Michael Benneman Sams (born 11 August 1941)[1] is an English kidnapper, extortionist, rapist and murderer.
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".
[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.
], 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.
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.
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.
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.
Following her release, Slater felt unable to return to work as an estate agent, and moved to the Isle of Wight in 1993.
[17] 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.
[22][23] He had asked the senior investigating officer Detective Chief Superintendent, Bob Taylor, to visit him in jail.
"[26][27] Sams continued to offend after he was imprisoned, attacking a female probation officer with a metal spike in October 1995 at Wakefield Prison.
[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.
[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.
[35] 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.
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.