‘Bella was shot at point-blank range, like it was an execution... many believe he did it, and many that he didn’t’
IOne hundred years ago today, one of the most notorious and controversial murder trials began in Leicester Castle. The accused, Ronald Light, would be acquitted of murdering Bella Wright, despite the weight of evidence against him. Here Maia Snow recaps a case that endures to this day
T is 100 years since the beginning of the trial of the prime suspect in the most fascinating cold case in Leicestershire history. The Green Bicycle Murder is the name given to the fatal shooting of Bella Wright, near Little Stretton, on July 5, 1919, in a lonely lane.
The 21 year-old factory worker had been shot in the head, a bullet hole below her left eye the only blemish on a pretty face.
Beside her lay the bicycle she was riding when she left her uncle’s house in the village of Gaulby, seven miles east of Leicester.
The case takes its name from the fact that on the day of her death, she was seen cycling in the company of a man on a green bicycle.
Today, teams of forensic scientists would comb the countryside for clues to find Bella’s killer, but a century ago things were very different.
The bullet lying just a few feet from her head was only found the next day, and Bella would be buried at St Mary’s and All Saints in Stoughton just five days later.
With no scientific evidence to call upon, local bobby Alfred Hall and his colleagues were forced to construct a case by tracing the victim’s last known movements on the day she died
The prime suspect, and the man acquitted at trial, was Ronald Light, a 33-year-old maths teacher.
Sally Smith, a barrister, has produced a book containing a transcript of the whole trial from newspaper reports from the time.
She said: “It’s an incredibly iconic trial, there has been vast amounts written about why he was acquitted.
“Many people believe he did it, and many people believe that he didn’t.
“It really captured the imagination.”
She added: “She wasn’t robbed, or sexually assaulted – there was public’s apparently no motive.
“She was shot at point-blank range – it looked more like an execution.”
Sally explained that many people became fascinated with the case because of how it looked - a middle-class teacher being accused of killing a young working-class factory girl, as class was very important at the time. She
also said that the element of the bicycle made it very interesting to the “world’s media”.
The case was being prosecuted by the AttorneyGeneral, and Light’s defence council was a very highprofile solicitor, Edward Marshall Hall, known as The Great defender.
Sally said: “Hall was a very expensive solicitor and it still remains a bit of a mystery how Light afforded to hire him.”
Of the trial, Sally said: “When he (Light) got into the witness box, he admitted he had a service revolver, that he had been out on the day on the green bicycle and had met her and ridden some of the way home with her.
“He also admitted he threw the gun and bicycle in the canal and then also admitted he had lied to the police.
“He said he had left her safe and well, and everything he did was out of panic because he knew everyone was looking for a green bicycle.
She added: “It was the perfect storm that made it a fascinating trial.”
Despite the “overwhelming” evidence, and the fact he admitted a huge amount of it, the jury found
Light not guilty and he walked free. Since the trial ended after just three days, on June 11, 1920, noone else has been identified as a suspect in the case.
Sally said: “People have always been fascinated with cold cases, because they think they could find out what happened.
“There’s also a sense of unease in not knowing what happened, and people want closure.”
A century on, the cold case continues to fascinate the public and theories about what happened to Bella on that day continue to emerge.
Sally Smith has written two books, one about the trial called The Trial of Ronald Light: The Green Bicycle Case, and also a biography of defence lawyer Edward Marshall Hall, entitled A Law Unto Himself.
He admitted he had a service revolver, had been out on the day on the green bicycle and had met her Sally Smith