Midland case that gripped the nation is a riddle still
IT seemed nothing more than a tragic road traffic accident. There, in a quiet country lane lay a young woman in a pool of blood, her bicycle next to her.
The police certainly did not initially suspect foul play.
When they arrived at the scene with Dr EK Williams, they concluded victim Bella Wright had fallen from her bike.
At the very worst, she was one of the country’s first hit-and-run casualties.
But one local bobby, Constable Alfred Hall, felt something was amiss.
In his bones, he knew the case was not as clear-cut as his colleagues made out.
The following morning, with Bella’s body still in the lane, Pc Hall returned to the scene – and found a .455 bullet 17 feet from the bloodstained spot where Bella had been found.
That discovery sparked a murder mystery – dubbed ‘ The Case of the Green Bicycle’ – that endures today.
No one was ever brought to justice for the 1919 killing, although some believe one man got away with murder.
That man was suave, well spoken Army officer Ronald Light, a University of Birmingham graduate from a decidedly wellheeled family. The evidence against Light looks solid, yet he was cleared at trial.
The verdict caused anger, with some believing it was based on the class divide.
Light was one of the privileged few, while poor Bella was simply a working class girl. She was one of seven children, her father was an illiterate cow herder.
But Bella, who worked nightshifts at a rubber mill, was wellliked in the Leicestershire village of Stoughton where she was seen as reserved and sensible.
She had a steady boyfriend in Royal Navy stoker Archie Ward.
On July 5, 1919, the young woman set out on her bicycle to post letters in nearby Evington and, on the way back, called on her uncle, George Measures.
He was surprised to see a man on a green bike waiting at the garden gate for Bella to emerge from the property. That man was Light.
Mr Measures did not like the look of the individual, but Bella assured him there was nothing to worry about.
The dapper individual was a Good Samaritan who had come to her rescue when a wheel worked loose on her own cycle.
She had asked Light if he had a spanner. He did not, but offered to ride with her in case the wonky wheel fell off completely.
The pair rode from Mr Measures’ home at 8.50pm.
Just 40 minutes later, farmer Joseph Cowell came across Bella’s body while driving cattle. He moved the dead woman to the side of the road and arranged for two farm labourers to guard the body while he raised the alarm with police.
It is thanks to Pc Hall that officers discovered Bella had been shot.
He washed the caked blood and mud from her face and found the bullet had entered just under her left eye and exited near the temple. The murder