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The Green Bicycle Mystery (1)
by H.L. Adam
(from: The Fifty Most Amazing Crimes of the last 100 years edited by
J.M.Parrish & John R.Crossland, published 1936)
In the year 1919, a young woman named Bella Wright,
aged twenty-one, was living with her parents - her father was a farm labourer - at a
village called Stoughton, not far from Leicester. Bella, a very good-looking girl, worked
as a rubber hand at St. Mary's Mills, Leicester. Previously she had held positions with
other manufacturers in the district. She was a rather "reserved" girl, one who
did not readily make friends. At least, that is what was said of her where she lived. She
used to " keep herself to herself." But naturally a girl with her good looks was
bound to attract the opposite sex, and she numbered many admirers among male
acquaintances. One of these was a young sailor, with whom she had a kind of "
understanding," although there existed no definite engagement between the two. At the
time of the tragedy the young fellow was on board H.M.S. Diadem, stationed at
Portsmouth. From the time she left school and before going to work in a factory, Bella had
been a domestic servant at Leicester. Her domestic service ended in May, 1917.
On Saturday, July 5th, '919, Bella Wright, who had
worked on a night shift, arrived home early. She then went to bed until four o'clock, when
she went out on her bicycle to post some letters at Evington, a village about halfway
between Stoughton and Leicester. Cycling was a hobby with her and she invariably went
alone. Having, apparently, posted her letters, she evidently turned round again and cycled
back to Gaulby, there to pay a visit to her uncle, a roadman called Measures. She arrived
at her uncle's cottage a little after seven in the evening, accompanied by a man who rode
a green B.S.A. bicycle. He waited outside while she went in to see her uncle. He was there
for more than an hour, ambling about, walking up and down the village street. Bella's
friends saw him and asked her about him; but she did not appear anxious to tell them
anything about him, and gave vague replies. She said that she did not know him, that he
had overtaken her saying that he came from Great Glen. He wanted to find the way to some
village which she did not know. He had then continued riding alongside her. Her uncle said
that he did not like the look of him. Some time later he went to the window and looked
out, exclaiming, "He's there still."
Bella laughed. "Oh, then I shan't go yet,"
she said, adding, "I shall try and give him the slip." She was not at all
alarmed about the stranger.
That was the last that her friends saw of Bella alive.
As she was riding away with the stranger, the latter
was beard to say, "I thought you had gone another way, Bella you have been so
long."
The time was then about eight-thirty.
About an hour later a farmer named Cowell was driving
his cattle along the Burton Overy road, in the direction of Stretton, when he caught sight
of something black lying in the road. He thought possibly it might be a rug or a bag of
some kind which had dropped from a trap. When he reached it, however, he was astonished to
see that it was the body of a young woman. He lifted her up, but when her head fell back
he realised that she was dead. He removed her to the turf by the side of the road. There
was much blood upon her head, and on the ground where her head had lain there was a pool
of blood. A few yards away a bicycle lay on its side. Cowell thought that she might have
met with an accident while cycling. He got a horse and rode as hard as he could for the
police.
Soon the police and a doctor were on the spot. The
doctor made a cursory examination of the body and came to the conclusion that the girl had
met with an accident while riding her bicycle and that she had died from exhaustion, or
from loss of blood. The body was then removed to a cottage close by.
It seems that this case might very well have been
regarded as one of accidental death, based upon the doctor's opinion, had it not been for
the shrewdness of a local police constable. He was not satisfied that the death was
accidental, so the next morning he paid a visit to the spot in the lane where the body was
found and made a close inspection of it. His perseverance was rewarded by the discovery of
a bullet, which had been forced into the ground by a horse's hoof. He then reported what
he had found, and the doctor made a further and closer examination of the body washing the
blood from the head. There was then revealed one bullet-hole on the left side of the face,
just beneath the eye, and another on the other side of the head, near the temple. A bullet
had entered on the left side, penetrated the brain, and emerged on the opposite side.
possibly the bullet found by the constable was the one that had been fired at her.
It was not long before the identity of the murdered
girl was made known. The body was that of Bella Wright, who had last been seen riding side
by side with the mysterious man on his equally mysterious bicycle. Who was he? Nobody
knew. The police investigations brought many interesting facts to light. For instance,
there were several people who came forward and declared that they had seen Bella and her
male companion not far from the scene of the murder. A man named Atkins said that about
seven o'clock he had seen a girl riding a bicycle with a man following close behind her.
The man was riding a green bicycle. Another man named Nourish said that he was driving
along near Gaulby when he saw a girl and a man riding bicycles the man on a green machine.
Then two schoolgirls said that, while out riding, they were accosted by a man, who
followed them and rode with them for some distance. He was on a green bicycle.
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