Ruth Ellis: the tragic story of the last woman to be hanged for murder in the UK

In 1955, at the age of 28, Ruth Ellis became the last woman to be hanged for murder in the UK.

Her death, coming after she shot her lover outside a Hampstead pub two months before, sparked a wave of public opprobrium and likely contributed to the outlawing of the death penalty a decade later in 1965.

Almost seventy years after she died, Ruth is not a well-known figure, but now her story is being turned into an ITV drama, starring Lucy Boynton as Ruth. Due to air later this year, details on the drama are scarce, but it promises to tell “the hidden story of Ruth Ellis and exposes the timeless British obsessions of class, sex and death.”

But who was she really, and what led her to commit murder on April 10, 1955?

Early life

Ruth Ellis was born Ruth Neilson in Rhyl – a town in Wales – on October 9, 1926. She was the fifth of six children: her mother Bertha was a Belgian refugee, while her father, Arthur Hornby (he later changed