Sams turned
state's evidence in return for a reduced charge of
second-degree murder. He testified that, acting under direct orders from national party leader
Bobby 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 of
Middlefield, Connecticut, where he was shot by
Warren Kimbro and
Lonnie McLucas on Sams' orders. According to Hugh Pearson, who wrote the book
The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America: Neither Kimbro nor McLucas corroborated Sams' testimony regarding Seale's involvement. Sams and Kimbro were convicted of murder. Lonnie McLucas was acquitted on all charges except
conspiracy to commit murder. A jury deadlocked on the charges against Seale and Black Panther leader
Ericka 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. ==In popular culture==