Yeovil people

Stanley Blackmore

The murder of a Yeovil Taxi Driver

 

 

Stanley Blackmore was a married 66-year-old retired employee of the Yeovil Corporation's waterworks. After retiring from the waterworks, he became a taxi driver. Described as an “inoffensive, placid little man”, Stanley was regarded by his friends and colleagues to be a conscientious worker. He was often seen in his grey and black Morris Oxford – registration number VOT 785 – as he drove from his home in North Street, Bradford Abbas, to work in Yeovil.

During the afternoon of 2 August 1963, Stanley felt ill at work. His concerned colleagues helped him to sit and rest, but he told them he was fine and was able to carry on working. His last fare that day was a soldier, who he drove to Pen Mill Station at around five o’clock in the afternoon. He was seen alone in his car, driving on his way home along Newton Road later that evening. It would be the last time he was ever seen alive.

His car was found abandoned, parked in a lane on Summerhouse Hill, by a path that led to Newton Copse. The car held his folded coat, hat, and watch, but there was no sign of Stanley. The police also found nine different ignition keys and a Yale door key. In the car was also a paisley-patterned scarf, but his wife did not recognise it.

Stanley did not return home that night and, when he had still not returned the next morning, concerns were raised. Stanley was an asthma sufferer and, since he was feeling unwell the previous day, it was feared that a medical emergency had overtaken him and that he was unable to seek help.

The police, troops, frogmen and a helicopter searched for him throughout the following eight days. His body was finally found face down in a ditch in Yetminster, five miles south of Yeovil, on 10 August 1963. His corpse was discovered by an off-duty police officer and his wife, who were going fishing. Stanley had been stabbed in the heart with a large knife, but the details of exactly how he died, and who killed him, remain unknown. 150 police from both the Somerset and Dorset Constabularies visited every household in Yeovil in a follow-up investigation into Stanley's murder. On 12 August, it was reported in the Liverpool Echo that a 12-inch knife, thought to be the murder weapon, was found near the body and police were seeking information.

During the inquest on 17 October 1963, a seven-man jury returned a verdict of “Murder by some person or persons unknown”. Today, the murder of Stanley Blackmore is still unsolved.

From my book "Crime and Punishment in Yeovil".