The Great Defender: The Life and Trials of Edward Marshall Hall KC, England's Greatest Barrister

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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. 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 With support from British Cycling, Leicester City Council organises an annual guided cycle ride [52] which re-enacts the case. [53] Participants visit significant locations pertinent to the events of 5 July 1919 and the police investigation before progressing to Leicester Castle, where segments of Light's trial are re-enacted. [54]

Murder Mystery Tale Retold on Guided Bike Ride". .leicester.gov.uk. 24 August 2017 . Retrieved 8 December 2017. 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] 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] Nash, Jay Robert (1981). Almanac of World Crime. United States of America: Anchor Press. p. 308. ISBN 978-1-461-74768-0. 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]

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] Re-enactment of Famous Mysterious Murder Taking place". itv.com. 18 May 2016 . Retrieved 24 November 2017. Bella Wright 'Green Bicycle' Murder Recreated in Leicestershire". BBC News. 19 May 2016 . Retrieved 8 December 2017. Two girls, Muriel Nunney (14) and Valeria Caven (12), [42] would also testify for the prosecution that approximately three hours [5] before Light had encountered Wright, he had pestered them as they rode their bicycles close to where Wright's body was subsequently found. [43] [n 4] "When Bella Wright was murdered, I knew from newspaper reports the next day that she was the girl I had been with just before she died. I knew the police wanted to question me. I became a coward again ... I never told a living soul what I knew. I got rid of everything that could have connected me with her [because] I was afraid ... I see now, of course, that I did the wrong thing." [27] [45] 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]

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] 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. At his own insistence and on the advice of his barrister, Light opted to testify in his own defence. [46] In his testimony, Light conveyed himself in a well-spoken demeanour. [14] He readily admitted to having lied to the police upon his arrest, before essentially admitting to everything testified to by other witnesses presented at his trial but his possession of the service revolver, and Wright's killing, claiming they had parted company at a junction close to King's Norton soon after she had left her uncle's cottage in his company. [47]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

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] 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 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]Brown, Antony M. (2017). The Green Bicycle Mystery: The Curious Death of Bella Wright. Mirror Books. ISBN 978-1-907-32469-7.

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] 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] Bella Wright (The Green Bicycle Murder)". Crime.net. 4 May 2016. Archived from the original on 17 November 2017 . Retrieved 17 November 2017.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]