Samuel P. Thompson was born in North Carolina on January 23, 1879. A resident of Montgomery County, in 1918 he was arrested for violating the prohibition law. He was sentenced to time on the Stanly County roadwork chain gang, but he was later pardoned by Governor Thomas W. Bickett. In 1926 Roberts testified against Nevin C. Cranford, his former superintendent on the chain gang who was on trial for murdering three African American prisoners. Thompson died in Montgomery County on August 24, 1943.