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On 23 February 1920, one Enoch Whitehouse was guiding a horse-drawn barge, laden with coal, along the River Soar. The tow-rope [26] of the barge snagged the frame of the green bicycle, bringing it to the surface of the canal. Whitehouse informed the police and a decision was made to drag the canal. Other pieces of the bicycle were discovered. Examining the frame of the bicycle, investigators discovered that although the serial number had been filed off both the frame and the seat lug, and the BSA brand name had been filed off the fork, a faint serial number was still visible on the inside of the front fork. [35] Inquiries at businesses which bought, sold or otherwise repaired bicycles revealed this cycle had been bought by Light nine years previously. [37] Arrest edit The Mystery of The Green Bicycle Murder Will Be Retold This Bank Holiday Weekend on Free Guided Cycle Ride". Leicester Mercury. 24 August 2017 . Retrieved 8 December 2017. Nash, Jay Robert (1981). Almanac of World Crime. United States of America: Anchor Press. p. 308. ISBN 978-1-461-74768-0.
Having learned that Wright was going to Gaulby, Light offered to accompany her and she accepted. [14] Light accompanied Wright to the cottage of her uncle in nearby Gaulby, before waiting for her outside the premises. En route, the two were observed by several independent witnesses. The uncle later informed officers he liked neither the looks nor the mannerisms of Light, and that his niece had informed him she had only encountered this individual that evening, stating; "Oh him, I don't really know him at all. He's been riding alongside me for a few miles but he isn't bothering me at all. He's just chatting about the weather." [17] Although Wright remarked to her uncle that Light had behaved like a "perfect stranger" in her company, [30] just before leaving his cottage, she jokingly informed him, "I hope he doesn't get too boring", [17] before adding; "I shall try and give him the slip." [13] When Wright exited her uncle's cottage and approached her bicycle, Light was overheard greeting her with the remark: "Bella, you have been a long time. I thought you had gone the other way." [30] [n 1]Bella Wright 'Green Bicycle' Murder Recreated in Leicestershire". BBC News. 19 May 2016 . Retrieved 8 December 2017. The dead girl was identified by relatives as Bella Wright. An inquest into her death returned a verdict of murder by person or persons unknown. [17] Investigation edit Bella Wright 'Green Bicycle' Murder Recreated in Leicestershire". BBC News. 19 May 2016 . Retrieved 7 December 2017. On cross-examination, Light admitted that the holster, bullets and bicycle recovered from the canal were indeed his, but claimed he had disposed of these items in a "panic", [28] having read the press coverage surrounding Wright's murder, [28] and noting the general public and media consensus that the man seen riding alongside her on a green bicycle had been responsible for her death. He admitted that, as an officer in the Army, he had owned a Webley Scott service revolver; however, he claimed that when posted overseas, he had taken the revolver with him but not the holster, [35] and that when he had become a casualty, all of his belongings had been left in a casualty clearing station in France in 1918. [48] Overall, Light's version of events, as he presented them to the court, could not be contradicted or disproved in any detail. Despite being subjected to five hours of cross-examination, he did not contradict himself on a single occasion. [45] [n 5]
a b c d "Who Murdered Bella Wright? Class Matters in Case of the Green Bicycle". New York Daily News. 11 July 2010 . Retrieved 22 November 2017. Wakefield, Herbert (1930). The Green Bicycle Case: The Trial of Ronald Light for Murder. Philip Allan Publishing. ASIN B0018GM544. At the scene, PC Hall found what he later described as "smears of blood on the top bar of the field gate", although he discovered no human footprints on either side of the gate. Nonetheless, a dead carrion crow was discovered in a field close to this gate. [n 2] [36] Following his acquittal, Light returned to live with his mother in Leicester, where he initially maintained a somewhat reclusive lifestyle. [20] For a time, he assumed the name "Leonard Estelle". [48] He was fined in December 1920 for registering under a false name at a hotel where he had been staying with a woman. [50] By 1928 Light was living in Leysdown-on-Sea on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent. In 1934, he married widow Lilian Lester. [n 6] Light was arrested on 4 March 1920 at Dean Close School in Cheltenham, where he had secured a position teaching mathematics two months previously. [35] He was brought to Leicestershire to be charged with the murder of Wright. [27]Ronald Vivian Light was born on 19 October 1885, [11] [18] the son of a wealthy civil engineer who managed a Coalville colliery [11] and reportedly also invented plumbing devices. [19]
The Green Bicycle Case was a British murder investigation and subsequent trial pertaining to the fatal shooting of Bella Wright near the village of Little Stretton, Leicestershire on 5 July 1919. Wright was killed by a single bullet wound to the face. [1] [2] The case takes its name from the fact that on the evening of her death, Wright had been seen cycling in the company of a man riding a green bicycle. [3] [4] The victim, Annie Bella Wright, seen here in a newspaper article published shortly after her murder Marshall Hall restricted his own examination of Light largely to technical matters. He also questioned the testimony of the expert witness on ballistics, the Leicester gunsmith Henry Clarke, who had testified that the bullet which killed Wright had sustained damage which may have been caused by a ricochet [32] and that the bullet could just as easily have been from a rifle as from a revolver. Thus a stray shot fired from a distance by another individual could have killed Wright through misadventure. [48] Marshall Hall also contended that a person shot at close range from a service revolver would have sustained much greater damage to their face, whereas Wright had only a small entry wound beneath her left eye and a larger exit wound on the right side of her head. To this contention, Clarke replied, "It depends on the velocity." [48] Marshall Hall argued that this alternative scenario was a more likely explanation for Wright's death. The jury [40] deliberated for three hours before returning a verdict of not guilty, which was cheered by many spectators present. [49] Aftermath edit Annie Bella Wright at Find a Grave (Record mistakenly states her burial place to be Stourton, Wiltshire.) On 21 September 1916, Light's father died in an apparent accident, [24] although possibly suicide caused by concern for his son's safety on the Western Front. [11] 5 July 1919 edit Initially, Light denied having been in or near Gaulby on 5 July, or meeting Wright on that date. He also initially denied ever owning a green bicycle, but upon being informed of the remaining serial number on the fork, claimed to have sold it years before to an individual whose name he could no longer recall. [28] Nonetheless, he was identified by eyewitnesses as the individual who had been riding alongside Wright on the evening of her death, including by her uncle. [5] Cox also identified Light from a police identity parade as being the green bicycle's owner. [6] His mother's maid, Mary Elizabeth Webb, informed investigators that on 5 July, Light had not returned home until approximately 10 p.m., claiming his bicycle had broken down, and that he had had to push it home. [ citation needed] He had also sold or destroyed all the clothing he had worn that day. [ citation needed]Approximately thirty minutes after Wright and her companion had ridden away from Measures' cottage, Wright's body was found on Gartree Road, part of the Via Devana Roman road, by a farmer named Joseph Cowell. [33] Her body was discovered alongside her bicycle, [6] and her face was extensively bloodied, with deep gouge marks visible on her cheeks and jaw. [34] Surmising the girl may have been run off the road by a motorist, Cowell initially deduced she had fallen from her bicycle and fatally injured herself. [13] Cowell proceeded to nearby Great Glen to report his discovery to the local policeman, Constable Alfred Hall, who phoned a doctor in Billesdon. Dr Williams arrived at Hall's residence and the trio returned to Little Stretton, where the doctor gave instructions that the girl's body be moved to a nearby unoccupied house upon Cowell's trap. [19] Marjoribanks, Edward (1989). Famous Trials of Marshall Hall. Penguin. pp. 329–342. ISBN 978-0-14-011556-7. Pearson, Edmund (1990). The Green Bicycle Case. London: Guild Publishing. pp. 29–40. ISBN 978-1-85-480030-5. The Mystery of The Green Bicycle Murder will be Retold this Bank Holiday Weekend on Free Guided Cycle Ride". Leicester Mercury. 26 August 2017 . Retrieved 22 November 2017.
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