Ruth Ellis. What are your thoughts?

She wouldn't allow a proper defence which would have enabled her sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment.

Timothy Evans was innocent; Ruth Ellis was guilty but there were extenuating circumstances that the judge couldn't use in her favour because she wouldn't allow it.

Thank you Toetoe I have followed much of the Ruth Ellis tragedy, I knew the sister of Timothy Evans and of the distress she suffered

Thankyou for your answers regarding Ruth's children . How very sad . To think the judge helped them is just so heartwarming . Injustice for sure . Thank God there is more help and support for victims of DV now .
Just to add I remember when the police ignored violence towards a wife /partner as it was called a domestic.

I only watched the first episode.

I didn’t find it very interesting, and felt how she was portrayed unrealistic.

The judge paid money annually for the son, and the prosecution council paid for the sons burial

I’m not certain but think Nigel Havers grandfather, the judge brought up her children.

Her son committed suicide and her daughter died age 50, her son use to put a memorial of her death every year in a newspaper

I remember the talk going around from parents and their friends afterwards. I was 5, yet I never forgot her . I watched the drama and it made me cry . Nigel Havers who was the judge in the drama spoke on TV recently saying his own grandfather was the actual judge who was in the court for the trial . I can't remember which show / channell but it was interesting. I wonder about her children they will be about my age . I wonder how their lifes turned out . All very sad

Awful awful story
We must never ever have the death penalty again

There is absolutely no doubt that Ruth Ellis shot David Blakely.

Hanging was the statutory punishment for murder in 1955.

Having said that it was completely wrong and barbaric that she ended up being hanged. Ruth Ellis had a succession of violent men in her life starting with her father who sexually abused her and ending with David Blakely who was also abusive. Ruth Ellis had miscarried in the January before the murder in April. She had miscarried following a punch in the abdomen from Blakely. All in all the 28 years of her life had been very difficult and traumatic.

My mother remembered it well. She was a great supporter of the death penalty, but she was adamant that Ruth shouldn't have been hanged. She believed that a woman who had recently suffered a miscarriage wouldn't be responsible for her actions. Of course the case had a great effect on Pierrepoint the hangman.

Yes, that is right. She almost certainly would have not hung if she had stated that she killed him because of the violence she had endured throughout her married life.

Years ago I had an internet friend who was related to her. I wish he was still with us so I could ask him about her. On the Must Watch podcast they said that she didn’t want a reprieve; her lawyer kept trying to get her to say things that might save her from hanging but as far as she was concerned she’d killed someone and was prepared to face the consequences.

I think too that her case was a turning point.

Many people were against the hanging. I was told my mum joined protesters outside Holloway prison on the day she was hung and mum, who was working class, wasn't one for demonstrating her true feelings.

I haven't seen the TV drama but will watch it to try and get some idea as to how and why the Ruth Ellis case mattered to so many ordinary people.

She didn't deserve to be hanged. I'm glad we no longer have the death penalty and her case was important in abolishing it.

I didn't watch this drama but seen others like it.