Ruth Ellis | Albert Pierrepoint interview | The Last woman to hang | 1977
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- Опубліковано 12 лип 2018
- Some experts from the Thames TV documentary ‘Ruth Ellis - the last woman to hang’
An investigation into the case of Ruth Ellis, who became the last woman to hang in Britain after one of the most sensational murders of the 1950’s
In these extracts we hear from public executioner Albert Pierrepoint, the Judge Mr Justice Havers, and Christmas Humphreys, counsel for the Prosecution and her defence solicitor John Bickford
First shown: 28/06/1977
If you would like to license a clip from this video please e mail:
archive@fremantlemedia.com
Quote: VT17315
“Has it ever struck you that life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going?”― Tennessee Williams
Brilliant. Thanks.
Sentimental crap. Sorry
Havers was the trial judge who presided over the conviction of Ruth Ellis for murder in 1955. Ellis was the last woman to be sentenced to death and executed in the United Kingdom. In a 2010 television interview his grandson, the actor Nigel Havers, revealed that his grandfather had written to the Home Secretary recommending a reprieve as he regarded it as a crime passionnel, but received a curt refusal. He subsequently sent money annually for the upkeep of Ellis's son.[12]
This is worth a thousand dramas, reconstructions and present-day self-opinionated talking heads. Here is the testimony of those who were there. Thank you for uploading it. The whole programme would be better still.
I do believe in that criminals must pay the price but Blakeley punched Ruth in the stomach and she lost a baby which to me is a killing because an innocent life was taken by a filthy coward
Cousin's supplied the gun and drove her to meet Blakeley. She should never have hanged. Murder was dealt with very differently in the 50's. Timothy Evans would have been aquitted as he was illiterate and his statement included words that were not in his vocabulary. Derek Bentley would have been charged as an accessory and not been hanged. However, the state wanted justice for the murder of a police officer. However, certain types of 1st degree murder warrant the death penalty and that includes the murder of a police officer.
he was a disgrace and I only feel sympathy for her to be honest. Awful life.
@@Ukraineaissance2014 While I don't agree with capital punishment it makes no sense to call Pierrepoint a disgrace. He didn't condemn people to death. The law of the land did. So if you want to call anything a disgrace it should be the law not Pierrepoint.
He merely carried out the sentence very efficiently in a manner that made it as quick and painless as possible for the condemned person. And if he didn't do it someone else would have, perhaps less efficiently.
Are the soldiers carrying out the execution on a military firing squad a disgrace? No they're not, they're merely the instrument of military law. As Pierrepoint was merely the instrument of civil law.
The problem with your fantasy is that Ruth Ellis was innocent!
@@kevincoombes5949 Innocent of what?????
“Ruth's son Andy, who was aged 10 at the time of his mother's execution, took his own life in a bedsit in 1982, shortly after desecrating her grave. The trial judge, Sir Cecil Havers, had sent money every year for Andy's upkeep, and Christmas Humphreys, the prosecution counsel at Ruth's trial, paid for his funeral.”
These interviews are not so old yet these people seem from a world so far removed for our modern world in 2021.
If I recall correctly, in his summing up, Lord Havers cautioned the Jury not to rely upon one question, possibly a trick question, in reaching their verdict. Plainly this was a reference to Christmas Humphreys' fatal question as to Ruth's intentions. It seems that he did not want to pass the only sentence available to him.
My parents were at the vigil to get her sentence commuted to life in prison.
She had a very violent boyfriend and she feared for her life...
It would probably be clear if the whole documentary was shown but John Bickford did not defend Ruth Ellis at her trial. This excerpt gives that impression. He worked to have her reprieved after she was sentenced. Just a minor criticism.
Bickford was her solicitor, no? The full documentary is online.
Bickford was her solicitor but didn’t represent her in court. Solicitors do not represent their clients at trial, that’s the role of her barrister, who was Aubrey Stevenson.
Albert Pierpoints’ book, Pierpoint Executioner is a fascinating, if at times gruesome read, he came from a family of executioners.
He was the mentor to my mothers uncle, who never got to finish his 'apprentice' as capital punishment was abolished.
Ellis was an unfortunate woman who commited a very serious crime, but that she was hanged while women who had commited truly evil crimes in concentration camps were given relatively lenient sentences was disgraceful.
RuthEllis did not shoot David Blakely. She hit the wal! of the Magdela pub. Desmond Cusson shot Blakely downhill from the pub. Ruth Ellis was innocent.
@@kevincoombes5949 No she was not innocent, stop talking nonsense. Cussons was only guilty of giving her the gun. And maybe he should’ve hanged as her accomplice. But the police never traced the gun, so cussons was a lucky fella.
All l remember was the uproar all over Britain that she should not die every town and city l lived in Manchester and nobody wanted her dead
No. Pierpoint flew to Germany and hung them too.
@@gagereisinger7476 Zey ver just followink orders!
If we had the death penalty today, This is a classic example of a murder case that would not have resulted in a sentence of death.
your word in american ears....
Like hell it wouldn't. You're living in Fairyland.
@@Khayyam-vg9fw ....Explain 🤔......
@@501sqn3 I mean that exactly the same kind of miscarriages of justice would occur under any death penalty regime.
@@Khayyam-vg9fw At that time..... Very likely, ? But not today.
To those who know, the prosecuting QC was also the country’s foremost Buddhist, at the time, and Christmas Humphreys wrote several incredibly informative books on the subject. I understand too from barrister friends that his one question cross-examination of Ellis, after her answer he sat down and rested his case having proved mens rea and thereby guaranteeing she would get the rope, is still taught as a tour de force in law schools to this day.
The significance of the prosecutor’s question, is obviously why the interviewer wanted him to repeat his words verbatim, and hearing him do so in the present is therefore a very striking experience. As is listening to old Tosh proving at the start of this clip just how long standing the British gutter press’s tradition of printing utter lies really is.
What a heartless robot Christmas Humphreys was, and what a poor Buddhist. I'm sorry that law students are still being indoctrinated with his disgusting casuistry.
@@andrewcrocker-harris4830 Too right sir,wonder how much they tell the law students about TImothy Evans.
@@andrewcrocker-harris4830 He wasn't a heartless robot. He was a very humane lawyer and judge, however he had a duty to perform as prosecutor: prove the case. His question was put in a very fair way and allowed the defendant an opportunity of mercy, if she'd taken it. That is why I also don't agree with the poster above that his performance was a tour de force. He makes the mistake of asking her an open question, which is bad practice in a cross-examination. Personally, based on what I know of the case, it seems right that she was hanged. Her actions were premeditated and not on the spur of the moment. It was cold-blooded murder.
8ii88i88
@@TomRogersOnlineAs far as I am aware, she never denied it, knew she was going to hang, and never appealed for clemency. Apart from anything else, there were no less than four eyewitnesses to the murder, including an off-duty policeman who made the initial arrest. Any defence would be a stretch of imagination.
Ironic fact; the second last woman to be hanged in Britain lived in the same street that the Magdala pub is on, about two hundred yards from the scene of the Blakely/Ellis murder.
Pity it hadn't of been myra hindley instead of Ruth
My sentiments exactly.Hanging would be too quick and painless.The Electric Chair or Gas Chamber would probably make her suffer more.
Pierrepont was never the same after he executed Ruth Ellis He would write letters to Ellis' sister for years afterwards and even had his photograph taken, smiling, next to Ruth's grave which is pretty fucked up when you stop and think about it. .
Yes not sure why he did that. Hanging her obviously had a profound effect on him.
The film Pierrepoint appears to have captured it well- just as the man himself described.
In his autobiography Albert Pierrepoint remarks on the inconsistency of public reaction to executions. The penultimate woman executed, Styllou Pantopiou Christofi, unlike Ruth Ellis, garnered no reaction from the press or public and her execution is forgotten today.
@ThamesTV Do you have the complete documentary programme?
Please could you upload it?
One of the most dreadful miscarriages of justice was that of Timothy Evans,executed by Albert Pierpoint,as I'm sure there were many more. It undoubtedly played on his conscience. Extremely hard to live with, knowing you ended an innocent mans life.
I can understand your feelings and beliefs, but do read the wiki on Pierrepoint, and especially his own words. I don't believe in capital punishment, yet I can see what he did with a clear conscience. Please read for your own understanding and comfort. Like injustice and cruelty in our societies, we can only do what we can do as individuals, when we see it and act when we see it in front of us, at the time it is happening.
he only played a part in a machine that took his life, which included the media of the day who also thought evans was guilty at the time.
In the 4 years 1949-53 Evans' family found themselves experiencing a series of events which as far as I know is possibly unique in the annals of crime.
First they saw two members of their family - Beryl Evans and her baby Geraldine - both murdered.
Then another member of their family, Timothy Evans, was wrongfully executed for it.
Then three years later, the real killer John Christie was rightfully executed.
Weird or what?
It gets worse even...
Timothy Evans told Pierrepont, "the rope is burning my neck" to which he replied, "Don't worry, it won't bother you for much longer" before quickly administering the drop.
It must've troubled him more than anything.
I think the case of Derek Bentley was also a huge miscarriage of justice but at least he was pardoned and conviction quashed
How anyone would actually want to do the ' job ' he aways wanted to do ( at school when asked what he wanted to do as a job/career he said "the state executioner") is beyond rational thinking!! The whole family wanted to put people to death weird in the extreme.
SOMETHING PERVERTED IN WANTING THAT JOB.
Fascinating, words from the people who were actually there…….thanks for posting
The sad fact of it is that many people were executed for so-called 'crimes of passion' and there are/were many instances of mitigating circumstances. The Ruth Ellis case was not one of these, but it was an extremely sad case all the same. History shows that 'there is only one sentence that can be passed' and that is one of death.
The homicide act of 1957 helped somewhat, but the abolishment of capital punishment in 1969 was the better option - in my opinion.
I believe that any single person trawling these comments could stumble into a silly fight and end up on a murder charge.
Yep, plus the suspect has no reason to be caught alive, could be a dangerous situation for officers and bystanders. Might as well go out fighting
@@danielculver2209 This was the reasoning of the court at the time too. "We can't have people shooting off fire-arms in the street". And I tend to agree with that.
The death penalty itself is wrong, but the verdict in this particular case was 100% correct, and the law at the time said that the punishment for her crime was execution by hanging. It's only noteworthy because the condemned in this case was a woman, which should make no difference in a court case.
At least in England as well as most of the democratic world has evolved to an understanding that the death penalty is not a positive practice it dose not save lives and is seldom justice as it's usually applied to the poor people of color and intellectually disabled here in America we have yet to reach that state of enlightenment but of course we will someday
@@charlesciminera5881 In the 24th. Century, perhaps.
@@charlesciminera5881 Not to mention the innocent that have been murdered by the state.
Capital Punishment doesn't allow for mistakes.
Interesting documentary
Trash
Very interesting.
Watched Timothy spall play the man,the condemned person eyes would haunt most people,Shame he never dealt with yorkshire ripper,Brady and Huntley,The west and more recently Bellfield,Sorry if I missed any.
Brady and Hindley only just missed it by a matter of months. Still, it’s a barbaric part of the UK’s past which I’m glad is left where it is ….in the past!
So I thought this channel was made up from some 'random' bloke who happened to have lots of VCR or Betamax tapes with interesting snippets from time gone by. How wrong was I? Fremantle media, please keep releasing all these recordings. These would 'have' (Edited for the grammar nazi below who commented) been lost if it wasn't for you uploading to UA-cam! I was born in 83 and the content that you're putting out is eye-opening to say the least. Thank you! Couldn't you upload some full length documentaries too?
Have been, not of been.
@@alastairgreen6783 Thanks grammar nazi! Apologies for being dyslexic! Twat!
CBJ, it was gramatically incorrect of you to start your post with the word 'so'.
Jesus! Give the guy a break. It's youtube comments not Oxford University. It is noticeable that CBJ Connor is generous of spirit thanking the uploader for taking the time to share quality material for us all to enjoy and praise his contribution.
Yet the grammar bullies impulse is to attack and diminish someone with hurtful, unnecessary and cutting comments. Shameful!
Martyn Nash It might well have been,but we all understood what he was saying! You bellend
Rest In Peace Ruth. 💐
Is such a shame we made such a hash of capital punishment , didn’t Pierrpoint hang both Timothy Evans and John Christy ? Imagine the fate of the Birmingham six and Guildford four !
I wasn’t the DNA that was a problem, it was in the majority of cases the police either fabricated evidence or the forensic experts were coerced into lying.
Chris Bliss , I should be awarded the Noble Peace Prize, Think of all the pluses, less bed blocking’s at the N S H hospitals ,less pressure on the pension funds and busy times for the funeral industry, feel free to book an appointment Im always looking for new patients,
Legal killing is surely far too final for the fraility of human judgement
Dr Harold Shipman , do you know Fred and Rosie west?
But HE didn't sentance them to death, the state did that. He was just the tool they used to do what they had decreed must happen. Pierrpoint is NOT a murderer, he was an excecutioner. There's a difference.
Who calls someone "Christmas "
Father
Actually, his first name was 'Merry' but he preferred his second name.
Have you not seen The World is not Enough?
Father !
Christmas Humphreys was the Chair of the Buddhist Society in London.
Not much of a Buddhist in practice, was he?
@@andrewcrocker-harris4830 What makes you say that? Being a Buddhist does preclude you from working in the legal profession.
Christmas Humphreys paid for the funeral of Ruth Ellis sons when he committed suicide .. loosing his mother at at early age been abused in homes and taunted by other children proved to much for him
Christmas Humphreys also becsme a Judge. But he once handed down a six month suspended sentence to a man convicted of raping two women at knifepoint. Then shortly afterwards sentenced a man to 18 months (not suspended) for fraud. Sounds very much like the sort of mockery of a justice system we have today, not back then.
@@billt1954 Humphrey's was the prosecutor in the Bentley case, he knew full well that Derek was illiterate, had the mind of an 11 year old, he also knew full well that Derek suffered from epileptic fits, which even by the standard of the time, would have meant he was unfit to stand trial. Humphreys, the Judge in his summing-up and the liar police officers done for Bentley, they were all complicit in a gross miscarriage of justice and I hope they're in hell for it.
*Pierrepoint was my great grandfather I have his straps and his diary..I never met him but he was apparently racked with guilt later in his life*
Wow that’s really interesting
How come since he and his wife, Annie didn’t have any children.
@@borleyboo5613 he had an affair with my great grandma..its in his book
Hope he’s in hell
@@Parmac7don’t be so ridiculous. He was an employee of the state.
When Pierrepoint executed Nazi war criminals He insisted their bodies be treated with respect as the men who committed the crimes were no longer.
Where can I get a copy of this documentary?
you cant !
@@geezerp1982 You can! I found out...loll. from Fremantle media.
+Zippy Mo Also look up on Albert Pierrepoint
In those days admitting you intended to kill someone or being found guilt of the same, meant you always swung unless the accused was deemed to be insane. Today she could of claimed diminished responsibility and would prob get 10 years out in 5 - 7 years.
wrong ; if she was indicted after 1957 she might of got diminished responsibility the homicide act 1957 brought in the diminished responsibility defence and brought two degrees of murder ; capital and non capital murder
@@geezerp1982 Indeed however she was convicted and hung in 1955 so its not relevant..
In France it would have been called ‘a crime of passion’ because her lover abused her, if only that was a valid law in UK, Ruth would have lived.
Not always, and particularly so if you was a female. They usually got a life sentence at the time. Maybe the main reason Ellis case was so controversial was that in recent years there had been four high profile murderesses avoiding a appointment with mr. Pierrepoint that easily could be argued was more deserving of a neck lengthening. At the end the death penalty was so inconsequent and somewhat randomly carried out that people questioned the fairness and justice of it: Either hang them all, or none of them.
@@OleLeikthank u
And yet Hindley got life. Such a sad state of affairs for Ruth Ellis. She was no monster unlike Myra.
The time, the place, the current law...
Yes she was .
She was simply unfortunate to have been born when she was whilst Britain still had the death penalty. Having said that even Judge Havers wrote to the home secretary of the time 'Gwilym Lloyd George, recommending a reprieve on the grounds of it being a crime of passion. Sounds like the vengeful George wanted her dead.
@pootle kid Yep, they definitely used him as an example with Craig being too young… and obvs it was a police officer that died.
Crown Prerogative is the term used to describe powers held by the Monarch or by Government ministers that may be used without the consent of the Commons .
Lovely!!! //Lars
Albert Pierrepoint died on this day 10-Jul-1992 aged 87 - on the very same day the last death sentence was passed in these islands - on the Isle of Man - Anthony Teare who had been found guilty of murder .... Matthew:)
So the judge thinks he can tell is someone is telling the truth by their demeanor.......now that is asinine. What is he, a human lie detector?
There will always be miscarriages of justice....and that is the reason why the death penalty should never be reintroduced.
If she agreed her intent was to kill, why did the whole business go to trial?
I think that the way each man recounts their encounter with Ruth Ellis is telling of who is actually responsible for a prisoner's death. The battle is in the court room and all of the defensive talk in this video is by those who were there. You can see that Mr Pierrepoint knows that he was only a tool used to carry out the sentence given as the result of others and as long as he performed correctly then he could (and always did) relief himself of any responsibility of the case.
NO ONE , and I repeat, NO ONE in this World or the next , or Any other World has been given any right or sanction to take away a human life, neither a low down scum , or a pious mealy mouth sitting on a wooden bench whilst wearing a ceremonial wig.
They were all just carrying put the roles assigned to them in the criminal justice system. The jury reached the verdict and, her admission of guilt must have played an important part.
Murderers have human rights victims do not.
So what justice for the victims and their families then? their loved ones lie six feet in the ground or burned. Whilst their murderers are in jail yes, but eating 3 meals a day watching tv playing games, reading books etc. oh and maybe released from prison altogether after 10 years. Yes all the human rights indeed. What human rights for the victims family?
Can’t help thinking tHat executioners and judges of the day were serial killers just hiding behind the law.
She deliberately killed a violent and abusive husband knowing full well what the consequences would be for herself. A brave woman and a tragedy.
Just like myself, I said outside the court before I even entered, that the bench will find me guilty, even though I was innocent, I told friends and family that they will find me guilty, and I was calm, answered coherently and never raised my voice, no swetty hands,yet the detective pulled at his tie placed his hand across his neck asking for help, and swetty hands, so did the accusers have swetty hands
sweaty.
@@martynnash6904 swetty, not like the things that you like to suck lmfao
@@bawhatever5260 sweaty is when you perspire, sweety is things you like to suck... Swetty is no such word
sweaty
Even though pierrepoints job was gruesome he always seemed sympathetic and truthful in whatever you read or hear about him and how he speaks here, he stomps down what the press said and made sure the truth of her last moments were known.
Can someone explain what this is about and what happened
The last woman to be hanged in Britain Ruth Ellis Google it
Who guards the guards who judges the judges?
There are some so evil that they have forfeited their right to live.
Rob - agree w/ you one million percent, my sentiments exactly. I'm referring to more recent P.O.S. not necessarily Ruth Ellis. 3:33 pm 7/20/19
Jacob Zondag Nah, it was a clear case of premeditated murder and women are usually treated with significantly more leniency than men, that being said I dont think she or most other individuals executed during that period should have been killed since most were far from irredeemable and some were outright innocent.
Jacob I agree - barbaric bastards! Legalised murder, and no NORMAL human could do it - any Hangman is a sicko!
You are one of them! Ruth Ellis was inocent.Desmond Cussen actually shot David Blakely.
@JZ's Best Friend Ruth Ellis was judged by a jury of her peers who took only 20 minutes to reach their verdict of "guilty" to the charge of capital murder. The sentence was delivered by the presiding judge who had no authority to commute/reduce the prescribed punishment viz. death by hanging. The means of carrying out that punishment fell to the executioner who acted in accordance with the law of the land and who provided a humane death by the long-drop employed to break
specific vertebrae and cause instant death. The process of charging the criminal, trying/judging and executing her affirmed that justice had been satisfied according to the necessary standards in place in 1955. Then, Western civilization was better structured and the concepts of right and wrong were far less muddled than they are today. Your modifiers
" archaic, patriarchal, mysogynistic " don't factor into the guilty verdict of Ruth Ellis who, admirably, did not attempt to justify herself and who bravely and philosophically accepted her fate.
Can't help but think these men derived some ghoulish satisfaction in killing the young attractive woman. Her defense was totally inadequate.
What just because she was a woman? She committed murder for heavens sake. Shot her victim 6 times at point blank range. She was a cold blooded murderer. Young attractive woman, who was mentally or physically abused doesn’t even register with me. Although today’s softly, softly approach she would no doubt have got 3 years for Manslaughter and 3 in 18 months. I know if that was the case today and someone came out of jail for killing my brother after serving less than two years I would want to render my own justice regardless of the consequences.
And what legal genius would you bring to bear when the defendant said she intended to kill the victim?
@@kevinbrookes4870 She was a broken human being. Blakely did atrocious things to that woman which caused her to murder him. He had completely broken her down into pieces and destroyed every bit of her well being
@@KerriKittehx Yes I take your point, but that didn’t give her the right to kill him in cold blood. It was murder, plain and simple, and the sentence at the time was Capital punishment. Prosecution asked her what did you intend to do? Ellis replied it’s obvious I intended to kill him. She more or less condemned herself to the gallows, and for the prosecution it was an open and shut case. Just a point on the domestic abuse though, Ellis and Blakey had a fractious relationship by all accounts, and was guilty of assaulting him on many occasions. It’s debatable but she would no doubt have been convicted of manslaughter today, even though she admitted to murder. But the biggest travesty of this case is that Cousins wasn’t hanged with her. He gave her the gun for heavens sake, and was more than an accessory to murder. And yet Derek Bentley was wrongly hanged for murder, that was the biggest injustice of that period, and probably went a long way towards the death penalty being abolished. All the furore over Ellis was because she was a woman I think. But she was a murderer.
A travesty of justice if ever there was that.
So many famous names there. I'm pretty sure Havers went on to become Attorney General and was father of the actor Nigel
Impressive interviewer, not looking to make his name and impressive interviewees speaking without an eye on how they will be remembered.
He lived near me A boy got into trouble when he named his band after the hangman
there was a lot of hangers on in his job.
Her QC was shameful ,let her down did not fight for her at all ,, But she didn't help her self,,,, if only she said about how she got the gun ,they would have had to investigate it , and how David beat her up etc, Thing I can't understand about Ruth is how she could leave her 2 kids , don't no if she was a bad mother r had terrible mental health issues RIP Ruth
Her father abused and raped the shite out of his daughters and their mother let it happen.
From Well, I Never!
Ruth's uncle was killed
Then her brother died
In his grief, their father started R@PING Muriel? And Ruth
Arthur Nielsen even slept with his son's own girlfriend!! Still was physically and sexually abusing Ruth
Ruth's eventual husband George Ellis was violent against her too
In the future she and David Blakely have tumultuous time together. She got pregnant and he PUNCHED HER IN THE STOMACH so hard that he killed their baby!!!!
Later she kills David
Ruth is hanged
Her ex hubs Ellis suicides
Elizabertha her mother tried to gas herself
One of Ruth's kids, andy, suicides too
It's like a Greek tragedy
Please before you about to carry out an act of violence please remember that its not one victim its hundreds,
That applies to executioners as well.
@@andrewcrocker-harris4830 Doing the job for the state. It’s not personal!😅
the executioners name is we the people !
Well said..
No way!
Albert P made sure his prisoners suffered as little as possible. He didn't convict them, the courts did. These days Ruth would have faced manslaughter whilst having diminished responsibility I would hope. Ruth's hanging and that of James Corbett, a friend of Albert's, were enough to make him decide to retire.
James Corbett was hanged in 1950 - six years before Pierrepoint resigned and 46 executions later.
Apparently, what galled him was a cancelled fee when AP believed he deserved compensation.
if she done it now she would get 20 years
Wouldnt have done half that
"done it now" did, past tense
And be out in eight...
Hal McAdams She would be 94 I think!
fred bloggs ... how so? She willfully plans to kill another human being (even if he was an absolute skunk), she willfully carries it out ... no on second thoughts I won't even bother ... (throws hands in air in despair)
Other than the defending attorney and Havers who petitioned for a reprieve, these men were stone cold.
Thank God for Lord Longford and the many capital punishment abolition advocates across Britain, they paved the way for more enlightening times.
Would you say the same if it was a member of your family that was murdered?
@@johnallen7807
Yes!
Lord Longford, the very same man that campaigned for years to have Myra Hindley released, that's some role model you chose there fella.
I think its now fully understood just what Ruth Ellis suffered at the hands of her 'lover' David Blakeley in re to the regular and violent beatings he acted upon her, certainly accusations of misogyny and negative stereotyping within the court room are more than well founded despite Ruth Ellis admitting to her shooting to death of Blakeley. How and WHY her defence team didn't bring this fully to the trial is both bewildering and tragic...though at that time even knowing of what Ruth had suffered wouldn't have helped. To realise that this terrible injustice and those of other's who suffered the same fate was the 'norm' unti changes to the law on Capital Murder arrived in 1957 but even after this date the State still executed a number of convicted prisoners which were both controversial and challenged.
This woman should never have been hung.
it’s actually’hanged’
RIP poor Ruth
We could do with someone like Pierrepoint in operation today. Of course this will never happen because unfortunately it looks as though the death penalty will never be reinstated. It needs to be though.
The Justice system is failing. Too many innocent people behind bars, therefore too many innocent people would die. I’m totally against capital punishment.
@@lyndanewman1645 I was going to mention Timothy Evans, Derek Bentley, Judith Ward, The Guilford Four, Stefan Kisko, The Birmingham Six, The Broadwater 3, Vincent Hickey & Co, but your response was sufficient.
@@billybonds4449 sadly there are far more people who are innocent than can be named. Omar Benguit to name but one more.
The death penalty should never be brought back as the justice system is not fit for purpose. To many innocents have been hanged.
Humphreys here was the prosecutor in the Timothy Evans case - who was hanged an innocent man.
In the act of cold blooded premeditated murder, what should we hand out to those who child killers. Three meals a day and a 6x6 cell. Examine them for their crime. What do we learn from it. We as a civil society need protection and deterrent from such evil.
Hanging likely argued as inhumane lethal injection a more inhumane one. Where there is unquestionable acts of murder those who live by the sword shall die by it.
All those men versus one woman ….sad
All the men deciding the fate of a women who decided the fate of a psychopath man.
A perfect example for the fact, that the death penalty is stupid and also MURDER!
THATS THE TROUBLE WITH US BRITS WE LIKE TO MAKE A POINT WITH OUR OWN PEOPLE WHILE PEOPLE WITH NO RIGHT TO BE HERE PIDDLE ALL OVER US
Don't shout Derek lad
That man has a fine accent
same as mine more or less im from east lancashire its a working class accent no airs or graces of the south
..but I was very very drunk
Ruth Ellis RIP
Daniel Smith does her look make her less of a criminal? She committed murder.
Is 15 years (8 in reality) enough? Shouldn’t life imprisonment be life?
@@adamquirke6024 there's a place for a whole life sentence, but it's not here imo
Then punishment does she deserve for murder?
Thourght this was pierrepoint interview
David blakley was a monster he beat Ruth constantly and Desmond cussions is the one who gave Ruth the gun he hated blakley and was guilty as Ruth he never was charged an went to live in Australia without him there would have been no murder
KARMA is waiting for all of us!
If their guilty of murder then do as the law demands. I am under the impression that if you commit a heinous crime such as murder then after ALL of one’s legal options are exhausted, then you MUST pay with your life regardless of relationship even if your family or friend.
I never thought I would have respect for an executioner.
The man did a job... if he didn't do someone else would've however with Pierrepoint he took his time to do weight and height so it was over straight away... as humanly as possible.
She should not have been executed
She got her comeuppance and good she was a cold hearted murdering bitch.
I was very, very, drunk....
Ok.... The documentary was from 1977 because Ruth Ellis was executed in 1955.
Blaming the executioner is probably as clear an example of stupidity as one is likely to see when looking at these things. Whoever performed the execution is irrelevant, they were merely an instrument of the state. One could point the finger at a lot of people responsible for this debacle not excluding Ellis herself who actively hindered her defence efforts and not acting on advice that may have saved her life, it still puzzles me why she didn’t just plead guilty. 90% of women sentenced to death in the uk were actually reprieved, it’d be interesting know why she wasn’t.
Turning a job down was not an option to a hangman unless of course illness or something understandable, they were under intense scrutiny from prison governors and home office if they started piping up about the crime and thier thoughts. They would be struck off no doubt. That was Albert’s advice to his assistants to never turn down a job
You might as well say that a hit man is merely the instrument of whoever hires him.
@@Khayyam-vg9fw well he is🤔 if no-one hires him no-one gets hit🤷♂️. Not sure what the point is there.
@@htershane The point is that he is every bit as much a hired killer as a hit man, whether he is "hired" or not.
@@Khayyam-vg9fw and he’s performing a duty sanctioned by the state, so if you believe the executioner is to blame then so is anyone complicit in the act; prison staff looking after the condemned, judge for passing the sentence, jury for delivering the verdict, prosecuting counsel, defence counsel (for failing to get acquittal), the government of the day for permitting it, the people that elected that government, anyone pro-capital punishment which was over half the uk population at the time. Unless you believe in special death pixies that would magically do the job? As I said above “stupidity”.
Was he the guy who said he took each body down as if the was receiving Christ's body from the cross? I'm not religious, at last, but that was the most poetic thing I ever heard.
Yes because he felt that they had gone from the vessel that had contained them and all that was now left was the remains of the miracle of life. He felt that the body then had to be treated with respect.(not neccessarly my feelings just his take on it)
Well Timothy Spall portrayed him like that in the film saying ''they're innocent now'' when the bodies were taken down. But I don't believe that.
@@simonh6371 Albert apparently believed that once executed, they had paid for their crime and were therefore absolved, Simon.
@@Agnethatheredhairkid I know this is how he was portrayed in the Timothy Spall film. But I've never seen any historical evidence that he really believed this and cared about his ''clients'' as much as the film suggests.
@@simonh6371 desensitised to anything
For premeditated murder and for the killing of police men an women going about their lawful duty THE DEATH PENALTY SHOULD BE ENFORCED
What about Police officers who lie or cover up evidence that leads to the wrongful conviction and execution of someone?
Would you then hang the Police officer?
After all their lies, their corruption directly lead to the death of an innocent person. Think it can't happen? Does the Birmingham Six case mean anything to you where the Police beat suspects, dictated statements, altered statement or simply wrote the statement themselves. Those six would have been hanged directly on the actions of corrupt officers so, what would you do about that...
You may also know about The Police and Criminal Evidence Act that was introduced to stop people being "interviewed" in the cells or the back of a Police car. Imagine an organisation that is there to uphold the law, laws that can end with severe punishments, being so corrupt that they had to introduce a new law to protect us from corrupt officers....
My ex girlfriends grandfather...
She had her 'Hang ups '....😅
That just wasn't funny, a bit desperate attention seeking that's all, try harder or just shush
With capital punishment there is no repeat offenders
Thats true when they hung the real offender. Not always the case back then.
ARE no repeat offenders. There is one repeat offender, incidentally. The judiciary.
Nor chance of release if you are later found to be innocent. Unless the case is 100 percent water tight such as hindley and brady , etc.
' Money For Old Rope ' 🇬🇧🤔
Britain from the dark ages, to think that these people lived just a few decades ago, they represent a Britain so different from today, so distant from today, today people in public service can hardly manage to string a sentence together, however, to hang a woman is barbaric and wrong, thank God we live in a different era.
I've always thought there's something "off" about Pierrepoint telling his gallows stories, almost glorying in his late in life celebrity status, fuelled by public fascination and wonder with and. at the the execution process and those hanged. Wasn't Albert subject to the Official Secrets Act ?
No
Didn't he suddenly "become woke" when he hanged one of his pub customers. Hanging didn't seem to be a deterrent to someone who was served his pint by the official state hangman.
I get the impression he was perhaps slightly autistic...the letters to Ruth's family asking for permission to have photos taken kneeling by her grave seemed to be oblivious to how improper it was and how much hurt he could cause. Like he didn't fully understand or empathise with the family. On the one hand he asked permission, which I guess he didn't need in reality, to visit a public graveyard...but asking was even more unfeeling of him.
No he wasn’t. It was public domain
He was subjected to all kinds of questions and such thoughout the years that he could not elaborate under the secrecy act. that I guess he felt in later years he could express once it was lifted
In todays time Ruth would not be sentenced to prison. She would be in a mental hospital. Not being funny no one with a functional brain cell would argue that she should of had the plea of not guilty by diminished responsibility. She seemed like a beautiful soul trapped. And yes murder is wrong under any circumstances. But does anyone believe she was sane. Her actions after killing him says to me no where near.
Sane... but desperate and emotional rightly under the circumstances...
This was all understood and taken into account by the judge and jury. The law deemed it capital murder and such no other option was suitable
When you are cruelly abused that many times if your entire life, no one comes out whole after that
Bring back the death penalty for Terrorism.
Use the PERSHING method. Firing squad, using bullets dipped in pigs blood.
@@Shield.148 a long debunked myth. Pig's blood isn't a deterrent either; they can eat pork in order to avoid starvation.
We are civilised. They are not. And that’s the way it’s supposed to stay.
@@monkeydank7842 The death penalty has no place in 21st century Britain.
@@Shield.148 What has that got to do with IRA, UDA, UDF,REAL IRA,ALR ?
Ruth Ellis was a murderer, she killed her partner. She did not enter any plea of mitigating circumstances. For murder, the sentence in the UK was death. Her partner was unlawfully murdered and if she was a man, the sentence would be the same.
Albert Pierrepoint was carrying out the sentence of the state. She was convicted by a jury at a trial.
Ruth Ellis was not the only woman executed by the state, she was one of many.
Peirrepoint was a professional, and carried out his duty. Had he refused this job, then another executioner would have done it.
Would everyone be complaining if this was Myra Hindley ? She was a female also.
When Ruth Ellis carried out her crime, she knew the ultimate sentence, but committed a murder anyway, the fact she is female is irrelevant.
Ruth Ellis admitted intent. The judge had no other option but to impose sentence of death under the law as it then was. There was no reason in law for the Home Secretary to commute the sentence and she hanged. As her counsel said, there was a question surrounding the provision of the murder weapon and whether or not she would have sought out the means to kill her lover absent the intervention of Desmond Cussen, but that will never be known. The ripples caused by Ellis's execution spread. Her former spouse hanged himself a few years afterwards and her poor son committed suicide in 1982. The whole affair was a human tragedy encompassing what Raymond Chandler called "the medieval savagery of the law."
There were no mitigating circumstances she could enter. Other than self defence which would have been a lie. It was only after the 1957 homicide act that there was anything she could say in her defence - or at least say truthfully.
Putting Ellis in the same category as Hindley self contradicts your argument.
Ruth Ellis was a broken woman that suffered physical and emotional abuse from her lover which drove her to murder. The things he did to her were atrocious.
@@KerriKittehx but she kept going back to him....
The United States banned capital punishment several years before Great Britain did. But reinstated it about the same time GB stopped it.
I support it if for no other reason than it is a 100% effective deterrent to recidivism. No executed killer in human history has EVER re-offended. Not one.
The England & Wales and Scotland (two different legal systens) ended Capital Punishment in 1965, the last man hanged in England was in 1964. In Northern Ireland, capital punishment ended after the imposition of direct rule from Westminster in 1973. The Federal Government in the USA ended capital punishment in 1974.
@@nigelsheppard625 I don't know where you got the idea that the Federal Governement in the USA ended capital punishment in 1974? Timothy McVeigh (Oklahoma bomber) and the less-know but also executed Juan Garza refutes your statement. Both excuted in the Terra Haute federal prison in 2001.
And no wrongfully convicted and executed person has ever come back to life either. Not one.
The death penalty should be expanded to include pedophiles
Death Penalty should never return. There is no place for it, not in my name or this country name. Even Pierrepoint himself said it does not deter, it's pure revenge.
Ruth was a hardcase.
A nutcase...
Consumat gentleman.
Who else would like to see hanging brought back - starting with corrupt politicians
It's been back a while now, we just exported the hobby abroad to places like Iraq where all sorts of killing methods are welcomed.
Stop talking garbage you idiot
Well, that's an enticing thought...
If they ever bring it back, would you be the first one to show us how it's done?
Swinging, I mean.