14 Minutes Ruth Ellis. Painting On Canvas
14 Minutes Ruth Ellis. Painting on Canvas painting on canvas 45″ x 50″ inches. Part of the ‘Murder, suicide & scandal art collection.
The last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom
14 minutes depicts the sad tale of Ruth Ellis. She was the last woman to be hanged in England for the crime of murder. Ellis was convicted of the murder of her lover, David Blakely, on Easter Sunday 1955. She was hanged by state executioner, Albert Pierrepoint, at 9:00 am on 13th July 1955.
14 minutes is all the time taken for the jury to convict Ruth Ellis leading to the death sentence.
Following a stormy relationship, Ruth Ellis used .38 calibre Smith & Wesson Victory Model revolver hidden in her handbag and fired five shots at her former lover David Blakely.
The first shot missed and he started to run but was pursued by Ellis round the back of a car, where she fired a second shot, which caused him to collapse onto the pavement.
Ellis then stood over Blakley and fired three more bullets into him. One bullet was fired less than half an inch from Blakely’s back and left powder burns on his skin.
Albert Pierrepoint was an English hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people, including some 200 Nazi war crime criminals over a 25-year career that ended in 1956.. He retired shortly after the hanging of Ruth Ellis. It is suspected that he felt that Ellis had mental health problems and shouldn’t have been hanged.
His father Henry and uncle Thomas were official hangmen before him. Pierrepoint was born in Clayton in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Read more about the Albert Pierrepoint on Wikipedia
14 Minutes Ruth Ellis. painting
Ruth Ellis (9 October 1926 – 13 July 1955) was a British escort and nightclub hostess and was the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom after being convicted of the murder of her lover, David Blakely.
On Easter Sunday, 10 April 1955, Ellis shot Blakely dead outside the Magdala public house in Hampstead and she was immediately arrested by an off-duty policeman. At her trial on 20 June 1955, she was dressed in a black suit and white silk blouse with freshly bleached and coiffured blonde hair.
Ellis’ defending counsel expressed concern about her appearance (and dyed blonde hair) but she did not alter it to appear less striking.
She was found guilty of murder after only 14 minutes of deliberation by the jury and was sentenced to death. On 13 July, only three weeks after conviction, she was hanged at HMP Holloway by Albert Pierrepoint. Ellis had weighed only seven stones (103 lbs.) and a drop of 8’ 4” was required.
