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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 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. Annie Bella Wright was born on 14 July 1897 in Somerby, Leicestershire. [11] She was the eldest of seven children born to an illiterate agricultural labourer and his wife. From around 1895 they lived in a thatched cottage in the village of Stoughton, Leicestershire, [12] four miles outside Leicester.
Bella Wright (The Green Bicycle Murder)". Crime.net. 4 May 2016. Archived from the original on 17 November 2017 . Retrieved 17 November 2017.
Her first husband, Sgt Ernest Lester, also of the Royal Engineers, had been killed in action in 1917. The widow had abandoned her two sons in a Wolverhampton orphanage, fearful of destitution, but kept a younger daughter.
Annie Bella Wright at Find a Grave (Record mistakenly states her burial place to be Stourton, Wiltshire.)By all accounts, Wright and Light met by chance on 5 July 1919 at around 6.45 p.m. as she rode her bicycle to the village of Gaulby, where her uncle, George Measures, resided. [28] According to Light's testimony at his trial, as he rode his bicycle towards the cross-roads where Gaulby Lane crosses Houghton Lane, he observed a young woman bending over her bicycle, and she asked him if he had a spanner to tighten a loose freewheel on her bicycle. [8] He did not, but did what he could to resolve the problem. [29]
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] Blundell, Nigel; Boar, Roger (1991). The World's Greatest Unsolved Crimes. Hamlyn. ISBN 978-0-600-57231-2. Ronald Light died on 15 May 1975 at the age of 89. [9] His body was cremated at Charing Crematorium, near Ashford, and his ashes were scattered in the crematorium's Garden of Remembrance. [51] Light had no children of his own and his stepdaughter had no notion of Light's trial and acquittal until after his death. [40] PC Alfred Hall would testify at Light's trial that the blood he had found on this gate came from a dead carrion crow that had "gorg[ed] itself on [Wright's] blood", with this crow apparently making six separate journeys from the gate to the corpse. [1] However, at the initial inquest, ballistics expert Robert Churchill stated that this crow had also been shot, leaving a possibility that whoever had shot the bird had also shot Wright. This evidence was never presented to the jury at Light's trial. [35]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 At the time of her death, Wright—described as a girl with good looks and of good character [16]—was 21-years-old and engaged to be married to a Royal Navy stoker named Archie Ward, who served on HMS Diadem — a training ship in Portsmouth. [17] She is known to have had at least one other suitor, [14] and to have told her mother of an officer who had fallen in love with her. This may have been Ronald Light, although he denied this supposition in court. [14] Ronald Light edit The accused, Ronald Light, pictured after his 1920 acquittal 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] Wright was buried in the churchyard of St Mary and All Saints, Stoughton on 11 July 1919. In a ceremony conducted before several hundred mourners, the vicar of Stoughton, W. N. Westmore, asked all present to reflect on "this poor girl" who had been taken away from them. Several wreaths and flowers were placed on her coffin by her family, friends, neighbours and colleagues. [11] Following recuperation at several army hospitals in England, [26] Light returned to live with his mother in Highfield Street, Leicester. He was demobilised in January 1919 [24] and would later claim to have been "sent home a broken man". [27]
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 When questioned by Norman Birkett as to the girls' claims, Light simply replied, "They are lying." [ citation needed] Judge Horridge would instruct the jury to disregard the testimony of Nunney and Caven in his final instructions to the jury at the closure of Light's trial. [44] 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 Lane, Brian (1991). The Murder Guide to Great Britain. London: Robinson Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-854-87083-4.
Summary
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. Light's prior offences went unreported by the newspapers of the time. Generally, press coverage of Light was sympathetic to an individual they portrayed as an "engineer, teacher and ex-Army officer" who stood accused of the murder of a simple "factory girl". [40] 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]
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