The life and death of Ruth Ellis - the last woman executed in the UK before capital punishment was abolished in 1969 - is depicted in ITV drama A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, but just how accurate is it?

Ruth was convicted for the 1955 shooting of her lover David Blakely. At the time, the trial and tale of a glamorous hostess murdering an engaged racing car driver outside a pub in north London in broad daylight titillated tabloid readers - and tested the conscience of the British public.

A sensational representation of Ruth has persisted in the decades since, and is familiar to many beyond true crime fan circles.

Now ITV1's A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story aims to tell her "hidden" story, and "exposes the timeless British obsessions of class, sex and death".

Who was the 'real' Ruth Ellis, and how much of her 'real life' features in A Cruel Love?

Who was Ruth Ellis and how old was she when she was hanged?

Ruth Ellis was 28 when she became the last woman to be sentenced to death in the UK in July 1955. Lurid portrayals of her colourful life - set against a backdrop of West End private men's clubs, riven with affairs, and mysterious access to a gun - captivated the public, and has been the subject of several biographies since.

A Cruel Love writer Kelly Jones - known for her work on acclaimed The Long Call, Des, and Baptiste - adapted Carol Ann Lee’s biography A Fine Day for Hanging: The Real Ruth Ellis Story as the series' primary source.

For Kelly, key to Ruth's story is her "incredibly pig-headed refusal to ever see herself as a victim", particularly when it came to taking responsibility for her actions following "psychological and physical" abuse from David.

Kelly also pinpoints one particular detail from the book that informed her interpretation of Ruth. "It really struck me that Ruth refused a sedative on the morning of the execution," she reflects.

"They came to hang her. I mean, I think most people would probably want the edge taken off that particular situation. And yet she refused it because I think she had an extraordinary strength of character."

Explaining the balance between sketching a character for a drama and maintaining authenticity, Kelly says: "I really love adaptation. I much prefer it to doing original stuff because I like the parameters that it gives you and you've got to find the story in that set of parameters. You have to try and do that psychological process, put yourself in that character's shoes and really just kind of go on that journey with them. With Ruth the story came quite quickly because it was so clearly there."

In terms of how faithfully Ruth - played by Lucy Boynton in A Cruel Love - aligns with the real Ruth Ellis, Kelly adds: "My task was to explore that character conflict. Someone who wanted to project total self-control at all times and yet who finds doubts creeping in herself. You see her start to admit that maybe she's gone about this totally the wrong way, and actually maybe she should have showed herself a little bit more compassion. She does start to let people in and she starts to recognise that maybe she doesn't deserve to die."

Where was Ruth Ellis from?

Born in Rhyl, north Wales, in October 1926, Ruth Neilson was the fifth child of Arthur Hornby, a cellist on Atlantic liners who also provided music for silent films, and Belgian refugee Bertha.

Arthur changed his surname before Ruth was born, and would struggle with work as sound innovations developed for films. His unemployment precipitated several moves across properties in Hampshire for the family. However, biographers have subsequently surmised Arthur's abuse of his family may have have also been a reason for both his name changes and frequent relocations.

Ruth's older sister, Muriel Jakubait, detailed in her 2005 book Ruth Ellis: My Sister’s Secret Life how they endured a childhood marred by poverty and hardship. As Arthur's career continued to slide, belongings were sold to make ends meet, and the children were teased for their tattered clothes. But following the death of his twin brother in a steam wagon smash, Arthur began to prey on his daughters.

His abhorrent sexual abuse led to Muriel, aged 14, giving birth to her father's child, a son, who was raised as another sibling. Muriel would later reflect her mother may have been too scared to intervene. Muriel tried to protect Ruth from going through a similar horror, but was unable to stop her father.

Ruth Ellis and her father

In her book, Muriel indicated their father turned his disturbing attention to Ruth when she was just 11. Muriel encouraged her sister to avoid their home after school in order to prevent her being targeted.

Arthur's brutal attacks, however, could not be contained. “I heard her scream," Muriel wrote. "I knew what he was doing. Most of the time I’d stand in front of her, screaming for him to leave her alone. Nothing stopped him.”

Arthur's abuse would continue after he moved to London following the outbreak of World War II. Due to health problems, he was not eligible for service. And so, with jobs that needed filling in the capital, Arthur became the caretaker for a factory. Leaving Bertha - who was working in a pub - and his family in Hampshire, he moved into a small flat on the factory premises. But it wasn't too long before Ruth, who left school at 14 without any qualifications, would join him.

Ruth Ellis' life in London

Ruth initially worked in an OXO factory near the Tower of London and as a waitress in Leicester Square teashops. It was around this period she spent more time in the company of her elder brother Julian's ex-girlfriend Edna, who was in her 30s. According to Muriel, it was Edna who introduced Ruth to fast living.

Edna also began an affair with Arthur, as he continued to abuse Ruth. This shocking arrangement came to a sharp stop following an unannounced visit from Bertha, who discovered Arthur and Edna in bed together. Bertha and Arthur's marriage continued, however, and Ruth remained in London throughout the war years.

She developed rheumatic fever in her left hand and wrist, leading to a two-month hospital stay. Exercise was recommended to alleviate her joint pain and by 1943, aged 17, Ruth had decided on dancing in underground dive bars as a way to keep herself active.

Ruth Ellis gives birth to her son

Regular patrons in the dive bars of London at the time included US and Canadian servicemen. On one occasion, Ruth met 27-year-old French-Canadian soldier Clare Andrea McCallum.

Regarded as sophisticated and well-resourced, Clare spoiled Ruth with gifts of flowers, jewellery and clothes. He also took her out to West End shows and cinemas in Soho, and paid for her to take taxis to meet him.

In September 1944, Ruth bore their child, a son called Andre. Clare promised to marry her once the war was over, but Ruth was sent by her mother in the meantime to a hospital near Scotland to give birth. Come May 1945 and the end of the war, Clare was set to return to Canada. He ordered a bouquet of carnations to be delivered to Ruth - but it would be the final time she ever heard from Clare. Ruth's heart was shattered when she learned Clare was married and a father of two. Andre, also known as Andy, would often live with Muriel and her family as Ruth toiled away in a series of clerical jobs.

What did Ruth Ellis do for work?

By this stage, Ruth also supported herself working as a nude photographer's model. Her £1-an-evening earnings at the Camera Club near Oxford Street kept her family afloat as her father's health ailed - and drew her deeper into a world of vice. She met Morris Conley - dubbed Britain’s biggest vice boss in The People - who was the proprietor of a string of private men's clubs.

Working as a hostess at Conley's Court Club in Marylebone transformed Ruth's fortunes. She dressed in expensive suits trimmed with fur, wore silk stockings with high heels, and dyed her naturally brown hair platinum blonde. The job would also introduce her to George Ellis, a divorced dentist with a drink problem nearly 20 years older than her.

Was Ruth Ellis married?

Despite her initial reservations about seeing George outside of her nightclub work, Ruth was eventually won over by George's social status and ability to provide for her.

She kept Andy's presence in her life a secret from George at first. It didn't put George off though, but Andy remained with Muriel even after Ruth married George in November 1950.

Despite being pushed towards treatment, a volatile George remained in the grip of addiction and his marriage to Ruth swiftly fell apart. Their daughter Georgina - who George would not acknowledge as his - arrived in 1951. However, divorce was already inevitable. Returning to working as an escort, Ruth also returned to living with her parents, bringing Georgina with her.

Was Ruth Ellis in a film with Diana Dors?

When Ruth was four months pregnant with Georgina, she would appear in Rank comedy film Lady Godiva Rides Again.

With Diana Dors and Kay Kendall sharing top billing, and starring Sid James in one of his first comic roles, Ruth played an uncredited role as a beauty pageant contestant. Also joining her as another uncredited contestant was Joan Collins in her film debut.

How did Ruth Ellis meet David Blakely?

By 1953, Ruth had taken lessons in elocution and etiquette, impressing Conley. He made her the manager of the Little Club in Knightsbridge, with King Farouk of Egypt, King Faisal II of Iraq, and the future Lord Snowdon alleged to be among the great and good who frequented the establishment.

It would also be where she fatefully met David Blakely, a jobless former public schoolboy and Sandhurst alumnus with dreams of being a racing driver who survived on an allowance from his family. He was also, like George, a heavy drinker. And David was also engaged.

Not that his betrothal prevented David from moving into the flat above the Little Club where Ruth stayed. Neither did Ruth stop forming relationships with other men. And both were said to resort to violence when their rows spiralled out of control.

When she became pregnant, four months into their relationship, Ruth felt unsupported and ultimately visited a backstreet abortionist.

Who is Desmond Cussen?

When her boss attempted to charge her more rent for the nightclub bedsit than she could afford, Ruth received an offer from Desmond Cussen, who she viewed as a platonic friend.

A former RAF pilot turned accountant, Cussen ran a successful wholesale tobacconist business. He opened up his Westminster home to Ruth, which she accepted. However, Ruth still continued having liaisons with David at a nearby hotel, as Cussen would not permit her lover in his house.

Still, Ruth and David's rows did not cease or become any less violent, even after they got engaged. At one point, her ankle was suspected to be broken by one of his kicks. Meanwhile, Ruth's connection with DCussen grew ever more complicated.

In the summer of 1954, David went to France for the summer in an unsuccessful bid to win Le Mans. He failed to return when he promised to do so and she turned to Cussen for comfort. David came back to London a fortnight later, but Ruth would continue to sleep with both men for the rest of the year. As David went quieter over his proposal, Cussen asked for Ruth's hand in marriage, too. She preferred to marry David, though, even as Cussen supported Ruth amid continued violence.

Furthermore, when Ruth was fired from her club manager role, and decided she wanted to be a fashion model, Cussen stumped up for modelling lessons, as well as French lessons. Ruth's French tutor would later tell police she thought Ruth "looked like a person on the verge of a breakdown".

By the turn of 1955, Ruth moved out of Cussen's home and into a small flat - which he paid the rent for. What's more, David moved in with Ruth, seemingly to no negative reaction from Cussen. Additionally, Cussen also took care of the fees for the boarding school Andy attended.

Ruth Ellis suffers miscarriage

In early 1955, just weeks before she murdered David, Ruth found out she was pregnant again. That baby would never be born after David struck her in the stomach so hard during an argument that she miscarried.

Come April, days before his death, David entered a race in the north of England but performed poorly in trial runs and blamed Ruth. Still recovering from the miscarriage and with a high temperature, she made her way back to London by herself. It would be a few days until David returned, all apologies and mentions about marriage. But a couple of days later he went off with friends - Anthony and Carole Findlater - and wasn't back when he said he would be, sending Ruth into a rage.

She smashed up his car when she discovered it on Good Friday outside the Findlaters' house, after they'd denied knowing where David was. Ruth avoided being charged by the police and spent a couple of nights sitting up drinking.

Why did Ruth Ellis kill David Blakely?

On Easter Sunday, April 10 1955, having been told by the Findlaters that David was not with them, Ruth and Andy were hosted by Cussen. He later told police he drove them home at 7.30pm and did not see them again that evening.

The Findlaters were holding a party, and David volunteered to pick up more beer and cigarettes when they ran out. Restocking at the nearby Magdala pub in Hampstead, he and a friend made their way back to the party around 9.30pm. Ruth, meanwhile, later explained she had taken a taxi to the Findlaters, arriving as David made off to the pub.

As David opened the door of his car, Ruth called out his name and fired twice. David sank to the ground and she proceeded to empty the gun - a .38 Smith & Wesson - into his prone body. David was hit four times, suffering injuries to his left arm, left lung, heart, windpipe, stomach, liver, and back.

Alan Thompson, an off-duty police officer who was drinking at the pub, reached for Ruth's gun, which she gave up without resistance.

"Can you phone the police?" she asked him quietly. “I am a police officer, Madame,” he replied.

When questioned by police, Ruth admitted immediately: "I am guilty." She also said she was "confused".

Recalling the moments leading up to murder, Ruth said: "I was a little away from him. He turned and saw me and then turned away from me, and I took the gun from my bag and I shot him. He turned around and ran a few steps around the car. I thought I had missed him, so I fired again. He was still running, and I fired the third shot. I don’t remember firing any more but I must have. I remember he was lying on the footway and I was standing beside him. He was bleeding badly and it seemed ages before an ambulance came."

Where did Ruth Ellis get the gun from?

Ruth claimed the gun had been given to her three years before as surety for a loan by a man whose name she had forgotten.

The gun's serial number indicated it was issued in December 1940 as a service revolver for police in South Africa. The six-shot handgun was also the service revolver of the British Army at the time.

Muriel would later claim, in the days after the shooting, that Andy told her that he'd recently seen Cussen clean two guns he kept in his flat. Furthermore, it was alleged Cussen drove Ruth to a forest to show her how to shoot. Andy was said to have been amused by his mother being unable to hit a tree she was aiming for because she was shaking so much. Muriel recalled: “I don’t think he understood there’d been a murder."

According to reports, Ruth only disclosed details about how she came by the gun the day before she was executed. Insisting the information should not be used to try and secure a reprieve, Ruth is said to have said that the gun was given to her by Desmnd, who taught her how to use it on the weekend prior, and that he also drove her to the murder scene.

Where was Ruth Ellis in prison?

Having been evaluated by psychiatrists and assessed with an electroencephalograph test, it was determined that Ruth was not insane.

While detained in Holloway prison's hospital wing, however, she was considered to be at risk of suicide. A report by a police medic described her as a “heavily made up woman with platinum hair, rather hard-faced and abrupt in manner.”

Despite this pitiless appraisal, Ruth expressed considerable emotion in a letter to David's grieving mother, who he had not wanted Ruth to meet.

"No doubt these last few days have been a shock to you," Ruth wrote. "Please try to believe me, when I say, how deeply sorry I am to have caused you this unpleasantness.”

Ruth went on to share details about happy times she and David had spent together before signing off: “I shall die loving your son.”

She later obtained a photo of David, via Cussen, ahead of her trial which she hung in her cell and spoke to.

Ruth Ellis trial at the Old Bailey

The court scenes in A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story are imbued with a very authentic sense of the reality Ruth went through, as well as the mores of the day, thanks to source material being directly available.

As Lucy Boynton explained: "The days I filmed in court were very intense because for legal reasons obviously, and for accuracy, all dialogue is verbatim from the court transcripts. So we got a totally vivid experience of what that trial was like. How frustrating it was to sit through the misinformation and misrepresentation of Ruth’s experience. Because Blakely was a member of the upper class it was deemed inappropriate to talk about his ugly behaviour, so none of the physical and emotional abuse he inflicted was mentioned, and therefore the case was entirely imbalanced and Ruth misrepresented."

Lucy continued: "There was one moment when they brought a psychiatrist in to deem whether Ruth was of sound mind. The psychiatrist spoke about ‘the hysteria of women'. We're here in this court case talking about all of these men acting erratically, becoming volatile and violent… and not at any point was their behaviour referred to as ‘hysterical'. Everyone knew Blakely to be a liability and to have a horrendous temper, to the point where Ruth was beaten into miscarriage and hospitalised. Yet none of these men were ever referred to as anything other than high-standing citizens.

"To see the misogyny and the classism so blatantly paraded was really staggering."

Ruth's actual trial began at the Old Bailey on June 20 1955, in Court Number One. Despite concerns from her barrister Melford Stevenson (played by Toby Stephens in A Cruel Love), Ruth had freshly bleached and was unabashed about it.

Her mother, father, and brother Granville observed proceedings from the public gallery. Muriel would claim in her book her parents advised her not to attend. And Cussen was also present, but Ruth's ex husband did not appear in court.

Cussen was also a witness. He admitted to prosecutor Christmas Humphreys he and Ruth had been lovers, and that he saw Ruth damage David's car two days before his murder. Cussen also repeated his insistence he did not see Ruth again on the evening of Easter Sunday after taking her and Andy back to her flat. Cussen also testified to helping Ruth cover her bruises with make-up around six times - but was not pressed about how Ruth came to suffer the injuries.

When it came to the defence, Stevenson told the jury Ruth was guilty of manslaughter, rather than murder, such was her disturbed disposition at the time of the shooting.

He also tried to steer the jury to consider Ruth was "driven by the suffering she endured at the hands of this man to do what she did".

Ruth, meanwhile, described David as "a very likeable person" who she "got very attached to". She also said he "only" hit her with his fists and hands, adding: "I bruise very easily."

And after detailing the circumstances in which she miscarried, Ruth added, bizarrely: "I had the peculiar idea I wanted to kill him.”

The prosecution, however, asked Ruth only one question. ‘When you fired the revolver at close range into the body of David Blakely, what did you intend to do?" Humphreys enquired. She replied: "It’s obvious that when I shot him that I intended to kill him."

The next day, Ruth's defence was asked if there was anything to be added, which was declined.

At no point was the childhood abuse Ruth endured mentioned, nor was her alcohol and anxiety medication intake. Speculation about David's possible bisexuality also went unremarked upon, as did the manner in which Ruth made her way to the Magdala pub, with police having drawn a blank when trying to locate the taxi that allegedly did so. Neither the prosecution nor the defence probed Ruth's explanation about how she came to have the gun, while Andy's recollection about Cussen 'training' his mother how to shoot was not considered by police. Additionally, a defence based diminished responsibility due to temporary insanity, provocation or self-defence was not considered in the 1950s.

The jury found her guilty following a mere 23 minutes of deliberation. Ruth Ellis was sentenced to death. She responded to her terrible fate: "Thanks."

Nigel Havers on playing his grandfather in A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story

Another notable storytelling decision taken by the team behind the ITV drama concerns the casting of Nigel Havers as Lord Chief Justice Sir Cecil Havers, the trial's judge - and also actor Nigel's grandfather in real life.

According to Nigel, Sir Cecil was deeply affected by the case.

“I know it upset my grandfather enormously,” Nigel shared. “He wrote a letter to the Home Secretary expressing she did not deserve to be hanged. Simple as that.”

Sir Cecil's concerns were, however, met with a “blunt refusal”.

Nigel added: “I have very fond memories of my grandfather. I adored him really. He was a kind-hearted man and I do know he had great sympathy for Ruth.”

Nigel also indicated his grandfather felt Ruth committed a crime of passion, more in keeping with a manslaughter charge. Sir Cecil also sent money to Andy every year from her death until the judge died himself in 1977.

Was Ruth Ellis pardoned?

Ruth was not pardoned in life, or death.

She refused to participate in any campaign to spare her life. However, her solicitor John Bickford (played by Toby Jones in A Cruel Love) did approach Home Secretary Gwilym Lloyd George regarding a reprieve. However, it was determined the law "should be allowed to take its course".

When her lawyers visited Ruth to organise her will the day before her execution, she also finally disclosed the truth about Cussen. However, she forbade the information to be used for an appeal.

She admitted Cussen gave her the firearm the weekend prior to the shooting. She admitted he had trained her to use the handgun. And she admitted he drove her to the Magdala.

Toby Jones believes Bickford was "haunted" by being unable to include such crucial details.

"When she was finally willing to do that she'd left it too late," Toby said. "That was why he couldn't include it. He always wanted to and she just kept saying 'no, no, no'. And then eventually she said yes and it was too late. Crucially, it would also compromise Bickford and the story that he'd told up to that point. So there was a kind of selfish element to it. That was what ate him up in the years afterwards.

Over 50,000 people signed a petition for clemency for Ruth, which was also rejected. And a last minute intervention, which delayed Ruth's execution by only a minute, turned out to be a hoax.

In 2003, Ruth's case was referred back to the Court of Appeal. This appeal, too, was unsuccessful - and the court was critical of being obliged to consider it on the basis Ruth herself was not keen to do so and there being no question that she had been a killer, even if there was the possibility she had been wrongly charged.

When was Ruth Ellis hanged? Where is her grave?

Ruth was hanged on July 13 1955 at 9.01am. Six minutes before she was executed prison governor Charity Taylor (played by Juliet Stevenson in A Cruel Love) received a phone call purporting to be from the Home Secretary. Infamous hangman Albert Pierrepoint was not to be denied, though.

Her body was added to an unmarked grave within the walls of Holloway which already contained the remains of four other women who had been hanged at the prison.

Under Andy's supervision, Ruth's remains were reburied in the churchyard of St Mary's Church in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. Her headstone bore the surname she never used, reading: "Ruth Hornby 1926–1955."

“I am quite happy with the verdict, but not the way the story was told,” Ruth wrote in one of her final letters.

Would she be happy with the story told in A Cruel Love?

Watch A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story on ITV from Wednesday, March 05, 2025 at 9pm. All four episodes of the drama are available now on ITVX.