Gary Lee Sampson Sentenced to Death for 2001 Murder Spree

BOSTON — Gary Lee Sampson, 57, was sentenced to death by a federal jury for a bloody cross-state murder spree in July 2001 that left three men dead. The sentencing, handed down in a packed Boston courtroom, marks the end of a nearly two-decade legal saga that included a retrial after the original death sentence was overturned.

Sampson, a career criminal with a history of violence and bank robbery, returned to Massachusetts from North Carolina in 2001, already wanted for multiple robberies. Within days, he began a calculated killing spree. On July 23, he met 69-year-old Philip McCloskey in Weymouth, Mass. After convincing McCloskey to drive him to a nearby town, Sampson tied him up and stabbed him to death.

Hours later, Sampson hitchhiked to Plymouth, Mass., where 19-year-old Jonathan Rizzo picked him up. Sampson forced the teenager to drive to a remote area, led him into the woods, tied him to a tree, and repeatedly stabbed him until he died. He then stole Rizzo’s car and drove north into New Hampshire.

Inside a lake house he’d broken into, Sampson waited until Robert Whitney, 58, the property’s caretaker, arrived. When Whitney discovered him, Sampson tied him to a chair and strangled him to death. He fled to Vermont, where he was apprehended days later by federal authorities.

In September 2003, Sampson pleaded guilty to the federal killings of McCloskey and Rizzo. A federal jury sentenced him to death in December 2003. He later pleaded guilty to state murder charges in New Hampshire for Whitney’s death. In 2011, a federal judge overturned the death sentence due to juror misconduct, necessitating a retrial of the sentencing phase. The current jury unanimously reaffirmed the death penalty.

U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin will formally impose the sentence by law. United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, Colonel Richard D. McKeon of the Massachusetts State Police, and FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Harold H. Shaw announced the outcome. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Zachary R. Hafer and Dustin Chao prosecuted the case with support from Michael Warbel of the Justice Department’s Capital Case Section.