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George W. Sams Jr. (born c. 1946) was a member of theBlack Panther Party convicted in the 1969 murder of New York PantherAlex Rackley, which resulted in theNew Haven Black Panther trials of 1970.
Sams turnedstate's evidence in return for a reduced charge ofsecond-degree murder. He testified that, acting under direct orders from national party leaderBobby Seale, he arranged for the kidnapping of Rackley to Panther headquarters in New Haven, where Rackley was tortured for two days then transported to the marshlands ofMiddlefield, Connecticut, where he was shot byWarren Kimbro andLonnie McLucas on Sams' orders. According to Hugh Pearson, who wrote the bookThe Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America:
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 onagents-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.
Neither Kimbro nor McLucas corroborated Sams' testimony regarding Seale's involvement. Sams and Kimbro were convicted of murder, and Lonnie McLucas was acquitted on all charges exceptconspiracy to commit murder, but a jury deadlocked on the charges against Seale and Black Panther leaderEricka Huggins, and the charges against both were dropped. Members of the Black Panther party accused Sams of being an FBI informant.
Sams was paroled in 1974.[1]
