Was Ruth Ellis responsible for her actions that day, cold and calculated as they appear? Or was she at the end of her tether, suffering illness that drove her to it? One thing is certain: for Ruth Ellis hanging was no deterrent. She knew the consequences, and killed David Blakely. The ultimate penalty did not deter her.

Should she have stood in the dock alone? What of the person who supplied her with the gun, the person who drove her to the scene of the killing? Were they one and the same, and did they know of Ruth’s intentions? Desmond Cussen is prime suspect, yet given his adoration of Ruth, would he have had her go through with murder knowing, as he must, she would be caught and he would lose her? In any event, the police either failed to pursue enquiries in his regard, or if they did they didn’t get anywhere. As for Cussen, he emigrated.

David Blakely was buried in the churchyard at Penn, Ruth Ellis in the precincts of Holloway Prison. She was later re-interred at St Mary’s parish church, Amersham, barely four miles from her lover. So close, it is almost as though fate was trying to thrust them together again. Her headstone was destroyed by her son, leaving the site of her grave a secret.