THE most wanted man in Britain settled back in his armchair and
laughed when his wife jokingly suggested that the police would be round
to question him for kidnap and suspicion of murder.
Michael Benneman Sams and his third wife, Teena, were watching
television at their oak-beamed cottage in Sutton-on-Trent when the case
was highlighted and mentioned a suspect car.
''You have a red Metro, they'll be coming to see you about it,'' said
Mrs Sams.
Shortly afterwards, police arrested Sams and took away his Austin
Metro.
Sams was taken to Millgarth Police Station, Leeds, headquarters of the
hunt for the killer of teenager Julie Dart.
''He was a smarmy bastard, a nasty piece of work, with a smile on his
face all the time,'' said one police officer.
As a prisoner, Sams kept up a barrage of complaints to the police
about his treatment.
Sams always seemed an unlikely candidate because of the ingenious way
in which he duped 1000 police officers during the ransom ''drop''
exercise.
How could a man with only one leg outwit and outrun the cream of West
Midlands police?
Shortly after losing his leg, he married his second wife Leeds
Polytechnic catering student Jane Marks at Silsden Methodist Church,
West Yorkshire, on November 11, 1978.
His first wife was Susan Little, a textile tester, from Keighley, West
Yorkshire. They had two sons, Robert and Charles.
It was during this marriage that Sams took up running as a serious
pastime and for 10 years was a member of the Bingley Harriers Club.
The Sams family moved to Oakworth, near the Bronte village of Haworth.
They enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle and Sams earned a good living as a
central heating engineer, but things began to turn sour.
Treasured model railway equipment worth #2000 was stolen from his
home, his wife left him, and there was the amputation operation.
Susan and Sams separated in 1976 and were divorced the following year.
It was Susan (Now Mrs Susan Oake) who recognised the voice from a tape
recording sent to the police and played on BBC TV's Crimewatch
programme.
Mrs Oake had been watching the programme at home in Riddlesden, West
Yorkshire, with sons Robert and Charles. Minutes later, they were
telephoning the police.
After his marriage to Barbara Marks ended, Sams moved to Peterborough,
where he met and married third wife Teena, now 43.
Detectives chasing Michael Sams had to admit his scheme for collecting
the #175,000 ransom for Stephanie Slater's release was little short of
brilliant.
As he waited in a railway cutting 85ft beneath a bridge, he used a
tray attached to rope, and simply pulled on the rope to bring the money
tumbling to his feet.
But Sams was initially trapped by a very basic blunder -- he failed to
disguise his voice when relaying instructions over Ms Slater's ransom.
His inability to spell also proved to be a key part of the jigsaw that
convinced police they had the right man.
The trail of clues which finally led to Sams included:
* Several blackmail letters written by Julie Dart's kidnapper and
killer were littered with spelling mistakes.
After his arrest, detectives got Sams to write sentences containing
the same words. His spelling errors exactly matched those on the ransom
demands.
* When he attempted to collect a #140,000 ransom from police for Julie
Dart, Sams warned he could detect any surveillance activity.
The ''detector'' was coated in a silver paint only available in
specialist model-making shops. Railway buff Sams had a model train set
laid out in his loft, including a home-made water tower coated with the
same paint.
* Ms Darts's body was trussed with rope imported from Portugal and
sold in the UK through only a handful of retailers. One was Parkers of
Peterborough, where Sams used to be a regular customer.
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