Gary Lee Sampson

Gary Lee Sampson (September 29, 1959 – December 21, 2021) was an American bank robber and later spree killer who killed three people and was sentenced to death by a federal jury in Massachusetts.

Gary Lee Sampson
Born(1959-09-29)September 29, 1959
Weymouth, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedDecember 21, 2021(2021-12-21) (aged 62)
MCFP Springfield, Springfield, Missouri, U.S.
Criminal statusDeceased
Children3
Conviction(s)Carjacking resulting in death (18 U.S.C. § 2119) (2 counts)
Criminal penaltyDeath
Details
Victims3
DateJuly 24–30, 2001
CountryUnited States
Location(s)Taunton, Massachusetts
Kingston, Massachusetts
Concord, New Hampshire
WeaponsKnife

During three days in 2001, Sampson killed three strangers – retiree Philip McCloskey in Marshfield, Massachusetts, college student Jonathan Rizzo in Abington, Massachusetts, and Robert Whitney in Meredith, New Hampshire. He also attempted to kill a fourth victim and stranger, William Gregory, in Plymouth, Vermont. Sampson killed McCloskey and Rizzo after they picked him up hitch-hiking, stabbing them to death. Shortly after that he strangled Whitney. Sampson pleaded guilty to the three killings on September 9, 2003, and was sentenced to death on December 23, 2003, by a federal jury in Massachusetts.[1][2] He received the death penalty for the two Massachusetts killings, and a life sentence for the New Hampshire case.[3]

After Sampson pleaded guilty, a federal jury decided whether he should be sentenced to death or life in prison. The defense introduced mental health experts to testify that Sampson had dyslexia as a child, had bipolar disorder, and "suffered from a significant mental impairment" during the killings. A psychiatrist called by the government testified that Sampson did not have any mitigating mental impairment; he was intelligent but violent and deeply antisocial, with antisocial personality disorder.[4][5][6][7] The jury of 12 unanimously returned a sentence of death.

In 2011, Sampson's death sentence was thrown out due to juror misconduct, and he was scheduled for a second sentencing trial on September 16, 2015.[8][9] He was again sentenced to death on January 9, 2017.[10] He died in 2021 at the age of 62, presumably from end stage liver disease.

Early and personal life

Gary Sampson, who was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, and raised in Abington, Massachusetts. His parents were Charlotte and Elbert "Herc" Sampson. His father worked as a firefighter, ice cream truck driver, and salesman. Sampson has claimed that his father called him "retarded" and physically abused him.[4][11][12] Sampson's defense lawyers claim that at age four, he fell and hit his head, resulting in a brain injury.[13][14] Sampson was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child but was denied special education because of his intelligence. He dropped out of school in the 9th grade.

Sampson had been frequently arrested as a juvenile, and as an adult was caught on surveillance tape robbing five banks in North Carolina while in disguise. Gerald Hege, sheriff of Davidson County, North Carolina, stated that Sampson had lived with cross-dressers and transvestites, and had learned "elaborate makeup" from them. "He learned how to change his appearance."[15][16]

As of 2003, Sampson had been married and divorced five times, and was the father of three children. His first marriage was when he was 17 years old.[11][17] In 1995, after being released from jail on a theft charge, he moved to Tamworth, New Hampshire, where he met Karen Alexander. In June 1997, Sampson and Alexander were married; she was pregnant by Sampson at the time. Shortly after, he moved to South Carolina with a woman he had recently met, and Alexander filed for divorce that same year. Sampson was arrested in May 1998, and met Amanda Newcomb while jailed. When Newcomb's grandfather posted Sampson's bail, Sampson and Newcomb married in October 1998. By the end of November, Sampson had moved to North Carolina, where he had a relationship with Ricky Carter, who recalled him as "angry with the world and having an explosive temper." When Carter kicked him out of their apartment, Sampson met and wooed Karen Anderson in April 2001. Sampson attempted to force Anderson to assist him in his robberies; she refused, and Sampson began his bank robbery spree, robbing five banks in three months.[18][19][20]

Crimes and death penalty trial

In July 2001 Sampson carjacked and murdered three people: Philip McCloskey (aged 69 of Taunton, Massachusetts), Jonathan Rizzo (aged 19 of Kingston, Massachusetts), and Robert Whitney (aged 58 of Concord, New Hampshire).[21] The murders took place over the course of a week. Sampson told police that, after McCloskey picked him up hitchhiking, he forced him at knifepoint to drive to a secluded area, where he tied him up with his belt and stabbed him 24 times. He also forced Rizzo to a secluded area, tied him to a tree, gagged him, and killed him.

The day before the first murder, he attempted to surrender to police.[5][6][22] Telephone records confirmed that Sampson had called the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). As a fugitive who was facing bank robbery charges in North Carolina, Sampson could have been taken into custody. The call was accidentally disconnected by an FBI clerk, and no action was taken. After the murders, Sampson broke into a house in Vermont. After his arrest he confessed to the murders. He subsequently pleaded guilty.

Sampson was charged in a federal court in Boston, found guilty and, on December 23, 2003, sentenced to death. The jury deliberated for ten hours after hearing six weeks of evidence. Sampson had pleaded guilty, so the jury did not need to decide whether he killed McCloskey and Rizzo, but the jury heard the murders described in graphic detail during the sentencing phase of the trial. Prosecutors portrayed Sampson as a ruthless, calculating killer who preyed on good samaritans. Massachusetts does not have the death penalty, after having abolished capital punishment in 1984.[23] The last time the Commonwealth used the penalty was in 1947. It was the first time anyone in Massachusetts has been sentenced to die under the federal death penalty law. Federal law was changed in 1994 to allow the U.S. Department of Justice to seek the death penalty when a murder is committed during a carjacking or kidnapping.[24]

Place of planned execution

Although the United States has a federal "death row" at the United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute, in Indiana (where federal death row inmates are executed),[25] U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf of the U.S. District Court in Boston ordered that Sampson be executed in New Hampshire. However, before the execution could take place, Judge Wolf ordered a new sentencing trial for Sampson.[26]

Appeal process

After Sampson was sentenced to death, his lawyer David Ruhnke said he would appeal.[27] In 2011, the death penalty decision was vacated by the US district judge after finding that one of the jurors lied during the screening process; a federal appeals court upheld the decision. Therefore, there was to be another sentencing trial.[28]

Second sentencing trial

A sentencing retrial was first scheduled for February 2015, but was postponed to September 16, 2015.[29] Judge Wolf said that one reason for the delay until September was because Sampson had been transferred to United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners to undergo a mental health evaluation which had an effect of "obstructing his lawyers' efforts to meet with him."[30]

A week before the September sentencing retrial was to begin, it was "stalled while prosecutors decide whether to appeal a federal judge's refusal to step down from the case." Prosecutors were given until October 13 to decide if they would appeal the judge's decision.[9] On October 28, in an 89-page ruling, Judge Wolf rejected numerous defense motions, ruling that jurors will be able to consider the death penalty.[31]

Sampson was sentenced to death again on January 9, 2017.[10]

Death

On December 21, 2021, Sampson died at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. He was 62 years old. The official cause of death is yet to be released.[32][33]

An episode of Investigation Discovery show Signs of a Psychopath (season 3, episode 6) was made about him.[34]

References
  1. "TIMELINE: Gary Sampson's life of crime and punishment". The Patriot Ledger. August 30, 2010. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  2. "Death for Sampson". The Boston Globe. December 24, 2003. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  3. "Feds cite prison misconduct in carjack death penalty case". WCVB. March 31, 2014. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  4. Shelley Murphy (December 19, 2003). "Sampson jury hears pleas for life, death". The Boston Globe. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  5. Milton J. Valencia (December 20, 2013). "Prosecutors again seek death penalty for serial killer". The Boston Globe. Retrieved May 19, 2015. At the original trial, Sampson's lawyers had argued several mitigating factors. They noted that he had tried to surrender to authorities before the first murder, but an FBI clerk accidentally disconnected the call. Reportedly this angered Sampson and contributed to his serial murders.
  6. Shelley Murphy (May 21, 2004). "Murder victim's family sues FBI over disconnected call Says clerk's error led to rampage by Gary Sampson". The Boston Globe. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  7. Elizabeth Mehren (November 6, 2003). "Death Debated for a Confessed Killer". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  8. Neal Simpson, The Patriot Ledger (April 21, 2015). "Judge refuses to rule out death penalty for killer Gary Lee Sampson". WCVB. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  9. Denise Lavoie, AP Legal Affairs Writer (September 10, 2015). "Massachusetts Death Penalty Retrial Halted in Carjack Deaths". Retrieved November 20, 2015. The retrial of a man sentenced to death for killing two Massachusetts residents in 2001 is stalled while prosecutors decide whether to appeal a federal judge's refusal to step down from the case.
  10. "Gary Lee Sampson gets the death penalty - the Boston Globe". The Boston Globe.
  11. "Killer's parents severed all ties to son". The Boston Herald. December 3, 2003. Archived from the original on May 21, 2015. Retrieved May 19, 2015. (Subscription required.)
  12. Sue Reinert (August 2, 2001). "Sampson record spanned four states". The Patriot Ledger. Retrieved May 20, 2015. He was born at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth on Sept. 29, 1959.
  13. "Gary Lee Sampson's lawyers appear in court ahead of resentencing trial". My FOX Boston. April 15, 2015. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  14. Fox Butterfield (August 2, 2001). "Police Arrest Man in Killings And Carjackings in 3 States". The New York Times. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  15. Fox Butterfield (August 2, 2001). "Police Arrest Man in Killings and Carjackings in 3 States". The New York Times. Retrieved November 20, 2015. 'He had the unusual M.O. of robbing the banks dressed as a woman, with elaborate makeup he had learned from the transvestites,' the sheriff said.
  16. Harry R. Weber (August 2, 2006). "Arraignment for Man Accused in Killing Spree". ABC News. Retrieved November 20, 2015. 'He lives with cross-dressers and transvestites,' Hege said. 'He learned how to change his appearance.'
  17. J.M. Hirsch (August 12, 2001). "Something snapped: Man accused in New England killings left trail of transformations and lies". Associated Press via The Standard-Times (New Bedford). Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  18. J.M. Hirsch (January 12, 2011) [August 12, 2001]. "Something snapped: Man accused in New England killings left trail of transformations and lies". Associated Press via South Coast Today. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  19. Shelley Murphy (December 13, 2003). "Ex-wife urges jury to spare Sampson". The Boston Globe. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  20. U.S. v. SAMPSON, 2004
  21. Eagan, Jennifer (February 3, 2017). "Federal judge sentences serial killer Gary Lee Sampson to death". WHDH.com. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
  22. Elizabeth Mehren (November 6, 2003). "Death Debated for a Confessed Killer". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 19, 2015. The controversy in the case is complicated by the fact that Sampson telephoned the Boston office of the FBI and offered to surrender before killing his three victims. William H. Anderson, the clerk who took the call, originally told investigators that he had not received a call from Sampson. In March, Wolf sentenced Anderson to six months in federal prison for lying to the investigators after phone records proved Sampson had indeed placed the call.
  23. "Massachusetts".
  24. https://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/billfs.txt
  25. "Sentence to be appealed". The Boston Globe. December 24, 2003. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  26. "First Circuit May Hear Gary Sampson Death Penalty Case". FindLaw blog. May 9, 2013. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  27. Martin Finucane (December 24, 2003). "Federal jury: Death for Mass. mens killer". Associated Press. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  28. Milton J. Valencia (December 17, 2014). "Gary Lee Sampson in court for 1st time in decade". The Boston Globe. Retrieved May 19, 2015. Prosecutors sought the death penalty in 2003, and a jury agreed, but US District Judge Mark L. Wolf vacated that sentence in 2011, after finding that one of the jurors had lied on a questionnaire about her encounters with law enforcement. The judge said he would have excluded her from the jury had he known, and a federal appeals court upheld the decision.
  29. Neal Simpson, The Patriot Ledger (April 21, 2015). "Judge refuses to rule out death penalty for killer Gary Lee Sampson". WCVB. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  30. "Judge postpones death penalty trial of convicted killer". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  31. Laurel J. Sweet (October 28, 2015). "Judge: Death penalty still an option for spree killer Sampson". Boston Herald. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  32. "Notorious New England spree killer Gary Lee Sampson is dead". Boston 25 News. 23 December 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  33. "Carjacking Killer Gary Lee Sampson Dies in Federal Prison". NBC Boston. 23 December 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  34. "Signs of a Psychopath". Investigation Discovery. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
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