The inmate who claims to have killed more than 90 women across the country is now considered to be the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.
Samuel Little, who has been behind bars since 2012, told investigators last year that he was responsible for about 90 killings nationwide between 1970 and 2005. In a news release on Sunday, the FBI announced that federal crime analysts believe all of his confessions are credible, and officials have been able to verify 50 confessions so far.
Investigators also provided new information and details about five cases in Florida, Arkansas, Kentucky, Nevada and Louisiana.
The 79-year-old Little is serving multiple life sentences in California. He says he strangled his 93 victims, nearly all of them women.
Some of his victims were on the margins of society. Many were originally deemed overdoses, or attributed to accidental or undetermined causes. Some bodies were never found.
The unlucky 13: States bordering Canada are particularly hard-hit by trade war
Wendell Berry, 1934-2026
Trump admin’s list of US-designated ‘foreign terrorist’ groups in Latin America expands to 21
‘I’m coming home’: Last words haunt a 9/11 daughter 25 years later as she builds a legacy in his honor
Hasan Piker, cowboys, Charlie Kirk, and more: Top six takeaways from Republican midterm convention Night 2
Vance describes his hopes for baby son as he lays down a marker for 2028 with the speech of his life
Charlie Kirk supporters return to site of assassination 1 year later: ‘We are still standing’
Crowd erupts as Vance smacks down protester waving Mexican flag: ‘Get your a– over there’
Juror on Lindsay Clancy trial says ‘we let down Lindsay’ following mistrial
Top GOP senator reveals what Dem colleagues are fretting about behind closed doors
Patrol sergeant accused of murdering sheriff’s captain in yearslong romantic dispute over woman they dated
Several People Who Were Fired Over Charlie Kirk Comments Got Big Payouts or Were Given Their Jobs Back
Vance declares Democrats ‘party of hatred,’ says party has moved beyond big government, censorship
JD Vance to invoke Charlie Kirk, family ‘birthright’ in fiery midterm keynote speech thrashing Dems
Top Trump official reveals how 30-minute military op unlocked Venezuela oil windfall for US buyers
The FBI provided 30 drawings of some of his victims — color portraits that were drawn by Little himself in prison. They are haunting portraits, mostly of black women.
The agency also provided videos taken during prison interviews with Little. He described how he spoke about a woman he strangled in 1993 — and how he rolled her down a slope on a desolate road.
“I heard a secondary road noise and that meant she was still rolling,” he said.
In another video, he described a victim in New Orleans. “She was pretty. Light colored, honey brown skin,” he said with a small smile. “She was tall for a woman. Beautiful shape. And, uh, friendly.”
It was 1982, and they met in a club. She left with him in his Lincoln, and they parked by a bayou.
“That’s the only one that I ever killed by drowning,” he said.
Investigators around the country are still trying to piece together his confessions with unidentified remains and unsolved cases from decades past. In August , he pleaded guilty to murdering four women in Ohio. He was convicted in California of three slayings in 2013 and pleaded guilty to another killing last year in Texas.
The unlucky 13: States bordering Canada are particularly hard-hit by trade war
Wendell Berry, 1934-2026
Trump admin’s list of US-designated ‘foreign terrorist’ groups in Latin America expands to 21
‘I’m coming home’: Last words haunt a 9/11 daughter 25 years later as she builds a legacy in his honor
Hasan Piker, cowboys, Charlie Kirk, and more: Top six takeaways from Republican midterm convention Night 2
Vance describes his hopes for baby son as he lays down a marker for 2028 with the speech of his life
Charlie Kirk supporters return to site of assassination 1 year later: ‘We are still standing’
Crowd erupts as Vance smacks down protester waving Mexican flag: ‘Get your a– over there’
Juror on Lindsay Clancy trial says ‘we let down Lindsay’ following mistrial
Top GOP senator reveals what Dem colleagues are fretting about behind closed doors
Patrol sergeant accused of murdering sheriff’s captain in yearslong romantic dispute over woman they dated
Several People Who Were Fired Over Charlie Kirk Comments Got Big Payouts or Were Given Their Jobs Back
Vance declares Democrats ‘party of hatred,’ says party has moved beyond big government, censorship
JD Vance to invoke Charlie Kirk, family ‘birthright’ in fiery midterm keynote speech thrashing Dems
Top Trump official reveals how 30-minute military op unlocked Venezuela oil windfall for US buyers
Authorities in Knox County, Tennessee, said Monday that a woman named Martha Cunningham was likely a victim of Little’s.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reported in December that a cold case investigator with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office had identified the victim who Little called “Martha.” The Knoxville mother’s body was found in a wooded area in eastern Knox County in 1975.
Cunningham’s body was found by a pair of hunters on the afternoon of Jan. 18, 1975. She was bruised and nude from the waist down; her pantyhose and girdle bunched around her knees. Her purse and some of her jewelry were missing. Her body appeared to have been dragged into the woods and dumped behind a pine tree, authorities said at the time.
Despite that evidence, detectives at the time attributed Cunningham’s death to natural causes within a day of the discovery. The medical examiner’s investigative report lists the probable cause of death as “unknown.”
Cunningham was a talented singer and pianist who grew up performing with her parents and her six younger siblings in a gospel group known as the Happy Home Jubilee Singers.
Law enforcement in Tennessee had Little in custody 19 years after Cunningham’s body was found.
The unlucky 13: States bordering Canada are particularly hard-hit by trade war
Wendell Berry, 1934-2026
Trump admin’s list of US-designated ‘foreign terrorist’ groups in Latin America expands to 21
‘I’m coming home’: Last words haunt a 9/11 daughter 25 years later as she builds a legacy in his honor
Hasan Piker, cowboys, Charlie Kirk, and more: Top six takeaways from Republican midterm convention Night 2
Vance describes his hopes for baby son as he lays down a marker for 2028 with the speech of his life
Charlie Kirk supporters return to site of assassination 1 year later: ‘We are still standing’
Crowd erupts as Vance smacks down protester waving Mexican flag: ‘Get your a– over there’
Juror on Lindsay Clancy trial says ‘we let down Lindsay’ following mistrial
Top GOP senator reveals what Dem colleagues are fretting about behind closed doors
Patrol sergeant accused of murdering sheriff’s captain in yearslong romantic dispute over woman they dated
Several People Who Were Fired Over Charlie Kirk Comments Got Big Payouts or Were Given Their Jobs Back
Vance declares Democrats ‘party of hatred,’ says party has moved beyond big government, censorship
JD Vance to invoke Charlie Kirk, family ‘birthright’ in fiery midterm keynote speech thrashing Dems
Top Trump official reveals how 30-minute military op unlocked Venezuela oil windfall for US buyers
Little was convicted of misdemeanor larceny in 1994 in Nashville, Tennessee, and he was sentenced to 90 days in jail, according to Tennessee Bureau of Investigation criminal records obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
Story cited here.
