Officials release details of killer’s unidentified victims
Authorities have released new details on serial killer Samuel Little in hopes of solving dozens of murders that he’s believed to have committed in 19 states across the country, including in two Texas towns.
Little, also known as Samuel Mcdowell, is considered by many to be the “most prolific serial killer in U.S. history,” according to the FBI. He confessed to committing 93 murders from 1970 to 2005 and died in December 2020.
So far, more than 60 of his confessions
have been matched to victims through DNA or extensively corroborated interviews, officials said.
The murders that Little confessed to but that have not been resolved occurred from 1970 to 1977, including five in Florida; two in Louisiana; one in Cincinnati; one in Knoxville, Tenn.; 16 in Los
Angeles; one in Las Vegas; one in Charleston, S.C.; one in Gulfport, Miss.; and three in Georgia. There are additional unmatched cases in Texas — Wichita Falls and Houston — and in Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Arkansas and Arizona.
Born in Georgia, Little was a drifter who traveled around the country picking up victims, according to Newsweek. He targeted high-risk victims such as sex workers and drug addicts.
In 2012, he was arrested at a homeless shelter in Kentucky on drug charges, and investigators were able to link his DNA to several unsolved murders. Little was convicted of the murders and given four life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Little confessed his crimes to Texas Ranger James Holland in 2018 while authorities were investigating the murder of Odessa resident Denise Christine Brothers. The Texas Rangers interviewed Little extensively for the next two years until just before he died at age 80 in a California hospital.
Little, who was reported to have a photographic memory, described where he met and killed the victims, where he left their bodies and what they looked like.
But he was unable to provide accurate time frames or distances of the killings.
Investigators have faced the challenge of some of Little’s alleged killings being off by 10 years from the times he told investigators or being more than 40 miles from the locations he told them. Officials said years and distances provided by authorities should not be considered distinctive.
Nevertheless, Little was able to sketch portraits of his victims to aid investigators.
He told police that he strangled his victims, though authorities said the cause of death for the victims was more likely suffocation due to the bodies not having any broken or fractured hyoid bones, which are commonly seen in cases of strangulation. Also, multiple victims’ deaths were misclassified by medical examiners as drug overdoses or natural causes due to their lifestyles.
Two of Little’s victims were also drowned. He told authorities that he never shot or stabbed his victims.
Some bodies still have not been found, the FBI said.
Little was incarcerated several times: from May 28, 1971, to March 14, 1972; Nov. 25, 1982, to Jan. 18, 1984;
Oct. 25, 1984, to Feb. 1, 1987; June 5, 1988, to April 11, 1989; June 20, 1990, to Dec. 9, 1990; and Jan. 15, 1998, to April 26, 2002.
“The information contained in these narratives could be the missing piece to solving some of these murders,” said Steven Mccraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety. “It’s critical that anyone with information comes forward, as time is running out.”
The profiles on each unsolved case can be found here.
Anyone with information that could help investigators solve any of these cases is urged to contact the Texas Rangers at rangers@dps.texas.gov or 512-424-2160, or the FBI at 800CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov.