S5 Ep22: The Green Bicycle Mystery

Crimes of the Centuries

Amber Hunt and Audioboom

History, Documentary, Society & Culture, True Crime

4.7 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Bella Wright was a shy, working-class woman whose life was cut short on a summer night in 1919, just short of her 22nd birthday. At first, her death looked like a tragic accident – until a single bullet found lodged in the dirt road changed everything. What followed was a century-long mystery involving an unshaven man on a distinctive green bicycle, a suspiciously dismantled frame dredged from a river, and a murder trial that gripped the nation. With early forensics, conflicting testimony and possible testimony that came too late, this is a case that refuses to rest.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes on the Grab Bag Patreon page.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking, they change laws, change society, or even
0:12.4	earn the label, Crime of the Century. But the stories that made headlines and decades past
0:18.9	aren't necessarily remembered today.
0:22.6	I'm Amber Hunt, a journalist and author, and in each episode of this show,
0:26.8	I'll examine a case that's maybe lesser known today, but was huge when it happened.
0:33.9	This is Crimes of the Centuries.
0:47.3	Thank you. This is Crimes of the Centuries. Daylight was fading at 9.20 p.m. on July 5th, 1919, when farmer Joseph Cowell spotted what he at first assumed was a blanket
0:56.9	that must have fallen from a horse-drawn carriage. It wouldn't have been an unusual sight.
1:02.8	Via Devana was an old Roman road running between Leicester and Market Harbara. The stretch was marred
1:09.7	by divvets left by countless horse hooves.
1:13.0	The uneven terrain meant lots of things slipped off the passing traps on the regular.
1:18.6	But as Cowell drew closer to the bundle on the ground, he realized it wasn't a blanket at all.
1:24.7	It was a person.
1:26.8	Cowell, who'd been bringing cattle to a field near his home at Elms
1:30.6	farm, brought his horse to a halt and approached. He could see the form was that of a young woman
1:36.5	who was sprawled on the ground next to her bicycle. He knelt close. The woman was wearing a straw hat
1:44.0	that was still pinned to her hair.
1:46.3	Underneath her head was a pool of blood on the ground.
1:49.9	Her face was bloodied too.
1:52.0	She was unnaturally still.
1:54.7	Cowell hated the sight, and clearly this poor woman had fallen off her bike and hit her head something awful.
2:02.0	She was lying diagonally, straddling the road and the grass at its edge.
	...

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