Victims’ family members tell Sampson to ‘rot in hell’
Two families united by the brutal murders of their loved ones watched killer Gary Lee Sampson stand in court and get sentenced to death again.
During his weeklong July 2001 murder spree Sampson killed Philip McCloskey, a retiree who picked up the hitchhiking killer. Sampson then killed Jonathan Rizzo, a teenager who also picked up Sampson on the roadside. He also killed Robert Whitney, 58, a New Hampshire man.
Sampson said nothing when asked to speak, but had an outburst earlier in which he shouted “(expletive) you” at the prosecutor, and when told to be quiet by the judge, shouted “(expletive) you too!”
Then the burned-out old con, now bald and fat, slumped in his chair and listened as loved ones of those he killed explained what he took away.
McCloskey’s son Scott called the serial killer a coward who stole his father’s retirement.
“May you rot in hell, you son of a bitch,” he shouted.
Mary Rizzo, Jonathan’s mother, recalled, “July 2, 1982, Jon was born and they laid him on my chest and I felt his heart beat and wondered how it was possible to love someone so much in so little time.
“I hate that you are the last person to see him. You killed and tortured Jon. I will never forgive you for this and I don’t believe God will,” she told the court. “I hate you. I never thought I could hate anyone, but I hate you.”
Sampson’s first death verdict was overturned in 2011 and he was granted a second deathpenalty trial which ended in January when the jury again returned a verdict of death.