Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK, has been granted a posthumous conditional pardon.
Ruth was executed at London's Holloway Prison in 1955 after being convicted of murdering her lover David Blakely.
© ITV/AlamyFour of Ruth's grandchildren brought the application for a pardon, arguing she was a victim of domestic abuse and had been physically and emotionally abused by Blakely before his death.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy told MPs that, on his advice, King Charles had granted the conditional pardon, saying that the death penalty had been replaced with a sentence of life imprisonment.
Ruth's granddaughter Laura Enston said that while the pardon does not "restore the lives that were broken," the acknowledgement that the justice system failed her "matters profoundly to our family".
"Ruth was a victim of sustained and brutal abuse," she said. "Her children – our mother and uncle – never recovered. My uncle took his own life; my mother's trauma left her unable to be the parent we needed. The shadow of Ruth's execution has fallen across two generations. We have carried shame that was never ours to bear.
© PA Images via Getty Images"We hope Ruth's story serves as a lasting reminder that the justice system must reckon with the abuse that drives women to the edge - and must never be afraid to acknowledge when it has got things wrong."
Who are Ruth's children and where are they now?
When Ruth was hanged in 1955, she left behind her three-year-old daughter, Georgina, and ten-year-old son, Andy.
According to Georgina's daughter, Laura Enston, her mother lived a "chaotic life" and "could not be the mother that my siblings and I needed". She drank heavily later in life and died of cancer at the age of 50.
© ITVGeorgina, who was married twice, was a mother of six children. Laura's father, Eric Enston, was granted full custody of her and her two siblings after his divorce from Georgina.
In 1995, Georgina released the book Ruth Ellis, My Mother, which included memories of her mother and how her own life was shaped by Ruth's.
According to the synopsis, Georgina enjoyed the "champagne lifestyle in a string of affairs that embraced George Best, Richard Harris and the man she came so close to killing, property tycoon David Beard, father of her last two children and, like David Blakely, also a lover of motor racing".
Meanwhile, Ruth's eldest child, Andy, died by suicide aged 37.
What has Ruth's family said about the ITV drama released in 2025?
In 2025, ITV released the historical drama, A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, starring Lucy Boynton and Laurie Davidson. The four-part series, told across two parallel timelines, follows Ruth, a London club promoter, as her life begins to unravel after meeting racing driver, David Blakely, who she shot to death in 1955.
© ITVExecutive producer Kate Bartlett said that ITV had "kept in contact" with Ruth's family throughout the process of making the drama, particularly her grandson Stephen Beard and granddaughter Laura, who were both "incredibly happy" with Ruth's portrayal in the show.
Ruth's story had previously been dramatised in the 1985 film, Dance With a Stranger, which failed to reference her daughter, Georgina.
"Georgina watched the film and was written out of history, which understandably she found very traumatic," Kate revealed. "So Laura has always hidden away from her history. She was bullied at school because she was Ruth Ellis's granddaughter."
© ITVKate went on to reveal that when Laura read Carol Ann Lee's book during production, she felt she "had just learned her family history for the first time" and told ITV producers that the book "had opened her eyes as to what had happened".
"The family watched all four episodes and we got an email from Stephen on their behalf to say that they were incredibly happy with how Ruth had been played and portrayed, and how the show was written and directed," said Kate.
What happened to Ruth? The true story
Ruth Ellis was a nightclub hostess and mother of two. Before her death aged 28, Ruth became entangled with 25-year-old upper-class racing driver, David Blakely, after meeting him at the London club she worked at.
Their relationship was a very troubled one and David was physically abusive towards Ruth. He attacked her on several occasions and caused her to suffer a miscarriage after punching her in the stomach.
© ITV/AlamyRuth killed David outside The Magdala pub in Hampstead, where she fired six bullets – four of which hit him. Ruth immediately confessed to the crime and handed her gun over to an off-duty policeman.
Her trial lasted just over a day and concluded with a unanimous guilty verdict which resulted in a death sentence.
