A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis story.

[RosaMoline]

I am really looking forward to this. This particular case (and miscarriage of justice IMO) has long since been a personal obsession of mine.
If Ruth had committed this crime in recent times, she wouldn’t even have had a custodial sentence (thankfully CP long abolished) - David Blakely was extremely mentally, verbally and physically abusive towards Ruth. He apparently caused her to miscarry just weeks before the incident. So it’s beyond question the balance of her mind was affected.
In the few post production photos I’ve seen, it looks gorgeous & I am sure Lucy Boynton will do Ruth justice. Perfect casting.
No date yet, but I was hoping it might be in the Easter TV schedules? Especially as Ruth shot David on Easter Sunday, so the the timing would be very apt:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28496144/

You are extremely rude.

Why was it a miscarriage of justice? She deliberately killed him, didn't she? He was an arsehole who probably deserved it, but she did deliberately shoot him intending to kill him.

I don't think she could have got off, no. Not in 2025. She opened fire in a public place and that carries a significant jail sentence regardless of what drove her to do it

As said before, I loved Dance With a Stranger so was really looking forward to this, but I'm afraid it fell a bit flat. There was no passion between Ruth and David, certainly no feeling of the desperate love she felt for him. I've only watched ep 1 though, maybe that will come.

Been waiting for this to come on I saw the interview on the One Show with Lucy Boynton …she talked about the prejudices of the time against Ruth and the speed of her being hanged after the trial.

Why was she protecting Desmond who gave her the gun? He was an accomplice surely.

Would this not have been diminished responsibility not murder?

I’m watching at tv pace …when is episode 2?

I feel terribly sorry for her and don’t think she should’ve been hanged.

Ruth killed him in cold blood. It was premeditated. But I'd like to think in this day and age she would have got a much lighter sentence due to her state of mind and all the abuse she suffered.

Reading about her childhood is just horrific. No wonder she wanted to die and didn't bother trying to save herself. I imagine she had suffered so much in her short life that she thought she was better off dead ☹️

I agree, it fell flat for me too, but have only watched one episode. I didn't feel the actress had any charisma or looked like Ruth. I loved the film with Miranda Richardson and Rupert Everett.

It was after acting as her executioner that Albert Pierrepoint turned completely against the death penalty.
He understood that it was not a deterrent, and in this case not even a punishment.
Ruth would have killed DB anyway, and I truly believe she committed suicidal by hanging.

Agree with this…being from a working class background and her work in clubs etc all prejudiced against her in those times 😕.

I think Lucy plays her very well she is fab !

Yes, I agree that as she fired the gun in a public place, this definitely went heavily against her. The Home Secretary reprieved a woman literally days before Ruth. Also, as one of the bullets ricocheted against the wall, it hit a woman bystander in the hand. She was then crippled for life.
In answer to a PP, if you’re watching TV pace, it’s next Wednesday for episode 2. Last one for me tonight.
Shocking that jury was only out for 14 minutes. I also don’t understand why she protected Desmond Cussen. Especially as he was a witness for the prosecution (but as we know…he had a cousin on the inside)
Ruth’s friend Jackie Dyer, always said it would be him or her, more than likely DB would kill Ruth though.
Because of the miscarriage, and that RE was experiencing heightened emotions at the time of the murder as he’d humiliated her, again plus she’d had a couple of drinks, which no doubt contributed to her irrationality - if only someone had been there to talk her down, and sleep it off - she probably would have woken the next day and realised what a ridiculous notion the whole thing was, and that he honestly wasn’t worth it.
If DC was involved, gave her the gun, and drove her there, then his involvement is perplexing, to say the least. If it was because he wanted a love rival removed as he was deeply in love with Ruth himself & would’ve happily married her, he must’ve known she would hang? Unless, he was deluded enough to think she’d get off..

I only watched episode one last night (will watch no.2 tonight) and thought it was brilliant.

I didn't think she came across as unlikeable at all. I think she came across as a very insecure and vulnerable woman that was infatuated with David and everything he represented. I felt a certain naivety about her.

I was shouting at the tv for her to ditch David and go out with Desmond knowing how it all played out😟.

Agree! Except that DC wasn’t as nice a bloke as we all thought.. he let her down to in the end.
It’s the age old cliche of the bad boy syndrome…that DB was exciting, and DC was safe….but boring
I’d love to go back in time and try and talk sense into RE..doubt she’d have listened though. I am sure that in time, it would’ve fizzled out. It really wasn’t worth throwing her life away over.
As much as I’m sympathetic to RE, in my opinion she wasn’t a great mum to be brutally honest. But we’ve seen posters on here putting blokes above their kids, haven’t we? If only mumsnet had been around!

I would love to watch this - but I find it really difficult to watch anything (fact or fiction) about miscarriages of justice/people being wrongly accused or blamed for anything. Don't know why.

Will try to give it a go though. It's not like I don't know the outcome, so will be emotionally prepared

So I just read that Ruth confessed to her solicitor Victor Mishcon (who took over from John Bickford): "I didn't say anything about it up to now because it seemed traitorous, absolutely traitorous." (about DC’s involvement).

Just watched the last episode. Even though we all know the outcome, I was still bereft.
Beautifully done.
Rest in Eternal Peace Ruth - something that was denied to you in life. Peace ♥️

I think in this case the miscarriage of justice is not particularly obvious.

Regarding Cussen. I think Ellis' lawyers argued that mentioning his involvement would increase her chances of conviction, as it was proof of premeditation on her part. It's over a decade since I read the Carol Ann Lee book, though, so apologies if I've misremembered.

I feel the same.

My Gran was a similar age at a similar time. Two young children, beaten by her husband and had to work full time, often leaving my Mum and Uncle alone together in horrible environments and leaving in the middle of the night because she couldn’t pay the rent (after running away from my Grandad). It wasn’t an unsual story for the time, sadly. Different expectations of women and what was okay in a relationship, no benefits system or proper childcare to fall back on if you didn’t have extended family.

Most women didn’t get a gun and shoot their ex at point blank range several times, in public, in a pre meditated attack.

Being in an abusive relationship is awful - I’ve been there- but unless someone kills someone by accident in self defence in the moment something violent is occurring I don’t have a lot of sympathy for them.

I think that's right. People might say it's unfair he got away with it as he was clearly part of the conspiracy to murder, but that doesn't in any way make her innocent of the murder.

Pierrepoints views on the death penalty coincided with his needing money. He carried it out; he claimed it didn't work; he then changed his mind again.

His autobiography doesn't really rebut the suggestion he was a bit dim. He had to execute hundreds of people before he "realised" that criminal punishment wasn't ever about justice. Something a lot of people would have told him for free before he had to use special leather straps for "celebrity" drops.

He resigned as executioner over an unpaid hotel bill when a condemned prisoner was reprieved. I say resigned - there was never such a job as an "executioner". Just a rather dull list of people approved by the Home Office to do the job.

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Watching episode 1

So the man who gave her the gun confessed that he did to her lawyer. But her lawyer isn't going to tell anyone because Ruth said she'd plead but guilty? Is that right?

So he showed violence towards her right from the off...

I don't see how her getting the gun from Cussen and him being complicit in any way exonerates Ruth. It's still a conspiracy to murder which she carried out.

I agree.

I think some of it is historical context ie the sexism that was around at that time, that a woman was so weak she could be manipulated into committing a murder she didn’t want to commit. (“Poor weak hysterical woman” type thing).