Image copyright Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Image caption Little was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2014 for three murders in the 1980s (file photograph)

An imprisoned murderer is being investigated after confessing to 90 killings across four decades in the US.

The FBI believe Samuel Little, who is 78, may be among the most prolific serial killers in US criminal history.

State and federal agencies are now working to match his confessions with the deaths of dozens of women across the country from 1970 to 2005.

Investigators say they have already linked him to 34 murders and are working to corroborate many others.

Little is currently serving life in prison after being sentenced in 2014 for the murders of three women.

He has been in custody since September 2012 when he was arrested at a Kentucky homeless shelter and transferred to California where he was wanted on a drugs charge.

DNA samples taken from Little were then linked to the unsolved deaths of three women in Los Angeles county in 1987 and 1989.

All three of those victims had been beaten and strangled before their bodies were dumped separately.

He pleaded not guilty at trial, but was eventually sentenced to three consecutive life sentences with no chance of parole.

Before that he already had an extensive criminal record, with offences including rape and armed robbery.

The murder convictions led to Little being referred to the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) - a scheme that works to analyse serial offenders of violent and sexual crimes, and share information with local law enforcement agencies to cross-reference unsolved crimes.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Pearl Nelson (left) holds a photo of her mother Audrey Nelson, who Little was found guilty of murdering

Officials from the programme say they then uncovered an "alarming pattern" and "compelling links" to many more murders across the US.

One unsolved cold-case murder in Odessa, Texas of a woman named Denise Christie Brothers was then pursued by local authorities.

A local ranger, James Holland, then travelled to California with ViCAP team members earlier this year to interview Little.

They say Little agreed to talk to them because he was hoping to move prisons.

The FBI say that Little has confessed to 90 killings in total - stretching states across the breadth of the US, from California to Maryland.

The ViCap team said in a news release earlier this week they had so far established his ties to 34 deaths, with many others apparently pending confirmation.

"Over the course of that interview in May, he went through city and state and gave Ranger Holland the number of people he killed in each place. Jackson, Mississippi - one; Cincinnati, Ohio - one; Phoenix, Arizona - three; Las Vegas, Nevada - one," ViCAP Crime Analyst Christina Palazzolo said in the report.

They believe Little particularly targeted marginalised and vulnerable women who were involved in prostitution or addicted to drugs.

Investigators say their bodies were often left unidentified and their deaths un-investigated by authorities.

"Little's method of killing also didn't always leave obvious signs that the death was a homicide. The one-time competitive boxer usually stunned or knocked out his victims with powerful punches and then strangled them," the FBI report said.

"With no stab marks or bullet wounds, many of these deaths were not classified as homicides but attributed to drug overdoses, accidents, or natural causes," it continued.

A large number are believed to have taken place in the 1970s and early 1980s before DNA technology was available to police.

Image copyright Wise County Jail Image caption A recent mugshot of Little, who reportedly also went by the name Samuel McDowell

Beth Silverman, the Los Angeles County prosecutor who helped convict Little in 2014, told the New York Times that "a lot of agencies around the country...dropped the ball on this case".

"He got off over and over and over again," she told the newspaper.

The FBI says the 78-year-old is "in poor health" and is likely to now remain in prison in Texas until his death, where he was transferred from California after admitting the Odessa killing.

The bureau says it is continuing to work alongside Ranger Holland, who is said to be interviewing Little "nearly daily", to help build an accurate and full picture of his crimes.

"The biggest lesson in this case is the power of information sharing," Kevin Fitzsimmons, ViCAP's supervisory crime analyst said in the FBI report.

"A Jane Doe [unidentified victim] who turned up dead in an alley in New Orleans may look like an isolated event but when entered into the ViCAP database and examined with other mysterious deaths or missing persons, patterns emerge. That is the value of ViCAP."</s>“Over the course of that interview in May,” said Palazzolo, who was sitting down the hall combing through data with Williamson, “he went through city and state and gave Ranger Holland the number of people he killed in each place. Jackson, Mississippi—one; Cincinnati, Ohio—one; Phoenix, Arizona—three; Las Vegas, Nevada—one.” In total, Little confessed to 90 killings, and Palazzolo and Williamson have been working to match up evidence to as many confessions as they can. Thus far, the team has confirmed 34 killings with many more pending confirmation. There are still a number of Little’s confessions that remain uncorroborated.

Williamson and Palazzolo say Little remembers his victims and the killings in great detail. He remembers where he was, and what car he was driving. He draws pictures of many of the women he killed. He is less reliable, however, when it comes to remembering dates. Little’s uncertain timeline has created a verification challenge for the ViCAP team, along with the issues stemming from the victims Little targeted, his methods, and how much he moved around—features of his crimes that begin to explain how he got away with murder for decades.

From the time Little dropped out of high school and left his Ohio home in the late 1950s, he lived a nomadic life. Palazzolo and Williamson said he would shoplift and steal in a city or town to gather the money to buy alcohol and drugs, but never stayed in one place for long. He would drive from New Jersey to California in a matter of days, reports Palazzolo, and when he had his many run-ins with police, they often just wanted to shoo him out of town.

Little chose to kill marginalized and vulnerable women who were often involved in prostitution and addicted to drugs. Their bodies sometimes went unidentified and their deaths uninvestigated.

Little’s method of killing also didn’t always leave obvious signs that the death was a homicide. The one-time competitive boxer usually stunned or knocked out his victims with powerful punches and then strangled them. With no stab marks or bullet wounds, many of these deaths were not classified as homicides but attributed to drug overdoses, accidents, or natural causes.

In addition, DNA evidence was often not available or could not provide a clear link back to Little. A large number of the killings occurred in the 1970s and early 1980s, before DNA profiling was part of the law enforcement toolbox. After DNA analysis came into play, the victims’ work as prostitutes complicated the ability of police to gather telling physical evidence.

After Holland interviewed Little, he was indicted for the Odessa homicide and extradited to Texas a few months later. He remains in the custody of Odessa, but has been housed in Wise County for some time to be closer to Holland, who has been conducting nearly daily interviews to create the most accurate accounting possible of Little’s crimes. Palazzolo and Williamson have continued to gather new information from these interviews and are examining every tie they can find, from mortuary records and death certificates to cold case files.

“The biggest lesson in this case is the power of information sharing,” said Kevin Fitzsimmons, ViCAP’s Supervisory Crime Analyst. “These connections all started in our database of violent crime.”

Palazzo and Williamson said the cases that were recorded in ViCAP made for early and easy connections. The absence of data on so many others is what has made confirming Little’s accounts difficult and is perhaps part of what allowed his crimes to continue for so long.

“A Jane Doe who turned up dead in an alley in New Orleans may look like an isolated event,” stressed Fitzsimmons. “But when entered into the ViCAP database and examined with other mysterious deaths or missing persons, patterns emerge. That is the value of ViCAP. “

Little is in poor health and will likely stay in prison in Texas until his death. The goal now is to identify his victims and provide closure and justice in unsolved cases. ViCAP is also hoping this case will serve as a reminder to every jurisdiction of the importance of consistent violent crime reporting.

For more information or to report potential case links to Samuel Little, contact ViCAP at 800-634-4097.</s>A convicted murderer has confessed to 90 murders spanning four decades, making him one of America's most prolific serial killers.

Samuel Little, 78, is already serving a life sentence after being convicted of killing three women in 2014 but is now being investigated in connection to dozens more unsolved cases.

In a report released this week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said Little was able to evade detection by preying mainly on drug addicts and prostitutes in a murder spree that stretched from coast to coast.

A former boxer, Little would stun his victims with a powerful blow before strangling them, meaning many of the deaths were attributed to drug over doses or natural causes, the agency said.

A large number of the murders were also committed in the 1970s and early 1980s, before DNA profiling was common practice.</s>Samuel Little, who often went by the name Samuel McDowell, leaves the Ector County Courthouse after attending a pre-trial hearing.

Samuel Little, who often went by the name Samuel McDowell, leaves the Ector County Courthouse after attending a pre-trial hearing.

A 78-YEAR-OLD DRIFTER in prison in Texas has confessed to 90 murders and is being investigated as possibly the most prolific serial killer in US history.

Samuel Little preyed mainly on drug addicts and prostitutes during a decades-long murder spree that stretched from coast to coast, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said in a report.

Little, a 6ft 3in former boxer also known as Samuel McDowell was arrested at a homeless shelter in Kentucky in 2012 and extradited to California to face drug charges.

Once there, DNA evidence linked him to three cold cases and Little was convicted in 2014 of murdering three women in Los Angeles between 1987 and 1989.

All three had been beaten and strangled.

Sentenced to life in prison, Little was transferred to Texas in connection with the investigation into another murder.

Bobby Bland, district attorney of Ector County where Little is being held, said he eventually confessed to the 1994 murder of Denise Christie Brothers in Odessa, Texas.

And after a Texas Ranger named James Holland gained his trust, Little began confessing to dozens of other murders committed between 1970 and 2005, Bland said.

FBI crime analyst Christina Palazzolo said during the course of an interview in May 2018, Little “went through city and state and gave Ranger Holland the number of people he killed in each place.

“Jackson, Mississippi — one; Cincinnati, Ohio — one; Phoenix, Arizona — three; Las Vegas, Nevada—one…” Palazzolo said.

A total of 90 murders in all, of which law enforcement has so far verified 34 killings.

These incidents are either linked to victims who have not yet been identified (Jane Does) or to murders described by Samuel Little that have not yet been definitively corroborated by law enforcement (unmatched confessions). Source: FBI/Google

“Little will be confirmed as one of, if not the most, prolific serial killers in US history,” Bland said in a statement.

The deadliest known US serial killer is believed to be Gary Ridgway, the so-called “Green River Killer” convicted of 49 murders who is serving a life sentence in Washington state.

The FBI said it was working with the Department of Justice, Texas Rangers and dozens of state and local agencies to match Little’s confessions to unsolved murders across the country.

According to the FBI, Little “remembers his victims and the killings in great detail” but is “less reliable, however, when it comes to remembering dates”.

Because his victims were mostly drug addicts and prostitutes, in some cases the women were never identified and their deaths were not investigated.

“Little’s method of killing also didn’t always leave obvious signs that the death was a homicide,” the FBI said.

“The one-time competitive boxer usually stunned or knocked out his victims with powerful punches and then strangled them,” it said.

Little grew up in Ohio, dropped out of high school and lived a “nomadic life,” shoplifting or stealing to buy alcohol and drugs, the FBI said.

His criminal record dates back to 1956 with arrests for shoplifting, fraud, drugs and breaking and entering.

He was accused of murdering women in Mississippi and Florida in the early 1980s but was not convicted.

The FBI said Little is in poor health and is likely to spend the remainder of his days in prison in Texas.

The FBI did not say what ailments he suffers from but The New York Times said he is wheelchair-bound and has heart disease and diabetes.

Sergeant Michael Mongeluzzo, a Florida detective, told the Times that he had asked Little during an interrogation how he managed to avoid arrest for all these years.

“I can go into my world and do what I want to do,” Mongeluzzo recalled Little as saying. “I won’t go into your world.”</s>A 78-year-old convicted murderer serving a life sentence in a Texas prison has confessed to killing 90 women over nearly four decades – which, if his confessions are confirmed, could make him one of the worst serial killers in American history.

Samuel Little, who is serving a life term without the possibility of parole after being found guilty in 2014 of three murders in California, confessed to killings in multiple states during an interview with law enforcement officials in May. Police have linked Little, described by the FBI as having a “dark, violent streak”, to 34 murders and are working to corroborate many others.

The FBI, which this week released a report into Little’s criminal past, said in a statement: “Law enforcement has only recently begun unraveling the true extent of his crimes.”

Little’s “nomadic lifestyle” and violent history have sent investigators looking across 36 cities and 16 states at his alleged crimes. Little was convicted four years ago over the deaths years earlier of the three women in Los Angeles area.

The FBI’s Kevin Fitzsimmons said: “The biggest lesson in this case is the power of information sharing. These connections all started in our database of violent crime.”

Little’s known crimes began in 1956, as he crisscrossed the country shoplifting, soliciting prostitutes, committing fraud and burglary.

The earliest murders released to the public began in the 1970s, before DNA matching was widely available, and continued until 2005. He escaped prosecution and conviction more than once, even as several women escaped him.

Christina Palazzolo, a crime analyst with the FBI, said that when Little did have run-ins with police, they often simply shooed him out of town. The FBI said Little preyed on women who were sex workers or addicted to drugs, and whose “bodies sometimes went unidentified and their deaths uninvestigated”.

In the early 1980s, Little was charged with killing more than one woman in Mississippi and Florida. However, he escaped indictment in Mississippi, and was not convicted in Florida. He spent time in jail for assaulting a woman in Missouri and for holding a woman against her will in California.

Little was finally arrested in 2012 in a Kentucky homeless shelter, wanted on drug charges in California. He was sent to Los Angeles, where police tested his DNA. He was connected to three unsolved murders between 1987 and 1989 and convicted of those crimes in 2014.

Then Los Angeles police contacted the FBI, asking agents to build a profile on the killer. The FBI found several possible cases involving Little, the strongest of which was in Odessa, Texas.

In May, Texas Ranger James B Holland joined Palazzolo to interview Little. Little confessed to 90 murders, and Palazzolo sat down the hall, “combing through data”.

Little, Palazzolo said, “went through city and state and gave Ranger Holland the number of people he killed in each place. Jackson, Mississippi – one; Cincinnati, Ohio – one; Phoenix, Arizona – three; Las Vegas, Nevada – one”.

The remainder of Little’s confessions remain uncorroborated, and many of the victims remain unidentified. Investigators said Little remembers his victims well, but not when he killed them, making cases difficult to confirm. Little is in poor health, and the FBI said it is working with him to identify victims before his almost certain death in prison.</s>A 78-year-old inmate sentenced to life behind bars for the murders of three women in the United States, recently confessed to 90 homicides between 1970 and 2005, the FBI said.

If confirmed, this number of murders would make Samuel Little one of the most prolific serial killers in US history.</s>Convicted murder and former boxer Samuel Little has confessed to killing 90 people since the 1970s.If the number of killings Little claims to have committed proves true, it would make him one of the most prolific killers in U.S. history. Ted Bundy confessed to 30 homicides from about 1974 to 1978. John Wayne Gacy killed at least 33 boys and young men in the 1970s.Little, 78, is serving a life sentence for murdering three women in California.Now, officials around the country are working to investigate his claims.So far, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it has corroborated 36 of the killings, ABC News reported Now, they're working to confirm another 60 in 16 states across the country, which span more than 40 years.In many cases, Little claims he strangled his victims--who were often vulnerable women involved in drugs or prostitution--in the back seat of his car, ABC News reported.The cases were often not investigated or occurred before DNA profiling existed.Little evaded police for years, but it wasn't until he was picked up for a drug charge in 2012 that officials started to connect the dots.Authorities said DNA evidence linked him to three unsolved murders in the late 1980s."In all three cases, the women had been beaten and then strangled, their bodies dumped in an alley, a dumpster, and a garage," the FBI said a report.He was extradited to Texas in July and charged with the 1994 murder of an Odessa woman.One of Little's confessions involves the fatal shooting of a woman in Richland County, South Carolina, in September 1978, the Associated Press reported.Records state that Little confessed to shooting Evelyn Weston, 19, in the head.Another killing is of an unidentified 19-year-old woman in Laurel, Maryland, more than 45 years ago.According to the Associated Press, Little said he picked the victim up at a Washington bus station and she indicated she was recently divorced, from the Massachusetts area and might be a mother.Detectives are working to identify her.</s>A 78-year-old serial killer convicted of three murders has now confessed to killing about 90 women in a decades-long, multi-state crime spree, and the FBI is working to match his confessions with cold cases around the country. If his claims are confirmed, Samuel Little would be one of the most prolific serial killers in American history.

Little was convicted in 2014 after DNA evidence tied him to three murders of women in Los Angeles from the 1980s. "In all three cases, the women had been beaten and then strangled, their bodies dumped in an alley, a dumpster, and a garage," the FBI said in a statement Tuesday. "Little asserted his innocence throughout his trial—even as a string of women testifying for the prosecution told of narrowly surviving similarly violent encounters with Little."

Now, Little is no longer maintaining his innocence. He has confessed to scores of other murders throughout the U.S. dating back to at least the 1970s.

A DNA hit on Little and a subsequent background check by the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) showed "an alarming pattern and compelling links to many more murders," the FBI said. Investigators found one clear connection between Little and a cold case out of Odessa, Texas, and went to interview Little, who is currently serving three life sentences without parole.

Little wanted to move prisons. In exchange for a move, he was willing to talk, the FBI said.

During the May 2018 interview, Little listed cities and states and told officials the number of people he murdered in each, ViCAP Crime Analyst Christina Palazzolo said. "Jackson, Mississippi—one; Cincinnati, Ohio—one; Phoenix, Arizona—three; Las Vegas, Nevada—one," Palazzolo recounted.

Little was indicted for the Odessa homicide and was extradited to Texas, where he remains in custody. He is in poor health and will likely remain in Texas until his death, the FBI said.

Now, Palazzolo and Angela Williamson, Department of Justice Senior Policy Advisory and ViCAP Liaison, are working to match his confessions to as many cold cases as they can.

The team has confirmed 34 killings so far, with many more pending confirmation, according to the FBI's statement. However, many more of Little's confessions remain uncorroborated.

CBS affiliate WKRG in Mobile, Alabama, reports that at least two of the murders Little confessed to occurred there.

Mobile Police Major John Barber said, "We sent a detective over to Texas in November to interview Samuel little. He gave information to our detective relating to two unsolved homicides in 1984 that would suggest he would be the one that committed the crimes due to the information he had was intimate to somebody that had been there that night."

Little has not been formally charged in those killings, but WKRG reports the two cases will be sent to the grand jury to seek an indictment.

The FBI said Little, a one-time competitive boxer, had several run-ins with the law dating back to the 1950s. He was charged with assaulting or killing several women in different states in the 1980s, but there wasn't enough evidence for the juries to convict him.

Little's murder victims were often "marginalized and vulnerable" women connected to drugs and prostitution, the FBI said. Some of the bodies were unidentified, and many of the murders took place before DNA profiling was a reliable tool for investigators.

Texas Ranger James Holland has been conducting nearly daily interviews with Little, while Palazzolo and Williamson are examining mortuary records, death certificates and cold case files, trying to gather as much detail as they can to see if other unsolved murder cases can finally be closed.

"The biggest lesson in this case is the power of information sharing," said Kevin Fitzsimmons, ViCAP's Supervisory Crime Analyst. "These connections all started in our database of violent crime."

"The goal now is to identify his victims and provide closure and justice in unsolved cases," the FBI statement said. Nearly six decades after he first started breaking the law, investigators are just now beginning to unravel the true extent of Little's crimes.</s>Local investigators say a Texas inmate who’s spent months confessing to killings across the United States has confessed to two unsolved murders in Mobile in 1984. 

 

 If what he’s told authorities is true, Samuel Little, 78, would be among the most prolific serial killers in United States’ history. Since May, he’s confessed to at least 90 murders in multiple states between 1970 and 2005. 

 

 Little began making his confessions in exchange for a prison transfer earlier this year. At the time, he was already serving three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole following a 2014 conviction f0r three homicides in California between 1987 and 1989. 

 



He is currently incarcerated in Wise County, Texas. 

 

 Authorities first announced Little’s confessions earlier this month, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported Wednesday that its Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) has confirmed 34 murders so far, with many others still pending confirmation.

 

 As first reported by WKRG, the Mobile Police Department now says two of those confessions were to the 1984 murders in Mobile. Little hasn’t been formally charged locally, but police say he confessed to the unsolved killings of Mae Campbell and Hannah Mae Bonner, both from Mobile. 

 

 According to the FBI, Little lived a “nomadic life” and drifted from city to city and through several Gulf States including Florida, Mississippi and Alabama. In a news release, the FBI reported Little has had trouble remembering the exact time of the murders he’s confessed to but recalls vivid details of each. 

 

 According to MPD, after hearing from federal investigators, a detective was sent to Texas to interview Little earlier this month. During the interview, Little gave “intimate” information to the detective about Campbell and Bonner’s murders, suggesting he was there the night they died. 

 

 The information collected by local investigators will be presented to a Mobile County grand jury to determine whether he’ll faces charges for those murders. Other confessions Little has made, if proven true, would place Little in the Southeast during at least part of that year. 

 

 Investigators say Little confessed to multiple killings in Florida, one in Georgia, five in Mississippi that were reported in 1984 the Southeastern U.S. Some of those were reported in cites as close to Mobile as Pascagoula and Gulfport, Mississippi. 

 

 The FBI reported Little was actually charged with killing women in Mississippi and Florida in the early 1980s but escaped indictment in the case in Mississippi and conviction in the other.</s>WASHINGTON - A 78-year-old drifter in prison in Texas has confessed to 90 murders and is being investigated as possibly the most prolific serial killer in US history.

Samuel Little preyed mainly on drug addicts and prostitutes during a decades-long murder spree that stretched from coast to coast, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said in a report.

Little, a 1.9m former boxer, was arrested at a homeless shelter in Kentucky in 2012 and extradited to California to face drug charges.

Once there, DNA evidence linked him to three cold cases and Little was convicted in 2014 of murdering three women in Los Angeles between 1987 and 1989. All three had been beaten and strangled.

Sentenced to life in prison, Little was transferred to Texas in connection with an investigation into another murder.

District Attorney of Ector County Bobby Bland said he eventually confessed to the 1994 murder of Denise Christie Brothers in Odessa, Texas.

And after a Texas Ranger named James Holland gained his trust, Little began confessing to dozens of other murders committed between 1970 and 2005, Mr Bland said.

FBI crime analyst Christina Palazzolo said during the course of an interview in May, Little "went through city and state and gave Ranger Holland the number of people he killed in each place.

"Jackson, Mississippi - one; Cincinnati, Ohio - one; Phoenix, Arizona - three; Las Vegas, Nevada - one..." Ms Palazzolo said.

A total of 90 murders in all, of which law enforcement has so far verified 34 killings.

"Little will be confirmed as one of, if not the most, prolific serial killers in US history," Mr Bland said in a statement.

The deadliest known US serial killer is believed to be Gary Ridgway, the so-called Green River Killer convicted of 49 murders, who is serving a life sentence in Washington state.

The FBI is working with the Department of Justice, Texas Rangers and state and local agencies to match Little's confessions to unsolved murders.

According to the FBI, Little "remembers his victims and the killings in great detail" but is "less reliable, however, when it comes to remembering dates".

Because his victims were mostly drug addicts and prostitutes, in some cases the women were never identified and their deaths were not investigated.
Convicted murderer Samuel Little confesses to murdering 90 women between 1970 and 2005, making him one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has confirmed 34 of his confessions and are now working to confirm the others.