THE last woman to be hanged in the UK had shot and killed her lover at point-blank range but there was much more to her than first impressions could ever show, a new book claims.

Ruth Ellis moved to West Parade in Rhyl as the child of a well-to-do family, her sister attending the former Clwyd Street School, before her life took a downward turn as she faced a series of troubled relationships that contributed to her tragic end at the age of 28.

Shar Daws’ book Bombshells: Five Women Who Set the Fifties on Fire analyses the life of the mysterious nightclub manager as well as more famous names who shared more than her glossy blonde hair, including “Godmother of Blondes” Jean Harlow, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Diana Dors.

The Chelsea-born author found that all five women were able to “choose their own destiny” amid personal adversity, at a time when women were often confined to the home, however not all of their lives ended the way they their big dreams would have it.

“Ruth was influenced by all that was going on at the time,” said Mrs Daws. “There was the influence of the original Jean Harlow and in the early fifties Marilyn was springing onto the screen with her films.

“Ruth wanted to be an actress herself and she took on the hairstyle of dying her hair blonde and going to dancing, singing and elocution lessons. She also modelled for the London Camera Club, the same one as Dors, and ended up as an extra in the film Lady Godiva Rides Again in 1951.”

North Wales Chronicle:

But beneath the surface all was not well. Mrs Ellis’ problems began early on when her family left Rhyl following the grisly death of her uncle beneath a steamroller, which Mrs Daws said led her distraught father Arthur to turn to alcohol and become “violent and abusive”. The matter was not helped by the rise of the ‘talkies’ which led to her father Arthur being made redundant as they no longer needed an orchestra to accompany the silent films.

“Ruth had a really troubled childhood and she was emotionally immature, which led to personality issues around jealousy and control, and she started drinking,” said Mrs Daws.

“These were problems that could have been addressed but they weren’t.”

Violence at the hands of the men closest to her would follow Mrs Ellis into later life when she could be heard being “knocked around” by her boyfriend at the nightclub she managed, while she was pregnant and suffered lost her third child in the womb. One month later she would commit the murder that resulted in her hanging in 1955.

“Whether it was abortion or miscarriage is not clear,” said Mrs Daws. “She would have experienced postnatal depression as she with her previous child.

“She was also in a violent relationship, covered in bruises during a modelling shoot, so it was never going to end well.”

However to Mrs Daws surprise and ongoing mystery very little was said in court about Mrs Ellis relationship difficulties and personal struggles.

“The state didn’t often hang women in those days, certainly less than men,” she said.

“There was a possibility that if she had gone into court looking meek and mild then it may have helped her case, but instead she was said to have walked into court like a movie star with her hair especially dyed.

"But she just accepted her punishment, saying she wanted to die and to that extent it could appear that she was looking for an assisted suicide.

“In prison records, officers said she was ‘like a Dresden doll’, polite, caused no problems and very pleasant to be around.

“Prior to researching Ruth’s life, I had only read what was in the media about her, and I wasn’t expecting to find anything pleasant about her but when I started peeling back the layers of her life I grew to like her very much.

“She looked for glamour and fame but found in a very dreadful way.”

Bombshells is available now at Waterstones, WH Smith, Amazon and thehistorypress.co.uk