On 12th July 1955, the day before Ruth Ellis was hanged, and having dismissed her solicitor Mr Bickford, chosen for her by her friend Desmond Cussen, Ruth recalled her original solicitor Mr Victor Mishcon (the late Lord Mishcon) and his clerk Mr Leon Simmons. I should mention here that Desmond Cussen was called as a prosecution witness at the trial yet he visited Ruth Ellis in Holloway prison every day leading up to her trial - completely out of order.
Victor Mishcon, at the time of Ruth’s trial, was one of 15 men and women who sat on the 1954-1957 Wolfenden committee which considered the law and practice of homosexual offences and treatment of persons convicted of such offences in British courts, and to review prostitution offences.
