0:00:02 > 0:00:05This is a picture of a bedsit taken in 1982,
0:00:05 > 0:00:08which I have faithfully attempted to recreate.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15It was the last home of a man called Andre McCallum,
0:00:15 > 0:00:18who, at the age of 37, took his own life.
0:00:19 > 0:00:21In the room, he left a cassette,
0:00:21 > 0:00:25which was recovered by his family after his death.
0:00:40 > 0:00:46Andre's mother was one of the most famous killers of the 20th century.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48Her name was Ruth Ellis.
0:00:48 > 0:00:51In 1955, she became the last woman hanged in Britain
0:00:51 > 0:00:55for shooting dead her lover David Blakely.
0:00:55 > 0:00:57GUNSHOT
0:00:58 > 0:00:59My name is Gillian Pachter.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03As a documentary film-maker,
0:01:03 > 0:01:05I've told stories about killers in America.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08There, gun violence and state executions
0:01:08 > 0:01:09are part of the landscape.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15So I am fascinated by Ruth and her legacy.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20I've spent the past year re-investigating her crime,
0:01:20 > 0:01:23looking not only at the legalities of her case,
0:01:23 > 0:01:29but at the complex post-war society that made and destroyed Ruth Ellis.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33With the help of experts, I've already uncovered serious flaws
0:01:33 > 0:01:35in the original police investigation.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40Detectives hadn't thoroughly examined Ruth's motive,
0:01:40 > 0:01:43or the source of the murder weapon,
0:01:43 > 0:01:45and they didn't speak to her son Andre,
0:01:45 > 0:01:48who could have provided key information.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52It just appears there was no direction at all.
0:01:52 > 0:01:53There was just an acceptance
0:01:53 > 0:01:56of what was put in front of them on the desk.
0:01:56 > 0:01:57"Well, that's it, then."
0:01:57 > 0:02:01I've also examined Ruth's trial, which lasted a day and a half.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04At a time when sustained domestic violence
0:02:04 > 0:02:08could not be taken into account in a murder case,
0:02:08 > 0:02:12her barrister ran a risky defence of provocation, which failed.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16And he couldn't move the jury to recommend mercy.
0:02:16 > 0:02:18I'm not sure he was a man who understood women,
0:02:18 > 0:02:21and I think he probably had very limited experience of women.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26Now I'm going to look into Ruth's execution.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29I want to examine the campaign to get her reprieved,
0:02:29 > 0:02:32and the Home Office's decision to go ahead with the hanging.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37I don't think even Justice Havers really expected her to hang.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40Even in the light of new evidence.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42But that's the Home Office putting a full stop on it.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44It's the Home Office also saying,
0:02:44 > 0:02:49"Nobody's asked yet, so let's just leave it where it is."
0:02:49 > 0:02:54Did Ruth have to hang for her crime, or did Lady Justice get it wrong?
0:02:58 > 0:03:03After a trial which began on the 20th of June 1955,
0:03:03 > 0:03:05and finished the following afternoon,
0:03:05 > 0:03:08Ruth Ellis had been found guilty of murder,
0:03:08 > 0:03:11and sentenced to death.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15..and that you be there hanged by the neck until you be dead.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19The Crown Prosecution had successfully proved that her crime -
0:03:19 > 0:03:22shooting dead David Blakely outside the Magdala pub
0:03:22 > 0:03:27in Hampstead, North London - was coldly premeditated.
0:03:28 > 0:03:29GUNSHOT
0:03:32 > 0:03:35Ruth was sent back to Holloway Prison
0:03:35 > 0:03:39to await execution on the 13th of July.
0:03:40 > 0:03:46My name is Albert Pierrepoint, and I was executioner for 25 years.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49But there was a chance that Ruth could still be saved,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52and her sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56Britain had grown uncomfortable with executing women.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58The vast majority sentenced to death
0:03:58 > 0:04:02in the first half of the 20th century were spared the gallows.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10I've come to the National Archives at Kew in London
0:04:10 > 0:04:15to search for clues to how Ruth felt in the days following her trial.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26These files from Holloway contain notes from the prison doctor
0:04:26 > 0:04:29during the last days of Ruth's life.
0:04:32 > 0:04:34They are so sparse.
0:04:36 > 0:04:41On the 27th and the 28th of June, it just says, "Jigsaws."
0:04:42 > 0:04:45Underneath, a note that Ruth's sister Muriel
0:04:45 > 0:04:47has been approved for a visit.
0:04:47 > 0:04:49I wonder what Ruth said to her.
0:04:52 > 0:04:54I contact Muriel's daughter Marlene,
0:04:54 > 0:04:57who has been helping me throughout my investigation
0:04:57 > 0:04:59into her aunt's case.
0:05:00 > 0:05:02- Hi.- Hello, Gillian!
0:05:02 > 0:05:04- Come on in.- You look nice! - Thank you!
0:05:04 > 0:05:08My understanding is that Ruth apparently wanted to hang,
0:05:08 > 0:05:09or accepted that.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12She did, yes, that's what Mum said.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15She said... She said she was prepared to die.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18She wanted to be with David.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22That's what she told Mum when Mum went to visit.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24She said, "No, I need to be with David.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26"I want to be with David."
0:05:29 > 0:05:32Given her crime, it's shocking that Ruth wanted
0:05:32 > 0:05:34to be reunited with David.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43She even wrote to David's mother, whom she had never met.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49"I shall die loving your son, and you shall be content
0:05:49 > 0:05:51"knowing that his death has been repaid."
0:05:55 > 0:05:58I go back to the tape that Ruth's son Andre recorded
0:05:58 > 0:06:02shortly before taking his own life at the age of 37.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24It seems that Ruth's feelings for David, which had driven her to kill,
0:06:24 > 0:06:27eclipsed everything -
0:06:27 > 0:06:30her feelings for Andre, and even her own execution.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34I wonder whether Ruth's solicitor John Bickford
0:06:34 > 0:06:37accepted her wish to die, because he'd fought hard
0:06:37 > 0:06:40to get a recommendation of mercy from the jury.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46I discover this plea letter from Bickford to Gwilym Lloyd George,
0:06:46 > 0:06:48the Home Secretary.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54Bickford explains what he had wanted to come out of the trial -
0:06:54 > 0:06:57that Ruth was a damaged woman,
0:06:57 > 0:07:00the victim of sustained psychological and emotional abuse
0:07:00 > 0:07:03at the hands of David Blakely.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05Because I love you.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08Because I'm going to marry you,
0:07:08 > 0:07:11and I don't want to spend my honeymoon hanging around Sing Sing
0:07:11 > 0:07:13blowing kisses to you in the exercise yard.
0:07:13 > 0:07:18David's violence was something Ruth had played down in the witness box.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22Ruth was sentenced to hang three weeks after her verdict,
0:07:22 > 0:07:26which offered a very short window to win a reprieve.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34I've come to the Foreign and Commonwealth offices.
0:07:34 > 0:07:36In 1955,
0:07:36 > 0:07:40this is where Home Secretary Lloyd George had his office.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45The decision to grant Ruth a reprieve rested with him.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50And it was from here that he pondered her fate
0:07:50 > 0:07:53against a backdrop of social change.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58There were increasing calls to abolish capital punishment,
0:07:58 > 0:08:01but the Conservative administration in office
0:08:01 > 0:08:05had made keeping it a campaign promise.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08Murder as such demanded the death penalty, subject, of course,
0:08:08 > 0:08:12to the right of appeal, and the right of reprieve
0:08:12 > 0:08:13by the Home Secretary.
0:08:13 > 0:08:161953 - there was a Royal Commission two years before,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19because there was concern in capital cases
0:08:19 > 0:08:21that people were being hung,
0:08:21 > 0:08:24when in fact there were all sorts of mental conditions,
0:08:24 > 0:08:27including what became known as diminished responsibility.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30The defence of diminished responsibility,
0:08:30 > 0:08:33whereby a potential verdict of murder is reduced to manslaughter,
0:08:33 > 0:08:39would only become law in England in 1957, two years after Ruth's death.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44It was a crucial aspect of the movement to end capital punishment,
0:08:44 > 0:08:47which had intensified around two recent cases.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50Timothy Evans, wrongfully hanged
0:08:50 > 0:08:53for the murder of his wife and daughter in 1950,
0:08:53 > 0:08:55and Derek Bentley,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59wrongfully hanged in 1953 for the murder of a policeman.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09Ruth's case became part of the national debate,
0:09:09 > 0:09:13and as I discover in Home Office files,
0:09:13 > 0:09:16ordinary members of the public wanted their say.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22Some had written in support of execution.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28Men and women from all walks of life called Ruth "cold-blooded"...
0:09:30 > 0:09:32..a "prostitute,"
0:09:32 > 0:09:34a "foul harpy,"
0:09:34 > 0:09:36a "reptile."
0:09:36 > 0:09:37There's even a poem.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45There is the man who fears that if Ruth is reprieved,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48it will give his wife licence to kill him...
0:09:48 > 0:09:51I'm not mixed up in anything. Get your hands off.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55..and a woman who says that if she doesn't hang,
0:09:55 > 0:09:57hundreds of homes will shake.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03These letters would not be out of place in 19th-century Britain.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05They reduced Ruth to a dangerous type
0:10:05 > 0:10:09whose reprieve could shake the very foundations of society.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11Can you spot what she's doing wrong?
0:10:14 > 0:10:18But there are far more letters in favour of saving Ruth Ellis.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22I can see from the addresses and the way they describe themselves,
0:10:22 > 0:10:26that people across classes, and genders, and occupations,
0:10:26 > 0:10:29feel hugely invested in Ruth's fate.
0:10:31 > 0:10:36They point to her miscarriage, how she was mentally unbalanced,
0:10:36 > 0:10:42her two small children, that execution is monstrous, barbaric,
0:10:42 > 0:10:45that her abusive background should be taken into account.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48People write that she is a social and moral product
0:10:48 > 0:10:50of the post-war years.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54They refer to equality between the sexes.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57Yes, the two housewives find time in between their normal chores
0:10:57 > 0:10:59to tackle the man-size job of bricklaying.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02These letters speak of a modern Britain,
0:11:02 > 0:11:05and they accept Ruth as a modern woman.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09This is very different from how Ruth has been treated by the press,
0:11:09 > 0:11:12the police and the court,
0:11:12 > 0:11:17who mainly looked at her through the lens of class and gender prejudice.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20I might have known no woman could be on the level.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22She can with a man she REALLY loves.
0:11:22 > 0:11:24I'm struck that the Home Office
0:11:24 > 0:11:28conscientiously responds to every single letter.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33I contact social historian Frank Maude
0:11:33 > 0:11:36for insight into the Home Office reaction to the public.
0:11:37 > 0:11:42We meet in one of the few Soho clubs that survives from the 1950s.
0:11:43 > 0:11:49I think there are, at that moment, er...
0:11:49 > 0:11:53issues about capital punishment, really,
0:11:53 > 0:11:56which have surfaced in the Christie case,
0:11:56 > 0:12:01and the campaign for the abolition of the death penalty
0:12:01 > 0:12:04is accelerating in the mid-1950s.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08In 1950, Timothy Evans had hanged for a murder
0:12:08 > 0:12:14that was actually committed by serial killer John Christie.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18And it's almost as though the police and the Home Office
0:12:18 > 0:12:20are constantly looking over their shoulder
0:12:20 > 0:12:24to see that everything must be done in triplicate,
0:12:24 > 0:12:26four times, five times.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30Just a degree of nervousness, I think,
0:12:30 > 0:12:34about public responses to legal execution.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37But despite the volume of correspondence,
0:12:37 > 0:12:40the Home Secretary is unmoved.
0:12:40 > 0:12:41I find this confusing,
0:12:41 > 0:12:46as I know that a death sentence wasn't always as final as it sounds.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51In the week before Ruth Ellis was hung, he reprieved another woman,
0:12:51 > 0:12:56a woman who'd killed a neighbour after a seven-year feud -
0:12:56 > 0:12:58murdered her with a spade.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01Apparently that's reprievable.
0:13:01 > 0:13:03And I think two other men were reprieved
0:13:03 > 0:13:06in the same spring period, 1955.
0:13:06 > 0:13:08Why not Ruth Ellis?
0:13:08 > 0:13:12I think there was a social attitude taken towards her,
0:13:12 > 0:13:17because of the work she did, because she was a glamour model,
0:13:17 > 0:13:20because she was a nightclub hostess,
0:13:20 > 0:13:25and I think that infected possibly the Home Secretary as well.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30From what Michael tells me, it seems it's not the crime,
0:13:30 > 0:13:31but Ruth herself,
0:13:31 > 0:13:34who was irredeemable to the government of the day.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39I think the moral landscape which surrounds the trial
0:13:39 > 0:13:41is quite hard-nosed.
0:13:42 > 0:13:48I think... I couldn't imagine a case of this sort
0:13:48 > 0:13:53leading to a reprieve in that period, actually.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56Just think of the context of the mid-1950s.
0:13:56 > 0:14:00Think about the emphasis on domesticity,
0:14:00 > 0:14:03on maternalism, which is,
0:14:03 > 0:14:06you know, so central to women's magazines
0:14:06 > 0:14:11like Woman and Woman's Own, the big sellers of the mid-1950s.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14Think about the Queen, and the way she's portrayed
0:14:14 > 0:14:21as sovereign in the early 1950s, as wife and mother in particular,
0:14:21 > 0:14:24as well as head of the Commonwealth, and all of her public role,
0:14:24 > 0:14:28a big emphasis on her maternal and domestic role.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33So, Ruth represents everything which is abhorrent
0:14:33 > 0:14:37to the conservative standards of 1950s Britain.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42It seems the same prejudices that played out
0:14:42 > 0:14:44during her investigation and trial
0:14:44 > 0:14:47were affecting her chances of reprieve.
0:14:51 > 0:14:56On the 11th of July 1955, two days before Ruth's scheduled hanging,
0:14:56 > 0:15:00Lloyd George announces that his decision is final.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03He says he has not discovered any special considerations
0:15:03 > 0:15:07in Ruth's case, that the crime was premeditated,
0:15:07 > 0:15:09and carried out with deliberation.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14He says that Ruth's sex shouldn't be grounds for preferential treatment,
0:15:14 > 0:15:18that the prisoner had expressed no remorse.
0:15:18 > 0:15:20"If her reprieve were granted in this case,
0:15:20 > 0:15:22"I think we should have seriously to consider
0:15:22 > 0:15:26"whether capital punishment should be retained as a penalty."
0:15:28 > 0:15:30This seems the heart of the issue.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33Lloyd George belongs to a party who have backed capital punishment.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37If a woman who stated in court that she intended to kill her lover
0:15:37 > 0:15:39didn't hang, who could?
0:15:40 > 0:15:43On the 11th of July, the prison doctor writes
0:15:43 > 0:15:46that Ruth is informed the reprieve has failed,
0:15:46 > 0:15:50and notes her weight - 103 pounds.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58But then, she does something surprising.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04Until now, she has done almost nothing to help her own defence.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07But on the 11th of July,
0:16:07 > 0:16:09the same day she's told she won't be granted reprieve,
0:16:09 > 0:16:12she fires her lawyer John Bickford...
0:16:12 > 0:16:16And I'm beginning to wonder if my attorney is for me.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19..and hires a new lawyer called Victor Mishcon.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22Has Ruth decided she wants to live?
0:16:22 > 0:16:25Mum went to see her a few days before,
0:16:25 > 0:16:31so...perhaps Ruth did realise that she needed to speak up.
0:16:32 > 0:16:37But why wouldn't she have done that through Bickford?
0:16:37 > 0:16:38I don't know.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43That's why I think something was going on.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47That Bickford was involved with...?
0:16:47 > 0:16:50Desmond Cussen and Bickford.
0:16:50 > 0:16:55My father saw them chatting on the stairs, as two friends,
0:16:55 > 0:16:57and then when my father walked up,
0:16:57 > 0:17:00they sort of looked as if they didn't know each other.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03Desmond Cussen was Ruth's other lover,
0:17:03 > 0:17:06who I'm certain had more involvement in the crime
0:17:06 > 0:17:09than the jury in Ruth's trial ever knew.
0:17:09 > 0:17:10And then when my father -
0:17:10 > 0:17:13they saw my father walking towards them,
0:17:13 > 0:17:16they separated, and made out they didn't know each other.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19But he'd seen a glimpse of them chatting as friends.
0:17:20 > 0:17:21So, he... Yeah.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25And I think that's where it comes from Mum
0:17:25 > 0:17:29to say to Ruth, "Change the solicitor, speak up for yourself."
0:17:32 > 0:17:34Did Ruth fire Bickford
0:17:34 > 0:17:37because of his relationship with Desmond Cussen?
0:17:37 > 0:17:39According to Bickford,
0:17:39 > 0:17:42Cussen admitted that he had provided Ruth with the murder weapon,
0:17:42 > 0:17:46drove her to find David, and trained her to shoot the gun.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53But Bickford never revealed the information to the police or court,
0:17:53 > 0:17:56maintaining that's what Ruth wanted.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00It appears Ruth was conflicted when it came to Cussen.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07Bickford discussed his sacking during a 1977 TV interview.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12She said, "No wonder he hasn't been to see me.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15"You've been taking money from Cussen...
0:18:17 > 0:18:22"..to see that I go down," or words to that effect, "and...
0:18:23 > 0:18:25"..he goes free."
0:18:25 > 0:18:27I must, of course, ask you, Mr Bickford,
0:18:27 > 0:18:29did Mr Cussen ever give you money?
0:18:32 > 0:18:35Certainly not, my friend.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38I asked John Bickford's nephew, David,
0:18:38 > 0:18:40if he can shed light on the relationship
0:18:40 > 0:18:43between his uncle and Desmond Cussen.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45Do you know when he met Cussen for the first time?
0:18:45 > 0:18:48I don't. I assume...
0:18:48 > 0:18:51I don't. I don't. I can't assume anything.
0:18:51 > 0:18:56- No.- But he didn't mention whether or not he'd known him before the case?
0:18:56 > 0:18:58No.
0:18:58 > 0:18:59No.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03John Bickford had done everything he possibly could to save her,
0:19:03 > 0:19:09and at the last minute, she had no hesitation in saying,
0:19:09 > 0:19:11"Well, I'm going to go to somebody else."
0:19:15 > 0:19:17What does that tell us about her?
0:19:20 > 0:19:22That she was really damaged.
0:19:23 > 0:19:24Really damaged.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28And that John had got it absolutely right.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33Whether Ruth was correct in her suspicions of Bickford or deluded,
0:19:33 > 0:19:37by the 12th of July, one day before she is due to hang,
0:19:37 > 0:19:39she has a new lawyer.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41Victor Mishcon,
0:19:41 > 0:19:45who would one day represent Diana, Princess of Wales in her divorce,
0:19:45 > 0:19:49had handled Ruth's own divorce from dentist George Ellis.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53Victor Mishcon was a great lawyer, and I knew him, and a very fine man.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56I was in the House of Lords with him in the years leading up, you know,
0:19:56 > 0:19:58before he died.
0:19:58 > 0:19:59He was a very distinguished lawyer,
0:19:59 > 0:20:03and a very clever, astute person around the human condition,
0:20:03 > 0:20:04and he said to her,
0:20:04 > 0:20:09"Tell me, it's important to get your story out about what happened.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13"It's not going to probably make a difference to you,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16"but your son deserves to know.
0:20:16 > 0:20:17"Your son deserves to know."
0:20:18 > 0:20:22And it was a piece of very, very wise
0:20:22 > 0:20:26and clever psychological work on his part.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29So, in just one visit, Mishcon has persuaded Ruth
0:20:29 > 0:20:34to tell her side of the story regarding the day of the murder,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37something she didn't do during police questioning, the trial,
0:20:37 > 0:20:40or Bickford's appeals.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43Ruth's niece Marlene has never seen the statement
0:20:43 > 0:20:46that Ruth made on that day.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49"I, Ruth Ellis, have been advised by Mr Victor Mishcon
0:20:49 > 0:20:52"to tell the whole truth in regard to the circumstances
0:20:52 > 0:20:56"leading up to the killing of David Blakely,
0:20:56 > 0:20:58"and it is only with the greatest reluctance
0:20:58 > 0:21:01"that I have decided to tell how it was
0:21:01 > 0:21:04"that I got the gun with which I shot Blakely."
0:21:07 > 0:21:10She says she spent the day drinking Pernod with Desmond Cussen,
0:21:10 > 0:21:13her close confidant and sometimes lover.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18"All I remember is that Desmond gave me a loaded gun.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23"Desmond was jealous of Blakely, as, in fact, Blakely was of Desmond.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26"I would say this - they hated each other.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30"I was in such a dazed state that I cannot remember what was said.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33"I rushed out as soon as he gave me the gun.
0:21:33 > 0:21:35"He stayed in the flat.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38"I rushed back after a second or two, and said,
0:21:38 > 0:21:40""Will you drive me to Hampstead?"
0:21:40 > 0:21:43"He did so, and left me at the top of Tanza Road."
0:21:45 > 0:21:48So, had he not given her the gun, she wouldn't have shot him.
0:21:52 > 0:21:53So, he was as much...
0:21:55 > 0:21:57..to blame as she was, really.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05This contradicts what Ruth told the police,
0:22:05 > 0:22:09which is that she had had the gun in her possession for years,
0:22:09 > 0:22:11that on the night of the murder,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14she took a taxi alone to the Magdala pub,
0:22:14 > 0:22:18where she fired six bullets at David Blakely...
0:22:19 > 0:22:20Put down that gun.
0:22:20 > 0:22:21GUNSHOT
0:22:21 > 0:22:24..four of which hit their target.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28Ruth is now confessing that she was not the only person
0:22:28 > 0:22:29involved in the murder.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34If Lloyd George thought there were no special considerations
0:22:34 > 0:22:38in Ruth's case before, would this change his mind?
0:22:38 > 0:22:41We know that Mishcon recognised
0:22:41 > 0:22:44that there was a problem with the conviction,
0:22:44 > 0:22:47and the safety of the conviction of Ruth Ellis.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50And even though it was, you know, literally,
0:22:50 > 0:22:53hours before she was to be hung,
0:22:53 > 0:22:57he did his absolute best to try and either use it
0:22:57 > 0:23:02to obtain some measure of clemency, and to commute the sentence,
0:23:02 > 0:23:06or perhaps to move towards an appeal or a retrial.
0:23:06 > 0:23:11But it's important to recognise that, even at that point,
0:23:11 > 0:23:14Ruth Ellis was saying to Mishcon, "I don't want you to do this.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17"I do not want you going down this road."
0:23:17 > 0:23:21And he understood that, as a lawyer, he had a higher calling,
0:23:21 > 0:23:27which was to put the best case he could for his client.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30And Mishcon isn't the only one still fighting.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35It's 12:30pm the day before Ruth is scheduled to hang.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39The gates of Holloway Prison are crowded with protesters chanting,
0:23:39 > 0:23:41"Ellis-Bentley-Evans."
0:23:41 > 0:23:43Putting Ruth's name together with two men
0:23:43 > 0:23:46who were hanged for crimes they were subsequently cleared of.
0:23:48 > 0:23:54In four hours, Albert Pierrepoint's preparations will begin.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57The execution chamber is usually next door to the condemned cell.
0:23:57 > 0:24:02It is a small room with a trap in the centre of the floor.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05A bag is filled with sand, and we rehearse the drop,
0:24:05 > 0:24:07to see that all is in order.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10Mishcon goes to Whitehall to speak to Frank Newsome,
0:24:10 > 0:24:12the permanent under-secretary.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17But he is at Ascot, so his deputy Philip Allen
0:24:17 > 0:24:20gets an announcement made over Tannoy,
0:24:20 > 0:24:22and calls him back to the office.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25Now, what's all this about?
0:24:25 > 0:24:27It looks as though Ruth's confession may indeed provide
0:24:27 > 0:24:33the special considerations that Lloyd George felt were lacking.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36Philip Allen asked the detectives on Ruth's case whether,
0:24:36 > 0:24:38given her statement,
0:24:38 > 0:24:42it would be possible to charge Cussen as an accessory.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44Look, I don't know anything about all this.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47- Hardly sufficient evidence to hang a cat on.- Oh, I've plenty more.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51The police report that it is possible, given evidence,
0:24:51 > 0:24:53but the most important consideration
0:24:53 > 0:24:56must be that Cussen knew the revolver he had given her
0:24:56 > 0:24:59was to be used for the purpose of shooting Blakely,
0:24:59 > 0:25:03and this must be substantiated by evidence other than Ellis's.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06Basically, the source of the information
0:25:06 > 0:25:08that Cussen gave her the gun
0:25:08 > 0:25:10was the person who was convicted of murder.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15So the question was, why would we believe her, a convicted murderess,
0:25:15 > 0:25:18when she says that he was the person who gave her the gun?
0:25:18 > 0:25:21And she'd given a different account to the police,
0:25:21 > 0:25:23which was that she'd been given it in lieu of a debt.
0:25:23 > 0:25:25Er...
0:25:25 > 0:25:28How would you know what to believe? No jury would convict him.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32Why would she be credible? No court would be able to rely on her.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34He was a lucky man, Cussen.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36He was lucky because she was...
0:25:36 > 0:25:40In many ways, the most honourable thing in all of this
0:25:40 > 0:25:44is that she decided to carry this herself,
0:25:44 > 0:25:48to be the person who carried the can.
0:25:48 > 0:25:50So, I mean, it is interesting.
0:25:50 > 0:25:52He owed her a lot.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56So Cussen's involvement may amount
0:25:56 > 0:25:59to what the Home Secretary has termed a special consideration.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03But only if it's corroborated by someone other than Ruth.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07Bickford knows, but isn't saying anything,
0:26:07 > 0:26:10because he says his client asked him not to.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13Andre knows, but no-one thought to ask him.
0:26:14 > 0:26:19And now, just hours remain until Ruth will lose her life.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29When I probe a little deeper into the files,
0:26:29 > 0:26:33I discover that, weeks earlier, Ruth's close friend Jackie Dyer
0:26:33 > 0:26:38had come forward, first to the Home Office, and then to the police.
0:26:38 > 0:26:43She, too, tells the police that Cussen had provided Ruth with a gun,
0:26:43 > 0:26:45and drove her to the scene of the murder.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50This is two weeks before Ruth's confession,
0:26:50 > 0:26:53and would have left plenty of time to investigate.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55But the detective chief inspector
0:26:55 > 0:26:58had concluded that she was unreliable,
0:26:58 > 0:27:00due to being a French woman.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05And he reported back to the Home Office.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08"I am of the opinion that Cussen did not supply the gun...
0:27:08 > 0:27:12"neither did he drive Mrs Ellis to Hampstead on that night."
0:27:13 > 0:27:15It's starting to feel like the police
0:27:15 > 0:27:19were just not inclined to properly investigate Cussen.
0:27:19 > 0:27:22And the man himself had sworn to the police,
0:27:22 > 0:27:25in a statement riddled with gaps and inconsistencies,
0:27:25 > 0:27:27that he wasn't involved.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31Acting on a directive from the Home Office
0:27:31 > 0:27:34the night before the execution,
0:27:34 > 0:27:36two inspectors are sent to Desmond Cussen's home
0:27:36 > 0:27:39in Goodwood Court to try to locate him.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42At some point that evening, they give up and go home.
0:27:45 > 0:27:47Mishcon gets a phone call at 2:00am.
0:27:50 > 0:27:52The execution is going ahead.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57I think that, to me, was the most extraordinary thing,
0:27:57 > 0:27:59that if they actually thought
0:27:59 > 0:28:03that Cussen might be involved in some way...
0:28:03 > 0:28:05you find him.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09I mean, it was much easier to find people in those days,
0:28:09 > 0:28:14and they could easily have extended the period,
0:28:14 > 0:28:16and told Mr Pierrepoint
0:28:16 > 0:28:19that he didn't have to hang anybody that morning,
0:28:19 > 0:28:21and I'm sure he would have adjusted to that.
0:28:28 > 0:28:30But Lloyd George was adamant.
0:28:30 > 0:28:31He is reported to have said,
0:28:31 > 0:28:35"If she doesn't hang tomorrow, she never will."
0:28:42 > 0:28:48Ruth was hanged at 9:00am on the 13th of July 1955
0:28:48 > 0:28:50by Albert Pierrepoint.
0:28:50 > 0:28:52He would retire the following year
0:28:52 > 0:28:55after conducting the last execution of a woman in Britain.
0:28:57 > 0:29:00To me, the documents pertaining to Ruth's death
0:29:00 > 0:29:04speak more loudly than any image could.
0:29:04 > 0:29:06They are so spare and efficient.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09A bureaucratic box ticked.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17Just three months after her arrest, Ruth was dead.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22A Conservative Home Secretary had refused to grant a reprieve,
0:29:22 > 0:29:25against the wishes of a large number of people
0:29:25 > 0:29:27who were uncomfortable with her sentence,
0:29:27 > 0:29:30and despite the emergence of new evidence.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35It was an extraordinary decision, in John's mind, that she hanged.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38He really couldn't understand why.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41I don't think anybody did at the time.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44The only person who understood why was probably the Home Secretary.
0:29:46 > 0:29:52I don't think even Justice Havers really expected her to hang.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55He expected her to be found guilty, that's for sure.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58Which she was, no doubt about that.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04But Ruth's hanging was not the end of the story.
0:30:05 > 0:30:10In early 1956, six months after Ruth's execution,
0:30:10 > 0:30:14crime reporter Duncan Webb, who had interviewed Ruth before she died,
0:30:14 > 0:30:18petitioned Gwilym Lloyd George to reopen the case.
0:30:18 > 0:30:22Right, this is the letter from Duncan Webb to the Home Secretary
0:30:22 > 0:30:24in February '56.
0:30:24 > 0:30:30So he's offering the Home Secretary access to some of the documents
0:30:30 > 0:30:34that he's come across which indicate that Ruth Ellis
0:30:34 > 0:30:36should not have been executed.
0:30:36 > 0:30:41So it's a sign that he's going for the Home Secretary.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44"Here and now, I challenge Lloyd George
0:30:44 > 0:30:47"to justify the wanton killing of Ruth Ellis.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49"I challenge him to read my evidence,
0:30:49 > 0:30:52"to study and investigate my facts,
0:30:52 > 0:30:55"and to prove they do not amount to a case
0:30:55 > 0:30:59"warranting a full-scale inquiry into the murder investigation
0:30:59 > 0:31:02"which sent Ruth Ellis to the gallows."
0:31:04 > 0:31:07Duncan Webb is making the point that he should be ashamed of himself,
0:31:07 > 0:31:09and I think quite rightly.
0:31:11 > 0:31:13I discovered that the source
0:31:13 > 0:31:15of Duncan Webb's new evidence was Andre.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22During my investigation, snippets of what he knew have emerged.
0:31:22 > 0:31:27But Andre had never been spoken to by anyone in authority.
0:31:27 > 0:31:32Now, finally, his version of events was going to see the light of day.
0:31:33 > 0:31:37Andre remembers a conversation between Ruth and Desmond.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40"If I had a gun, I would shoot him".
0:31:40 > 0:31:44"I have one, but it's old and rusty, and needs oiling.
0:31:44 > 0:31:45"Shall I get it?"
0:31:52 > 0:31:53On the morning of the murder,
0:31:53 > 0:31:58Desmond and Ruth were meant to drop Andre at Hampstead Fair.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02But it was closed, so they took him with them to Penn, Buckinghamshire,
0:32:02 > 0:32:04to try to find David.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07He remembers his mother bought an Easter egg for him
0:32:07 > 0:32:10from a sweet shop, and he was nibbling on it and reading a comic
0:32:10 > 0:32:12when they left that night.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16The detail is heartbreaking.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20Andre also states that Ruth's solicitor, Bickford,
0:32:20 > 0:32:25accompanied Cussen when Andre was delivered to his aunt
0:32:25 > 0:32:26the day after the murder...
0:32:28 > 0:32:31..which is when Andre was supposedly told
0:32:31 > 0:32:34to keep quiet about what he witnessed.
0:32:34 > 0:32:36If true, it explains why Ruth's family
0:32:36 > 0:32:39maintain that Bickford and Cussen were connected.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45The Home Office are forced to respond
0:32:45 > 0:32:47to Duncan Webb's allegations.
0:32:47 > 0:32:49Andre's testimony -
0:32:49 > 0:32:51the testimony that was never sought by the police
0:32:51 > 0:32:55who investigated Ruth's crime - has finally come to light.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01I ask a serving detective called Simon Davy
0:33:01 > 0:33:05to help me interpret the Home Office's response to Duncan Webb.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08What does it say about the boy, and whether what the boy would say...
0:33:08 > 0:33:10It says that "This suggestion of incitement
0:33:10 > 0:33:13"rests solely on the statement of the boy.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17"Even if this conversation is incitement,
0:33:17 > 0:33:21"there's no corroboration of his story, and none can be forthcoming."
0:33:21 > 0:33:23And I totally agree with that,
0:33:23 > 0:33:26but I still feel that those questions
0:33:26 > 0:33:29need to be put to Cussen in interview, directly.
0:33:29 > 0:33:32The Home Office's position is surprising.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36Both Ruth's last-minute confession and the Jackie Dyer statement
0:33:36 > 0:33:39corroborate Andre's account.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41But is the boy's testimony not evidence?
0:33:41 > 0:33:42Would it not be?
0:33:42 > 0:33:44Well, I think it's enough to suspect him
0:33:44 > 0:33:45of involvement and to arrest him.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49- Where were you yesterday afternoon, Mr Warner?- Well, let's see.
0:33:49 > 0:33:51In my job I get around a bit, you know.
0:33:51 > 0:33:53This is the kind of difference in culture,
0:33:53 > 0:33:55is that decisions are being made.
0:33:55 > 0:33:57"OK, we could go down this road,
0:33:57 > 0:33:59"but it's not going to produce anything, so we're not going to."
0:33:59 > 0:34:01Whereas I think nowadays, we'd probably say,
0:34:01 > 0:34:03"Well if we can go down this road,
0:34:03 > 0:34:05"and it's not going to cause any harm, let's go down that road."
0:34:06 > 0:34:10And just to double check that it's not going to produce anything.
0:34:11 > 0:34:13And it's surprising.
0:34:14 > 0:34:16I know from the tape that Andre wanted to be heard.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32Webb's appeal to the Home Office leads to nothing.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36It feels like the last trail leading to Cussen has been erased.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42The latest in a series of moments where questions were raised
0:34:42 > 0:34:44about Cussen's involvement,
0:34:44 > 0:34:48only to be dismissed without comprehensive examination.
0:34:49 > 0:34:51There were clues that he may have had
0:34:51 > 0:34:53a more central role in the killing
0:34:53 > 0:34:57during the police investigation, while Ruth awaited execution,
0:34:57 > 0:34:59and after she was dead.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04But still he was never arrested.
0:35:04 > 0:35:05Why?
0:35:07 > 0:35:10I go back to the Duncan Webb report.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13I find something I initially missed.
0:35:13 > 0:35:14Long before the murder,
0:35:14 > 0:35:17Cussen has talked to Ruth's parents of a brother he'd had,
0:35:17 > 0:35:21a barrister working at the Director of Public Prosecution's office.
0:35:21 > 0:35:26And do you find the prisoner guilty or not guilty of murder?
0:35:26 > 0:35:30I discover a brother called William, but he was not a lawyer.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34So who is this barrister Desmond is related to?
0:35:34 > 0:35:38I dig a little deeper, and I find the right person.
0:35:39 > 0:35:44Desmond had a cousin called Edward James Patrick Cussen, a barrister.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50This census document from 1911 shows Edward's parents and brother
0:35:50 > 0:35:54were living with Desmond's father in a house in Putney.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59This suggests to me that the two families were close.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02Is this why Desmond had referred to Edward as a brother?
0:36:05 > 0:36:07At the time of Ruth's trial,
0:36:07 > 0:36:10Edward was a junior Treasury Counsel member,
0:36:10 > 0:36:12part of a small group of top prosecutors
0:36:12 > 0:36:15who were based at the Old Bailey.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18Would this mean that he worked alongside Christmas Humphreys,
0:36:18 > 0:36:20the prosecutor in Ruth's case?
0:36:21 > 0:36:23And if so, could that have affected
0:36:23 > 0:36:28how Desmond was handled by the police and the court?
0:36:28 > 0:36:31I asked Richard Whitham, who until recently
0:36:31 > 0:36:33held the same post as Humphreys.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36So this is the list of all of the persons
0:36:36 > 0:36:41who've been nominated Treasury Counsellor.
0:36:41 > 0:36:43Yeah, independent members of the bar, different,
0:36:43 > 0:36:47some from the same chambers, but a mix of different chambers.
0:36:47 > 0:36:49They were working in the same room.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52If you've got a problem that somebody else has had before,
0:36:52 > 0:36:54sharing difficulties,
0:36:54 > 0:37:00very much a team performance of helping others.
0:37:00 > 0:37:02And there's Christmas Humphreys.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05Christmas Humphreys, so appointed in '34.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09Now, one thing we discovered since the last time we spoke to you...
0:37:12 > 0:37:15..which we were really surprised to discover is,
0:37:15 > 0:37:17- have you ever heard of Edward Cussen?- No.
0:37:17 > 0:37:21Because Edward Cussen was junior Treasury Counsel in 1955.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25He later became senior Treasury Counsel.
0:37:25 > 0:37:27He was also Desmond's first cousin.
0:37:30 > 0:37:34Because one of the things we're trying to assess
0:37:34 > 0:37:38is why Desmond Cussen wasn't interrogated more deeply,
0:37:38 > 0:37:40and why he was never arrested.
0:37:40 > 0:37:46Could an answer be that he had a cousin in the Treasury Counsel?
0:37:46 > 0:37:48Would that help?
0:37:48 > 0:37:50I can understand why you ask the question.
0:37:50 > 0:37:52It seems to me quite a leap to think that...
0:37:54 > 0:37:59..the police officers decided not to ask,
0:37:59 > 0:38:02investigate something, because that police officer knew
0:38:02 > 0:38:05that Cussen was a Treasury Counsel.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08And it may well be it was very close-knit and everybody did know,
0:38:08 > 0:38:11but did the investigating officer know?
0:38:11 > 0:38:16It's very important, certainly now, to have transparency.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19And if somebody thought somebody wasn't prosecuted
0:38:19 > 0:38:21or called as a witness or investigated
0:38:21 > 0:38:23because of their status,
0:38:23 > 0:38:25people would be very upset, and rightly so.
0:38:25 > 0:38:27But you would declare it.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32I would imagine it was rather different then.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36In retrospect, and in a different time,
0:38:36 > 0:38:40perhaps easier to say whether things were
0:38:40 > 0:38:43not investigated as fully as they might have been
0:38:43 > 0:38:46because of who people were and whatever else,
0:38:46 > 0:38:50isn't leading to a more comfortable trial for her.
0:38:51 > 0:38:56So the fact that somebody else may or may not have been culpable,
0:38:56 > 0:38:59or perhaps should have been prosecuted,
0:38:59 > 0:39:02if there was the evidence, that doesn't really help her.
0:39:03 > 0:39:04It doesn't make it OK.
0:39:04 > 0:39:06Oh, absolutely, it doesn't make it OK.
0:39:08 > 0:39:10Richard is right.
0:39:10 > 0:39:12One can't assume that just because
0:39:12 > 0:39:15Desmond was related to a senior barrister,
0:39:15 > 0:39:18that there was any suggestion of wrongdoing.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21There is no evidence that the police knew about the connection,
0:39:21 > 0:39:23or considered it important.
0:39:23 > 0:39:27But I wonder if being connected to such an influential figure
0:39:27 > 0:39:29could have helped Desmond Cussen in other ways.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37I don't want to make assumptions based simply on type.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39That's the same sort of prejudice
0:39:39 > 0:39:41which contributed to Ruth's execution.
0:39:42 > 0:39:46I decide to find out more about Edward Cussen's career,
0:39:46 > 0:39:48and whom he came in contact with.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52This takes me to Oxford, to Dr Roderick Bailey,
0:39:52 > 0:39:54a Second World War historian.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02- Hello.- Hi.
0:40:02 > 0:40:04OK, so Cussen worked for MI5
0:40:04 > 0:40:07pretty much for the entire Second World War,
0:40:07 > 0:40:10and MI5, during the Second World War, the security service,
0:40:10 > 0:40:12it was a domestic intelligence.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15So that's home intelligence, home-grown intelligence concerns.
0:40:15 > 0:40:17Not like MI6, which is external,
0:40:17 > 0:40:19which is gathering intelligence overseas.
0:40:19 > 0:40:23MI5 is about security and counter-espionage
0:40:23 > 0:40:25inside the British Isles.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29They had various, several duties during the Second World War, MI5.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33So for example, MI5's roles during the war included
0:40:33 > 0:40:36monitoring German agents, counter-espionage,
0:40:36 > 0:40:40German communications inside Britain.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45But then, as the war develops, he also moves on to another role.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48Cussen's role towards the end of the war is dealing with
0:40:48 > 0:40:50what were called renegades,
0:40:50 > 0:40:54so that's investigating cases of renegade Englishmen,
0:40:54 > 0:40:56British nationals, who have been working for,
0:40:56 > 0:40:59supposedly, working for the Germans,
0:40:59 > 0:41:03or passing information to the Germans or other enemy countries.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08I take this new information about Edward
0:41:08 > 0:41:10back to the National Archives.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15I discover Edward had meetings with Frank Newsome,
0:41:15 > 0:41:18who would go on to be permanent under-secretary
0:41:18 > 0:41:20to Gwilym Lloyd George,
0:41:20 > 0:41:22and who was the person Mishcon approached
0:41:22 > 0:41:24with Ruth's final statement.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29So Edward was well connected, not only in the legal establishment,
0:41:29 > 0:41:31but in government.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34Getting in right with politicians is a good idea.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36And remember, if you get into trouble,
0:41:36 > 0:41:39he's a mighty good friend to have around.
0:41:39 > 0:41:43I need to speak to someone who knew Edward personally,
0:41:43 > 0:41:44to find out if these connections
0:41:44 > 0:41:48could have led to preferential treatment for his cousin.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51Could they explain why Desmond was never investigated
0:41:51 > 0:41:54for his likely role in the murder, even after Ruth's death?
0:42:00 > 0:42:03Edward's daughter, Fleur, agrees to meet me in Oxford,
0:42:03 > 0:42:05where her father was a student.
0:42:07 > 0:42:09Do you remember having heard
0:42:09 > 0:42:11about the Ruth Ellis case in your childhood?
0:42:11 > 0:42:16I just had always known that there was a connection, that it was...
0:42:16 > 0:42:20You know, that Desmond Cussen was our cousin,
0:42:20 > 0:42:23and that he'd been involved.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27And that...
0:42:27 > 0:42:31There was always... I think I remember, sort of, it was always,
0:42:31 > 0:42:33you know, "poor Desmond."
0:42:33 > 0:42:38My father perhaps would have felt that Desmond needed looking after,
0:42:38 > 0:42:42and...so I think would have done for him what he could.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45Do you think he would have helped him with legal advice before that,
0:42:45 > 0:42:47while he was all embroiled in it?
0:42:47 > 0:42:50I would have thought he would have, yes, if Desmond had asked for it.
0:42:52 > 0:42:54So far as he could, you know.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58Definitely put him in touch with people,
0:42:58 > 0:43:00perhaps, or something like that.
0:43:00 > 0:43:02- Did he mention, ever, Christmas Humphreys?- Oh, yes, very much so.
0:43:02 > 0:43:07In fact, he wrote me a very charming and kind letter when my father died.
0:43:07 > 0:43:10Do you think people knew that they were related?
0:43:12 > 0:43:14People in the legal profession, definitely.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17I mean, it's not that common a name.
0:43:19 > 0:43:20So I'm sure they did.
0:43:21 > 0:43:23I can't imagine that they wouldn't.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26Especially as...
0:43:26 > 0:43:32You know, my father knew all the people involved in the trial
0:43:32 > 0:43:34quite well, I would have thought...
0:43:35 > 0:43:40..so I'm sure they knew that this was his cousin.
0:43:40 > 0:43:42I find it hard to believe that they wouldn't.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45One of the big mysteries around the Ruth Ellis case,
0:43:45 > 0:43:49and there are a number of them, is why Desmond wasn't ever arrested,
0:43:49 > 0:43:55and also why they didn't interrogate more fully his involvement.
0:43:55 > 0:43:57And why do you think?
0:43:57 > 0:43:59Well, we wonder if it had something to do with your father.
0:43:59 > 0:44:01Do you think your father could have had
0:44:01 > 0:44:03- anything to do with him not being arrested?- No.
0:44:04 > 0:44:07No, definitely not, because I don't think
0:44:07 > 0:44:10he would have wanted to have anything to do...
0:44:10 > 0:44:12He wouldn't have wanted to...
0:44:13 > 0:44:19..get in the way of a case taking its proper course.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22I mean, anything he would have done...
0:44:22 > 0:44:25He would have certainly been someone for Desmond to talk to...
0:44:27 > 0:44:29..and he would have, I'm sure,
0:44:29 > 0:44:35introduced him to good barristers, had he needed one.
0:44:36 > 0:44:40He might even have advised him how to deal with an interview
0:44:40 > 0:44:44if he was going to be interviewed by the police.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47But he would never have prevented him being interviewed
0:44:47 > 0:44:51if the police had suggested that they wanted to interview him.
0:44:51 > 0:44:54I mean, that would have not been...
0:44:54 > 0:44:57you know, the proper course of action.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00I wonder, because he was so admired and loved,
0:45:00 > 0:45:02you know, whether somebody,
0:45:02 > 0:45:05without him requesting that, or even wanting it...
0:45:05 > 0:45:06Oh, I see.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08..would...sort of...
0:45:08 > 0:45:10Yeah, well I suppose that's possible.
0:45:11 > 0:45:12All I can judge on,
0:45:12 > 0:45:16I'm certain my father would never have ASKED anyone to do anything.
0:45:16 > 0:45:21But whether somebody did without being asked...
0:45:23 > 0:45:26And it's important that one views what happened
0:45:26 > 0:45:28through the eyes of then, not now.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31Although it's interesting to look back on it now,
0:45:31 > 0:45:33it was a very different world, wasn't it?
0:45:35 > 0:45:38Edward did not intervene to help his cousin.
0:45:40 > 0:45:43But it was indeed a different world.
0:45:43 > 0:45:47And the same class prejudices that hurt Ruth might have helped Desmond.
0:45:50 > 0:45:52The standards Ruth would be judged by today
0:45:52 > 0:45:56are not the same as those she faced in 1955.
0:45:56 > 0:46:01Some changes are dramatic - wholesale shifts in the law.
0:46:01 > 0:46:02Others are more subtle,
0:46:02 > 0:46:05like the shifting of unconscious prejudices,
0:46:05 > 0:46:07and a move towards transparency.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12The Home Office drew a line under Ruth's case
0:46:12 > 0:46:14and the question of Cussen's involvement.
0:46:15 > 0:46:20Something which Cussen denied up until his death in 1991.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25Let me state quite clearly, I did not give Ruth the gun.
0:46:25 > 0:46:31Nor on that occasion did I drive her up to Hampstead.
0:46:31 > 0:46:35But the impact of Ruth's verdict and execution did not go away.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40Millions are asking, should anyone hang at all,
0:46:40 > 0:46:42or should there be degrees of murder?
0:46:44 > 0:46:47For quite a long time, there had been discussions
0:46:47 > 0:46:51about the need for a much more nuanced approach to homicide,
0:46:51 > 0:46:56and I think that the Ruth Ellis case was the pinnacle of that.
0:46:56 > 0:47:00And this came about with the creation of the Homicide Act in '57,
0:47:00 > 0:47:01which then said,
0:47:01 > 0:47:05actually, there should be ways of mitigating murder,
0:47:05 > 0:47:07and turning it into manslaughter,
0:47:07 > 0:47:11where someone is provoked beyond endurance and snaps,
0:47:11 > 0:47:16and where somebody is suffering
0:47:16 > 0:47:20from an abnormality of mind, and is therefore not,
0:47:20 > 0:47:24shouldn't be held fully responsible for their actions.
0:47:24 > 0:47:26And I think Ruth Ellis was impaired in her functioning,
0:47:26 > 0:47:29but the law had not changed in time for her.
0:47:30 > 0:47:31Two years after her death,
0:47:31 > 0:47:35diminished responsibility offered the possibility of a verdict
0:47:35 > 0:47:39of manslaughter in place of murder for defendants like Ruth.
0:47:40 > 0:47:42It was a key shift which set the course
0:47:42 > 0:47:46for the total abolishment of capital punishment in Great Britain
0:47:46 > 0:47:4712 years later.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56Soon after her execution, Andre was told the truth
0:47:56 > 0:47:59about his mother's disappearance from his life.
0:48:10 > 0:48:12In 1971,
0:48:12 > 0:48:15Victorian Holloway Prison was demolished
0:48:15 > 0:48:16to make way for a new one.
0:48:19 > 0:48:22Today, I have to imagine the forbidding building
0:48:22 > 0:48:25where so many protested Ruth's execution.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31What's here now are the derelict remains of a modern prison,
0:48:31 > 0:48:34closed for good in 2016.
0:48:36 > 0:48:42Between 1903 and 1955, five women were executed here.
0:48:42 > 0:48:44The last was Ruth.
0:48:45 > 0:48:47She was buried on site.
0:48:48 > 0:48:52But in 1971, Ruth's remains needed to be moved.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56"I suppose you have heard no more from Mr Turner, or,
0:48:56 > 0:49:00"as I believe he now calls himself, Mr McCallum."
0:49:00 > 0:49:03That's Andre, who also went by the names Ellis and Hornby.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10The Home Office eventually located him as next of kin.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17They describe him as "A nervous, pale-faced,
0:49:17 > 0:49:19"slightly shabby young man of 26,
0:49:19 > 0:49:22"who looks as though he could do with a good meal.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26"He believes passionately that his mother should not have been hanged,
0:49:26 > 0:49:30"and the execution has clearly shaped the course of his life".
0:49:31 > 0:49:3415 years after his mother's death,
0:49:34 > 0:49:37Andre has been contacting New Scotland Yard.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42There is a log of conversations with a Chief Inspector Mason,
0:49:42 > 0:49:44who reports that Andre is schizophrenic.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49A few months before, Andre telephoned,
0:49:49 > 0:49:50saying that he had new evidence
0:49:50 > 0:49:53concerning the murder of which his mother was convicted.
0:49:57 > 0:49:59Andre decides to have his mother reburied
0:49:59 > 0:50:02in Amersham, Buckinghamshire.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05I visit the cemetery with ex-detective Brian Hook,
0:50:05 > 0:50:09who helped me look into the police investigation, and who lives nearby.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14And this is Ruth's grave.
0:50:16 > 0:50:17It's in this corner here.
0:50:18 > 0:50:24There was a headstone here until 1981 or 1982, when Andre,
0:50:24 > 0:50:27in the throes of severe depression, destroyed it.
0:50:27 > 0:50:35The only marker now, really, is that small triangular piece of concrete.
0:50:35 > 0:50:40Just an unkempt, untidy corner in an...
0:50:41 > 0:50:46..overgrown, unkempt cemetery.
0:50:46 > 0:50:49Andre's choice of location suggests that his mother
0:50:49 > 0:50:52may not be the only person he was mourning.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56So the only reason she's in Amersham is that it's near David Blakely.
0:50:56 > 0:50:58It's about as near as you could get.
0:50:58 > 0:51:00Is her son buried there?
0:51:01 > 0:51:03Yeah, his ashes are in there.
0:51:03 > 0:51:05- His ashes are in there?- Yeah.
0:51:08 > 0:51:13I go back to Andre's tape, where he talks about his feelings for David,
0:51:13 > 0:51:16who is buried only three miles up the road.
0:51:44 > 0:51:48For David to have inspired that kind of feeling in Andre,
0:51:48 > 0:51:50he must have been kind to him.
0:51:50 > 0:51:54And, of course, he must have sometimes been kind to Ruth.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59I now understand that it wasn't just the loss of Ruth
0:51:59 > 0:52:01that Andre couldn't recover from.
0:52:01 > 0:52:03It was the loss of both of them.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34Ruth's crime claimed three lives.
0:52:34 > 0:52:38David's, her own, and ultimately Andre's.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41He didn't ever really make anything of himself.
0:52:43 > 0:52:45He just sort of wandered, really.
0:52:49 > 0:52:51Never really held a good job down.
0:52:53 > 0:52:55Even with all that good education that he had.
0:52:57 > 0:52:59And being a clever boy.
0:52:59 > 0:53:03Young boy. Never...amounted to very much...
0:53:04 > 0:53:07..and ended up in a one-room bedsit.
0:53:10 > 0:53:12Why do you think he took his own life?
0:53:16 > 0:53:18He'd had enough of life, I think.
0:53:19 > 0:53:22Didn't turn out the way he wanted.
0:53:22 > 0:53:24Missed his mother.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27Carrying... Carrying all that with him.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31I do understand why he did that.
0:53:34 > 0:53:35Just had enough.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39Did he give you any indication of his plans?
0:53:40 > 0:53:42He was trying to give the children things.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45- What was he giving them? - All his little possessions,
0:53:45 > 0:53:50all that he had in the world, which wasn't a lot, but...
0:53:50 > 0:53:51His tape recorder.
0:53:52 > 0:53:58He would record us all chatting, and say, "Come on, talk into it."
0:53:58 > 0:54:01We'd all get embarrassed and say, "Don't be silly."
0:54:01 > 0:54:04He'd say, "Come on, talk," and the children would talk to him.
0:54:04 > 0:54:06- ON TAPE:- Jolly good show!
0:54:06 > 0:54:09And he'd always walk around with this microphone.
0:54:11 > 0:54:13Yeah, he was always doing it.
0:54:13 > 0:54:19INDISTINCT SINGING ON TAPE
0:54:22 > 0:54:2648 years after her sister's death in 2003,
0:54:26 > 0:54:31Muriel Jakubait tempted to appeal Ruth's verdict.
0:54:31 > 0:54:33She wanted the court to reconsider Cussen's role.
0:54:37 > 0:54:40Michael Mansfield QC was hired as her barrister.
0:54:41 > 0:54:45By that stage, I'd done many miscarriage of justice cases.
0:54:45 > 0:54:49I'd always thought that the humanity that needs to be infused
0:54:49 > 0:54:53into the way we practice law had not happened.
0:54:53 > 0:54:58And I'd always thought that this particular case illustrated,
0:54:58 > 0:55:03if you like, the division between what's happening in the real world,
0:55:03 > 0:55:06and the way the courts sometimes regard...
0:55:06 > 0:55:10people who they think are a certain category
0:55:10 > 0:55:12deserve to be treated in a particular way,
0:55:12 > 0:55:17so they might be understanding of a situation.
0:55:17 > 0:55:23Whereby, I think if Ruth Ellis were tried now, or even in 2003,
0:55:23 > 0:55:26there would be a defence to go to a jury,
0:55:26 > 0:55:30and I think she would have a very reasonable chance
0:55:30 > 0:55:31of an acquittal on murder,
0:55:31 > 0:55:33but a conviction on manslaughter, obviously.
0:55:33 > 0:55:36The court upheld the original verdict,
0:55:36 > 0:55:39saying that it was the correct judgment
0:55:39 > 0:55:41according to the law of 1955.
0:55:45 > 0:55:49Richard Whitham was junior counsel for the Crown.
0:55:49 > 0:55:53Easiest to put it into a context.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56Despite the interest in the case,
0:55:56 > 0:55:59and despite all the matters that we've discussed,
0:55:59 > 0:56:02and the tragedy of the whole thing...
0:56:05 > 0:56:09..the court was of the view that it had probably
0:56:09 > 0:56:13taken an unnecessary amount of the Court of Appeal's time.
0:56:13 > 0:56:17And so they obviously formed a view
0:56:17 > 0:56:22that their time could have been better spent.
0:56:23 > 0:56:25The appeal had failed.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29Ruth's sister Muriel was devastated.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33The legacy of Ruth's crime had been catastrophic for her family.
0:56:36 > 0:56:37These are Muriel's thoughts.
0:56:55 > 0:56:59But Ruth's legacy for women in criminal justice is more hopeful.
0:57:00 > 0:57:03We've learned a lot, even in the last 50 years,
0:57:03 > 0:57:06about the human condition, and long may it be so,
0:57:06 > 0:57:09because you can only deliver justice
0:57:09 > 0:57:12if we understand the human beings that we're dealing with.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20My journey began a year ago with Andre's objection
0:57:20 > 0:57:22to the prosecutor's description of his mother.
0:57:35 > 0:57:39Over the months that I have spent examining the police investigation,
0:57:39 > 0:57:44trial and execution of Ruth Ellis, I have learned just how inadequate
0:57:44 > 0:57:48the ancient expression "murder in cold blood" truly is.
0:57:50 > 0:57:52In 1955,
0:57:52 > 0:57:55the English criminal justice system was not able to consider
0:57:55 > 0:57:59the complexity of Ruth and her crime.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02She was a type - the case was open and shut.
0:58:04 > 0:58:05Just two years later,
0:58:05 > 0:58:08after diminished responsibility was introduced,
0:58:08 > 0:58:12she may have been found guilty of manslaughter, and served a sentence.
0:58:16 > 0:58:18And she'd be 90 now.
0:58:19 > 0:58:21I might be able to speak to her.
0:58:22 > 0:58:24I wonder what she'd have to say.