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

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Wakefield, Herbert (1930). The Green Bicycle Case: The Trial of Ronald Light for Murder. Philip Allan Publishing. ASIN B0018GM544. Bella Wright (The Green Bicycle Murder)". Crime.net. 4 May 2016. Archived from the original on 17 November 2017 . Retrieved 17 November 2017.

Wright had attended school until the age of 12 before beginning work as a domestic servant, subsequently obtaining a job as a rubber hand at Bates & Co.'s St Mary's Mills, a rubber factory in Leicester, approximately five miles from home. [13] She regularly travelled to work on her bicycle. [14] At the time of her death, she was working the late shift at the factory and was known to cycle between the villages and hamlets around Little Stretton to perform errands or visit acquaintances in the late afternoon. [15] Lane, Brian (1991). The Murder Guide to Great Britain. London: Robinson Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-854-87083-4. 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] 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] 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]

Summary

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] 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. 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]

Nash, Jay Robert (1981). Almanac of World Crime. United States of America: Anchor Press. p. 308. ISBN 978-1-461-74768-0.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

Blundell, Nigel; Boar, Roger (1991). The World's Greatest Unsolved Crimes. Hamlyn. ISBN 978-0-600-57231-2. 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]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] Bella Wright 'Green Bicycle' Murder Recreated in Leicestershire". BBC News. 19 May 2016 . Retrieved 7 December 2017. 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