Snippets

Evelyn

'Yes Evelyn, I did, but what was it you were you saying about the judge?'

'Oh him, Mr.Justice Havers; he wrote to the Home Secretary, Lloyd George's son Gwilym it was. Mr. Havers pleaded for clemency for Ruth, saying, "Her defence was so weak it was non-existent." Them were his very words. It was a crime of passion when all's said and done, and if she was up in court today and we still had capital punishment she wouldn't hang: she'd get off on diminished responsibility or provocation. (Sniff) We didn't have them pleas in those days, they come in later.'

Evelyn's lips set firm and her eyes blazed fire at Olive, challenging her to argue. Olive politely cleared her throat, and wisely moved on.

'Tell me about Ruth and the condemned cell Evelyn'

The old lady sniffled. 'What's to tell?'

"What was it like in the cell, what was the routine? You were with Ruth for the three weeks she was there, how did she behave?' In more hushed tones Olive asked, 'Tell me about that last morning.'

Evelyn laid her head back on the pillow, closed her eyes and put into words the images that came into her head.

'Ruth never asked for mercy. When she wasn't chatting with us, she spent her time writing polite letters, doing jigsaws and making rag dolls out of bits of material her mum brought in. She wrote to David's mum – that's the man she shot – and the one who asked her to marry him, and then punched her in the stomach so she lost their unborn baby.'

Olive interjected. 'Good Lord! Did this not come out at the trial?'

'Not one blessed word of it, ...or any other about the abuses she suffered in her young life. She was always cheerful and pleasant; never any trouble and she'd sit with us at the big table in there and chat about this and that for hours on end. There was always two wardresses on duty, day and night. ...She had trouble sleeping because the light had to be on all the time – one naked bulb hanging over the middle of the room. We made up a bit of a screen out of cardboard to shield the light from her bed. It was against prison rules, but the governor never said nothing when she saw it on her daily visits to Ruth.'

'Evelyn, did she show any remorse for her actions?'

'I think so; it was in the way she accepted her own fate as a result of it, and in her letters. She wrote to his mum. We had to read all the letters before they went out. I remember it well, she wrote, 'I always loved your son and will die loving him.'"

Evelyn wiped her eyes and choked slightly when she started to speak, but waved away assistance. Following a few seconds of silent grace, she continued. 'After all that brute did to her and she still loved him.'

'Poor woman,' Olive offered, and waited for Evelyn to dry her eyes again before asking the next question.

'What about the gun Evelyn, did she ever tell you the truth about where she got the gun?'

Evelyn snorted with indignation, and blew out air from between her quivering lips. 'She told the court it was given her in the nightclub where she worked. It was a surety for a loan, and it had been in her drawer for three or more years. At the trial they said she lied because it was too well oiled to have been in a drawer for three years.'

"Why ever wouldn't she say where or who she really got it from?"

Evelyn scoffed. 'Him, she was protecting him. Him who turned against her at the trial.'

'Him. Do you mean David Blakely, the man she killed?'

'No, not him! The other one! Desmond Cussons, he was an ex-RAF bomber pilot who loved her, and often picked up her pieces when she fell apart. But she loved David, not him. Cussons gave her the gun and training in how to use it. He also drove her over to the street in Hampstead where she shot David. Cussons was jealous of David. She wouldn't say where she got the gun because she didn't want to make trouble for him. Then when the time came and she needed his help at the trial, he went and gave evidence for the prosecution to save his own backside. Some love he had when it got tested.' She sniffed disparagingly. 'Some bomber pilot.'