Ruth Ellis, a Welsh-born nightclub hostess who became the last woman to be executed in the UK following the fatal shooting of her abusive lover, David Blakely has been posthumously granted a conditional pardon, commuting her sentence from execution to life imprisonment, on the grounds of the violence she had suffered at his hands.
Born 9 October 1926 6.41pm Rhyl, Wales, she was abused by her father from the age of 11, her older sister having been made pregnant by him aged 14. Ruth Ellis became a nightclub hostess as a teenager and had a series of chaotic, unstable relationships with men. She became pregnant at 17 and gave birth to a son whom she supported through nude-modelling work and prostitution, becoming pregnant again. She married a violent and possessive alcoholic dentist and had a daughter.
In 1953, she met David Moffett Drummond Blakely, a hard-drinking racing driver, who moved in with her despite being engaged to another woman. Ruth had her second abortion since he would not commit; and suffered a subsequent miscarriage when he punched her in the stomach. The relationship became increasingly violent as both continued to see other partners.
On Easter Sunday, 10 April 1955 at 9.30pm, Ellis shot Blakely dead outside The Magdala public house in Hampstead, London. She was found guilty of premeditated murder, sentenced to death and hanged on 13 July at 9.01 am at Holloway Prison, still protesting she loved Blakely and always would.
A car-crash of a life.
The birth time is unverified but if sound, she had a hard-working 6th house Sun Libra in a controlling square to Pluto, a legacy of a dominating father. Her emotionally intense Scorpio Moon was opposition Mars in Taurus and conjunct Saturn square Jupiter in Aquarius and square Neptune in Leo – a Fixed Grand Cross of emotional dysfunction. Her mother did not defend her children since she was scared of her husband so setting a pattern of embedded masochistic/sadistic involvements for Ruth extending into her adult life. Mars Saturn is an abuse signature in one of its manifestations. The Moon Mars hints at a mother who suppressed her anger/assertion. Saturn is depressive and in square to Neptune has potential for paranoia. Her 5th house Neptune was also on the apex of a yod inconjunct Uranus sextile Midheaven, which would make her a dreamer and to a degree delusional.
Her Venus in early Libra is not well integrated into her chart – or life.
Blakeley 17 June 1929, was a Sun Gemini (square her Uranus) with his Mars in Leo square her Mars and Saturn; and his Taurus North Node sitting on her Ascendant conjunct her Mars. So he would trigger all of her early trauma which she could not leave behind, having become addicted to the sexual violence she grew up with.
The relationship chart with Blakeley does have a passionate/obsessional composite Venus Pluto conjunction; and an adventurous Jupiter Uranus conjunction which was in an explosive square to Mars.
When she shot him tr Saturn was back in Scorpio for her Saturn Return which at that point was in a bleak square to Pluto with Mars in final degree Taurus. All of which would trigger her natal Mars Saturn opposition.
She was hanged when Algol was in the 10th close to the Midheaven square Pluto. Tr Saturn was exactly conjunct her Solar Arc Sun.
It is difficult to get a clear moral view of a wrecked life. Bad things happening early on tend not to produce good people. Part of me wants to say she had choices but I am not sure she had. The murder was premeditated though the reason for it was not clear since she was still obsessed by him.
ADD ON: Another miscarriage of justice which ended in a hanging was Edith Thompson, 25 December 1893 12.20am (unverified) London who was convicted of assisting her lover in murdering her husband. She had written love letters to her paramour describing her ill intent towards her husband but appeared to have nothing to do with his death.
She was a Sun Capricorn with a (maybe) final degree Cancer Moon. And a Fixed T square of Jupiter in Taurus conjunct Algol opposition Mars Uranus square Venus in Aquarius; with Mercury opposition Pluto Neptune in Gemini. Her key Fixed planets were similar to Ellis though she had a less traumatised chart.
Oddly she was also hanged on the year of her Saturn Return as well on 9 January 1923 at 9am in London. Her execution was a grim affair since she was hysterical and had to be heavily sedated.
I seem to remember Diana Dora in a film about Ruth Ellis. Just looked it up- she was. Just read about Diana Dors, she also had a difficult adult life “marked with severe personal and financial hardship” . Interestingly online states she also had a traumatic birth – nearly dying.
Miranda Richardson played her too, with Rupert Everett cast as David Blakely (Dance with a Stranger).
I noticed a Chiron Return to Ellis chart. Any possibility the timingof her pardon is due to that?
This story piqued my interest and I went to search about her son Andy. The story was even sadder, died at 37. Apparently there was sponsor for him to go school.
@Marjorie and other knowledgeable astrologers, how does someone overcome such a bleak chart and early trauma?
Are you familiar with anyone who successfully overcame such challenges to lead a successful or productive life?
These stories are so depressing, but it must be possible to overcome such a bad chart and bad beginnings.
Thanks for your insight.
The imponderable question. Some clearly do rise above their beginnings, indeed many highly successful people are driven by early deprivation.
There is something that I call ‘grace’ for want of a better word that the chart does not show – some will think of it in terms of old souls who have more insight and awareness and can ultimately step aside from the trauma, with help. Though even taking that step of seeking help requires self-awareness and motivation – and was anyway not available in Ruth Ellis’s day.
When the Fred West trial was running in the UK in the 1990s – a beyond-hideous paedophile, rapist and murderer, who messed up his kids horrifically. (He suicided in prison before the trial.) An astrologer pointed out that the children of his who survived (and not all did) had strong Jupiter in their charts. Optimism however crazy clearly does help.
It is a conundrum I have long struggled with. Why some bury their head in the sand and keep rolling round the same old same old circuit? While others who are curious to find answers – or humble enough to admit they need help – can haul themselves out of the mire.
Erin Pizzey who founded Refuge, the domestic violence shelter, wrote a book Prone to Violence which argued that some individuals possess a deep-seated addiction to violence, leading them to repeatedly gravitate toward dangerous or destructive relationships. Which did not go down well with feminists.
But it is true that a traumatic childhood will promote protective psychological mechanisms in order to cope at the time which long term are damaging since they normalize aggressive behaviour. Sugar-coating the pill, so to speak. And Freud’s repetition compulsion also comes into it.
Some of these cases are depressing – life basically ain’t fair. What is etched in my mind is a kid I saw, a teenager, in the acute admissions psych ward during my therapy training. He had AIDs and was going to die, had been bounced around the care system, with the only foster mother who had been good to him suiciding, and he had become an under-age male prostitute. His life started badly and never improved.
All I can take away from that kind of story is to admit how privileged and lucky the rest of us are. We should all stop complaining and be grateful.
All of us have crosses to bear but some people’s crosses crush them.
Reply to Hugh – you are absolutely right abt Edith Thompson. It was a terrible miscarriage of justice. Apparently the pardon was refused 2 years ago b/c of no fresh evidence.
Ellis entered no plea and virtually no defence at her trial. She admitted she had shot Blakely but refused to allow her barristers to present evidence that would have offered mitigating reasons for her action. Once she was found guilty by the jury the judge, Cecil Havers ( actor Nigel Havers grandfather) had to declare a sentence of death as it was mandatory for murder leaving the judiciary no discretion. He did, however, write to the Home Secretary suggesting the Royal Prerogative be used to commute the sentence to life imprisonment. Sadly his plea for clemency was ignored. In many ways Ellis used the criminal justice system to commit suicide.
One thing I do note is the rather random way posthumous conditional pardons are doled out. Why has Ellis received one when Edith Thompson has been denied similar treatment recently. She was convicted as an accessory to the murder of her husband by her lover Freddy Bywater on the flimsiest of circumstantial evidence and then hanged. It was a notorious miscarriage of justice and many think she was punished simply for the crime of committing adultery.
Nothing to do with the case or the astrology, but I had read (a while ago, so in a book whose name I can’t remember) that the shortest letter written to the Times went “Sir, Michael havers, Yours respectfully, etc”.
Sir Michael Havers, later Lord Havers, was Sir Cecil Havers’ son and Nigel Havers’ father.
To “haver” is a Scots verb meaning to idly chatter or talk nonsense. Marjorie, you may know more about the Scots meaning of the word than I do, so please correct me if I am wrong.
The letter to the Times was thus formed entirely from the name of the person it was referring to.
The Hangman’s Record, a Youtube series on the people executed in the UK in the past century and a half, has an episode on Ruth Ellis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbPL0nMZjvQ
Great write-up Marjorie. Thank you.