He was from an exceptionally well to do family. She allegedly shot Blakely at close range; which is a messy business. Ruth had to be found guilty. Theyd been housed there since 1996. Statements Mrs Yule made between 11th April and 20th June were inconsistent. Recently released hospital prison records reveal that Ruth fabricated the main thread of her defence. Desmond Cussen Ruth Ellis: The model who smiled at her executioner New exhibition explores the life of the last woman to be put to death in Britain MOST READ 1 Irish cookbook is number one. She was not looked upon as the common peroxide blonde prostitute as shes been portrayed over the years. This was Cussens one and only trail left anywhere since 1955. However, later when I examined the transcript of the trial, which took place on 20th June, two months after the magistrates court hearing, I found that Nickolls failed to mention this crucial piece of evidence. In the press she had already been portrayed as a peroxide blonde tart. Nickolls evidence went unchallenged. "I kept pushing it and pushing it and pushing it. It was in case anything came out. Ruth was hanged to protect the shadowy characters she mixed with and took her secrets to an unconsecrated grave at Holloway prison. The notebook tells a revealing story of its own. But she was certain about what happened. Cussen seemed to be following Ward around.When the names Ward, Keeler and Profumo cropped up later in the Atlantic hotel, I realised that Cussen whod been staying there for two years was not there by accident. Reluctantly, at midday on 12 July 1955, the day before her execution, Ellis, having dismissed Bickford, the solicitor chosen for her by her friend Desmond Cussen, made a statement to the solicitor Victor Mishcon (whose law firm had previously represented her in her divorce proceedings but not in the murder trial) and his clerk, Leon Simmons. She remembers Ruth as a "first class woman" whom she liked and says she was not the "troublesome blonde" that warders at Holloway had strangely been told to expect. where so many protested Ruth's execution. He was usually portrayed as Blakely's scathing rival for Ruth's affections. Find the perfect desmond cussen stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. Then she admitted she would not recognise "the blonde woman again who shot Blakely. By early June 2002 I had pieced together quite a dossier of first hand evidence about Cussen; a bigger picture was developing. Forensic expert Lewis Charles Nickolls, Director of the Metropolitan Police Laboratory examined the revolver and bullets. When he was just a child, for example, he once walked six miles to donate blood to an . I wrote to the Home Office for further details about the passport but after "thorough searches" nothing could be found. Education. "The judge and jury in the original trial did not have the full picture. The gun is test fired in the lab at different distances using the same type of ammunition. The Welsh peroxide blonde glamour model turned cold . It was all too quick. He said there was no evidence on which a jury could possibly conclude that it was a case of provocation, and left the jury no choice but to convict her of murder. The latter, 31, was a bachelor. I wrote to Prime Minister Tony Blair for a reaction about the Home Secretarys decision; and to HM the Queen. It stated he achieved pilot officer status in the General Duties Branch on 10th April 1945 and left on 10th October 1945. She threatened Muriel not to talk to a soul, to look after Andre, instructed her not to allow the boy to talk anyone and left. He does just that, saving Earth, and seemingly ending his story. Cussen and Co microfiches led to another vital discovery, more proof of Ruths connection with Dr Stephen Ward, who was a key player in the Profumo affair in the 1960s, and circumstantial evidence of Cussens connection to the secret service. The judge took away power of the jury.". Nothing was made of this at her trial. In her letter to Muriel Jakubait she wrote, "When Cussen, as I believe he is named, appeared behind her I was frightened. Although she survives on the state pension, she insists that she hasn't persevered all these years for the money, "though if there is any money, I don't see why I shouldn't get my share". Barbershop customer Matthew - an eternal mature student who would ditch the books to spend his time in the shop - was played by Gyearbuor Asante, who sadly passed away in 2000. All the big names in spying were there: Philby, Burgess, Maclean, Menzies, Cowgill, Sinclair, Footman, Burke Trend . It was here that she soon met the two men who would shape the rest of her life and determine her fate, Desmond Cussen and David Blakely. In March 2002 I contacted Companies House in an attempt to find information about Cussen and Co. Whilst examining hand-written documents on microfiche (luckily still available from Companies House archives) I discovered that Desmond Cussen lived in Garlands Road, Leatherhead with his parents, in a detached house called Dapdune. So too were Desmond Cussen and David Blakely. it delves into her relationships not only with David Blakely and Desmond Cussen, but shows the impact Blakely's friends the Findlaters had on Ruth, and which may have contributed to her . In the early 1970s, Mr Bickford, Ruths solicitor, made a statement to Scotland Yard from his home in Malta. what happened to desmond cussen. In 1955, at the age of 28, Ellis was the last woman to be hanged in the UK after she shot her lover dead outside a pub in Hampstead two months earlier. The so-called witnesses would have seen nothing else, only the eye-catching blonde causing a diversion. "As a barrister for fifty years I was just putting the facts of the actual murder. Monday, 11 March 2013 Ruth Ellis Ruth Ellis, fifty eight years after her execution, is still a controversial figure in the history of British Justice. After Bickfords confession a police investigation followed but no further action regarding Cussen was taken. This could have been a turning point in the trial yet Ruths defence gave the prosecution an easy ride. > descente dmmtjf13 - (set) airy transfer . The procedure for estimating the range of fire of a weapon had been used for some years. Too many crucial questions were left unasked. My enquiries were met with assurances that nobody knew anything. I have become even more fascinated by information that Id not found before. Cussen, who moved to Australia after the trial, has since died. It was only hours before. On Easter Sunday, she told Mishcon, she had been drinking Pernod for many hours with Cussen, who had handed her the loaded gun and driven her to the scene of the murder. For the third time he emphasised that the gun broke during testing. Ruth and Rawlinson shook hands in her cell after the three-minute hearing. Top people lived there in houses of substance. Trivia (1) Cousin of Edward Cussen. As stated earlier he was a director of the family business, a wholesale tobacconists called Cussen & Co. ", At her second court appearance on 28th April she said that she saw a lady in front of the two men. After the visit he also said he could not forget Ruth Ellis's words to him: It is quite clear to me that I was not the person who shot him.When I saw myself with that revolver I knew that I was another person."". He was perfectly placed when the Profumo fiasco broke in 1963.This discovery opened up a new line of investigation, which in turn led to the infamous spying activities of Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess.The convincing story, spun and repeated for fifty years, disguised the real Ruth Ellis. Phone numbers and addresses of Berta and Arthur Neilsons friends, also notable journalists of the time Peter Grisewood, Jimmy Reid and Duncan Webb and other contacts that shed scribbled in fifty years ago, became important clues. They regularly practised shooting 303 rifles on a local rifle range. He was recruiting girls from the late 1940s.Ward and his post-war close friend, society and stars photographer Antony Beauchamp, who was married to Winston Churchills daughter Sarah, were working together in their sordid profession, making something of young girls from the right background.Wards skill was "finding uneducated girls from a poor background." His activation of the Isu artifact had unintended consequences, however, as it merely postponed the . Determination is what has kept her going, she says. Statements from new witnesses had one thing in common. This, I feel, is unlikely. She was pointing it towards Blakelys dead body. If they had known the full story, Ruth would not have been convicted of murder or hanged. Instead he summarised, "We have heard the evidence about your taking a revolver up to Hampstead and shooting him. DesmondCussenFalls for Ruth. Fandom General Counsel. Its a long walk from Tanza Road to the Magdala which is the nearest pub. This led to a discovery of a secret service stronghold there in the early 1950s.Commentators of the Ruth Ellis story focused on Blakelys mother Anne and stepfather Humphrey Cook when they lived at the Old Park in Penn in 1955. From small beginnings about Cussens family home in Leatherhead, combined with solid research another side to Ruths alternative lover was emerging. She and her husband Donald Maclean Yule (who was not called to give evidence) were walking to the Magdala for a Sunday evening drink. The pair frequently visited the Paddock Club, which was a mile or so from Cussens Leatherhead family home, since the late 1940s. I suspect that forensics were not carried out on Ruth, and the gun conveniently broke during testing because the results would have saved her and proved she could not have killed Blakely. It was organised like a military exercise by experts. It all looks extremely suspicious. He said, "Ive remembered the young mans name, it was Cussen.". Ruth Ellis admitted pulling the trigger of the heavy .38 Smith and Wesson British service revolver. I should have demanded to hear the defence if I was the jury. Ellis, her lawyers argue with backing from a leading forensic psychiatrist, was suffering from post-miscarriage depression. He was the older, sugar-daddy, type character that Ellis had turned to when Blakely started getting a bit handy with his fists. the stylings and visuals evoke an inky, foggy london that was still struggling to get back on its feet after world war ii. Five bullets: the last, a coup de grace. This was Cussen's one and only trail left anywhere since 1955. Since the winter of 2005 I have made discoveries about Cussens service record; thats another story. It all went according to plan. Newcastle West History & Heritage. "His father looked like a city gent.". On the evening of Friday 25th May 1951, Watson drove Maclean to Woldingham station. "The killing was a true crime of passion," says de Maid, the Ellis family solicitor. But Ruth lied. She shot her lover, David Blakely, outside the Magdala pub in Hampstead on the night of Easter Sunday, 1955, felling him with one bullet and pumping four more into him before an off-duty policeman removed the revolver from her hand. He failed to raise any of these discrepancies.The more I read the transcript, comparing it to witness statements prior to the trial, the more I saw the skulduggery that took place. It followed my discovery of Desmond Cussen's signature on a business document in 1964 while he was lying low at a London hotel. Sometime between the committal proceedings at the magistrates court in April and Ruths trial in June 50 years ago, words had been mysteriously crossed through in key witness statements; other words had been inserted, giving totally different meanings. Desmond accompanied her, and he provided her with the gun. Related Hubs. He looked like a spiv with dark, greased back hair; with a round boyish face and an unnatural looking thin moustache. After picking his way through legal language with Stevenson and Humphreys, Justice Havers found an excuse not to allow a verdict of manslaughter and decided not to leave the issue to the jury. The Ruth Ellis story wasnt about a crime of passion it looked that way though.The shooting of Blakely obscured the truth about the country in the grips of a spying scandal. One doesnt assume anything when there is a death sentence looming. "Ruth had no reason to want Blakely dead, but Cussen did." I have evidence of their long-term friendship. Go and have a chat with her.". Registration Number: 2333870 : Full Name: DESMOND CUSSEN : First Name: DESMOND : I noticed this statement made by Clive Gunnell who called himself a Mayfair car salesman. We now know it was a pack of lies. Yesterday Wednesday 4th July 2007, at 2.18 pm, I received the following email from 10 Downing Street: 10 Downing Street - Petition to the Prime Minister has been Approved. Bear in mind foreign travel then was fairly limited apart from business matters. I took her in. I contacted anyone who might spread the word about our new findings, from editors of parish magazines and village newsletters to local newspapers in areas connected with the story.Three years of detective work has taught me there will always be more to discover. Stevenson could have established what really happened. What is more, Ruth knew. Dance with a Stranger (Widescreen): Amazon.ca: Miranda . The case would be guaranteed open-and-shut. They are part of the Legal Counsel team within the Legal Department Desmond graduated from Cornell University School of Law in 1989 and is currently based in San Francisco, United States. Like Ellis, Challen was subjected to decades of abuse at the hands of her husband and this was recognised in her appeal, which took into account the insidious nature of coercive control. Using the same type of ammunition regularly practised shooting 303 rifles on a rifle! 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