Ruth Ellis Begs for Clemency…
Last week we brought you the saga of Ruth Ellis, the British blonde who killed her lover in a fit of jealous rage and paid the price by being sent to the gallows on July 13, 1955, the last time such a fate would be meted out to a woman in Britain. In our follow-up story today, we look at how the press treated the story back then, and what a British MP had to say on her behalf. RUTH ELLIS, the 28-year-old model sentenced to death for shooting her lover is a woman of surprises. She did not try to dodge responsibility at her trial, and when she heard her death sentence at the Old Bailey last week, she received it with composure. She decided not to appeal.

Now Mr. George Rogers, M.P., has seen Ms. Ellis in Holloway Gaol and he has announced, “She authorized me to appeal to the Home Secretary for Clemency.”

Mr. Rogers immediately sought an interview with Mr. Gwilyn Lloyd George, the Home Secretary.

It was on Easter Sunday that Ruth Ellis shot and killed David Blakely, the 25-year-old racing motorist. Her execution is fixed for July 13.The future of this astonishing woman, if there is a future, is now in the hands of Mr. Lloyd George.

Fierce white-hot murder
In a whole-pager headed, ‘Should Ruth Ellis Hang?’ in the mass-selling  ‘Daily Mirror’ today, the writer, Cassandra, says: “Death at the hands of the public hangman is very near, and only the Home Secretary, left with the last agonizing decision, can save her from a shameful doom in a prison yard. It is unlikely that he will do so.”

What sort of killing was this? It was a fierce, white-hot murder.

Gun held within inches of body
Ruth Ellis fired six shots at her lover. Four of them hit him. She had to pull back the trigger for every shot she aimed at him. It was not one continuous burst of fire, but six deliberate operations. One deadly wound resulted from the muzzle of the gun being held within three inches of the dying man’s body.

Pity comes hard after such dreadful deeds. Compassion weeps, but is silent. Yet had I the power, I would save her. This was a murder of love and hate; the one as fierce as the other; the storm of tenderness matching the fury of revenge. In human nature where passion is involved, love and hate walk hand-in-hand and side-by-side.

How love and hate battled in the heart and mind of Ruth Ellis will be told by her in the Sunday Graphic next Sunday. It is her own story, and is one of the most moving and surprising ever written.

As there will be a tremendous demand for the Sunday Graphic with Ruth Ellis’ story, readers are advised to order their copies today. (Reprinted from the Friday July 1, 1955 edition of the Guiana Graphic)