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Description
The true story of the last woman to be executed in Britain. In 1955, former nightclub manageress Ruth Ellis shot dead her lover, David Blakely. Following a trial that lasted less than two days, she was found guilty and sentenced to death. She became the last woman to be hanged in Britain, and her execution is the most notorious of hangman Albert Pierrepoint's 'duties'. Despite Ruth's infamy, the story of her life has never been fully told. Often wilfully misinterpreted, the reality behind the headlines was buried by an avalanche of hearsay. But now, through new interviews and comprehensive research into previously unpublished sources, Carol Ann Lee examines the facts without agenda or sensation. A portrait of the era and an evocation of 1950s club life in all its seedy glamour, A Fine Day for a Hanging sets Ruth's gripping story firmly in its historical context in order to tell the truth about both her timeless crime and a punishment that was very much of its time. Read more
Publisher : Mainstream Publishing; UK ed. edition (September 9, 2013)
Language : English
Paperback : 432 pages
ISBN-10 : 1780576234
ISBN-13 : 37
Item Weight : 11.7 ounces
Dimensions : 5.06 x 1.12 x 7.81 inches
Customer Reviews: 4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 373 ratings
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Top Amazon Reviews
I'd never heard of Ruth Ellis before reading this book. The author does a great job putting her life in context, with the war and her family. Ruth comes across as interesting and complicated. She was goal oriented and smart. Running a successful club in the rotten economy of post-war London couldn't have been easy. But she kept sabotaging herself. The family seemed to have a psychological fault line going through it. The sexual abuse must account for a lot. And something else, undiagnosed, kept her emotionally detached from her kids. She had tunnel vision in her love life, chose just awful people, and made truly bad decisions . It's painful to read how just a few years later, the idea of hanging her wouldn't have even been considered. I think her attorney was another victim in the long run. And maybe her weird, passive-aggressive, secondary boyfriend. I was happy to read that the daughter had a good, if short, life. They got her out of that miserable environment early. Neither biological parent did much parenting. I'm sorry for the son. It sounded like he inherited the family mental health issues, on top of losing his mom.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2018 by Book Reader
One of the most shocking aspects of Ruth Ellis's crime, arrest, trial and execution is that everything occurred in a matter of months, a world away from prisoners sitting on Death Row for decades as appeals wend their way through the court system (at least in the United Sates). Even more shocking is encountering the awful power of Great Britain's Royal judicial system at a time when both gender and class seemed to play almost as significant a role in affecting a defendant's guilt and punishment as the circumstances of the crime itself. Carol Ann Lee's excellent account of the life, times and hanging of Ruth Ellis is a must-read for anyone interested in not only one of the most famous true crime stories in British history, but in learning about the life of a woman whose personality and feelings have been subsumed by the notoriety of her crime and execution. Lee's vivid and evocative descriptions of Depression era and post-World War II Britain, her empathy for (but not excusal of) Ruth, her perceptive sketches of a wide and fascinating cast of characters, and her concern with the wide ripples that so affect anyone connected with the principal figure in a major crime case make this a book that is well-organized and crafted, enormously interesting, and, ultimately, very moving.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2013 by R. Smith
This is an excellent account of the Ruth Ellis story. It is well researched and fills in many gaps that other authors missed.Though almost 60 years have passed since the events happened, one still is intrigued by what happened. First of all, Ruth Ellis was a cold blooded murderer of which there is no doubt. She admitted her crime and the killing was witnessed by several bystanders. Through her actions one bystander was injured by a ricochet bullet. One can sympathize by her reasons for the murder, but her actions were totally unjustified. Revisionist history sides with her, but in 1955 the world was a lot different. Her defense team was terrible and her testimony was even worse. Should she have been granted a reprieve? Probably, but I don't think she cared as she stated all along that she wanted to die.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2014 by John S.
I have read just about every book written about Ruth Ellis and this is the most well researched and written of all. I don't know exactly why this story is so compelling. Maybe it's the film noir quality of the tale but at any rate the author has cleared up many of the questions I had from previous books I had read. A true tragedy for all involved and a story bigger than anything HOllywood could invent.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2013 by Geepers Peepers
It is a very well written and detailed book. I m still reading it and enjoying every page. But the whole business of hanging someone, especially a woman is just.........horrible :((((
Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2018 by Marianna
Very thorough retelling of a needless tragedy
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2018 by chacha
I knew very little about the Ruth Ellis case prior to reading this comprehensive and well written book and I found it a totally absorbing read. The first chapter is one of the most powerful pieces of non-fiction writing I have come across for a long time. Ruth Ellis was the last woman to suffer the death penalty in the UK. There was never any doubt about the fact that she shot David Blakely outside the Magdala Public House in Hampstead. What never really came out in the police investigation or at the trial was the full circumstances which led up to the shooting. Ruth Ellis was ambitious and wanted the best of life for herself. She moved to London and obtained work in clubs as a hostess. She did well and was managing the Little Club in Brompton Road in her early twenties. She was the sort of person who was ideally suited to the job as she always made people feel welcome and could talk to anyone. Ruth was married to George Ellis and had two children – Andre (George was not his father) and Georgina – but the marriage was always troubled and Ellis was an alcoholic and beat Ruth up. They separated and Ruth was living in a flat above the Little Club with Andre when she met David Blakely. David was the sort of person who would always attract Ruth – he was unreliable, had ambitions of being a racing driver and was above her in the social scale which was something which mattered more in the nineteen fifties than perhaps it does today. David and Ruth’s relationship never did run smoothly and they frequently had rows and often split up only to be reunited a few days later. Ruth blamed David’s friends Ant and Carole Findlater for many of their problems because they did not like her and, she felt, were always trying to split them up. Eventually David became so jealous of Ruth’s job at the Little Club that she was forced to give the job up together with the flat which went with it. Things never ran at all smoothly after that and in some ways it could be said that the death of one of them was always on the cards. But until Ruth shot David the odds would always have been on David killing Ruth because of the savage beatings he used to inflict on her. Even though the case was apparently clear cut – many witnesses saw Ruth shoot David and an off duty policeman was on the scene within seconds as he had been drinking in the pub – the police investigation left a lot to be desired. No one really investigated where the gun came from or who gave it to Ruth. The gun was not even checked for finger prints. Ruth’s own movements were never really traced over the whole of the Easter weekend which led up to the shooting. The role played by her friend, and sometime lover Desmond Cussen in the events immediately before the shooting were virtually ignored by the police. Ruth Ellis was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in a trial which lasted an incredibly short space of time and involved very little attempt by the defence team to try and explain Ruth’s actions or the nature of her relationship with David Blakely. The case aroused a huge amount of controversy at the time and fuelled demands for the abolition of the death penalty. Today it is arguable that Ruth would have been able to plead diminished responsibility because of David’s beatings and infidelities and would possibly have been convicted of manslaughter rather than murder. Ruth herself felt her sentence was justified and in spite of strenuous efforts on the part of her solicitor a reprieve was not secured. The book raises some interesting questions about how a defendant’s lifestyle, morals and appearance affect both a police investigation and the result of a criminal trial. Ruth’s platinum blonde bleached hair was what people remembered about her not the abuse she had received at the hands of the man she killed or the way she was manipulated by people who were supposedly her friends. I had not realised until I read this book that Stephen Ward, who later achieved notoriety in the Profumo scandal, was probably acquainted with Ruth Ellis as they moved in the same circles. The people involved in her trial are also famous names – Christmas Humphreys for the prosecution. Aubrey Melford Stevenson, Sebag Shaw and Peter Rawlinson for the defence and Mr Justice Havers the judge. This book is an excellent example of true crime writing and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know about this case. There are comprehensive notes on each chapter, a bibliography and an index. In the e-book edition the illustrations are in a separate section at the end of the book and they display well on the Kindle screen.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2013 by Damaskcat