Ruth Ellis

Ruth Ellis (October 9, 1926 – July 13, 1955 a British murderess and the last woman to be executed in that country. Convicted of the murder of her lover David Blakely, she was hanged on 13 July 1955 at London's Holloway Prison. Her story was told in the 1985 film Dance with a Stranger (director Mike Newell), and featuring Miranda Richardson as Ellis.

The case's legacy

The hanging of Ruth Ellis strengthened public support for the abolition of the death penalty, which was halted in practice in Britain ten years later.

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The case continues to have a strong hold on the British imagination, reinforced by the dramatic portrayal in Dance with a Stranger, and the case was referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. The Court firmly rejected the appeal, although it made clear that it ruled only on the conviction, not on whether she should have been executed.

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