Leonard Gomm, a seventy-five-year-old husband, and a father of three grown daughters, had lived in the Oxford area of England for most of his life, and after retiring from the Cowley motor works some time before, had begun driving a taxi to earn some extra money and get him out of the house. By all accounts, it was a job he very much enjoyed.
At approximately six-thirty-five on the morning of Wednesday, June 13th, 1990, Leonard radioed to his employer, ABC Taxis, that he was picking up a fare near Gloucester Green in the Oxford city center. The passenger had requested to be taken to Bicester.
More than four hours later, a truck driver named David Crisp was traveling down Hampton Gay Lane near Bletchingdon when he noticed the taxi pulled over on the side of the road, and the body of Leonard Gomm lying only five yards away from the vehicle. The victim had been stabbed once through the heart.
Though police initially suspected a robbery had gone drastically awry, they very quickly realized that this was likely not the case. Leonard still had cash in his wallet, and the cash box in the taxi was untouched. There also appeared to be no signs of a struggle.
It seemed obvious that the fare Leonard had picked up that morning was the most promising person of interest, but authorities could never trace him. They were also seeking a hitchhiker who had allegedly been picked up by a motorist on the same morning as the murder, only eight miles away from the crime scene. This individual also reportedly had injuries on his face that suggested he had been in a fight. Though the motorist recalled that the hitchhiker had been heading for Glasgow and that he had dropped the man off in Banbury, he was likewise never able to be tracked down.
It remains possible that Leonard Gomm was targeted by someone he knew, though it is just as possible that the attack was completely random. Many oddities about the case stood out, such as the fact that nothing whatsoever was stolen from the taxi; that Leonard had been stabbed outside of the vehicle, as though the killer had lured him out in some fashion; that the location where the body was found was a less direct and much more rural itinerary to travel from Oxford to Bicester, suggesting that the assailant had requested a more secluded route; and that the killer must have either wandered off on foot after the murder, had another car stowed nearby, or arranged for someone to pick him up.
The case went cold only months after it occurred, but was reopened in 2010 on the twentieth anniversary. At that time, investigators announced that they had obtained DNA evidence sufficient to rule suspects out, but are still asking for the public’s help in bringing the murderer of Leonard Gomm to justice. A renewed appeal for information was made in 2020, but as of this writing, there appear to be no new leads.
Crime Immemorial 