Michael Sams

Last updated

Michael Sams
Born
Michael Benneman Sams

(1941-08-11) 11 August 1941 (age 83)
Keighley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
OccupationHeating engineer
Criminal status Incarcerated
Conviction(s) Murder, kidnapping, blackmail (1993)
Criminal penalty Life imprisonment (1993)

Michael Benneman Sams (born 11 August 1941) [1] is an English kidnapper, extortionist, rapist and murderer. He kidnapped Julie Dart in July 1991 and later murdered her following her attempted escape. He subsequently kidnapped Stephanie Slater in January 1992, eventually releasing her after payment of a ransom. Slater was also raped during her imprisonment by Sams.

Contents

After Sams was convicted and imprisoned, he attacked a female probation officer. He also became known for his attempts to sue the prison, initially successfully, for losing his artificial leg, and then because his bed was too hard.

Life

Michael Sams was born and raised in Keighley, West Riding of Yorkshire. [2] [3] He joined the Merchant Navy at the age of 20. After three years, he returned to Keighley and worked as a lift engineer, graduating to become a central heating engineer, later establishing his own company. [2] However, Sams turned to crime and was first imprisoned in 1978 for stealing a car and making a false insurance claim. [2] While in prison, Sams was diagnosed with a cancer that led to the amputation of one of his legs. [2] After his release, Sams was forced to sell his ailing business and gained a job for Black & Decker. He later started a new business in the 1980s, selling power tools. [2]

Sams was married three times. [4] He had two sons by his first wife, but the marriage broke down shortly before he was sent to prison. His second marriage also ended in divorce. [4] At the time of his arrest for the kidnappings he lived in Sutton-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire with his third wife.

Kidnappings

Julie Dart

On 9 July 1991, Sams drove to a local red light area and picked up Julie Dart, an 18-year-old Leeds resident. [5] She was blindfolded and taken to Sams' warehouse, where she was placed in a coffin-like box and chained to the floor. [5] According to Sams' later confession, Dart freed herself from the box in an attempt to escape, but was unable to leave the room. Sams, who had wired an alarm to the box, returned to chain her to a roof beam. The following day, Sams forced Dart to write a letter to her boyfriend demanding a ransom of £140,000, or "the hostage would never be seen again". He also made her write other notes. [6] After the notes were written, Sams murdered Dart with a hammer. [6] Nine days later he dumped her body in a field in Easton, Lincolnshire. [6]

Since it was never likely that Dart's ransom would be paid, it has been suggested that Sams always intended to kill her. Paul Britton, a clinical psychologist who advised the detectives who interviewed Sams, argued that he abducted a sex worker because it would be relatively easy and was good "practice". It would also not create too much of "a stir". [7] By killing Dart, and leaving her body where it would easily be found, Sams would "convince the police that he was to be regarded as a serious adversary" and intimidate his next victims into paying up. [7] [8] McGredy-Hunt[ who? ], however, said that Sams continued to demand ransom for several days after Dart's death, only dumping her body (initially hidden in a wheelie bin) after the smell of decomposition became difficult to conceal.

Sams continued to send messages to the police. One stated: "prostitutes are easy to pick up, and I won't spend any more time in prison for killing two instead of one." [6] He later claimed to have kidnapped another sex worker, but police could find no evidence any sex worker was missing. Sams also sent messages stating he would intentionally cause a train crash unless he was paid a ransom. He also attempted to blackmail supermarkets by threatening to poison food. [9]

Stephanie Slater

Some months later, on 22 January 1992, Sams kidnapped another woman. Using a false name, he arranged to meet Stephanie Slater, an estate agent with a local branch of the company Shipways, [10] ostensibly to view a property in Turnberry Road, Great Barr, Birmingham. At the property he attacked Slater, tied her up, and then took her to his workshop. Sams again demanded a ransom, this time from Slater's manager at the estate agency. [10] When it was paid, Sams released Slater. [11] Given his previous crime, police had expected the kidnapper to kill Slater. They hoped to stop him by following him after he picked up the ransom, but Sams had anticipated this, and devised an elaborate scheme to successfully give them the slip. [10]

Interviewed in 2013 on BBC Radio 4's One to One programme, Slater said that for eight days she was held – handcuffed, legs bound, blindfolded and gagged – in a "coffin" inside a wheelie bin laid horizontally. Sams had told her she would be electrocuted if she tried to move. Slater said that when she was allowed out of the coffin for food, she chatted about herself to Sams, "to humanise" herself and to increase her chances of survival. Within twelve hours of her release, she was made to face a press conference, even though she was still drugged and highly distressed. Police later acknowledged that this was an error of judgement. [12]

In her 1995 book about her ordeal, Beyond Fear: My Will to Survive, Slater wrote that Sams raped her on the first night of her imprisonment. After her release, Slater had originally not disclosed the rape. She later said that this was to spare her mother, who had a heart condition, from unnecessary further anguish. [13] Sams denied raping Slater, asserting, "I cannot allow this to go unchallenged". He made the unsubstantiated claim that they had a consensual affair [13] and attempted to sue Slater for libel, [14] [5] but lost the case. [15] Slater has also discussed the rape in a Crimes That Shook Britain documentary about the case, in which she also states that Sams later requested to have further sex with her, but this time relented after Slater refused. [16]

Out of the £175,000 ransom that was paid for the release of Slater, police located £150,000 buried in a field by using ground-penetrating radar. The remaining £25,000 was never recovered.

Following her release, Slater felt unable to return to work as an estate agent, and moved to the Isle of Wight in 1993. She subsequently worked with police forces to advise them on how to deal with kidnap survivors, and with the survivors themselves, to help them to recover from their ordeals. She died on 31 August 2017, aged 50, from cancer. [17]

Arrest and conviction

On the BBC television programme Crimewatch , the police made public a tape recording of the kidnapper's voice, which was recognised by Sams' first wife. [18] Sams was arrested, and forensic evidence was gathered of his responsibility for Dart's murder.

At his trial at Nottingham Crown Court in 1993, Sams admitted to the kidnapping of Slater, but denied the kidnap and murder of Dart. [19] On 8 July that year the jury found him guilty of murdering Dart, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder and the abduction of Slater. [20] [21] He was also found guilty of attempting to blackmail the police and British Rail; he was sentenced to 10 years for each of four blackmail attempts. [21] Sams confessed to Dart's murder in prison, three days after he was found guilty. [22] [23] He had asked the senior investigating police officer, Roy Taylor, to visit him in jail. During this visit he confessed to Dart's murder, and revealed the date upon which he had carried it out; [24] his confession was covertly recorded and not released for thirty years. The recording was used in a Discovery Plus documentary Michael Sams: Kidnapper Killer, [25] which was aired on 30 July 2022. Sams told officers he had made the confession for the sake of Julie's grieving mother. He stated: "I've been going over it and thinking it's only fair that she knows I did it. I mean, obviously, I did do it. What can I tell her? I do feel sorry for her, yes." [26] [27]

Imprisonment

Sams continued to offend after he was imprisoned, attacking a female probation officer with a metal spike in October 1995 at Wakefield Prison. [28] At his trial in February 1997 at Durham Crown Court, he received an additional eight years to his term for this crime. [28]

Sams was awarded £4,000 damages when the prison service lost his artificial leg during a transfer. The award caused considerable public outrage. He also brought a civil case because he believed that his prison bed was too hard. [29] A further complaint was that he was unfairly held in solitary confinement leading to a loss of earnings, and that works of art he had painted in prison had gone missing. [30] In April 2007, a letter by Sams was published by Inside Time , a newspaper for prisoners, in which he claimed "OAPs in prison are far better off than those in the community." [31]

As of April 2023, Sams remains in prison. [32] No recommended minimum term was reported at his trial, and it is unknown whether any Home Secretary or High Court judge subsequently ruled how many years Sams must serve before he can be considered for parole.[ citation needed ] He is among the oldest and longest-serving life sentence prisoners in England and Wales. [33] His latest parole denial was in April 2023. [34]

Other allegations

Crime writer Christopher Berry-Dee, in Unmasking Mr Kipper: Who Really Killed Suzy Lamplugh?, argued Sams killed estate agent Suzy Lamplugh in 1986, but this has been dismissed by police. [35]

Dramatisation and documentaries

In 1993, the kidnapping of Slater and subsequent manhunt for Sams was the subject of an edition of the BBC1 series Crimewatch File , titled "A Murderer's Game", which reconstructed some of the events. [36] A dramatisation of Slater's book, Beyond Fear (1997), was broadcast on the opening night of Channel 5. Adapted by Don Shaw, it was directed by Jill Green, with Gina McKee as Slater and Sylvester McCoy as Sams. In November 2022 BBC Radio Nottingham began to broadcast a seven-part podcast: The Kidnapping of Stephanie Slater. [37] A two-part documentary, The Girl in the Box: The Kidnapping of Stephanie Slater, was screened on Channel 5 on 28 February and 1 March 2023.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colin Pitchfork</span> English child-murderer and rapist (born 1960)

Colin Pitchfork is an English child-murderer and child-rapist. He was the first person convicted of rape and murder using DNA profiling after he murdered two girls in neighbouring Leicestershire villages: Lynda Mann in Narborough in November 1983 and Dawn Ashworth in Enderby in July 1986. He was arrested on 19 September 1987 and sentenced to life imprisonment on 22 January 1988 after pleading guilty to both murders. The sentencing judge gave him a 30-year minimum term.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh</span> 1986 disappearance of woman in London

Susannah Jane Lamplugh was a British estate agent reported missing on 28 July 1986 in Fulham, London, England, United Kingdom. She was officially declared dead, presumed murdered, in 1993. The last clue to Lamplugh's whereabouts was an appointment to show a house in Shorrolds Road to someone she called Mr. Kipper. The case remains unsolved with Lamplugh still missing, and is considered the world's biggest-ever missing person's inquiry.

Levi Bellfield is an English serial killer, sex offender, rapist, kidnapper, and burglar. He was found guilty on 25 February 2008 of the murders of Marsha McDonnell and Amélie Delagrange and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, and sentenced to life imprisonment. On 23 June 2011, Bellfield was further found guilty of the murder of Milly Dowler. On both occasions, the judge imposed a whole life order, meaning that Bellfield will serve the sentence without the possibility of parole. Bellfield was the first prisoner in history to have received two whole life orders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Danielle Jones</span> English murder case where no body was found

The murder of Danielle Jones was an English child murder case involving a 15-year-old schoolgirl who disappeared from East Tilbury, Essex, England. There was a large and exhaustive search to find Jones' body and it was considered one of the biggest cases Essex Police had to deal with at the time. Despite the police's best efforts, her body was never found.

Hannah Foster was a 17-year-old British student who was abducted after a night out in Southampton in mid-March 2003. Murdered by Indian immigrant Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, who had come to the UK in 1993, her body was found in nearby West End, Hampshire, two days after she disappeared. A few days later, Kohli fled to his family's home in Chandigarh, India, later assuming a new identity in Darjeeling, but was finally extradited in 2007. He was found guilty of the crime in 2008, and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a 24-year non-parole period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murders of Eve Stratford and Lynne Weedon</span> British murder victims

The murders of Eve Stratford and Lynne Weedon, two young women from London, England, occurred in separate, sexually motivated attacks by the same unidentified individual during 1975. Stratford was a bunny girl and Weedon was a schoolgirl who was killed almost six months later, on the other side of London. After Weedon's cold case was re-opened in 2004, new DNA techniques revealed that she and Stratford had been murdered by the same person. Stratford's case was re-opened in 2007, but neither case has been solved. A £40,000 reward for information leading to the killer remains on offer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Wright (serial killer)</span> British serial killer

Steven Gerald James Wright is an English serial killer, also known as the Suffolk Strangler. He is currently serving life imprisonment for the murder of five women who worked in Ipswich, Suffolk. The killings took place during the final months of 2006 and Wright was found guilty in February 2008 and given a whole life order.

Colette Aram was a 16-year-old British trainee hairdresser who was abducted, raped and strangled as she walked from her home to her boyfriend's house in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, on 30 October 1983. The murder was the first case to be featured on the BBC television series Crimewatch when it began in June 1984. However, despite receiving over 400 calls as a result of the programme, Nottinghamshire Police were unable to catch the killer, and it was not until 2008 and following advances in forensic technology that police were able to develop a DNA profile of the suspect. Paul Stewart Hutchinson was finally charged with the murder in April 2009. He initially pleaded not guilty, but changed his plea to guilty on 21 December 2009 and was sentenced to life imprisonment on 25 January 2010. Following his sentencing, Crimewatch ran a recap of the murder and investigation on BBC TV on 27 January 2010 exposing several inaccuracies reported in the press about his background, notably a lie about being a psychology graduate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Melanie Hall</span> British hospital clerk who disappeared in 1996 at Bath, Somerset, later found murdered

Melanie Hall was a British hospital clerical officer from Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, who disappeared following a night out at Cadillacs nightclub in Bath. She was declared dead in absentia in 2004.

Sidney Charles Cooke is an English convicted child molester, murderer and suspected serial killer and serial rapist serving two life sentences. He was the leader of a paedophile ring suspected of up to twenty child murders of young boys in the 1970s and 1980s. Cooke and other members of the ring were convicted of three killings in total, although he was only convicted of one himself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Tobin</span> Scottish serial killer (1946–2022)

Peter Britton Tobin was a Scottish convicted serial killer and sex offender who served a whole life order at HM Prison Edinburgh for three murders committed between 1991 and 2006. Police also investigated Tobin over the deaths and disappearances of other young women and girls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Leanne Tiernan</span> High-profile murder case in the United Kingdom

The murder of Leanne Tiernan was an English child murder involving a 16-year-old schoolgirl who was abducted less than one mile from her home on 26 November 2000, while returning from a Christmas shopping trip in Leeds, West Yorkshire, and subsequently murdered. The missing person inquiry for Tiernan that followed was one of the largest in the history of West Yorkshire Police, involving the search of around 1,750 buildings, underwater searches of thirty-two drainage wells, the draining of a two-mile section of a canal and the halting of household waste collections.

John David Guise Cannan was a British murderer, serial rapist, serial abductor, and suspected serial killer. He was convicted in July 1988 and given three life sentences for the murder of Shirley Banks in Bristol in October 1987; the attempted kidnapping of Julia Holman on the previous night; the rape of a woman in Reading, Berkshire, in 1986; the rape of his girlfriend in December 1980; and several other abductions, attempted abductions and sexual offences. He became eligible for parole in September 2023, which was refused the following month.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kidnapping and murder of Lesley Whittle</span> 1975 death in England

The kidnapping and murder of Lesley Whittle occurred on 14 January 1975. Whittle, a teenage heiress, was kidnapped at gunpoint from her home in Highley, Shropshire, by Donald Neilson; a notorious burglar and murderer known as the Black Panther.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Kylie Maybury</span> 1984 child murder in Melbourne, Australia

Kylie Maria Antonia Maybury was an Australian schoolgirl from Preston, an inner-city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Maybury was kidnapped, raped, and murdered on 6 November 1984, the date of the 1984 Melbourne Cup Day; and she was nicknamed in the Melbourne tabloid newspaper The Sun News-Pictorial as the Cup Day Girl.

Satish Kumar, better known simply as Satish, is a convicted Indian paedophobe and serial killer who was active in Bahadurgarh in Haryana from 1995 to 1998. He admitted kidnapping and attempting to rape fourteen girls, murdering ten. Police confirmed Satish's involvement in twelve cases, including the ten murders. Since his victims were all five to nine years of age, he is also known as the Bahadurgarh baby killer.

Crimes That Shook Britain is a television series first aired in 2008 on Crime & Investigation UK, focusing on uncovering the truth behind crimes that shocked the nation. Some episodes were also rebroadcast in random episode order from 2014 to 2019, on Channel 5 originally under the title Britain's Worst Crimes.

Patrick Warren and David Spencer were two English schoolboys who disappeared on 27 December 1996 in the town of Solihull, near Birmingham. Although initially treated by the police as runaways, they are now presumed deceased. Despite a BBC Crimewatch special report on the boys, along with numerous appeals from both their families, the case remains unsolved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murders of Kate Bushell and Lyn Bryant</span> 1990s murders in England

The murders ofKate BushellandLinda "Lyn" Bryant, a 14-year-old schoolgirl and a 41-year-old woman, respectively, occurred in separate incidents in the West Country, England. The events occurred on 15 November 1997 and 20 October 1998 respectively. The similar circumstances of the murders led investigators to conclude that there is a high possibility the murders are linked, with both killed with knives while walking dogs along isolated lanes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Helen Gorrie</span> Unsolved UK murder and miscarriage of justice

On 1 August 1992, Helen Gorrie, a 15-year-old British schoolgirl was found half-naked and strangled in the grounds of Merchistoun Hall in Horndean, after going out one night to meet a 21-year-old man named John Corcoran.

References

  1. ↑ "FreeBMD – Search". www.freebmd.org.uk. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Kirby, Terry (8 July 1993). "The Michael Sams Trial: Train spotter's obsession left chain of clues". The Independent. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  3. ↑ "Search Results for England & Wales Births 1837–2006 – findmypast.co.uk". search.findmypast.co.uk. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  4. 1 2 "Police recall 'nasty piece of work' with the constant smile. Outwardly quiet and easy-going Michael Sams disguised his darker side", The Herald (Glasgow), 9 July 1993.
  5. 1 2 3 Richard Whittington-Egan, Molly Whittington-Egan, Murder on File, Neil Wilson Publishing, 2013.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Newton, Michael, The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, Infobase Publishing, 2006, p.275.
  7. 1 2 Britton, Paul, Picking up the Pieces, Random House, 2013, p.396.
  8. ↑ Kinnell, H., Violence and Sex Work in Britain, Routledge, 11 January 2013, p.194.
  9. ↑ Duncan Maclaughlin, William Hall, The Filth: The Explosive Inside Story of Scotland Yard's Top Undercover Cop, Random House, 2012, p.236.
  10. 1 2 3 "Kidnap victim's boss tells of fear during ransom drop". The Independent. 18 June 1993. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  11. ↑ This is Bradford [ permanent dead link ]
  12. ↑ BBC Radio 4, "One to One", 10 September 2013.
  13. 1 2 BBC Radio 4, "One to One: Carolyn Quinn speaks to Stephanie Slater", 10 September 2013. Online
  14. ↑ "Kidnapper Sams sues victim for libel: Briefly", The Independent, 29 January 1995.
  15. ↑ "Detectives eventually got on right track to catch Sams", Birmingham Mail, 20 April 2011.
  16. ↑ Crimes that Shook Britain: Stephanie Slater. Crime+ Investigation (Television production). 10 November 2008.
  17. ↑ "Kidnapped Great Barr estate agent dies". Great Barr Observer. 1 September 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2017.[ permanent dead link ]
  18. ↑ Davis, Caroline (1 September 2017). "Stephanie Slater, estate agent kidnapped in 1992, dies aged 50". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  19. ↑ "Sams says he knows killer of teenage prostitute: Kidnapper of estate agent tells court a friend copied his plan, but 'it went wrong'". The Independent. 1 July 1993. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  20. ↑ Tingle, Len. Yorkshire and Lincolnshire: The Price of Justice?, BBC News, 6 November 2003. Accessed 4 June 2008
  21. 1 2 "The Michael Sams Trial: Kidnapper who killed teenager is jailed for life". The Independent. 8 July 1993. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  22. ↑ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19980816/ai_n14179797.{{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)[ dead link ]
  23. ↑ "Today's killers put behind bars by former CID boss. – Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  24. ↑ "BBC Local Radio - The Kidnapping of Stephanie Slater". BBC. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  25. ↑ "discovery+". www.discoveryplus.com. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  26. ↑ "Secret confession of Stephanie Slater's evil kidnapper to air on TV". 26 July 2022.
  27. ↑ "How to watch new documentary on kidnapper killer Michael Sams - and what to expect from show". Yorkshire Post. 14 July 2022.
  28. 1 2 Haldenby, Andrew. "Sams receives further 8 years for cell attack". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 16 March 2005.
  29. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150924075247/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4153/is_20000119/ai_n9537565. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015.{{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  30. ↑ Keely, Alistair, "Luff Challenges Murderer's Right to Take Legal Action Behind Bars", The Birmingham Post, 2000, p.3.
  31. ↑ "Jail life better for pensioners". BBC. 18 April 2007. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
  32. ↑ The girl in the box: The kidnapping of Stephanie Slater. Channel 5. March 2023
  33. ↑ "State pension for prisoners". Inside Time. 18 April 2007. Archived from the original on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
  34. ↑ Sherdley, Rebecca (5 April 2023). "Notorious Nottinghamshire killer is refused parole". Nottinghamshire Live. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  35. ↑ "The Suzy Lamplugh Trust". BBC h2g2. 7 June 2007. Retrieved 19 July 2010.
  36. ↑ "A Murderer's Game". Crimewatch File. 16 September 1993. BBC One London. Retrieved 25 June 2024– via BBC Programme Index.
  37. ↑ The Kidnapping of Stephanie Slater. BBC Local Radio.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.