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August 18, 2025 31 mins

On Easter weekend 1955, Ruth Ellis reached her breaking point.

After years of jealousy, violence, and betrayal, she spent a long, sleepless night replaying the wreckage of her life — and blaming one man: David Blakely. By Easter Sunday, her rage would boil over into an act that would shock Britain and seal her fate as the last woman hanged in the UK.

In this episode, we follow Ruth’s final hours before the shooting — a day marked by obsessive phone calls, tense stakeouts, and a simmering fury that would explode in front of witnesses. This is the moment where obsession turned deadly.

🔍 Part Five picks up the story in the final hours before the shooting — the culmination of a deadly obsession.

🎧 Listen now to uncover the tragic and tense moments before Ruth Ellis pulled the trigger.


#TrueCrimePodcast #RuthEllis #LastWomanHanged #TrueCrimeHistory #CrimeOfPassion #BritishTrueCrime #OnceUponACrime

Sources:

A Fine Day for a Hanging: The Ruth Ellis Story, Carol Ann Lee, Mainstream Publishing, 2013.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Ellis

https://realcrimes.co.uk/ruth-ellis-jealousy-rejection-and-a-hanging/

https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/ruth-ellis-real-story-last-woman-hanged-murder-a-cruel-love-b1141748.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20141204212735/http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/women/ellis/5.html

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/sep/12/ukcrime.claredyer

https://www.hampshirelive.news/news/history/woman-hanged-ruth-ellis-hampshire-4192091

https://www.crimemagazine.com/ruth-ellis-love-lust-and-death-gallows


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Join us in Denver for our favorite weekend of the year. CrimeCon Denver September 5 - 7 2025. Use code: ONCE to save.

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