Sixty-three years after the last hanging of a woman in Britain, fresh evidence is casting doubt on her death sentence.
Model Ruth Ellis shot her ex-boyfriend – racing driver David Blakely – outside a pub in Hampstead, North London, cutting his life short when he was just 26.
The nightclub hostess, then 28, claimed sole responsibility for the killing after he left the Magdala in April 1955, telling the Old Bailey: ‘It was obvious that when I shot him I intended to kill him.’
Ruth Ellis (pictured) claimed sole responsibility for the shooting but new evidence suggests she may not have acted alone
David Blakely (pictured) was killed after leaving the Magdala pub in Hampstead, North London
But in a recently unearthed recording her son Andre Neilson suggests his mother had an armed accomplice never revealed to the jury, according to The Times.
Mr Neilson says his mother left the house with her partner of the time, former RAF pilot Desmond Cussen. The son, who was just 10 when his mother was hanged, says both had guns.
He claims Cussen, then 32, owned a taxi and it emerged in the case that Ellis travelled to the Magdala in a a taxi, the driver of which was never found.
Mr Neilson is thought to have recorded the claims shortly before he killed himself in 1982. The tape will be broadcast in a documentary on BBC Four next week.
Racecar driver David Blakely and Ruth Ellis had a fractious relationship, which is exposed in a new BBC documentary
The model and nightclub hostess’s execution caused a public outcry that fuelled the abolition of the death penalty in the UK
Film-maker Gillian Pachter – who looked into the case with two former detectives – told The Times that Mr Neilson’s perspective has never been taken on board until now.
‘Here is a witness, a key witness, who was not asked for what he knew, but when you listen to him he backs up the fact of Cussen’s involvement,’ she said.
One day before she was executed, Ellis told her solicitor Cussen gave her the firearm and had showed her how to use it.
The Home Office refused to grant a reprieve but Mr Neilson’s recording backs up her account, supporting the theory that Cussen wanted Blakely taken care of.
David Blakely – pictured circa 1955 driving a racing car – was shot dead outside a pub in North London
A film-maker has suggested the single mother’s death by hanging was in part caused by snobbery shown toward her
New evidence is explored in the documentary, which shows the violence Blakely inflicted on Ellis. It also reveals the sexual abuse Ellis suffered.
The jury was barred from considering a provocation defence and Ms Pachter says snobbery contributed to the denigration of Ellis, who was a working class single mother. Cussen and Blakely originated from higher social circles.
The execution was met with public outcry that resulted in Parliament allowing defences of diminished responsibility in 1957.
Eight years later capital punishment was abolished as a penalty for murder.
The Ruth Ellis Files: a Very British Crime Story will first air on BBC Four at 9pm on Tuesday.