Bloody London: Shocking Tales from London’s Gruesome Past and Present by Declan McHugh
Authors: Declan McHugh
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anti-death penalty protesters outside but it made no difference because both the State and Ruth Ellis herself believed in ‘a life for a life’.
Only 2 years later, but 2 years too late for Ellis, the law was changed by the Homicide Act 1957 to allow for mitigating circumstances – diminished responsibility – to be taken into account in such cases, and just 10 years after her death the death penalty was provisionally erased.
In 2003, the Court of Appeal was asked by Ellis’s sister and daughter to look at the case and consider if the murder conviction could be overturned. They did look but Lord Justice Kay said that as the law stood at the time the conviction was the right one. However he added, ‘If her crime were committed today, we think it likely that there would have been an issue of diminished responsibility for the jury to decide’.
What happened to the people she left behind?
Desmond Cussen was extremely lucky not to be charged with being an accessory to murder since Ellis admitted the day before she was hanged that he had supplied her with the gun.
Tragically, both Ruth Ellis’s husband, George Ellis, and Andre her son committed suicide. Daughter Georgina wrote a book about both their lives in which she made it clear that she repeated most of her mother’s mistakes including prostitution and choosing violent men. She died of cancer at the age of 50.
5) Holloway Road Prison
Tube: Caledonian Road. The location is the same although the old-style prison was completely rebuilt in the 1970s. There are two stone griffins from the old prison in the grounds but they are not visible to the pubic.
Travel to Caledonian Road underground station. Exit onto Caledonian Road. Turn left and walk for 3–4 minutes until on the left you come to Hillmarton Road. Turn left into that road and walk for about 10 minutes until it intersects with Camden Road. Cross the road in front of you to the tall (obviously!) red brick buildings of Holloway Prison.
First you might want to have a drink in the red and white-painted Castle Bar on the right hand side just at the top of Hillmarton Road where it intersects with Camden Road.
EXTINGUISHING INNOCENCE
If ever the dark side of the Victorian era was revealed, it was in the practice of baby-farming. At that time small ads could be found at the back of various newspapers and magazines purporting to come from caring motherly types who wanted to bring up unwanted infants. Some idea of the size of this murderous business can be gleaned from the fact that when a false ad was inserted to check the response, over 300 replies from baby-farmers were received.
Infants were often the products of liaisons between a household servant and the master of a house but at that time illegitimate children were only the responsibility of their mothers – the fathers had no legal requirement to do anything for their children.
Many women therefore had an intolerable decision to make since having a child out of marriage was seen as a terrible disgrace. You could bring up your child by yourself but lose your job (and probably also your housing since the two were often linked), plus face a lifetime of whispers, sneers and pitying looks. Or you could hand over the child to somebody else to bring up, someone like Amelia Sach…
Sach ran a house in East Finchley as a discreet place where unmarried mothers could give birth to their children before their babies were fostered out to others. ‘It would be for the best’ is what the compromised and vulnerable mothers were told.
Baby-farmers like Sach would commonly offer two options. The first option was a weekly rate, the second was called a premium rate, in other words a one-off payment to look after the baby for good and with no need to stay in contact. A few baby-farmers genuinely looked after the children in their care – but some were psychopaths who took the money and then treated the children appallingly.
Those babies whose parent/guardian had
Only 2 years later, but 2 years too late for Ellis, the law was changed by the Homicide Act 1957 to allow for mitigating circumstances – diminished responsibility – to be taken into account in such cases, and just 10 years after her death the death penalty was provisionally erased.
In 2003, the Court of Appeal was asked by Ellis’s sister and daughter to look at the case and consider if the murder conviction could be overturned. They did look but Lord Justice Kay said that as the law stood at the time the conviction was the right one. However he added, ‘If her crime were committed today, we think it likely that there would have been an issue of diminished responsibility for the jury to decide’.
What happened to the people she left behind?
Desmond Cussen was extremely lucky not to be charged with being an accessory to murder since Ellis admitted the day before she was hanged that he had supplied her with the gun.
Tragically, both Ruth Ellis’s husband, George Ellis, and Andre her son committed suicide. Daughter Georgina wrote a book about both their lives in which she made it clear that she repeated most of her mother’s mistakes including prostitution and choosing violent men. She died of cancer at the age of 50.
5) Holloway Road Prison
Tube: Caledonian Road. The location is the same although the old-style prison was completely rebuilt in the 1970s. There are two stone griffins from the old prison in the grounds but they are not visible to the pubic.
Travel to Caledonian Road underground station. Exit onto Caledonian Road. Turn left and walk for 3–4 minutes until on the left you come to Hillmarton Road. Turn left into that road and walk for about 10 minutes until it intersects with Camden Road. Cross the road in front of you to the tall (obviously!) red brick buildings of Holloway Prison.
First you might want to have a drink in the red and white-painted Castle Bar on the right hand side just at the top of Hillmarton Road where it intersects with Camden Road.
EXTINGUISHING INNOCENCE
If ever the dark side of the Victorian era was revealed, it was in the practice of baby-farming. At that time small ads could be found at the back of various newspapers and magazines purporting to come from caring motherly types who wanted to bring up unwanted infants. Some idea of the size of this murderous business can be gleaned from the fact that when a false ad was inserted to check the response, over 300 replies from baby-farmers were received.
Infants were often the products of liaisons between a household servant and the master of a house but at that time illegitimate children were only the responsibility of their mothers – the fathers had no legal requirement to do anything for their children.
Many women therefore had an intolerable decision to make since having a child out of marriage was seen as a terrible disgrace. You could bring up your child by yourself but lose your job (and probably also your housing since the two were often linked), plus face a lifetime of whispers, sneers and pitying looks. Or you could hand over the child to somebody else to bring up, someone like Amelia Sach…
Sach ran a house in East Finchley as a discreet place where unmarried mothers could give birth to their children before their babies were fostered out to others. ‘It would be for the best’ is what the compromised and vulnerable mothers were told.
Baby-farmers like Sach would commonly offer two options. The first option was a weekly rate, the second was called a premium rate, in other words a one-off payment to look after the baby for good and with no need to stay in contact. A few baby-farmers genuinely looked after the children in their care – but some were psychopaths who took the money and then treated the children appallingly.
Those babies whose parent/guardian had
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