what happened to desmond cussen

Jakubait and her mother visited Ellis on the eve of her execution. From a young age, Desmond Doss, born on February 7, 1919, radiated the kind of empathy that he'd display as a soldier later in life. Muriel never could understand why her sister didnt put up a fight, if only for the sake of her children.But its the circumstances of Ruths police statement, in a previously unpublished Home Office file, which were odd.It sounded as if she had previously rehearsed her statement. The trumped up murder charge protected people at the heart of the establishment. I now have evidence of Cussens long term friendship with David Blakely. Its obvious now; Cussen lied about their friendship to cover the secret world theyd actually been part of for several years; a world that Ruth could have blown wide open if she had lived. Her parents Berta and Arthur Neilson, Ruths son Andre and Desmond Cussen arrived on her doorstep unexpectedly. This was Cussens one and only trail left anywhere since 1955. There is a final postscript to the Ruth Ellis story. what happened to desmond cussen. They knew each other for nearly six years, regularly visiting a risky club together in Surrey from the late 1940s. He said, "No scaffold was erected in Holloway prison before the execution of Mrs Ellis. This was Cussen's one and only trail left anywhere since 1955. No one seeing that face framed on the mantelpiece of a pensioner's bungalow near Woking would identify her as Ruth Ellis, the cool platinum blonde from the postwar London nightclub demimonde who shot her lover dead and won enduring fame as the last woman to hang in Britain. I recently came across a question in parliament dated 8th December 1955. It has also been claimed that Desmond was a party to the killing. It would appear he deliberately omitted the reference to the effort needed to fire the Smith and Wesson gun. "He looked like a rat and was an extremely jealous person, " she says. Sylvia thought the couple rented a cottage in Ide Hill or Brasted Chart, adjacent hamlets east of Westerham and a short distance from Fort Halstead. For the third time he emphasised that the gun broke during testing. "His father looked like a city gent.". All said Ruth had certain characteristics that had made a deep impression on them: she was a lovely, kind person with grace and style. In 1955, at the age of 28, Ellis was the last woman to be hanged in the UK after she shot her lover dead outside a pub in Hampstead two months earlier. ", Ruths defence counsel, Melford Stevenson, stated categorically that Ruth was guilty. Ruth wasnt sentenced to death. To pull a trigger of 10lbs requires definite and deliberate muscular effort.". Eventually I was permitted to view the file that contained Christmas Humphreys set of magistrates court documents at the Royal Court of Justice in the Strand. It was a long shot. On April 10 1955, Ruth was ready to end it all and headed to the Magdala pub where David was drinking. Also residing in the same block of flats in Devonshire Street was a man by the name of Desmond Cussen. But neither Frost's book nor . The latter, 31, was a bachelor. This was quite a find; the first in a series of lucky breaks, opening the door to some significant findings. There was no need for forensics on Ruth or her possessions or for investigating the case properly. At this point I should mention the afternoon of 10th April, the day Blakely was shot. Theyd been housed there since 1996. By 4th June 2002, three months after beginning my research, new light had been thrown on Cussens wartime activities. ", On 27th May 1955, Mr W Mackenzie, medical registrar at St Giles hospital prepared a report for Ruths solicitor Mr Bickford. The pair frequently visited the Paddock Club, which was a mile or so from Cussens Leatherhead family home, since the late 1940s. It all looks extremely suspicious. He said Ruth took a gun which she knew was loaded, and shot David Blakely dead by "emptying that revolver at him, four bullets going into his body, one hitting a bystander in the hand, and the sixth going we know not where. Firstly he joined the RAF aged seventeen, trained mainly in South Africa, was a bomber pilot, throughout the war, flying Lancasters and was demobbed in 1946. He asked if he would ensure that this type of thing would not happen again. "Prior to the drop Ruth wanted to go to the toilet. Andre thought she was funny because she couldnt even shoot a tree and her hands kept shaking.". Hed been sent there during the war from south-east London suffering from a cerebral thrombosis following an injury sustained in the London Blitz. He gave the prosecution an easy time, subjecting prosecution witnesses to a minimum of cross-examination. The only information comes from scant details in books over the years about Ruth Ellis. "Cussen, on the other hand, verbally abused her and I guess she didn't know any better because of what our father was like." Muriel disliked wealthy businessman Desmond Cussen from the beginning. Then he lied at the trial saying "approximately three years.". Mr Bickford, Ruths solicitor, had evidence but "felt it unwise to call it. "Let me make this abundantly plain: there is no question here but this woman shot this man.You will not hear one word from me or from the lady herself questioning that.". "Would you pull these tapes Evelyn, Ill pull the others." This, I feel, is unlikely. Shut away in a previously closed file is a police statement made by Nickolls on 25th April 1955 along with a further one-page report written on the identical date but on Metropolitan Police Laboratory headed notepaper. Public records show that the phone number (415) 923-6775 is linked to Belinda L Yan, Desmond Cussen Main Address 2765 Union St, San Francisco, CA 94123 Single Family, On street, Attached Garage, 1 space Five bedrooms, Six bathrooms Lot Size - 3,781 sqft, Floor Size - 5,500 sqft Parcel ID# 0950029 Last Sale Apr 2012 - Price $4,795,000 In 1989, Desmond Cussen completed a Master of Law at Cornell University. All these aspects were left unsaid at the trial. Ruth stood no chance against them.The story about spying and the shadowy characters in Ruths circle continued to unravel by an extraordinary twist of fate. Desmond Cussen is a General Counsel at Fandom based in San Francisco, California. So they take him in. Since the winter of 2005 I have made discoveries about Cussens service record; thats another story. it delves into her relationships not only with David Blakely and Desmond Cussen, but shows the impact Blakely's friends the Findlaters had on Ruth, and which may have contributed to her . He told the jury that she had been "driven to a frenzy which for the time being unseated her understanding". the stylings and visuals evoke an inky, foggy london that was still struggling to get back on its feet after world war ii. Ruth Ellis did not kill David Blakely. She offered no resistance. Justice worked quickly in those days. Her sister Muriel gave birth to a child through incest with her father, a bully who started sexually abusing Muriel when she was six. I believe she thought that at the last minute they'd say, 'You'll go to prison instead.'". Education. One London address in Kensington stood out. Nickolls did not say what distance. Philip Dewey tells the story of Ruth Ellis, whose death paved the way for capital punishment to be abolished. But it was not. Much later it emerged that her friend and "sugar. ", The day after the hanging, the front-page article of the Daily Sketch demanded, "What are the police doing about this man? In May 1950 he returned to England and was kept under surveillance by MI5. I was so alarmed at my findings on 9th May 2002, I wrote in my diary, "Papers at the Royal Court of Justice have been adjusted; gun, police, timings.". In it was a small, tatty notebook-cum-address book (now kept safe in a bank vault). By early June 2002 I had pieced together quite a dossier of first hand evidence about Cussen; a bigger picture was developing. However I strongly suspect he grew up in a family that was used to deception. In January 2006 I managed to make contact with Mrs Hogg. I used to think Ruth was behind me doing it. In March 2002 I contacted Companies House in an attempt to find information about Cussen and Co. Whilst examining hand-written documents on microfiche (luckily still available from Companies House archives) I discovered that Desmond Cussen lived in Garlands Road, Leatherhead with his parents, in a detached house called Dapdune. Recently released hospital prison records reveal that Ruth fabricated the main thread of her defence. Also the "Letter officer" at Holloway prison would have blanked out names on letters that Ruth sent from prison, yet names are clearly mentioned in Ruths correspondence. They had tapes back and front to pull. Sylvia remembers how the landlord, Ernie Dumbleton, would say, "Ruths here and boyfriend has hooked off again and shes quite tearful. Cussen seemed to be following Ward around.When the names Ward, Keeler and Profumo cropped up later in the Atlantic hotel, I realised that Cussen whod been staying there for two years was not there by accident. When Cussen signed the business document in London in 1964, he was still a free man. Justice Havers directed the jury; he was "judge, jury, defence and prosecution. It would appear that he was doing nothing. Jakubait believes that her sister protected him during the trial because he had promised to look after her family. I found a letter at the Public Record Office from a Mrs Robinson of Ealing to the Home Secretary. She read something about Cussen and the murder in a national paper but dismissed it as "ill-informed." The two young men worked together at night-time two to three times a week from summer 1940 until April 1941, guarding bombed places against looters and keeping watch for parachutists. Fiona Mactaggart MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State replied to Sir Paul Beresfords letter: "The case of Ruth Ellis has always attracted interest over the years and more particularly in this the fiftieth anniversary of her execution. The last of Ruth's family, she has been fighting for nearly 50 years to overturn her sister's conviction. Cussen had one gun and gave another to Ruth. Again Ruths barrister had no questions. Cussen, her "alternative" lover, wound her up like a spring, got her drunk, drove her to the scene of the crime and put a gun in her hand. As soon as I read these two sentences in Ruths police statement I knew she was lying and protecting someone: "I took a taxi and as I arrived, Davids car drove away from Findlaters [Blakelys car mechanic friend] address. It seemed stranger than fiction that I should come across Ruths alternative lover, at exactly the same time as I was investigating the area around Leatherhead hospital. In a postscript he added, "I should be interested to know from a medical point of view, the present state of her joints.". He was from an exceptionally well to do family. Ruth and Rawlinson shook hands in her cell after the three-minute hearing. Evelyn told me categorically that "No prisoner in the condemned cell was allowed to use a pen, everything had to be written in pencil and was strictly supervised.". She claimed at the time to have been given the gun by an American serviceman as security for a nightclub debt, and to have taken a taxi to the pub. Furthermore the recoil after each shot would have knocked her backwards. ", At her second court appearance on 28th April she said that she saw a lady in front of the two men. All have spoken out for the first time.One gentleman from Penn in Buckinghamshire casually mentioned to me that the family of Donald Maclean had lived in the village for thirty years. Jury, defence and prosecution hands in her cell after the three-minute hearing you these! Told the jury that she had been thrown on Cussens wartime activities she saw a lady front. Neilson, Ruths solicitor, had evidence but `` felt it unwise to it. `` No scaffold was erected in Holloway prison before the execution of Ellis. 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