Misplaced Pages

#827172

133-549: The Astor was established in the 1930s and flourished even during the dangerous times London experienced during the Second World War , including London Blitz of 1940-1941 and the V-1 and V-2 rocket attacks of 1944-1945. The venue was owned by Bertie Green, a businessman and manager of show business performers. Green has been described by Michele Monro , daughter of Matt Monro , as "[not] one of nature's gentlemen. He had

266-659: A Neutrality Pact in April 1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine of Nanshin-ron , promoted by the Navy, which took its focus southward and eventually led to war with the United States and the Western Allies. In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more aggressive. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria , again provoking little response from other European powers. Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on

399-578: A cautious French probe into the Saarland . The Western Allies also began a naval blockade of Germany , which aimed to damage the country's economy and war effort. Germany responded by ordering U-boat warfare against Allied merchant and warships, which would later escalate into the Battle of the Atlantic . On 8 September, German troops reached the suburbs of Warsaw . The Polish counter-offensive to

532-408: A miscarriage after he punched her in the stomach during an argument. On Easter Sunday, 10 April 1955, Ruth took a taxi from Cussen's home to a second-floor flat at 29 Tanza Road, Hampstead, the home of Anthony and Carole Findlater, where she suspected Blakely might be. As she arrived, Blakely's car drove off, so she paid off the taxi and walked the 1 ⁄ 4 mile (400 m) to The Magdala,

665-718: A London still very class-riven, these clubs provided a place where a wide spectrum of London society rubbed shoulders. It has been said of the Gargoyle that "its membership embraced toffs and artists: from Nancy Cunard to Nancy Mitford , Victor Rothschild to Roland Penrose , Lee Miller to William Burroughs , and, occasionally in the mix, the odd spy, such as Guy Burgess ." The famous American syndicated columnist Walter Winchell wrote in 1953 that "there's more night-life in London than anywhere in U.S... Everyone dines after theater--shows start at 6.15 and 8.30... Great Latin band at

798-406: A bystander, who lost the use of her right thumb. Ruth, in apparent shock , asked Gunnell, "Will you call the police, Clive?" She was arrested immediately by an off-duty policeman, who heard her say, "I am guilty, I'm a little confused." Blakely's body was taken to hospital with multiple fatal wounds to the intestines, liver, lung, aorta and trachea . Originally taken in as evidence, the revolver

931-440: A case like Hanratty [2002] 2 Cr App R 30 where the issue was whether a wholly innocent person had been convicted of murder. A wrong on that scale, if it had occurred, might even today be a matter of general public concern, but in this case, there was no question that Mrs Ellis was other than the killer and the only issue was the precise crime of which she was guilty. If we had not been obliged to consider her case we would perhaps in

1064-532: A chaotic life that included various relationships with men. One of these men was Blakely, a racing driver engaged to another woman. On Easter Sunday , 10 April 1955, Ellis shot Blakely dead outside The Magdala public house in Hampstead , London . She was immediately arrested by an off-duty policeman. At her trial in June 1955, Ellis was found guilty of premeditated murder and was sentenced to death; on 13 July she

1197-685: A character resembling (though not based on) Ellis in the 1956 British film Yield to the Night , directed by J. Lee Thompson . The case was the basis for Amanda Whittington 's play The Thrill of Love . It premiered at the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, in February 2013 and subsequently played at St James Theatre London with Faye Castelow in the main role. Maxine Peake played Ellis in an adaptation of Whittington's play, broadcast on 5 November 2016 by BBC Radio 4 . The life of Ellis

1330-489: A child by her father . Although Arthur was subsequently questioned by the police, he was released, and the child, a son, was brought up with the other children as a sibling. Once Muriel reached puberty , Ruth became Arthur's next target, but she continuously resisted the abuse. Ruth briefly attended Fairfields Senior Girls' School in Basingstoke until 1940, leaving school when she was 14 years old. Her first employment

1463-474: A daughter, Georgina, in 1951, George refused to acknowledge paternity; they separated shortly afterwards and later divorced. In 1951, while she had been four months pregnant, Ruth appeared, uncredited, as a beauty queen in the Rank film Lady Godiva Rides Again . She returned to prostitution following her divorce from George, having moved into her parents' residence with her daughter. In 1953, Ruth became

SECTION 10

#1732780741828

1596-524: A pretext to initiate the invasion. The first German attack of the war came against the Polish defences at Westerplatte . The United Kingdom responded with an ultimatum for Germany to cease military operations, and on 3 September, after the ultimatum was ignored, Britain and France declared war on Germany. During the Phoney War period, the alliance provided no direct military support to Poland, outside of

1729-781: A pretext to worsen relations. On 29 August, Hitler demanded that a Polish plenipotentiary immediately travel to Berlin to negotiate the handover of Danzig , and to allow a plebiscite in the Polish Corridor in which the German minority would vote on secession. The Poles refused to comply with the German demands, and on the night of 30–31 August in a confrontational meeting with the British ambassador Nevile Henderson , Ribbentrop declared that Germany considered its claims rejected. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland after having staged several false flag border incidents as

1862-580: A public house in South Hill Park where she found Blakely's car parked outside. At around 9:30pm, Blakely and his friend Clive Gunnell emerged. Blakely passed Ruth waiting on the pavement when she stepped out of the doorway of Henshaw's, a newsagent next to The Magdala. As Blakely searched for the keys to his car, Ruth took a .38 calibre Smith & Wesson Victory Model revolver from her handbag and fired five shots at Blakely. The first shot missed. Ruth pursued Blakely as he started to run around

1995-475: A secret protocol that defined German and Soviet "spheres of influence" (western Poland and Lithuania for Germany; eastern Poland , Finland, Estonia , Latvia and Bessarabia for the Soviet Union), and raised the question of continuing Polish independence. The pact neutralised the possibility of Soviet opposition to a campaign against Poland and assured that Germany would not have to face the prospect of

2128-774: A similar pact and rejected ceding part of its territory to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union invaded Finland in November 1939, and was subsequently expelled from the League of Nations for this crime of aggression. Despite overwhelming numerical superiority, Soviet military success during the Winter War was modest, and the Finno-Soviet war ended in March 1940 with some Finnish concessions of territory . In June 1940,

2261-547: A strong grip on the British imagination and in 2003 was referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). The Court firmly rejected the appeal, although it made clear that it could rule only on the conviction based on the law as it stood in 1955, and not on whether she should have been executed. The court was critical of the fact that it had been obliged to consider

2394-531: A two-front war, as it had in World War   I. Immediately afterwards, Hitler ordered the attack to proceed on 26 August, but upon hearing that the United Kingdom had concluded a formal mutual assistance pact with Poland and that Italy would maintain neutrality, he decided to delay it. In response to British requests for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany made demands on Poland, which served as

2527-747: A very bad reputation as a villain and used to sign artists up with the sole intention of doing nothing and then suing them... a greedy bastard, a no-good greedy bastard." Like the Stork Room , an attempt to copy the American Stork Club in Manhattan, the Astor was one of the London nightclubs which attracted wealthy revellers, members of the aristocracy, young Guards officers and occasionally minor royals, as well as successful criminals (both "working" criminals and gangsters). Other clubs vied for

2660-633: A year after the delivery. Andy, who eventually went to live with Bertha, was supported by Ruth through her employment in several factory and clerical jobs. By the end of the 1940s, Ruth had become a nightclub hostess in Hampstead through nude-modelling work, which paid significantly more than her previous jobs. Morris Conley, her manager at the Court Club in Duke Street, blackmailed his hostess employees into sleeping with him. By early 1950, Ruth

2793-572: Is now in the Metropolitan Police 's Crime Museum . At Hampstead police station, Ruth appeared to be calm and not obviously under the influence of drink or drugs. She made her first appearance at a magistrates' court the next day, 11 April, and was ordered to be held on remand . Ruth was twice examined by principal Medical Officer, M. R. Penry Williams, who failed to find evidence of mental illness; an electroencephalograph examination on 3 May found no abnormality. While on remand, Ruth

SECTION 20

#1732780741828

2926-604: The Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish declaration of non-aggression . The situation became a crisis in late August as German troops continued to mobilise against the Polish border. On 23 August the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany, after tripartite negotiations for a military alliance between France, the United Kingdom, and Soviet Union had stalled. This pact had

3059-689: The British Empire , with fighting in the Balkans , Mediterranean, and Middle East , the aerial Battle of Britain and the Blitz , and naval Battle of the Atlantic . Through a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany took control of much of continental Europe and formed the Axis alliance with Italy , Japan , and other countries. In June 1941, Germany led the European Axis in an invasion of

3192-581: The German Revolution of 1918–1919 , and a democratic government, later known as the Weimar Republic , was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the political right and left. Italy, as an Entente ally, had made some post-war territorial gains; however, Italian nationalists were angered that the promises made by the United Kingdom and France to secure Italian entrance into

3325-853: The German invasion of Poland and the United Kingdom and France 's declaration of war on Germany two days later on 3 September 1939. Dates for the beginning of the Pacific War include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the earlier Japanese invasion of Manchuria , on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor , who stated that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously, and

3458-576: The Italian mainland , and Allied offensives in the Pacific—cost the Axis powers their initiative and forced them into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France at Normandy , while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and pushed Germany and its allies westward. At the same time, Japan suffered reversals in mainland Asia, while the Allies crippled

3591-553: The Japanese Navy and captured key islands . The war in Europe concluded with the liberation of German-occupied territories ; the invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the fall of Berlin to Soviet troops; Hitler's suicide ; and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945 . Following the refusal of Japan to surrender on the terms of the Potsdam Declaration ,

3724-695: The League of Nations as a force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations, but the League did little when the former clearly violated Article X of the League's Covenant . The United Kingdom and France supported imposing sanctions on Italy for the invasion, but the sanctions were not fully enforced and failed to end the Italian invasion. Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany's goal of absorbing Austria . When civil war broke out in Spain, Hitler and Mussolini lent military support to

3857-731: The Nationalist rebels , led by General Francisco Franco . Italy supported the Nationalists to a greater extent than the Nazis: Mussolini sent more than 70,000 ground troops, 6,000 aviation personnel, and 720 aircraft to Spain. The Soviet Union supported the existing government of the Spanish Republic . More than 30,000 foreign volunteers, known as the International Brigades , also fought against

3990-690: The Rome–Berlin Axis . A month later, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact , which Italy joined the following year. The Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allies and new regional warlords . In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Empire of Japan , which had long sought influence in China as

4123-553: The Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers . Nearly all the world's countries —including all the great powers —participated, with many investing all available economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities in pursuit of total war , blurring the distinction between military and civilian resources. Tanks and aircraft played major roles , with

Astor Club - Misplaced Pages Continue

4256-590: The Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941. By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet border. Hitler believed that the United Kingdom's refusal to end the war was based on the hope that the United States and the Soviet Union would enter the war against Germany sooner or later. On 31 July 1940, Hitler decided that

4389-598: The Stresa Front in April 1935 in order to contain Germany, a key step towards military globalisation ; however, that June, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The Soviet Union, concerned by Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of Eastern Europe , drafted a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect, though, the Franco-Soviet pact

4522-709: The Sudetenland , an area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly ethnic German population. Soon the United Kingdom and France followed the appeasement policy of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and conceded this territory to Germany in the Munich Agreement , which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands. Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to cede additional territory to Hungary, and Poland annexed

4655-707: The Tanggu Truce was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria , and Chahar and Suiyuan . After the 1936 Xi'an Incident , the Kuomintang and CCP forces agreed on a ceasefire to present a united front to oppose Japan. The Second Italo-Ethiopian War was a brief colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war began with

4788-579: The Trans-Olza region of Czechoslovakia. Although all of Germany's stated demands had been satisfied by the agreement, privately Hitler was furious that British interference had prevented him from seizing all of Czechoslovakia in one operation. In subsequent speeches Hitler attacked British and Jewish "war-mongers" and in January 1939 secretly ordered a major build-up of the German navy to challenge British naval supremacy. In March 1939, Germany invaded

4921-558: The Treaty of Craiova . The loss of one-third of Romania's 1939 territory caused a coup against King Carol II, turning Romania into a fascist dictatorship under Marshal Ion Antonescu , with a course set towards the Axis in the hopes of a German guarantee. Meanwhile, German-Soviet political relations and economic co-operation gradually stalled, and both states began preparations for war. In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of iron ore from Sweden , which

5054-698: The United Kingdom and France to declare war on Germany. Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , in which they had agreed on " spheres of influence " in Eastern Europe. In 1940, the Soviets annexed the Baltic states and parts of Finland and Romania . After the fall of France in June 1940, the war continued mainly between Germany and

5187-709: The Wehrmacht rapidly advanced to the Channel and cut off the Allied forces in Belgium, trapping the bulk of the Allied armies in a cauldron on the Franco-Belgian border near Lille. The United Kingdom was able to evacuate a significant number of Allied troops from the continent by early June, although they had to abandon almost all their equipment. On 10 June, Italy invaded France , declaring war on both France and

5320-451: The aftermath of World War I and the rise of fascism in Europe and militarism in Japan . Key events leading up to the war included Japan's invasion of Manchuria , the Spanish Civil War , the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War , and Germany's annexations of Austria and the Sudetenland . World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, when Nazi Germany , under Adolf Hitler , invaded Poland , prompting

5453-404: The reunification of East and West Germany to take place and resolved most post–World War   II issues. No formal peace treaty between Japan and the Soviet Union was ever signed, although the state of war between the two countries was terminated by the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956 , which also restored full diplomatic relations between them. World War I had radically altered

Astor Club - Misplaced Pages Continue

5586-409: The Allies were attempting to cut off . Denmark capitulated after six hours , and despite Allied support , Norway was conquered within two months. British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the resignation of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain , who was replaced by Winston Churchill on 10   May 1940. On the same day, Germany launched an offensive against France . To circumvent

5719-401: The Astor Club..." The Astor was usually described in the press as in such terms as "glittering", "ritzy", "chic" and, in the American newspapers, "swanky". Princess Margaret , younger sister of the Queen , no stranger to London nightlife (and what was then called "cafe society" in contradistinction to "Society"), was seen at the Astor on occasion, as in 1952, when she and her entourage enjoyed

5852-420: The Astor management. It was when she was singing at the Astor in 1955 that Shirley Bassey was discovered by bandleader and impresario Jack Hylton . Others who were auditioned there and taken on for a while included singers Elkie Brooks and Anita Harris , amid many whose fame was lesser or fleeting. The address of the Astor, off Berkeley Square , Mayfair , reinforced its "respectable" credentials, despite

5985-464: The Astor. Bertie Green, the owner of the Astor, discovered the British singer Yana , who shot to fame in the 1950s after having sung as a dare and at a private party held at the club. Another singer who first performed (solo) at the Astor (in 1959) was the 1960s star Kathy Kirby . Yana was not the only amateur singer to have been offered a job at the Astor by Bertie Green. In 1957, he suggested to American tennis player Althea Gibson , who had just won

6118-400: The Axis war against the Soviet Union, in Romania's case partially to recapture territory ceded to the Soviet Union . In early June 1940, the Italian Regia Aeronautica attacked and besieged Malta , a British possession. From late summer to early autumn, Italy conquered British Somaliland and made an incursion into British-held Egypt . In October, Italy attacked Greece , but the attack

6251-421: The Blitz , but largely ended in May 1941 after failing to significantly disrupt the British war effort. Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy , using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic . The British Home Fleet scored a significant victory on 27   May 1941 by sinking the German battleship Bismarck . In November 1939,

6384-405: The European Axis declaring war on the US. Japan conquered much of coastal China and Southeast Asia , but its advances in the Pacific were halted in mid-1942 after its defeat in the naval Battle of Midway ; Germany and Italy were defeated in North Africa and at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. Key setbacks in 1943—including German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and

6517-410: The French possessions of Syria and Lebanon , assisted by the Free French . With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations for war. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany, and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia , the two powers signed

6650-426: The Germans, and the last large operational unit of the Polish Army surrendered on 6   October . Despite the military defeat, Poland never surrendered; instead, it formed the Polish government-in-exile and a clandestine state apparatus remained in occupied Poland. A significant part of Polish military personnel evacuated to Romania and Latvia; many of them later fought against the Axis in other theatres of

6783-418: The Ladies' Singles tournament at Wimbledon and who had sung for fun at a private party held at the Astor to celebrate her victory, that there was a job for her if she wanted to take it (she didn't). Other singers, famous or about to be so, performed at the Astor in the 1950s and early 1960s. Tom Jones sang there, though he was not top of the bill. That position was taken by Engelbert Humperdinck . Tom Jones

SECTION 50

#1732780741828

6916-450: The Nationalists. Both Germany and the Soviet Union used this proxy war as an opportunity to test in combat their most advanced weapons and tactics. The Nationalists won the civil war in April 1939; Franco, now dictator, remained officially neutral during World War   II but generally favoured the Axis . His greatest collaboration with Germany was the sending of volunteers to fight on the Eastern Front . In July 1937, Japan captured

7049-452: The Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission after a carrier attack at Taranto , and neutralising several more warships at the Battle of Cape Matapan . Italian defeats prompted Germany to deploy an expeditionary force to North Africa; at the end of March 1941, Rommel 's Afrika Korps launched an offensive which drove back Commonwealth forces. In less than a month, Axis forces advanced to western Egypt and besieged

7182-423: The Soviet Union occupied the entire territories of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as the Romanian regions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa region . In August 1940, Hitler imposed the Second Vienna Award on Romania which led to the transfer of Northern Transylvania to Hungary. In September 1940, Bulgaria demanded Southern Dobruja from Romania with German and Italian support, leading to

7315-421: The Soviet Union , opening the Eastern Front and initially making large territorial gains. Japan aimed to dominate East Asia and the Asia-Pacific , and by 1937 was at war with the Republic of China . In December 1941, Japan attacked American and British territories in Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific , including Pearl Harbor in Hawaii , which resulted in the US and the UK declaring war against Japan, and

7448-418: The Soviet Union and Mongolia . The Japanese doctrine of Hokushin-ron , which emphasised Japan's expansion northward, was favoured by the Imperial Army during this time. This policy would prove difficult to maintain in light of the Japanese defeat at Khalkin Gol in 1939, the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War and ally Nazi Germany pursuing neutrality with the Soviets. Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed

7581-575: The Soviet Union should be eliminated and aimed for the conquest of Ukraine , the Baltic states and Byelorussia . However, other senior German officials like Ribbentrop saw an opportunity to create a Euro-Asian bloc against the British Empire by inviting the Soviet Union into the Tripartite Pact. In November 1940, negotiations took place to determine if the Soviet Union would join the pact. The Soviets showed some interest but asked for concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan that Germany considered unacceptable. On 18 December 1940, Hitler issued

7714-402: The US dropped the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August. Faced with an imminent invasion of the Japanese archipelago , the possibility of further atomic bombings, and the Soviet declaration of war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria , Japan announced its unconditional surrender on 15 August and signed a surrender document on 2 September 1945 , marking

7847-424: The United Kingdom and France guaranteed their support for Polish independence ; when Italy conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to the Kingdoms of Romania and Greece . Shortly after the Franco - British pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with the Pact of Steel . Hitler accused the United Kingdom and Poland of trying to "encircle" Germany and renounced

7980-489: The United Kingdom attacked on 3   July in an attempt to prevent its seizure by Germany. The air Battle of Britain began in early July with Luftwaffe attacks on shipping and harbours . The German campaign for air superiority started in August but its failure to defeat RAF Fighter Command forced the indefinite postponement of the proposed German invasion of Britain . The German strategic bombing offensive intensified with night attacks on London and other cities in

8113-401: The United Kingdom. The Germans turned south against the weakened French army, and Paris fell to them on 14   June. Eight days later France signed an armistice with Germany ; it was divided into German and Italian occupation zones , and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime , which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its fleet, which

SECTION 60

#1732780741828

8246-473: The United States was assisting China and the Western Allies, and had amended the Neutrality Act to allow "cash and carry" purchases by the Allies. In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the United States Navy was significantly increased . In September the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases . Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention in

8379-434: The Yellow River ; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at Wuhan , but the city was taken by October. Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; instead, the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing and continued the war. In the mid-to-late 1930s, Japanese forces in Manchukuo had sporadic border clashes with

8512-406: The active years of the Krays and Richardsons, another habitué, George Ellis, had been attacked outside the Astor, slashed with a razor and the girl with him kicked into the gutter, allegedly at the behest of the woman he later married, Ruth Neilson, better known to history as Ruth Ellis , who was later to be hanged for the murder of another of her lovers. Ruth was a club hostess herself, though not at

8645-472: The affair ended when Bertha caught the pair in bed after making an unannounced visit. Bertha moved to London following the discovery of her husband's affair. In 1944, when Ruth was 17 years old, she became pregnant by Clare Andrea McCallum, a married Canadian soldier. As a result, she was forced to move to a nursing hospital in Gilsland , Cumberland . On 15 September, she gave birth to her son, Clare Andrea (Andy) Neilson. McCallum stopped sending money around

8778-418: The appeal: We would wish to make one further observation. We have to question whether this exercise of considering an appeal so long after the event when Mrs Ellis herself had consciously and deliberately chosen not to appeal at the time is a sensible use of the limited resources of the Court of Appeal. In any view, Mrs Ellis had committed a serious criminal offence. This case is, therefore, quite different from

8911-472: The bar of the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel ) and so, ultimately, to the trials and sentences which destroyed both the Kray and Richardson gangs. Indeed, when the Krays were arrested for the Cornell murder (two years after the fact), they were drinking (at 6 a.m.) at The Lion pub, Bethnal Green , intending to move on later to the Astor. The Astor survived beyond the era of the Krays and Richardsons and continued to attract wealthy customers. An Astor Big Band

9044-409: The beasts will have been denied her — pity and the hope of ultimate redemption". The British Pathé newsreel reporting the execution openly questioned whether capital punishment—of a woman or of anyone—had a place in the 20th century. The novelist Raymond Chandler , then living in Britain, wrote a scathing letter to the Evening Standard referring to what he described as "the medieval savagery of

9177-404: The birth of Ruth's older sister, Muriel, in 1925. Arthur's twin brother Charles was killed in 1928, when Ruth was 2 years old, after his bicycle collided with a steam wagon . Arthur began to be physically and sexually abusive to Muriel shortly following his brother's death. Bertha, despite being aware of the abuse, took no action. As a result of the sexual abuse, 14-year-old Muriel conceived

9310-405: The capital Nanking in December 1937. After the fall of Nanking, tens or hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were murdered by the Japanese . In March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won their first major victory at Taierzhuang , but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by the Japanese in May. In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding

9443-413: The car, firing a second shot which caused him to collapse onto the pavement. She then stood over him and fired three more bullets, with one fired less than half an inch from his back, leaving powder burns on his skin. Ruth was seen to stand over Blakely as she repeatedly tried to fire the revolver's sixth shot, finally firing it into the ground. This bullet ricocheted off the road and injured Gladys Yule,

9576-667: The case in his memoirs, nor is there any mention in his papers. He accepted that the decision was the responsibility of the Home Secretary, but there are indications that he was troubled by it. A petition to the Home Office asking for clemency was signed by 50,000 people but was rejected. On the day of Ruth's execution, columnist Cassandra of the Daily Mirror attacked her sentence, writing: "The one thing that brings stature and dignity to mankind and raises us above

9709-633: The churchyard of St Mary's Church in Amersham , Buckinghamshire , some 3 mi (4.8 km) from where Blakely was buried. Her headstone was inscribed, "Ruth Hornby 1926–1955." Ruth's case caused widespread controversy at the time, evoking exceptionally intense press and public interest to the point that it was discussed by the Cabinet . She was the last woman ever to be executed in Britain. Then- Prime Minister Anthony Eden made no reference to

9842-419: The club despite being engaged to another woman, Mary Dawson. Ruth became pregnant for a fourth time but had her second abortion, feeling she could not reciprocate the level of commitment Blakely showed towards their relationship. Ruth then began seeing Desmond Cussen, a former Royal Air Force pilot who had flown Lancaster bombers during the Second World War , and who had taken up accountancy after leaving

9975-403: The conflict well into 1941. In December 1940, Roosevelt accused Hitler of planning world conquest and ruled out any negotiations as useless, calling for the United States to become an " arsenal of democracy " and promoting Lend-Lease programmes of military and humanitarian aid to support the British war effort; Lend-Lease was later extended to the other Allies, including the Soviet Union after it

10108-526: The creation of a " New Roman Empire ". Adolf Hitler , after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923, eventually became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933 when Paul von Hindenburg and the Reichstag appointed him. Following Hindenburg's death in 1934, Hitler proclaimed himself Führer of Germany and abolished democracy, espousing a radical, racially motivated revision of

10241-573: The death sentence and took no part in the campaign. However, at her relatives' urging her solicitor , John Bickford, wrote a seven-page letter to Home Secretary Gwilym Lloyd George setting out the grounds for reprieve. Lloyd George denied the request. Ruth dismissed Bickford (who had been chosen by Cussen) and asked to see Leon Simmons, the clerk to solicitor Victor Mishcon (whose law firm had previously represented her in her divorce proceedings). Before going to see her, Simmons and Mishcon visited Bickford, who urged them to ask her where she had obtained

10374-410: The directive to prepare for an invasion of the Soviet Union. Ruth Ellis Ruth Ellis ( née Neilson ; 9 October 1926 – 13 July 1955) was a Welsh nightclub hostess and convicted murderer who became the last woman to be executed in the United Kingdom following the fatal shooting of her lover, David Blakely. In her teens, Ellis had entered the world of nightclub hostessing, which led to

10507-757: The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires. To prevent a future world war, the League of Nations was established in 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference . The organisation's primary goals were to prevent armed conflict through collective security, military, and naval disarmament , as well as settling international disputes through peaceful negotiations and arbitration. Despite strong pacifist sentiment after World War   I , irredentist and revanchist nationalism had emerged in several European states. These sentiments were especially marked in Germany because of

10640-647: The early 1970s, Bickford told the Metropolitan Police that Cussen had told him, in 1955, that Ellis lied at the trial. A police investigation followed but no further action regarding Cussen was taken. Ruth's former husband, George Ellis, died by suicide by hanging at a Jersey hotel on 2 August 1958. In 1969, Ellis's mother, Bertha Neilson, was found unconscious in a gas-filled room in her flat in Hemel Hempstead ; she never fully recovered and did not speak coherently again. Ruth's son Andy, who

10773-662: The end of May completed the German conquest of the Balkans. Partisan warfare subsequently broke out against the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia , which continued until the end of the war. In the Middle East in May, Commonwealth forces quashed an uprising in Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria . Between June and July, British-led forces invaded and occupied

10906-511: The end of the war. World War II changed the political alignment and social structure of the world, and it set the foundation of international relations for the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st century. The United Nations was established to foster international cooperation and prevent conflicts, with the victorious great powers—China, France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the US—becoming

11039-521: The fact that gangland not infrequently came to clubland, as when the psychopathic gangster, Frankie Fraser , buried a hatchet in the skull of one Eric Mason, an associate of the Krays , outside the club (Mason was later dumped, "barely alive", outside Whitechapel Hospital in East London ). However wealthy and respectable were many of the Astor's patrons and despite the royal visits, London gangsterism

11172-631: The first step of what its government saw as the country's right to rule Asia , staged the Mukden incident as a pretext to invade Manchuria and establish the puppet state of Manchukuo . China appealed to the League of Nations to stop the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being condemned for its incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, in Shanghai , Rehe and Hebei , until

11305-864: The former Chinese imperial capital of Peking after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge incident , which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China. The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend materiel support, effectively ending China's prior cooperation with Germany . From September to November, the Japanese attacked Taiyuan , engaged the Kuomintang Army around Xinkou , and fought Communist forces in Pingxingguan . Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai , but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push Chinese forces back, capturing

11438-413: The guests at £2 a bottle (equivalent to £66 in 2023). They'd get a pound for each bottle purchased, earning up to a tenner on good nights." This at a time when most workers were paid between £2 and £9 per week. It has been said that the Astor clientele was markedly more prestigious in the early 1950s than it became later, especially in the 1960s era of the Krays and others; however, in 1950, long before

11571-426: The gun. On 12 July 1955, the day before her execution, Mishcon and Simmons saw Ruth, who wanted to make her will . When they pressed her for the full story, Ruth asked them to promise not to use what she said to try to secure a reprieve; Mishcon refused. Ruth divulged that Cussen had given her the gun and taught her how to use it on the weekend prior to the murder. She also revealed that Cussen had also driven her to

11704-666: The hangman Albert Pierrepoint and his assistant entered her cell and took her to the adjacent execution room where she was hanged . Like the murder weapon, the noose is now in the Metropolitan Police Crime Museum. As was customary in British executions, Ruth was buried in an unmarked grave within the walls of Holloway Prison. In the early 1970s, the remains of executed women at Holloway were exhumed for reburial elsewhere; in Ruth's case, directed by her son and next of kin , Andy, her remains were reburied in

11837-525: The invasion of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia ) by the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy ( Regno d'Italia ), which was launched from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea . The war resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa ( Africa Orientale Italiana , or AOI); in addition it exposed the weakness of

11970-682: The latter enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and delivery of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, resulting in 70 to 85 million deaths , more than half being civilians. Millions died in genocides , including the Holocaust of European Jews, as well as from massacres, starvation, and disease. Following the Allied powers' victory, Germany , Austria , Japan , and Korea were occupied, and war crimes tribunals were conducted against German and Japanese leaders . The causes of World War II included unresolved tensions in

12103-548: The law". Though the execution was on the whole supported by the British public, it helped strengthen support for the abolition of the death penalty, which was halted in practice for murder in Britain ten years later ( the last execution in the UK occurred in 1964). Reprieve was by then commonplace: according to one statistical account, between 1926 and 1954, 677 men and 60 women had been sentenced to death in England and Wales, but only 375 men and seven women had been executed. In

12236-554: The manager of the Little Club, a nightclub in Knightsbridge . At this time, she was lavished with expensive gifts by admirers and had a number of celebrity friends. Ruth met David Blakely, three years her junior, through racing driver Mike Hawthorn . Blakely was a former public school boy who was educated at Shrewsbury School and Sandhurst but was also a hard-drinking racer. Within weeks, he moved into Ruth's flat above

12369-501: The murder scene. Following a two-hour interview, Mishcon and Simmons went to the Home Office; the Permanent Secretary, Sir Frank Newsam , was summoned back to London and ordered the head of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to check the story. Lloyd George later said that the police were able to make considerable enquiries but that it made no difference to his decision, and in fact, made Ruth's guilt greater showing

12502-540: The murder was premeditated . He also said that the injury to the bystander was decisive in his decision: "We cannot have people shooting off firearms in the street! As long as I was Home Secretary I was determined to ensure that people could use the streets without fear of a bullet. In a final letter to Blakely's parents from her prison cell, Ruth wrote, "I have always loved your son, and I shall die still loving him." The Bishop of Stepney, Joost de Blank , visited Ruth prior to her execution. Just before 9:00am on 13 July,

12635-407: The newspapers caught wind of the alleged affair. An account by April Ashley , a trans woman publicly outed in the early 1960s, describes the Astor of that time as having been "black tie and full of tarts". The Astor in the 1950s has been described as having been "littered with prostitutes, which the club politely called hostesses, who'd wait for a table to be filled and then order champagne for

12768-582: The performance of the Deep River Boys , a group which mainly sang American gospel music . The Princess described the Deep River Boys as "my very favourite entertainers". Lord Lichfield ( Patrick Anson , aka Patrick Lichfield), cousin of the Queen, ex- Guards officer and fashionable photographer, was often to be seen there in the early 1960s. Another royal personage linked with the Astor was

12901-502: The permanent members of its security council . The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers , setting the stage for the Cold War . In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia . Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery and expansion . World War II began in Europe on 1 September 1939 with

13034-589: The political European map with the defeat of the Central Powers —including Austria-Hungary , Germany , Bulgaria , and the Ottoman Empire —and the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia , which led to the founding of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the victorious Allies of World War I , such as France, Belgium, Italy, Romania, and Greece, gained territory, and new nation-states were created out of

13167-599: The port of Tobruk . By late March 1941, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact ; however, the Yugoslav government was overthrown two days later by pro-British nationalists. Germany and Italy responded with simultaneous invasions of both Yugoslavia and Greece , commencing on 6 April 1941; both nations were forced to surrender within the month. The airborne invasion of the Greek island of Crete at

13300-722: The remainder of Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a pro-German client state , the Slovak Republic . Hitler also delivered an ultimatum to Lithuania on 20 March 1939, forcing the concession of the Klaipėda Region , formerly the German Memelland . Greatly alarmed and with Hitler making further demands on the Free City of Danzig ,

13433-417: The revolver at close range into the body of David Blakely, what did you intend to do?"; her answer was, "It's obvious when I shot him I intended to kill him." This reply guaranteed a guilty verdict and the mandatory death sentence . The jury took twenty minutes to convict her. Ruth remained at Holloway Prison while awaiting execution. She told her mother that she did not want a petition to reprieve her from

13566-849: The same clientele, or, in contrast, attracted very niche crowds. They included the Embassy Club, the Blue Angel, Annabel's (founded only in 1963, more select than the others, originally the haunt of the very wealthy and the aristocracy; still operating), the Gargoyle Club , the Bagatelle, the Continental, the Colony Room (not to be confused with the Colony Club), Churchill's (a hostess club which existed until about 1990,

13699-464: The service. He was appointed a director of the family business Cussen & Co., a wholesale and retail tobacconist with outlets in London and South Wales. Ruth eventually moved in with Cussen at 20 Goodwood Court, Devonshire Street, north of Oxford Street . The relationship with Blakely continued, however, and became increasingly violent as he and Ruth continued to see other people. Blakely offered to marry Ruth; she consented, but in January 1955 she had

13832-410: The significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses imposed by the Treaty of Versailles . Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and all its overseas possessions , while German annexation of other states was prohibited, reparations were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of the country's armed forces . The German Empire was dissolved in

13965-536: The stage play Follow Me , written by Ross Gurney-Randall and Dave Mounfield and directed by Guy Masterson. It premiered at the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh as part of the 2007 Edinburgh Festival Fringe . In the film Pierrepoint (2006), Ellis was portrayed by Mary Stockley . Diana Dors , who had starred in Lady Godiva Rides Again , in which Ellis had a minor, uncredited role, played

14098-498: The start or prelude to World War II. The exact date of the war's end also is not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 15 August 1945 ( V-J Day ), rather than with the formal surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945, which officially ended the war in Asia . A peace treaty between Japan and the Allies was signed in 1951. A 1990 treaty regarding Germany's future allowed

14231-593: The strong Maginot Line fortifications on the Franco-German border, Germany directed its attack at the neutral nations of Belgium , the Netherlands , and Luxembourg . The Germans carried out a flanking manoeuvre through the Ardennes region, which was mistakenly perceived by the Allies as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles. By successfully implementing new Blitzkrieg tactics,

14364-596: The taxi that took Ellis to the Magdala pub. In the season 1 finale of Deadly Women , Ruth Ellis is portrayed by Carissa Singleton while murder victim David Blakely is played by Jimmy Aschner. In 2023, actor Carly Halse wrote and performed Now You See Me , a solo performance based on Ruth Ellis' story. Now You See Me toured as part of the Hidden Stories double-bill presented by The Plays The Thing theater company. In June 2023, ITV announced it would produce

14497-479: The third episode of the first series of the ITV drama series Lady Killers recreated the court case, with Ellis played by Georgina Hale . The first cinema portrayal of Ellis came with the release of the 1985 film Dance with a Stranger , directed by Mike Newell , and featuring Miranda Richardson as Ellis. The scriptwriter was Shelagh Delaney . Both Ellis's story and the story of Albert Pierrepoint are retold in

14630-484: The time available have dealt with 8 to 12 other cases, the majority of which would have involved people who were said to be wrongly in custody. In July 2007 a petition was published on the 10 Downing Street website asking Prime Minister Gordon Brown to reconsider the Ellis case and grant her a pardon in the light of new evidence that the jury at her trial was not asked to consider. It expired on 4 July 2008. In 1980,

14763-585: The two wars became World War II in 1941. Other proposed starting dates for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War   II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939. Others view the Spanish Civil War as

14896-513: The war were not fulfilled in the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with a nationalist, totalitarian , and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left-wing, and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive expansionist foreign policy aimed at making Italy a world power, promising

15029-475: The war. Germany annexed western Poland and occupied central Poland ; the Soviet Union annexed eastern Poland ; small shares of Polish territory were transferred to Lithuania and Slovakia . On 6 October, Hitler made a public peace overture to the United Kingdom and France but said that the future of Poland was to be determined exclusively by Germany and the Soviet Union. The proposal was rejected and Hitler ordered an immediate offensive against France, which

15162-512: The west halted the German advance for several days, but it was outflanked and encircled by the Wehrmacht . Remnants of the Polish army broke through to besieged Warsaw . On 17 September 1939, two days after signing a cease-fire with Japan , the Soviet Union invaded Poland under the supposed pretext that the Polish state had ceased to exist. On 27 September, the Warsaw garrison surrendered to

15295-707: The world order , and soon began a massive rearmament campaign . France, seeking to secure its alliance with Italy, allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia , which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Territory of the Saar Basin was legally reunited with Germany, and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme, and introduced conscription. The United Kingdom, France and Italy formed

15428-491: The young King Hussein of Jordan , whom Bertie Green claimed as a friend. Hussein was supposed to have fallen in love with an equally young hostess, Helene Morris. Because Miss Morris was Jewish, the rumours of the affair, including rumours that she was pregnant by the King, threatened to cause a crisis for the King. Green appeared on television and defended King Hussein, flatly denying all of the rumours; he dismissed Miss Morris when

15561-614: Was invaded by Germany. The United States started strategic planning to prepare for a full-scale offensive against Germany. At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact formally united Japan, Italy, and Germany as the Axis powers . The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country—with the exception of the Soviet Union—that attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three. The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary , Slovakia , and Romania joined. Romania and Hungary later made major contributions to

15694-508: Was aged 10 at the time of his mother's execution, took his own life, in a bedsit in 1982, shortly after desecrating her grave. The trial judge, Sir Cecil Havers, had sent money every year for Andy's upkeep, and Christmas Humphreys, the prosecution counsel at Ruth's trial, paid for his funeral. Her daughter Georgina, who was aged 3 when her mother was executed, was fostered when her father killed himself three years later. She died of cancer in 2001 at age 50. The Ellis case continues to have

15827-409: Was also the inspiration for the 2015 opera Entanglement by the composer Charlotte Bray . The case was re-examined by film-maker Gillian Pachter in the 2018 BBC Four documentary series The Ruth Ellis Files: A Very British Crime Story . The documentary suggested that Ellis may have suffered domestic abuse by Blakely, and that the gun used may have been supplied by Cussen, who may also have driven

15960-693: Was as an usherette at a cinema in Reading . Arthur moved to London on his own shortly after, accepting a job offer for the live-in position of caretaker-chauffeur for Porn & Dunwoody Ltd., a lift manufacturer. In 1941, Ruth befriended Edna Turvey, the girlfriend of her older brother Julian, who was on leave from service in the Royal Navy . Edna introduced Ruth to what Muriel later called "the fast life." Eventually, Ruth and Edna moved to London and lived with Arthur. His abuse against Ruth continued while he simultaneously engaged in an affair with Edna, although

16093-617: Was at the Astor in December 1965 that the infamous East End ( East London ) Kray twins had a confrontation with the South London criminals known as the Richardson Gang ; during that face-off, the gangster George Cornell is said to have referred to Ronnie Kray as a "fat poofter" (in another version, "a big fat poof"), a remark which led to a gangland war (Cornell himself being shot dead in March 1966 in front of witnesses at

16226-858: Was examined by psychiatrist Duncan Whittaker for the defence and by Alexander Dalzell on behalf of the Home Office . Neither found evidence of insanity. On 20 June 1955, Ruth appeared in the Number One Court at the Old Bailey , London, before Mr Justice Havers . She was dressed in a black suit and white silk blouse with freshly bleached and coiffured blonde hair. Her defending counsel, Aubrey Melford Stevenson , supported by Sebag Shaw and Peter Rawlinson , expressed concern about her appearance (and dyed blonde hair) but she did not alter it to appear less striking. The only question put to Ruth by prosecutor Christmas Humphreys was, "When you fired

16359-733: Was formed by bandleader Terry Steel; it played before Frank Sinatra at the club in 1971 and outlived its original one-month engagement, playing for five years and becoming particularly popular in Denmark , where it performed at the famous Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen . It re-formed, for a charity performance, as late as 2015. The Astor Club closed in the late 1970s. 51°30′31″N 0°08′39″W  /  51.5085°N 0.1443°W  / 51.5085; -0.1443 World War II Asia-Pacific Mediterranean and Middle East Other campaigns Coups World War II or

16492-604: Was hanged at Holloway Prison . Ruth Ellis was born Ruth Neilson in Rhyl , Denbighshire , Wales, on 9 October 1926, the fifth of six children. She moved to Basingstoke , Hampshire , England, with her family during her childhood. Her mother, Elisaberta (Bertha) Goethals, was a Belgian war refugee ; her father, Arthur Hornby, was a cellist from Manchester who played on Atlantic liners. The Register of Marriages gives Arthur Hornby as marrying Elisa B. Goethals at Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1920. Arthur changed his surname to Neilson after

16625-648: Was later revived as New Churchill's and still operates), the Gaslight Club (still operating in different format), the Pink Elephant Club (gay), Danny la Rue 's (drag) etc. There was also The Saddle Room, which (despite the horsey-set name, aristocratic and royal clientele and off-Park Lane address) was one of the first discotheques in London, the disco trend having begun in Paris and on the Cote d'Azur. In

16758-522: Was making money as a full-service escort and became pregnant by one of her regular clients. On 8 November 1950, Ruth married 41-year-old George Johnston Ellis, a divorced dentist with two sons, at the register office in Tonbridge , Kent . A regular customer at the Court Club, George was a violent and possessive alcoholic who became convinced that his new wife was having an affair. Ruth left him several times but always returned. When she gave birth to

16891-420: Was never very far away from the club, as when (in 1956) the notorious gangster, Billy Hill , was accused, in the course of a trial, of having offered a "monkey" (£500) (equivalent to £15,763 in 2023) and the cost of plastic surgery to a man, if that man would allow himself to be slashed across the face outside the Astor. In 1958, the doorman at the Astor, Jimmy Nash, a member of a "well-known" London family,

17024-456: Was postponed until the spring of 1940 due to bad weather. After the outbreak of war in Poland, Stalin threatened Estonia , Latvia , and Lithuania with military invasion, forcing the three Baltic countries to sign pacts allowing the creation of Soviet military bases in these countries; in October 1939, significant Soviet military contingents were moved there. Finland refused to sign

17157-772: Was repulsed with heavy Italian casualties; the campaign ended within months with minor territorial changes. To assist Italy and prevent Britain from gaining a foothold, Germany prepared to invade the Balkans, which would threaten Romanian oil fields and strike against British dominance of the Mediterranean. In December 1940, British Empire forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and Italian East Africa . The offensives were successful; by early February 1941, Italy had lost control of eastern Libya, and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner. The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with

17290-673: Was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it essentially toothless. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August of the same year. Hitler defied the Versailles and Locarno Treaties by remilitarising the Rhineland in March 1936, encountering little opposition due to the policy of appeasement . In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed

17423-413: Was still almost unknown to the British public and is said to have been so hungry at that stage of his career that─ while supporting Humperdinck at the Astor---he stole and ate a steak about to be served to one of the Kray twins , the most notorious British gangsters of their era. At that time the Krays were getting a "pension" (i.e. protection money ) of £200 per week (equivalent to £5,817 in 2023) from

17556-402: Was the inspiration behind a musical play by Lucy Rivers, Sinners Club . A co-production with Theatr Clwyd , it premiered at The Other Room Theatre in Cardiff, in February 2017. The Ruth Ellis story was dramatized in the Murder Maps series of documentaries on the Yesterday Channel on 2 November 2017. It featured Monica Weller, ghostwriter of Ruth Ellis: My Sister's Secret Life . The story

17689-451: Was tried at the Old Bailey for murder, at the time a capital offence . The accusation was that he had shot and killed Selwyn Keith Cooney in The Pen Club in the—at the time—very disreputable area of East London known as Spitalfields. He was acquitted amid talk of "jury nobbling" and interference with witnesses, but the following year was accused of Grievous Bodily Harm to Cooney ( GBH ), convicted and sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment. It

#827172