big trouble.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32Who was threatening her, Cussen or her parents?
0:37:32 > 0:37:35I don't think it was Cussen who was actually doing the talking
0:37:35 > 0:37:38because he was really not doing much talking at all.
0:37:38 > 0:37:40It would have been her parents.
0:37:40 > 0:37:42Why would her parents say that to her?
0:37:42 > 0:37:44Perhaps because they had been told by Cussen.
0:37:44 > 0:37:46Why would they listen to Cussen?
0:37:46 > 0:37:50He obviously was something influential in their lives.
0:37:50 > 0:37:55And Desmond Cussen was leaning, sort of, against the wall or something,
0:37:55 > 0:38:00quite awkwardly and I know Muriel said he looked sort of shifty.
0:38:01 > 0:38:05This contradicts what Desmond said in his statement,
0:38:05 > 0:38:07that he dropped Andrea and his grandparents off
0:38:07 > 0:38:09at London Bridge Station.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15This makes me wonder if there was something about what Andrea
0:38:15 > 0:38:17witnessed that needed to be hidden.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23The next and final sentence in Desmond's statement
0:38:23 > 0:38:25is about the murder weapon.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28He's never seen Ruth with a gun, or heard her talk about one.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34But given what I'm hearing about Desmond,
0:38:34 > 0:38:35I'm not sure he can be believed.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39Ruth's story is this.
0:38:39 > 0:38:43"This gun was given to me about three years ago in a club by a man
0:38:43 > 0:38:45"whose name I do not remember.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48"It was security for money, but I accepted it as a curiosity."
0:38:53 > 0:38:56The police did little to investigate this story.
0:38:57 > 0:38:59She says it came from a club.
0:38:59 > 0:39:02The police knew that she had worked at Carol's Club in Mayfair
0:39:02 > 0:39:07as a hostess, and then the Little Club in Kensington as a manageress.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11But, at this point, they didn't interview her colleagues.
0:39:11 > 0:39:13Who might have given Ruth the gun?
0:39:16 > 0:39:18They were still around when I was there.
0:39:18 > 0:39:19You would go to the clubs.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23And there'd be everybody from every single social class.
0:39:23 > 0:39:25Quite...
0:39:25 > 0:39:28Quite a mix. You'd go in there and there'd be people you'd arrested
0:39:28 > 0:39:33previously. There'd be people that were local businessmen.
0:39:34 > 0:39:40The sort of clubs like the Little Club were the social meeting places
0:39:40 > 0:39:46and social milieu of the post-war small-time businessmen,
0:39:46 > 0:39:50small-time characters, but you did get the odd aristocrat there.
0:39:50 > 0:39:55I met one particular young aristocrat who frequented clubs
0:39:55 > 0:39:59like the Little Club, who went, and I taxed him about, why do you do it,
0:39:59 > 0:40:03what's the fun? And he said, "I don't care
0:40:03 > 0:40:06"with whom I drink, so long as I'm drinking."
0:40:13 > 0:40:16The Little Club was located at 37 Brompton Road,
0:40:16 > 0:40:20just down from Harrods, in a small room on the first floor.
0:40:21 > 0:40:25If the police saw a register of customers from the club,
0:40:25 > 0:40:26they didn't make a note of it.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29And none exists now that I can find.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33Ruth lived right here at the epicentre of wealthy London.
0:40:36 > 0:40:40I wonder if this was a truly liberated atmosphere, where Ruth
0:40:40 > 0:40:43enjoyed an equal status, or if that was just an illusion.
0:40:45 > 0:40:51She is one of many young women from working-class backgrounds who come
0:40:51 > 0:40:57to London immediately after the war, seeking glamour, fame, fortune,
0:40:57 > 0:41:01and a degree of social and cultural freedom.
0:41:01 > 0:41:03This is Frank Mort, social historian
0:41:03 > 0:41:07and an expert on the post-war drinking clubs of London.
0:41:07 > 0:41:12Ruth Ellis tried to adopt some of the manners and styles
0:41:12 > 0:41:16of upper-class presentation but Ruth and her appearance,
0:41:16 > 0:41:19of course, will never do,
0:41:19 > 0:41:22in terms of the way she presents herself as a brassy blonde.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29So there's no escape from the class structure of 1950s Britain,
0:41:29 > 0:41:32which condemns her to a type, the brassy blonde.
0:41:33 > 0:41:37Even in prison, she can't get away from being typecast, as I find out
0:41:37 > 0:41:40in the first line of the doctor's report.
0:41:42 > 0:41:46"A heavily made up woman, bleached, platinum hair,
0:41:46 > 0:41:48"rather hard faced and abrupt in manner,
0:41:48 > 0:41:50"enamelled toes and fingernails."
0:41:52 > 0:41:54Even as it must have appeared to Ruth
0:41:54 > 0:41:58that she was jumping over class barriers, she wasn't -
0:41:58 > 0:42:00inside the club, or outside with David.
0:42:03 > 0:42:06I pick up a book called Line Up For Crime, written by a famous
0:42:06 > 0:42:10crime reporter of the 1950s called Duncan Webb.
0:42:10 > 0:42:12There's a chapter on Ruth.
0:42:15 > 0:42:20Duncan Webb had already met Ruth Ellis a few days before the murder.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23And he describes her
0:42:23 > 0:42:27in this book, Line Up For Crime.
0:42:27 > 0:42:31This is Duncan Campbell, himself a highly respected crime reporter,
0:42:31 > 0:42:34who is also an expert on the work of Duncan Webb.
0:42:34 > 0:42:38"I met her in the bar of a public house not far from the Little Club."
0:42:38 > 0:42:40Which is where she worked as a hostess.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43"If you liked glittering ash blondes,
0:42:43 > 0:42:45"you might have cared for Ruth Ellis.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48"There could be no denying that she was attractive,
0:42:48 > 0:42:50"in a nightclub sort of way.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54"But behind the tinsel-like beauty that led so much to the doom of
0:42:54 > 0:42:59"David Blakely, I could not help discerning a certain hardness,
0:42:59 > 0:43:01"a brittle sense of calculation."
0:43:01 > 0:43:06And this is around the time of Raymond Chandler and I think a lot
0:43:06 > 0:43:10of crime reporters, then and now, kind of fancied themselves
0:43:10 > 0:43:15as creating these pictures of the moll who walks into the room
0:43:15 > 0:43:16and so on.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21Webb met Ruth because he was investigating her boss,
0:43:21 > 0:43:23Maurice Conley.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26Conley wasn't just running clubs.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29He was one of the West End's biggest criminals.
0:43:29 > 0:43:32Webb dubbed him "the monster with the Mayfair touch".
0:43:35 > 0:43:38So Ruth wasn't just rubbing shoulders with wealthy men,
0:43:38 > 0:43:40she's consorting with criminals.
0:43:42 > 0:43:48I know from a guy who worked at one of the other clubs that Ruth
0:43:48 > 0:43:49worked at, the Court Club,
0:43:51 > 0:43:55that the reason Ruth was paid a good salary
0:43:55 > 0:43:59was because she knew how to keep quiet.
0:44:04 > 0:44:07What did Ruth know that she had to keep quiet about?
0:44:10 > 0:44:14She clearly felt she had something to hide about the origin of the gun.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23Buried deep in Ruth's lawyer's notes is a conversation that took place
0:44:23 > 0:44:24between Ruth and the detectives
0:44:24 > 0:44:26about the source of the murder weapon.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33"When I came up to the Hampstead court on the 20th of April,
0:44:33 > 0:44:35"I saw Chief Inspector Davies who said,
0:44:35 > 0:44:39"'You were not quite truthful in your statement, were you?'
0:44:39 > 0:44:40"I said, 'In what way?'
0:44:40 > 0:44:45"He said, 'We don't believe your story about the gun.'"
0:44:45 > 0:44:49But Ruth insists she can't remember the man who gave her the gun.
0:44:49 > 0:44:51And here the trail seems to stop.
0:44:52 > 0:44:55They don't take fingerprints from the weapon.
0:44:55 > 0:44:57Forensic science was in its infancy.
0:44:59 > 0:45:02And they don't use any other methods to trace its ownership.
0:45:04 > 0:45:06And this is a Smith & Wesson,
0:45:06 > 0:45:10is that a common revolver in circulation?
0:45:10 > 0:45:12- Is that...?- Yes.
0:45:12 > 0:45:14Yeah. I mean, they're a huge company.
0:45:14 > 0:45:20This is post-war, so there were millions of weapons floating around.
0:45:20 > 0:45:22Remember, you've had thousands
0:45:22 > 0:45:25and thousands and thousands of servicemen
0:45:25 > 0:45:29in the UK coming back, having served abroad.
0:45:29 > 0:45:33And they all would have been issued with their own weapon.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38There's no records kept of whatever happened to them.
0:45:38 > 0:45:40Some will have been lost.
0:45:40 > 0:45:43In that day, they were fairly easy to get hold of.
0:45:45 > 0:45:50I feel like I haven't gotten any closer than the original detectives
0:45:50 > 0:45:52did in establishing where the gun came from,
0:45:52 > 0:45:55or the events directly leading up to the murder.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58GUNSHOT
0:46:00 > 0:46:03So I decide to scroll back a bit,
0:46:03 > 0:46:06to where Ruth's life appeared to go seriously off-track.
0:46:08 > 0:46:13According to Desmond's statement, Ruth lost her job at the Little Club
0:46:13 > 0:46:15just before Christmas 1954
0:46:15 > 0:46:18and moved in with him at Goodwood Court, in Marylebone.
0:46:24 > 0:46:28Apparently, her plan was to take modelling lessons and improve
0:46:28 > 0:46:31herself, but four months later, she would shoot David.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36This is around the time that Ruth made the cassette
0:46:36 > 0:46:37that Laurie lent me.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39'Um... Repeat. Bob said...
0:46:39 > 0:46:44'Bob used to say that he liked to seduce these two English girls."
0:46:44 > 0:46:46- Is this Ruth Ellis?- Yeah.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50I haven't actually listened to the rest of Laurie's tape,
0:46:50 > 0:46:53apart from the bedroom chat with Desmond.
0:46:58 > 0:47:00This must be a party happening at Desmond's flat.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08This doesn't feel like the prelude to a murder.
0:47:08 > 0:47:10It sounds like a happy event.
0:47:13 > 0:47:14And there's Andrea.
0:47:14 > 0:47:16Happy Christmas!
0:47:30 > 0:47:32Hang on, that's David.
0:47:34 > 0:47:36I wasn't expecting to find him here.
0:48:03 > 0:48:04It's hard to listen to this,
0:48:04 > 0:48:07knowing how soon it would all come to a head.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13So far, I've only looked in detail at Desmond and Ruth's witness
0:48:13 > 0:48:17statements, as well as the Detective Chief Inspector's report.
0:48:19 > 0:48:21But then I come across a statement
0:48:21 > 0:48:24from a French tutor called Marie Therese Harris.
0:48:26 > 0:48:31Mrs Harris contacted the police four days after the shooting on the 16th
0:48:31 > 0:48:36of April. She tutored Ruth between January and March before the murder,
0:48:36 > 0:48:40presumably part of Ruth's plan to improve herself while she was living
0:48:40 > 0:48:41at Desmond's flat.
0:48:41 > 0:48:45- Leave me alone!- I'll let you alone when you promise to leave...
0:48:45 > 0:48:50Mrs Harris describes how Ruth is covered with bruises,
0:48:50 > 0:48:53that she looked like a person on the verge of a breakdown.
0:48:56 > 0:49:01One day, she is let in by Andrea, who is home alone.
0:49:01 > 0:49:05And then this, the primary reason she contacted the police.
0:49:06 > 0:49:07"I chatted with the little boy
0:49:07 > 0:49:10"and mentioned we were troubled by pigeons."
0:49:10 > 0:49:13"He said, 'What you want is a gun.'
0:49:13 > 0:49:17"And with that he opened the drawer of the table on which I was writing.
0:49:18 > 0:49:22"In the drawer, I noticed, among other things, were two guns,
0:49:22 > 0:49:25"which at first I thought were his toys.
0:49:25 > 0:49:30"He handled one, the larger one, and then said, 'It's all right,
0:49:30 > 0:49:32'It's not loaded.'
0:49:32 > 0:49:36"Then he put it back and closed the drawer and I left the flat."
0:49:36 > 0:49:40The DCI makes no mention of this statement in his summing up.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44And Mrs Harris never appeared in court.
0:49:44 > 0:49:48But, to me, her testimony that there were guns at the flat suggests
0:49:48 > 0:49:51at least the possibility that the murder weapon
0:49:51 > 0:49:52could have come from Desmond.
0:49:54 > 0:49:58The gun used to kill David is held at the Metropolitan Police Crime
0:49:58 > 0:50:01Museum. I contact the curator for the serial number.
0:50:03 > 0:50:06I approach the Smith & Wesson archives in America
0:50:06 > 0:50:11and give them the number. 719573.
0:50:13 > 0:50:17They tell me that the murder weapon was part of a shipment of 1,500
0:50:17 > 0:50:20revolvers for the British military, that went from Springfield,
0:50:20 > 0:50:26Massachusetts, to Cape Town, South Africa, on December 1st, 1940.
0:50:29 > 0:50:31Then I start looking into Desmond.
0:50:33 > 0:50:37Here he is, fresh-faced, just joined up to the RAF,
0:50:37 > 0:50:43before being sent to South Africa where he underwent training in 1942.
0:50:44 > 0:50:46That's a strong possible link
0:50:46 > 0:50:48between Desmond and the murder weapon.
0:50:48 > 0:50:53A link which existed in 1955, had anyone looked for it.
0:50:55 > 0:50:59The police's failure to thoroughly investigate the gun confuses me.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07I call a conference with Brian, Andy and Louise,
0:51:07 > 0:51:11and ask them for their conclusions about the decision not to treat
0:51:11 > 0:51:12Desmond Cussen as a suspect.
0:51:14 > 0:51:18Just to be a detective, you have to have this inherent
0:51:18 > 0:51:24curiosity and need to know exactly what's happened, to know facts.
0:51:24 > 0:51:26It just appears there was no direction at all.
0:51:26 > 0:51:31Just an acceptance of what was put in front of them on the desk.
0:51:31 > 0:51:35Well, that's it, then. And I find that a little bit niggly.
0:51:35 > 0:51:39There's a huge gap in relation to Cussen,
0:51:39 > 0:51:42as to where he was when all this was going on.
0:51:42 > 0:51:44And I wanted to say to him,
0:51:44 > 0:51:48where were you when you first found out what had happened?
0:51:48 > 0:51:50- Yeah.- He was never asked that question.
0:51:50 > 0:51:55And that, my feeling is, he would have been unable to have answered.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58But not much comes out of the statement either.
0:51:58 > 0:52:00It's all a bit vague and wishy-washy, is it not?
0:52:00 > 0:52:06It's so blatantly obvious that he is, by omission,
0:52:06 > 0:52:08telling an untruth.
0:52:11 > 0:52:15The ex-detectives pick up on a detail that I hadn't noticed.
0:52:15 > 0:52:19Ruth's claim that she took a taxi to the Magdala pub
0:52:19 > 0:52:20on the night of the murder.
0:52:20 > 0:52:23I know from when I first joined all those years ago
0:52:23 > 0:52:27that the Met Police used to license the taxi drivers.
0:52:27 > 0:52:32And the one thing a taxi driver would never do would be to upset or
0:52:32 > 0:52:34get the police angry because they'd pull his badge.
0:52:34 > 0:52:38They would hand in an umbrella, if it was left in the cab.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42- Yeah, you're absolutely right.- A licensed Hackney cab would have come
0:52:42 > 0:52:48forward within 24 hours of the headlines.
0:52:48 > 0:52:52- Saying...- Being... Saying, "I took that woman."
0:52:52 > 0:52:56I'm fairly certain that there was never ever any taxi driver.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59Instead, these experts put Desmond at the scene, contradicting
0:52:59 > 0:53:03his claims that he wasn't with Ruth on the night of the murder.
0:53:03 > 0:53:08I mean, if you look at all the other times that Ruth is under pressure
0:53:08 > 0:53:13and stress, and had arguments and fights with David,
0:53:13 > 0:53:15she has gone to him and he's taken her.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18- Yeah.- Early hours of the morning. - Everywhere.- Hung around.
0:53:18 > 0:53:21- Yeah.- Yet spent all night in Penn.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24In the car with her, waiting for him to come out of the vicarage.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27All this. But on the fatal night, for some reason, he stayed at home
0:53:27 > 0:53:31- and can't remember.- Yeah.- You know, I'm sorry, but I just don't wear it.
0:53:31 > 0:53:33- I really don't.- Not at all.
0:53:33 > 0:53:40- No.- He was involved, in the conspiracy, to murder David.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46I go back to the cassette found after Andrea's death,
0:53:46 > 0:53:48scouring it for any mention of Desmond.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00Ruth and Andrea had moved out of Desmond's flat in Goodwood Court
0:54:00 > 0:54:04and they were living in a bedsit in Egerton Gardens, Kensington.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27Desmond Cussen's taxi.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31Could he mean that Desmond actually owned and drove a black cab?
0:54:33 > 0:54:36I discover that, after the trial,
0:54:36 > 0:54:39a colleague of Ruth's told the police that Desmond did have a taxi.
0:54:40 > 0:54:44So the taxi that Ruth took to the scene of the murder could well have
0:54:44 > 0:54:45been driven by Desmond.
0:54:48 > 0:54:50And that would place him at the scene of the crime.
0:55:05 > 0:55:07So far, Andrea's missing testimony
0:55:07 > 0:55:10differs dramatically from the witness statements taken.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17Originally, I thought that Ruth put Andrea to bed and went out with the
0:55:17 > 0:55:20gun, which is the version that appears in her statement.
0:55:21 > 0:55:23But now it seems that Desmond
0:55:23 > 0:55:26may have driven Ruth to the scene of the crime.
0:55:28 > 0:55:30According to Muriel's account,
0:55:30 > 0:55:33Desmond lied on his statement when he said he'd dropped Andrea
0:55:33 > 0:55:36and his grandparents off at London Bridge Station.
0:55:37 > 0:55:42She says he drove Andrea down to her house the day after the murder,
0:55:42 > 0:55:45and that the boy had been told not to speak to anyone.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50Had the police simply asked Andrea what he knew,
0:55:50 > 0:55:53the murder investigation might have run very differently,
0:55:53 > 0:55:57and Cussen might have been tried as an accessory, co-conspirator,
0:55:57 > 0:55:59or even joint principal to murder.
0:56:02 > 0:56:06- It's a very, very serious gap. - It is.
0:56:06 > 0:56:12We've... Potentially, they have failed to investigate...
0:56:13 > 0:56:16- ..a murder suspect.- Mm.- Mm.
0:56:19 > 0:56:24On April the 20th, 1955, just ten days after the police began their
0:56:24 > 0:56:29investigation, the Detective Chief Inspector handed in his summing up.
0:56:30 > 0:56:34The advice from the Crown's prosecutor was that the evidence on
0:56:34 > 0:56:36the depositions was sufficient.
0:56:36 > 0:56:38The police had done their job.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42And yet they failed to fully examine Ruth's motive,
0:56:42 > 0:56:46provide a complete account of the events leading up to the murder,
0:56:46 > 0:56:48to investigate Desmond's role
0:56:48 > 0:56:51or to nail the origin of the murder weapon.
0:56:52 > 0:56:56Given what I've learned about how the police investigation
0:56:56 > 0:57:00seems to have stereotyped, dismissed and prejudged Ruth,
0:57:00 > 0:57:03I'm worried about her chances of a fair trial.
0:57:08 > 0:57:11In the next episode, I investigate the court case.
0:57:11 > 0:57:15Mrs Ellis, when you fired that revolver at
0:57:15 > 0:57:21close range into the body of David Blakely, what did you intend to do?
0:57:21 > 0:57:26I examine what came out in court and the agendas of all involved.
0:57:26 > 0:57:33What was this man, John Bickford, from a City firm of solicitors,
0:57:33 > 0:57:36how did he become involved with Ruth Ellis?
0:57:37 > 0:57:42Because apparently he didn't know her before and apparently
0:57:42 > 0:57:44she didn't ask for him.
0:57:44 > 0:57:47Were Ruth's legal team inept, corrupt,
0:57:47 > 0:57:51or simply restricted by the laws of the time?
0:57:51 > 0:57:55Melford Stevenson was effectively forced to sit on his hands
0:57:55 > 0:57:58and not defend his client.
0:57:58 > 0:58:01- Oh, hello. - And I track down Ruth's niece,
0:58:01 > 0:58:06who remembers another key piece of Andrea's missing testimony.
0:58:06 > 0:58:08So what did Andrea say?
0:58:08 > 0:58:12That he was standing watching,
0:58:12 > 0:58:15as Ruth left with Desmond that night.
0:58:15 > 0:58:17They both had a gun each.
0:58:20 > 0:58:23That young boy of ten saw that and heard it.
0:58:32 > 0:58:34Subtitles by Red Bee Media