2021 deaths

Gary Lee Sampson (September 29, 1959 – December 21, 2021) was an American bank robber and later spree killer who killed three people and was sentenced to death by a federal jury in Massachusetts.
During three days in 2001, Sampson killed three strangers – retiree Philip McCloskey in Marshfield, Massachusetts, college student Jonathan Rizzo in Abington, Massachusetts, and Robert Whitney in Meredith, New Hampshire. He also attempted to kill a fourth victim and stranger, William Gregory, in Plymouth, Vermont. Sampson killed McCloskey and Rizzo after they picked him up hitch-hiking, stabbing them to death. Shortly after that he strangled Whitney. Sampson pleaded guilty to the three killings on September 9, 2003, and was sentenced to death on December 23, 2003, by a federal jury in Massachusetts. He received the death penalty for the two Massachusetts killings, and a life sentence for the New Hampshire case.After Sampson pleaded guilty, a federal jury decided whether he should be sentenced to death or life in prison. The defense introduced mental health experts to testify that Sampson had dyslexia as a child, had bipolar disorder, and "suffered from a significant mental impairment" during the killings. A psychiatrist called by the government testified that Sampson did not have any mitigating mental impairment; he was intelligent but violent and deeply antisocial, with antisocial personality disorder. The jury of 12 unanimously returned a sentence of death.
In 2011, Sampson's death sentence was thrown out due to juror misconduct, and he was scheduled for a second sentencing trial on September 16, 2015. He was again sentenced to death on January 9, 2017. He died in 2021 at the age of 62, presumably from end stage liver disease.

Leslie Richard McKeown (12 November 1955 – 20 April 2021) was a Scottish singer. He was the lead vocalist of the pop rock band Bay City Rollers during their most successful period in the 1970s.

François Moncla (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa mɔ̃kla]; 1 April 1932 – 28 November 2021) was a French rugby union footballer who played flanker. He won 31 caps for France between 1956 and 1961, including 18 as captain.
He was part of the France team that won the Five Nations Championship in 1959, 1960 and 1961 and that toured South-Africa in 1958, Argentina in 1960 and New-Zealand in 1961.
He won the national championship twice, in 1959 with Racing Club de France and in 1964 with Section Paloise.Moncla worked all his life at EDF-GDF. He was married with 3 children and lived in Pau. Moncla died on 28 November 2021, at the age of 89.

Jean-Pierre Bastiat (11 April 1949 – 3 February 2021) was a French international rugby union player. He played as a Lock and Number 8 for US Dax.
Bastiat was born in Pouillon, Landes. As a youngster, Bariet played basketball. He earned his first cap with the French national team on 14 December 1969 against Romania at Colombes. He won the 1970 and 1973 Five Nations Championships, as well as the Grand Slam in the 1977 Five Nations Championship. The next year he captained France replacing the retired Jacques Fouroux. He retired in 1978 due to a knee injury. In total, Bastiat made 32 appearances for France between 1969 and 1978.He died on 3 February 2021, following a stroke.

Jerry McGee (July 21, 1943 – March 29, 2021) was an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour.
McGee was born in New Lexington, Ohio. He attended Ohio State University and was a member of the golf team. He turned pro in 1966 and joined the PGA Tour in 1967.
McGee won four PGA Tour events in the latter half of the 1970s. In 1979, he won twice: a one shot win over Jerry Pate at the Kemper Open, and a couple of months later a one stroke win over Jack Renner at the Sammy Davis Jr.-Greater Hartford Open. His best finish in a major championship was T-5 at the 1972 Masters Tournament. He was a member of the 1977 Ryder Cup team.
McGee was known for his superb play around the greens. At 5 feet 9½ inches tall and a slim 160 pounds, distance in the ball striking phase of the game was a constant problem for him. He was also plagued by injuries and illnesses during his career. McGee retired from the PGA Tour in 1981 largely due to health problems. He took a club pro job at Oak Tree Country Club in Pennsylvania just across the border from his East Palestine, Ohio home.
McGee returned to competitive golf on the Senior PGA Tour in 1993 upon reaching the age of 50. His best finish in this venue is a T-2 at the 1997 BankBoston Classic. In 1999, he underwent treatment for oropharyngeal, squamous cell carcinoma.
McGee's son, Mike McGee, a golf agent/businessman, and one-time record-setting pitcher at Mt. Union College, is married to LPGA Tour golfer Annika Sörenstam.McGee died March 29, 2021, in Florida at the age of 77.

Paige Rense, also known as Paige Rense Noland (May 4, 1929 – January 1, 2021) was an American writer and editor who served as editor-in-chief of Architectural Digest magazine from 1975 until 2010. She founded the Arthur Rense Prize poetry award. Rense also transformed the cooking magazine Bon Appétit into its modern format, was editor-in-chief of GEO, and wrote a mystery novel, Manor House (Doubleday, 1997).

Carolina "Carla" Fracci (Italian: [ˈkarla ˈfrattʃi]; 20 August 1936 – 27 May 2021) was an Italian prima ballerina, actress and ballet director. Considered one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century, she was a leading dancer of La Scala Theatre Ballet in Milan, then worked freelance with international companies including the Royal Ballet, London, Stuttgart Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. Fracci is known for her interpretation of leading characters in several Romantic ballets, such as La Sylphide, Giselle, Swan Lake, and Romeo and Juliet. She also performed in ballets such as Nijinsky and Complete Bell Telephone Hour Performances: Erik Bruhn 1961–1967. She danced with partners including Erik Bruhn, Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Later, she directed several ballet companies in Italy, including at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in Rome.
According to Bruhn, she "gave the world a new idea of the ballerina in 19th-century Romantic ballets". She appeared with many of the leading companies of the world, and received multiple honours for her performances.

Stephen Davison Bechtel Jr. (May 10, 1925 – March 15, 2021) was an American billionaire, businessman, civil engineer, and co-owner of the Bechtel Corporation. He was the son of Stephen Davison Bechtel Sr. and grandson of Warren A. Bechtel, who founded the Bechtel Corporation. He was known for expanding the global footprint of the corporation through several of its international projects. Some of the projects executed under his leadership of the company included King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh as well as Jubail Industrial City in Saudi Arabia as well as oil platforms in the North Sea, liquefied natural gas plants in Algeria, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates.
Bechtel also served on the board of General Motors and International Business Machines. He had a bachelor's degree from the Purdue University and a master's degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
At the time of his death, he had a net worth of nearly US$3 billion according to Forbes.