Sometime between the committal proceedings at the magistrates court in April and Ruths trial in June 50 years ago, words had been mysteriously crossed through in key witness statements; other words had been inserted, giving totally different meanings. Ruth said she shot David Blakely in a jealous rage, believing he was having an affair. "Fifty years on, government turn down reprieve for hanged Ruth Ellis. Desmond Miles was born into the Assassin Order, but he ran away from the lifestyle, hoping to pursue his own dreams. It was accepted at the time that the residue from an exploding cartridge is driven backwards on to the hand that pulls the trigger. She and her husband Donald Maclean Yule (who was not called to give evidence) were walking to the Magdala for a Sunday evening drink. "Would you pull these tapes Evelyn, Ill pull the others." Just before I began this chapter, and thanks to a Westerham historian, I received interesting information from a woman who worked at the House at Home public house in Westerham, in the early 1950s. In the Air Force List at the Public Record Office the entry for Desmond Cussen, 197248, was odd. Secondly he was wealthy, became a director of a family-owned retail and wholesale tobacconist business called Cussen and Co. And thirdly from the early 1950s he lived in a prestigious apartment in Goodwood Court near Harley Street. She suffered a nervous breakdown and moved to Australia where she later became a midwife. It didnt come out in the trial. They used to work . But she was certain about what happened. During an interview in August 2005 on BBC Radio London, Vanessa Feltz was curious to know what Cussen was doing between 1941 and 1945. I wrote to the Home Office for further details about the passport but after "thorough searches" nothing could be found. Theres no record in any file of fingerprints even being taken or evidence on her fingers or clothing of having fired a gun. What happened Desmond Cussens? She threatened Muriel not to talk to a soul, to look after Andre, instructed her not to allow the boy to talk anyone and left. Muriel never could understand why her sister didnt put up a fight, if only for the sake of her children.But its the circumstances of Ruths police statement, in a previously unpublished Home Office file, which were odd.It sounded as if she had previously rehearsed her statement. He was perfectly placed when the Profumo fiasco broke in 1963.This discovery opened up a new line of investigation, which in turn led to the infamous spying activities of Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess.The convincing story, spun and repeated for fifty years, disguised the real Ruth Ellis. There was no official explanation.The Donald Maclean connection with Penn illustrates just one of the complicated trails typical of my findings. At her trial, her hair freshly dyed platinum and wearing a well-cut black suit with astrakhan collar and cuffs, she seemed unnaturally cool. On April 10 1955, Ruth was ready to end it all and headed to the Magdala pub where David was drinking. He had other women and she acquired another, older lover in his thirties, a former bomber pilot named Desmond Cussen, who wanted to marry her. She said, "I had been there and knew this was all wrong.". My mum said, 'Don't ask any questions and let Ruth do the talking.' Two days before the hanging, Ellis's lawyers had submitted evidence, including the testimony of witnesses that Blakely had inflicted repeated beatings on her and that she believed he had caused the miscarriage she suffered just 10 days before the shooting with a punch to the stomach. Jakubait could be in line for compensation - awards are discretionary - as could her niece Georgina's six children. The appeal asked that the murder conviction be changed to that of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility . Although appearing to fire shots at Blakely she did not fire the gun which killed him. Ellis, 28, put to bed her. Importantly, his statement at the magistrates court "No shot was fired after I came out of the public house" was omitted at the trial. Monday, 11 March 2013 Ruth Ellis Ruth Ellis, fifty eight years after her execution, is still a controversial figure in the history of British Justice. But neither Frost's book nor . Had she discovered the shady world in which Ruth was involved?Or was this interesting evidence just another coincidence? It was the night he and his colleague Guy Burgess defected to Russia. He had no idea, until our book was published three years later, that his Home Guard partner was the same man who would play an important role in Ruth Elliss life and death in 1955. The statement was changed to read "The accused was firing the gun into his back," not the same. "She was very calm. Desmond Cussen is the General Counsel at Fandom. From my point of view publication of the book was just the beginning. Its clear from a Holloway hospital case paper (opened since the publication of our book) that Ruths condition was known about. They are a multi-awarded LGBTQ+ advocate, genderfluid editorial and runway model, motivational public speaker, performer, clothing designer, actor, singer, host, social media influencer and published author. In 1989, Desmond Cussen completed a Master of Law at Cornell University. At the beginning of her performance, which she began without being asked saying, "It all started about two years ago when I met David Blakely at the Little Club, Knightsbridge," Superintendent Crawford had to stop her and ask "Would you like this to be written down? At the time she was employed as a hostess at Carrolls Club in Duke Street in Mayfair. It was all too quick. Mr Hyde, MP asked Gwilym Lloyd-George, the Home Secretary if he was aware that prisoners and staff were disturbed by the noise of scaffolding being erected for Ruth's execution just before she was hanged. In March 2002 I contacted Companies House in an attempt to find information about Cussen and Co. Whilst examining hand-written documents on microfiche (luckily still available from Companies House archives) I discovered that Desmond Cussen lived in Garlands Road, Leatherhead with his parents, in a detached house called Dapdune. Ruth lied in court. She claimed at the time to have been given the gun by an American serviceman as security for a nightclub debt, and to have taken a taxi to the pub. Yesterday Wednesday 4th July 2007, at 2.18 pm, I received the following email from 10 Downing Street: 10 Downing Street - Petition to the Prime Minister has been Approved. See also Other Works | Publicity Listings | Official Sites View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro Getting Started | Contributor Zone Contribute to This Page Edit page Desmond Cussen Personal Details Biography Other Works But the judge, Sir Cecil Havers, ruled it out. Go and have a chat with her.". Jakubait remembers no mention of her sister's imminent death, only small talk. I dismissed the taxi and walked back down the road to the nearest pub where I saw Davids car outside.". But two months later at the Old Bailey when questioned by the prosecuting counsel Christmas Humphreys, Nickolls was economical with his words. A further new discovery is that Ruth occasionally visited Tatsfield, a village north-west of Westerham and home to Soviet Super Spy Donald Maclean. The trial in June, only two months after the shooting, lasted just over a day. Let alone repeatedly pull the trigger on a heavy man-size .38 Smith and Wesson gun that required a 10lb pull for each shot fired; it would have been impossibly large in her hand, its recoil would have knocked her backwards. The only documented evidence being two entries on the voters list for 1950 and 1951.The defection of Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess was being planned at that time.By 1949 Maclean was under suspicion for passing secrets to the Russians. Ruth's 27 th birthday on 9 th October 1953 was a particularly memorable one. Desmond Cussen is an attorney registered with , admitted in 1990. Theyd actually enjoyed each others company for approximately six years; something that has never been made public. She had not admitted it before because of getting "someone into possible trouble. Andre held explosive information but was not interviewed by the police during the investigation into the crime. Refusing any option to reduce her sentence - like pleading insanity or hig Hub Name . So too were Desmond Cussen and David Blakely. More than 17 books and the 1985 film Dance with a Stranger have looked at the events leading up to Ellis's execution, but answers to some of the puzzles that remained unsolved have emerged only in the past few years. Evelyn told me categorically that "No prisoner in the condemned cell was allowed to use a pen, everything had to be written in pencil and was strictly supervised.". But it was not. That impression was untrue. The Ruth Ellis story wasnt about a crime of passion it looked that way though.The shooting of Blakely obscured the truth about the country in the grips of a spying scandal. But in 2019, she had her conviction overturned and finally walked free. Extraordinarily Stevenson had, "No Questions.". Two decades later, in the 70s, according to Bernard de Maid, the solicitor handling the appeal, Ellis's solicitor, John Bickford, a friend of Cussen, wrote to Scotland Yard admitting that he had concealed from the jury that "Cussen had driven her to Hampstead, provided the gun, and had goaded her into shooting Blakely to remove a love-rival from the scene.". Jakubait believes that her sister protected him during the trial because he had promised to look after her family. Using new evidence that Ive uncovered, I say we now need to go back to the scene of the murder, choose a dark evening at about 9.30 pm and reconstruct the crime. Cussen and Co microfiches led to another vital discovery, more proof of Ruths connection with Dr Stephen Ward, who was a key player in the Profumo affair in the 1960s, and circumstantial evidence of Cussens connection to the secret service. She went round to the flat on Good Friday and made a scene, only leaving when he phoned the police. Her daughter, Georgina, then a toddler, child of her estranged husband, George Ellis, an alcoholic dentist, was adopted and died, aged 50, of cancer. In a conversation with Sylvia Smith, she told me that Ruth Ellis and David Blakely, who she described as a "good looking young man" frequented the pub between approximately 1951 and 1953. What is even more interesting is an important discovery I made in a Metropolitan Police document recently released at the Public Record Office and has never been made public: the gun broke during testing. Its a long walk from Tanza Road to the Magdala which is the nearest pub. He drove Ruth to Hampstead - that is not in doubt. The cylinder catch revolves the barrel so that the next bullet is in place for the next shot. Ruth had a gun hanging from her hand. Take the murder weapon, a heavy .38 Smith and Wesson revolver. There are no answers to any of these questions in any police file about the case. He lied again at Ruths trial when he said on oath that hed known Blakely "Approximately three years.". On 7th July 2005, the day RUTH ELLIS MY SISTERS SECRET LIFE was published, bombings in London shattered the heart of the capital. Again Ruths barrister had no questions. She was a gift; she was trying to escape from poverty and abuse; she was uneducated; she had a child to support; she had parents who took every penny she earned; and she had a family secret. On Easter Sunday, she told Mishcon, she had been drinking Pernod for many hours with Cussen, who had handed her the loaded gun and driven her to the scene of the murder. In return they did the dirty work, becoming a listening service for intelligence organisations, gathering information from high-powered men, generally in their beds, during the Cold War.Both Ward and Antony Beauchamp, about whom little was known, were members of the Little Club in Knightsbridge, also shrouded in mystery, the club where Ruth Ellis would become manageress in 1953.The Press tried to portray it as some sort of low-class dive for losers.Its membership actually included King Hussein of Jordan, film stars Douglas Fairbanks Jnr and Burt Lancaster, society photographer Baron a close friend of Prince Philip, racing driver Stirling Moss and Anthony Armstrong-Jones who became Princess Margarets husband.Ruth fitted the bill for Ward and Beauchamps game. Evelyn spoke to me following the publication of our book. This, I feel, is unlikely. One bullet was fired at close range, therefore the other three bullet wounds in Blakelys body, had been fired accurately from a distance, out of arms reach. what happened to desmond cussen. The authorities considered prosecuting Cussen, who later died in Australia, as an accessory, but decided it would be impossible without Ellis as a witness. Ruth Ellis did not kill David Blakely. This could have been a turning point in the trial yet Ruths defence gave the prosecution an easy ride. I was baffled. Shut away in a previously closed file is a police statement made by Nickolls on 25th April 1955 along with a further one-page report written on the identical date but on Metropolitan Police Laboratory headed notepaper. Conley made her the manageress of The Little Club in Brompton Road, Knightsbridge. If that had succeeded, she would have been found guilty of manslaughter and spared the gallows. "And that is where the truth of what really happened remained hidden in the background for nearly fifty years.It will shock most people to learn that Ruth Ellis fell under the spell of Dr Stephen Ward in the 1940s. "He explained to the judge Mr Justice Havers that the close range shot had left the usual circle of powder fouling around the bullet hole. She was executed by hanging in July 1955, and indeed, was the last woman executed in Britain. They had tapes back and front to pull. What is little know though is that Blakely was violent and controlling. Ruth was hanged to protect the shadowy characters she mixed with and took her secrets to an unconsecrated grave at Holloway prison. Find the perfect desmond cussen stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. See Desmond Cussen's age, phone number, house address, email address, social media accounts, public records, and check for criminal records on Spokeo. The whole point is that, according to Public Record Office documents, the police in 1955 claimed they were searching for Cussen the evening before Ruth was hanged, to interrogate him about the gun used to kill Blakely; but couldnt find him. In May 1950 he returned to England and was kept under surveillance by MI5. Cussen got manners and respect even Ms Ellis, son "Andre" Cussen into the money to Boarding School and Ms Ellis and Ms Ellis son" Andre" move to Mr Cussen flat because she lost the job Mr Cussen totally in love Ruth . Also residing in the same block of flats in Devonshire Street was a man by the name of Desmond Cussen. After picking his way through legal language with Stevenson and Humphreys, Justice Havers found an excuse not to allow a verdict of manslaughter and decided not to leave the issue to the jury. She read something about Cussen and the murder in a national paper but dismissed it as "ill-informed." 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