George W. Sams, Jr.
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George W. Sams, Jr. (born c.1946) was the twenty three year old national field marshal of the Black Panther Party who implicated Bobby Seale in the 1969 murder of New York Panther Alex Rackley, suspected of being an informant for the FBI, resulting in the New Haven Black Panther trials of 1970.
At the time, suspicion that the FBI had agents infiltrating the Panthers was widespread, and well founded. In September, 1968, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover described the Black Panthers as "The greatest threat to the internal security of the country." By 1969, the Black Panthers were the primary target of the FBI's COINTELPRO, and the target of 233 out of a total of 295 authorized "Black Nationalist" COINTELPRO actions.
Sams turned state's evidence in return for a reduced charge of second-degree murder. He testified that acting under direct orders from Seale, who had been in New Haven the previous day, he arranged for the kidnapping of Rackley to Panther headquarters in New Haven, where he was tortured for two days, then transported to the marshlands of Middlefield, Connecticut where he was shot by Warren Kimbro and Lonnie McLucas on Sams' orders. According to author, Hugh Pearson,
- "The Rackley case became one of the most controversial Panther cases of all, a prime example of the question of which illegal activities could be blamed on genuine party leaders, and which on agents-provocateurs or just plain deviants in the party. Seale was accused of ordering Rackley’s murder for being an alleged government agent, with the words, ‘Do away with him.’ Williams and others were accused of being present when Seale gave the command, George Sams accepting it, then he, Lonnie McLucas, and Warren Kimbro, the alleged triggermen, driving Rackley to a swamp to kill him. The case hinged largely on the questions of whether Seale actually did appear to give the command, and if so, how Seale’s command could be interpreted. The Panthers would insist that party member George Sams ordered the murder of Rackley on his own." (The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America)
Neither Kimbro nor McLucas corroborated Sam's testimony regarding Seale's involvement.
Ironically, many commentators believe that Sams himself was the informant and agent provocateur. Kimbro and McLucas are described as earnest and eager to please, while Sams was a "frightening character". According to Frances Carter, one of the "New Haven Nine", residents of the New Haven Panther headquarters who were charged with the killing, Sams was "the ugliest bastard I’d ever seen. Talking crazy, his eyes deep, beet red . . . Just stunk like ten dogs. Foamy when he talked. Almost like a Halloween character. Scary! . .. . He was sick, sexually perverted, always trying to work his will and wanting to forcibly have sex . . . He stayed a week, but it seemed like a lifetime. He was the kiss of death. I can recall him wielding this big old billy club-type thing. The whole family cohesiveness-camaraderie we were experiencing stopped." He arrived in New Haven a week prior to the murder without giving any reason; according to Michael Koskoff, one of the lawyers for McLucas,
- "Many of the people in the New Haven chapter of the Panthers were middle class. They were defined more by their propaganda than by their own personalities. And they were young and impressionable. Lonnie, for example, was so eager to please and so easy to manipulate. If you told him to jump off a bridge, he’d do it. Bring into this group a psychopath like George Sams and it’s easy to see how they were intimidated. Sams was a big, barrel-chested guy who was manipulative and violent. He was basically apolitical and had this Panther connection as a way to vent his violence. On top of that, Sams was really stupid. He was clearly coached through his testimony by the prosecution, but his stories always broke down under cross-examination. I remember my father asking him—the prosecution’s star witness—why he was known as 'Crazy George,' and he said there was no reason, 'It's like if I called you Roskoff or Foskoff,' he said. Everyone just stared at him, aghast."
Sams, who had just previously spent time in a mental institution, was kept on "tranquilizers, pain killers, skin medication, Darvon, Phenobarbital and central nervous system depressant" for the duration of the trial. Along with Kimbor who also turned state's evidence, he received the mandatory life sentence for second degree murder, and was released after four years. McLucas was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and received a sentence of twelve to fifteen years.
