RESEARCHERS at the Bodleian Library have discovered that an infamous tale about a German fighter ace not paying his shoe bill was not correct.

The Oxford University library has bought historic customer ledgers from Ducker & Son shoe shop in Turl Street following its closure earlier this year.

It was thought the ledgers revealed Baron von Richthofen had returned to Germany without paying his bill.

But library staff said it was in fact his cousin.

Spokeswoman Elaine Bible said: “The customer in question was Baron Wilhelm Adam Lothar Friedrich Max von Richthofen – the Red Baron’s seventh cousin.”