- She was born in Rhyl, North Wales. Her father was a cello player from Manchester, Arthur Hornby (who later changed his surname to Neilson) and her mother was Bertha Goethals, a refugee from Belgium. Ruth was the fifth of their six children.
- She left school at 14 and worked as a waitress.
- At 17 she had a relationship with a Canadian soldier and got pregnant. He paid child support for about a year, then stopped. Ruth's son eventually went to live with her mother.
- After a number of low paid jobs, she got into nude modelling and hostess work. She had an illegal abortion after one of her regular customers got her prengnant.
- She married George Ellis in 1950. It wasn't a happy marriage. He was an alcoholic, violent and abusive. He was jealous, convinced Ruth was having an affair. She left him several times. They had a daughter, Georgina, but George refused to believe she was his child. The marriage ended in divorce and Ruth moved back in with her mother.
- In 1953 she became the manager of a club in Knightsbridge. It was there she met David Blakely and started a relationship with him. He was a racing driver and engaged to another woman, but nevertheless moved in with Ruth. They both saw other people, and Blakely was violent and abusive, too. She lost his child after he punched her in the stomach.
- On 10 April 1955, she went looking for Blakely and found him at a pub called the Magdala at South Hill Park. When he came out of the pub with a male friend, she shot him five times. The sixth shot was into the pavement. That bullet ricoched off the pavement and injured the thumb of a passer by.
- Despite attempts to prove insanity and a plea by the trial judge, Mr Justice Havers (who is, incidentally, the grandfather of the actor Nigel Havers) to the Home Secretary to grant a reprieve because it was a crime of passion, she was found guilty and sentenced to death (the mandatory sentence for murder at the time).
- The execution took place on 13 July 1955. Ruth Ellis was 28. It stirred up a good deal of anti-death penalty feeling in the UK - ten years later, the practice ended.
- Ruth's execution had a devastating effect on people who knew and loved her. Her husband George hanged himself in 1958, her mother attempted suicide in 1969 and never fully recovered, and Ruth's son Andy killed himself in 1982.
NEW!
Obsidian's Ark
Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.
Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?
When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?
Themes:
Superheroes; Coming of age; Leadership; Kidnap and rescue; Aliens; Friendship and rivalry; Terrorism; Secrets.
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