DEATH NOTICE

Gary Lee Sampson, Convicted Serial Killer, Dies in Prison Hospital at 62

Sampson was sentenced to death after brutally murdering three men in 2001. He died this week while awaiting the result of the most recent appeal of his sentence.

Gary Lee Sampson, the drifter and admitted spree killer who was sentenced to death after brutally murdering three men in 2001, died in custody earlier this week, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said Thursday. He was 62. The bureau said that Sampson had died at a medical center for federal prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. He had been awaiting the result of the most recent appeal of his sentence, according to records. The appeal had been made to overturn a second death sentence, issued in 2017 after his 2003 sentence was set aside when it was revealed a juror had lied during selection. In 2017, a judge declined Sampson’s motion to toss his death sentence, commenting that Sampson “brutally and incomprehensibly murdered Philip McCloskey, Jonathan Rizzo, and Robert Whitney” and that he had to face “the ultimate, irreversible punishment” for his crimes.