Samuel Cooper (serial killer)
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January 12, 1977
- First degree murder (5 counts)
- Armed robbery
Samuel Cooper | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Samuel James Cooper Jr. January 12, 1977 North Carolina, U.S. |
| Criminal status | Incarcerated |
| Convictions |
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| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment |
| Details | |
| Victims | 5 |
Span of crimes | 2006–2007 |
| Country | United States |
| State | North Carolina |
| Weapons |
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| Imprisoned at | Warren Correctional Institution, NC |
Samuel James Cooper Jr. (born January 12, 1977) is an American serial killer who murdered five men in North Carolina between 2006 and 2007. Convicted of five counts of first-degree murder, Cooper was spared a death sentence and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
One of four children born to Samuel Cooper Sr. and his wife Jacqueline, Cooper grew up in an abusive home. His father regularly beat his wife and children with a baseball bat, broomstick, leather belt, or his fists. Cooper, whom his mother knew as "Little Sammy", always got the worst abuse, which started by the time he was 3 months old; his mother recalled an incident where her husband shook and threw him because he was crying and then punched her in the face. One of Cooper's sisters described their father as "the devil" and even considered suicide due to the abuse. The children even once plotted to kill their father, but never acted on it.
By the time he was 13 years old, Cooper stopped crying during the beatings, and, according to a psychiatrist at his murder trial, stopped "feeling fear or fearing pain."[1][2][3]
Adult years
Cooper committed numerous crimes as an adult, including several armed robberies in 1994. In 1999, while serving time for the robberies, Cooper and two other inmates escaped by attacking and overpowering their supervisor, then taking control of his vehicle. When he was in court to be sentenced for the escape several months later, Cooper attacked a deputy in court and unsuccessfully tried to take her sidearm. He was released from prison for these crimes in February 2006.[4]