’ I was at the Magdala last night.
I posted this on Instagram:
Last night, I visited the Magdala in South Hill Park, Hampstead. On Easter Sunday 1955, Ruth Ellis waited for her abusive on/off boyfriend, David Blakely, a spoilt rich kid and sometime racing car driver, outside the pub. A witness saw her peering through the window (pic 2) It was a culmination of events that had driven her to this final desperate act, which would result in her last night of freedom. Weeks earlier, he’d beaten her, causing her to miscarry their unborn child. Intoxicated with drink, coupled with the belief he was ‘carrying on’ with another woman, literally drove Ruth to temporary insanity. He’d also let her small son, Andre, down by promising to take him to the fair. He was a no show. Every time Ruth tried to call the flat where he was staying—with his friends the Findlaters—all she needed was an explanation—the receiver was slammed down. Something in Ruth finally snapped. She knew she just had to end this madness somehow. As David and his friend Clive exited the pub, pulling a revolver out of her handbag, Ruth fired five shots into him, one ricocheted, hitting the wall and injuring a bystander in the hand. An off-duty policeman was drinking in the pub, heard the shots, and hurried outside. As David lay dying, Ruth held the gun to her head. She’d intended to save the last bullet for herself, but as the enormity of what she’d done hit her, she lost her nerve. She handed the revolver to the policeman and coolly asked that he arrest her. Just three months later, she was the last woman to be hanged in Holloway Prison, aged 28. There was a huge public outcry at the time, and thousands of British people signed a reprieve for the verdict to be overturned. Alas, it proved to be in vain. Yesterday evening, as I followed in Ruth’s footsteps, almost 70 years later, I felt an overwhelming sense of sadness at this terrible tragedy. Another stain on so-called ‘British Justice.'
RIP Ruth ♥️🕊️ #ruthellis’