BOSTON (WHDH) - Jurors in the sentencing retrial of Gary Lee Sampson heard audio recordings Thursday, where he confessed to State Police that he murdered three people in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Sampson was originally sentenced to death back in 2003 for the 2001 murders. The judge overturned the verdict due to juror misconduct.
The recording was made by State Police in 2001, after Sampson was arrested. In the recordings, Sampson described how he murdered his three victims. His first victim, Philip McCloskey, was killed by Sampson in Marshfield. McCloskey had picked up Sampson while he was hitchhiking. Jurors heard Sampson say in the recordings that he stabbed McCloskey in the back.
Nineteen-year-old college student Jonathan Rizzo was also killed by Sampson after he picked him up while hitchhiking. Sampson told police in the recordings that he killed the two men to steal their cars. After killing Rizzo, Sampson confessed to driving to New Hampshire, where he broke into a house and spent the night. He killed handyman Robert Whitney the next morning when he came by to mow the house’s lawn.
Sampson revealed in the recordings that he called the FBI in Boston originally and told police he was responsible for a series of the bank robberies. He hopes to meet with agents in Abington but said no one ever showed up.
The government claims in their case that Sampson flew into a violent rage because the FBI was not taking him seriously. His attorney said Sampson hit his head as a child and the injury made him prone to violence.
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