The boxer whose punches stopped Princess Anne’s kidnapper has told of his outrage after the offender was set free, saying: ‘I should have hit him harder.’
Ronnie ‘The Geezer’ Russell, 77, was speaking of his anger over the release from Broadmoor Hospital of ‘very dangerous’ Ian Ball.
The Daily Mail revealed on Saturday that Ball, also 77, had quietly been freed, despite remaining unrepentant for the March 1974 night when he shot four men on The Mall in London, near Buckingham Palace.
Happy to kill in his quest to hold Princess Anne, then 23, for a £3milllion ransom from the Queen, the loner had not reckoned with 6ft 2in, 17 stone Mr Russell, driving past.
The former boxer was undeterred by Ball’s threats to shoot, and punched him three times over a terrifying few minutes, before police arrived mob-handed and bundled the kidnapper to the ground.
Now Ball is not only free but staging a bizarre intensifying campaign to have his conviction overturned, publishing a book as well as flying to Barbados and Japan on holiday with saved benefits money.
Ronnie Russell was presented with the George Medal for defending Princess Anne in an attempted kidnap in 1974
Mr Russell, pictured here in 1974, said if he could go back he would ‘hit Ian Ball harder’
Living in a west London hostel, he claims the kidnap was a ‘hoax’ despite admitting attempting to murder two policemen and the kidnap plot at the Old Bailey in May 1974.
Last night Mr Russell – who five years ago had to sell the bravery medal he was awarded – told the Daily Mail: ‘I can’t believe Ball’s been released, it’s ridiculous.’
‘I should have hit him a bit harder. Am I worried he might come and find me? Let’s go further – give him my address, and I’ll go one better this time.
‘He’s saying now “None of it ever happened, there was supposed to be no gunpowder in the bullets”? It’s absolutely impossible, because it did happen.
Ian Ball pictured on a park bench in west London this year after being released from the mental hospital in 2019
‘He didn’t come out with all that when he was sentenced at the Old Bailey – I was there, watching him plead guilty. He should be recalled to Broadmoor.’
Mr Russell was aged 28 and driving a cleaning firm van down The Mall when he saw the bloody chaos erupting around Princess Anne’s Royal limousine, broken glass everywhere. Ball had a gun in each hand, and was using them.
Thinking, as he later said, ‘That’s a liberty – he needs sorting’, Mr Russell ran over and punched Ball in the head, but it was a glancing blow because the gunman was turning to fire at him, his resulting shot smashing a taxi windscreen.
Mr Russell ran to the other side of the limousine.
Mr Russell said last night: ‘I was lifting Princess Anne out of the car by her forearms, saying “Now we’re going walk away, and he’s going to have to go through me to get to you” I was a big lad.
Princess Anne and her then husband Captain Mark Phillips, who was present during the attempted kidnapping
Ian Ball had blocked the princess’s car with his own as it drove along the Mall towards Buckingham Palace. Mr Russell, initially thought it was a road rage incident but rushed to Anne’s assistance when he realised what was happening
Mr Russel, second from right, in the White Drawing Room of Buckingham Palace after the incident, received a special message from the Queen
‘But Ball came round the car, and her husband Captain Mark Phillips pulled her back in. When I turned, he was stood there with his gun pointed at me (he’d broken a car window with the other one, and it was on the floor), shouting “Come on Anne, you’ve got to come”.
‘That’s when I decided it was going to be me, or him. I had to hit him first, and harder.
‘I was quite prepared to sacrifice myself for a member of the Royal Family.’
Mr Russell’s final pair of massive punches did the trick – ‘I think I would have knocked a tree down’ – and Ball began 45 years in Rampton then Broadmoor secure mental hospitals.
Ball paid thousands to publish his ‘autobiographical novel’ To Kidnap a Princess through London-based self-publishing company Publish Nation Limited, owned by David and Gwendolyn Morrison.
Mr Russell said: ‘When Ball was put away “at Her Majesty’s pleasure” we were all sure he’d never be out. I can’t see any reason why he’s been released, why a publishing company agreed to print his autobiography – or how come he’s had benefits to save the money to go to Barbados.
‘I’m going to Barbados later this year, but that’s because I worked for it. I had to sell my medal. He’s been mollycoddled, and it’s been too easy for him.’
In 1974 Londoner Mr Russell, who since retired to the west country, was invited to Buckingham Palace to be decorated.
Royal bodyguard James Beaton, shot three times, was awarded the George Cross, journalist Brian McConnell and Anne’s chauffeur Alex Callender, both shot in the chest, the Queen’s Gallantry medal – and PC Michael Hills, shot in the stomach, and Mr Russell both got the George Medal.
Mr Russell, a youthful acquaintance of the gangster Kray twins, remembered: ‘The Queen went “This medal thanks you as the Queen of England – I want to thank you as Anne’s mother.” That was a touching moment.’
