US inmate confesses to 90 killings over four decades

DALLAS: A man convicted of three California murders and long suspected in numerous other deaths now claims he was involved in about 90 killings across the US spanning nearly four decades, and investigators already have corroborated about a third of those.

Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland said 78yearold Samuel Little was booked into jail this week following his indictment in the 1994 death of a Texas woman. Investigations were ongoing, but Little had provided details of more than 90 deaths dating to about 1970, Bland said.

Little was brought to Texas in September, and investigators with law enforcement agencies in several states travelled to speak with him about unsolved homicides.

‘‘They’re able to match up over 30 cases so far,’’ Bland said.

‘‘So far we don’t have any false information coming from him.’’

If the number of killings Little claims to have committed proves true, it would make him one of the most prolific killers in US 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.

During his 2014 trial in Los Angeles, prosecutors said it was likely Little was responsible for at least 40 killings since 1980.

Bland said Little recently provided details to Texas Ranger James Holland that showed Little was in Odessa, Texas, when Denise Christie Brothers was last seen in 1994. Her body was found about a month later in a vacant lot. Holland eventually elicited a confession from Little and admissions to dozens of other killings from about 1970 to 2005, Bland said.

Little was being held without bond yesterday in the Ector County jail on a murder charge relating to Brothers’ death.

Little was brought to Texas for questioning in the case from California, where he was convicted in 2014 in the deaths years earlier of the three women in Los Angeles County. DNA evidence collected from old crime scenes was used to match samples of his stored in a criminal database.

Los Angeles coldcase detectives at the time suspected Little was a serial killer, a transient and former boxer who travelled the country preying on drug addicts, troubled women and others. His criminal history includes offences committed in 24 states spread over 56 years.

For years Little had denied to investigators in different states that he was responsible for any killings. Bland speculates that he finally confessed after the appeals to his life sentence in California were ultimately rejected and he no longer had any reason to hide his role.— AP