Sylvia remembers how the landlord, Ernie Dumbleton, would say, "Ruths here and boyfriend has hooked off again and shes quite tearful. From small beginnings about Cussens family home in Leatherhead, combined with solid research another side to Ruths alternative lover was emerging. This was Cussen's one and only trail left anywhere since 1955. But it was not enough to save her, although nine out of 10 women sentenced to death in the 20th century have been reprieved and served jail terms instead. what happened to desmond cussen. It would appear he deliberately omitted the reference to the effort needed to fire the Smith and Wesson gun. He couldnt remember his partners name, it was a long time ago, but said he was very good with a gun, a "crack shot." I'd just had a new baby and she said what was he like, and she said she liked the dress I had on. According to another, recently opened, Metropolitan Police document dated 24th June 1955 (two days after Ruth was found guilty at the Old Bailey) Hampstead police handed her property to her solicitor Mr Bickford against "Receipt number 99.". Ruth stood no chance against them.The story about spying and the shadowy characters in Ruths circle continued to unravel by an extraordinary twist of fate. 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. She was holding a gun, pointing it at a dying man. Nothing about Cussen was quite what it seemed. Over the years, Desmond Cussen, Ruths so-called alternative lover, has been described as a bit of a drip, an unassuming, docile, father figure. On 21 May 2005 The Mirror newspaper published an exclusive story, NO PARDON FOR ELLIS. The establishment murdered her. They knew each other for nearly six years, regularly visiting a risky club together in Surrey from the late 1940s. And someone was determined to send Ruth to the gallows.Official files relating to the trial, including the transcript, have been locked away for much longer than the statutory 30 years. ", On 27th May 1955, Mr W Mackenzie, medical registrar at St Giles hospital prepared a report for Ruths solicitor Mr Bickford. 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. I dug deeper into Public Record Office (PRO) documents. I was sooo surprised to see that Abstergo got their hands on Desmond's body, he deserved more, not to be experimented on.--------- Monthly giveaway: May 2022. She read something about Cussen and the murder in a national paper but dismissed it as "ill-informed." Hed already decided to "Subject the witnesses of the prosecution to a minimum of cross-examination. I dismissed the taxi and walked back down the road to the nearest pub where I saw Davids car outside.". Two days before the hanging, Ellis's lawyers had submitted evidence, including the testimony of witnesses that Blakely had inflicted repeated beatings on her and that she believed he had caused the miscarriage she suffered just 10 days before the shooting with a punch to the stomach. However the magistrates court papers were listed as FRUSTRATED (not available) at the PRO in Kew; they could not say where they were. With her tiny hand she couldnt have even thumbed the trigger guard back. Edward had 6 siblings: George Cussen, Cornelius Cussen and 4 other siblings. Scotland Yard were ordered to search for Cussen, but he was not at home and they gave up after an hour. David Blakelys list of property in possession of the Hampstead police in 1955 was recently released for public scrutiny. Trivia (1) Cousin of Edward Cussen. Evelyn told me categorically that "No prisoner in the condemned cell was allowed to use a pen, everything had to be written in pencil and was strictly supervised.". He gave the prosecution an easy time, subjecting prosecution witnesses to a minimum of cross-examination. She allegedly shot Blakely at close range; which is a messy business. Using new evidence that Ive uncovered, I say we now need to go back to the scene of the murder, choose a dark evening at about 9.30 pm and reconstruct the crime. Previous Article Do different brands of antidepressants work differently? I can only guess there was an unwritten law that exempted them from being properly cross-examined. He was Blakelys drinking companion at the Magdala on the night of the shooting. "His father looked like a city gent.". He was the pimp and smooth, society osteopath whose patients included Winston Churchill, Prince Philip and Princess Margaret.He introduced Christine Keeler to John Profumo, the Conservative Secretary of State for War. Dance with a Stranger (Widescreen): Amazon.ca: Miranda . Muriel had wondered for years about the names in it. 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." It didnt come out in the trial. I wrote to the Home Office for further details about the passport but after "thorough searches" nothing could be found. Bear in mind foreign travel then was fairly limited apart from business matters. He had other women and she acquired another, older lover in his thirties, a former bomber pilot named Desmond Cussen, who wanted to marry her. It can be no accident that Christine Keeler, Mandy Rice-Davies, John Profumo and osteopath Dr Stephen Ward were frequent visitors there at the same time as Cussen. He must have known about the gun breaking. She was protecting someone.The two-day murder trial was a travesty. A prison officer who had sat in on the interview confirmed Mishcon's account but added that Ellis had said she asked Cussen for the gun, a detail that was to prove crucial to the Home Secretary's decision to let her hang. Her eyewitness account challenged the authenticity of letters that Ruth apparently wrote and sent from the condemned cell. Ruths defence counsel Melford Stevenson did nothing for her.Later when I found this statement that Stevenson made on the first morning of the trial, I asked myself what was going on. She did not give anything away about Cussen until 12.30 p.m. on July 12th, the day before she was hanged. Forensic expert LC Nickolls said in his police statement, but did not repeat at the trial, that the Smith and Wesson he examined was oily. It was word perfect. Melford Stevenson QC, assisted by Mr Sebag Shaw and Mr Peter Rawlinson instructed by Messrs Cardew-Smith and Ross appeared on behalf of the prisoner Ruth Ellis. The establishment wanted her dead. He was usually portrayed as Blakely's scathing rival for Ruth's affections. This sensational finding was pivotal in uncovering the real Ruth Ellis story.Most people associate Wards name with the 1960s Profumo scandal. She said Ruth was wearing spotlessly clean, pale coloured clothing that night. ", The day after the hanging, the front-page article of the Daily Sketch demanded, "What are the police doing about this man? Mark Frost threw fans a bone and expounded on Annie's fate in his new canon novel Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier, although her ending isn't exactly a cheery one. Somewhere hidden in books written about the Cold War, Cussens other identity is waiting to be uncovered. The latter, 31, was a bachelor. I took her in. It was accepted at the time that the residue from an exploding cartridge is driven backwards on to the hand that pulls the trigger. I would say it was a set up from start to finish. There alongside her friend Diana Dors and young Joan Collins, was Ruth with short dark hair.Four years later on 9th February 1955, when her services were no longer required, Ruth was thrown to the wolves by Desmond Cussen, her so-called alternative lover, to fend for herself during her last sixty days of freedom.At 11.30 p.m. on 10th April, the night Blakely was murdered, on her arrest Ruth immediately admitted to murdering him. 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. There are more than enough invisible clues to show Ruth was set up. Sir Paul Beresford MP wrote to Home Secretary Charles Clarke on my behalf. Edit Related Hubs Section. What is more, Cussen was not the docile character wed been led to believe even as a young man he was a crack shot. Eventually I was permitted to view the file that contained Christmas Humphreys set of magistrates court documents at the Royal Court of Justice in the Strand. He rather resembled Ellis in looks. It was important. After months of research and trawling through electoral registers and directories I realised I hadnt just found a safe house, Id found a safe street! In the 90s, however, judges softened the law on provocation, opening it up to battered women and others whose self-control was affected by despair or depression. It was an understatement. He lived in 1881, at address. Ruths defence counsel made nothing of this at her trial. More witnesses from 50 years ago had revealing things to say. A week before she died, a reprieve was granted to a 40-year-old woman who had battered her 86-year-old neighbour to death with a shovel after a long-running feud. Andre secretly taped their three-hour conversation at the Buddhist Society in London.Just weeks later Andre, aged 38 committed suicide.Humphreys was blinkered; for it was exactly what was going on in the background, amongst the shady characters in Ruths circle, that led to the shooting of her ex public schoolboy lover David Blakely outside the Magdala pub in Hampstead in 1955 and to Ruths execution three months later.Ruths friends, some were prosecution witnesses at her trial, were more complicated than you would imagine from simple statements they made at the Old Bailey.As I read the transcript of the trial and police statements it was clear that nobody was interested in witnesses backgrounds. Are they going to charge him? Did Stevenson choose not to explain this evidence to the Old Bailey jury? After those discoveries I was determined to find everything I could about this very private man. Her daughter, Georgina, then a toddler, child of her estranged husband, George Ellis, an alcoholic dentist, was adopted and died, aged 50, of cancer. Available for both RF and RM licensing. Desmond Miles (1987 - 2012) was a member of the Assassins and a descendant of numerous familial lines that had sworn an allegiance to the Assassins, including individuals such as Aquilus, Altar Ibn-La'Ahad, Ezio Auditore, Edward Kenway, and Ratonhnhak:ton. That day Melford Stevenson applied for the case to be postponed until after 14th June, "Owing to the large number of enquiries still to be made by the defence." "Ruth had clearly been brainwashed.To the police it was an open and shut case of cold-blooded murder. 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. The employer name is FANDOM, INC.. Also the "Letter officer" at Holloway prison would have blanked out names on letters that Ruth sent from prison, yet names are clearly mentioned in Ruths correspondence. Much later it emerged that her friend and "sugar daddy", Desmond Cussen, an accountant with whom she had had a brief sexual liaison, had driven her to the pub and provided the gun. 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. Two decades later, in the 70s, according to Bernard de Maid, the solicitor handling the appeal, Ellis's solicitor, John Bickford, a friend of Cussen, wrote to Scotland Yard admitting that he had concealed from the jury that "Cussen had driven her to Hampstead, provided the gun, and had goaded her into shooting Blakely to remove a love-rival from the scene.". She claimed at the time to have been given the gun by an American serviceman as security for a nightclub debt, and to have taken a taxi to the pub. I wondered. He was an ARP warden based in General Ironsides house that had been commandeered by the government for the Home Guard when it was first formed. I wrote to Prime Minister Tony Blair for a reaction about the Home Secretarys decision; and to HM the Queen. Next week, the court of appeal will hear evidence that will try to prove it was manslaughter. So too were Desmond Cussen and David Blakely. I would have remembered. 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. She became the lover of the Maharaja of Cooch Behar before being killed in a mysterious car crash in January 1955.By chance I discovered Ward won Ruth a walk-on part in the 1951 film Lady Godiva Rides Again a comedy about beauty contests. There was no need for forensics on Ruth or her possessions or for investigating the case properly. It has also been claimed that Desmond was a party to the killing. 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. Did her light-coloured suit that she was apparently wearing show evidence of oil residue from the bullets? The case would be guaranteed open-and-shut. But Ruths list of property and clothing is noticeable by its absence. What is more, Ruth knew. 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