ON Tuesday, November 11 retired police inspector George Brady spoke to Dinas Powis Probus Club members, his subject being “Ruth Ellis-the untold story - Victim or Villain.”

After retirement, George became a private investigator and carried out several commissions on behalf of Cardiff solicitor Bernard de Maid. The Criminal Review Commission permitted the retrospective study of cases where there was a possibility of a miscarriage of justice and B de M asked George to look into the whole situation.

Ruth was born in Rhyl in 1926 to a Belgian mother and an English father and had a sister who is still alive. When Ruth was 14, the family moved to South London and she found work in an OXO factory and later in Lyons Corner House. At the age of only 16, she gave birth to a son, the father being a Canadian soldier who deserted her. She later fell in with Maurice Connelly who owned a series of illicit drinking clubs in the West End of London. Her job was to entice men into the club and then encourage them to buy drinks. She was paid according to the number of drinks they bought. She also earned extra money by glamour and fashion modelling.

At the age of 23, Ruth married George Ellis, a 41 year old alcoholic dentist, but the marriage only lasted two years. In 1952, she starred in a film “Lady Godiva Rides Again” with Joan Collins and Diana Dors. At the Carrol Club in London, she met and fell in love with David Blakely, an amateur racing driver, a public school boy and wastrel, the son of a Yorkshire GP who had been acquitted of murdering his wife with a toxic substance. She supported him and his mechanic with her earnings as a hostess and model.

In April 1955, he went to Le Mans to race, but on his return failed to contact her. She had suffered a miscarriage two weeks earlier after he had punched her in the stomach and she had been drinking heavily whilst he was away. She found him in The Magdala public house and when he came out to talk to her, she shot him several times with a .38 Smith & Wesson pistol that a man had given her that day. An off-duty policeman came out of the pub and arrested her. She was questioned by the police, without a solicitor being present, and she admitted the killing. The wall of the pub still has two bullet marks.

At the Old Bailey on June 20, she was sentenced to death, having had little said in her defence by the defending Counsel who made no attempt to plead provocation or post-traumatic stress, moves which in current times, would have probably lead to a prison sentence but not death. Judge Cecil Havers wrote to the Attorney General asking for clemency but this was refused. Ruth was hanged on July 13 1955, the 17th woman to be hanged that century, but also the last. She is buried in St Mary’s churchyard in Amersham, but her headstone was later destroyed by her son.

The continuing controversy surrounding her death is due to the fact that the police made no attempt to look into the background of the murder, she did not have a fair and detailed trial. She was alleged to have chased Blakely around his car firing until the gun was empty but she was very slight and the gun used is very heavy and would have needed a strong man to hold it with both hands. She was driven to the pub, by the man who supplied the gun, possibly to deliberately cause her to commit a crime which would lead to her death. Was it an establishment plot to prevent her from disclosing the names of prominent persons who made use of her services as a call-girl? After the trial, all the relevant court papers were removed by a court order that they should not be released to public view until 50 years had passed, but this order has now been increased by a further 30 years, which adds to the theory that there is something to hide. To finish, George posed the question was she a victim or a villain?

The vote of thanks was given by Ken Wade.