Readers of my blog may like to be updated with one aspect of my research in 2008:
Despite searching through files at The National Archives, I have been unable to find any information about the police search for Desmond Cussen on the night of 12th July 1955. This followed Ruth Ellis’s statement to her solicitors Mishcon and Simmons in the condemned cell at midday that Cussen had supplied the gun which was used to shoot David Blakely.
I therefore made a written request under the Freedom of Information Act, to the Metropolitan Police for information about the police search for Desmond Cussen that night in 1955.
Searches were conducted within the Metropolitan Police to locate relevant information that I had requested.
The searches failed to locate any information relevant to my request. They stated ”Any records about this investigation that the MPS (Metropolitan Police service) including any instigated police search for Desmond Cussen, will have been transferred to The National Archives.”
As I have already stated at the beginning of this post, there are no documents at The National Archives relating to the police search for Desmond Cussen.
Were the documents deliberately pruned due to their sensitivity? And who authorised their pruning?
It seems suspicious that such an important piece of the jigsaw in the Ruth Ellis story is missing.
Monica Weller
I knew Blakely’s mechanic Tony Findlater in South of France in the 70s and 80s.At the time I was completely unaware of his connection to the Ruth Ellis case and he certainly never mentioned it.He and his wife Tabitha lived on boat in the old port of Menton for many years .Evenually they lived in house in Roquebrune where they bred Beagles.Tabitha may still be alive as she was a good ten years younger than Tony.
Comment by Lawrence Taylor — January 3, 2009 @ 3:21 am |