The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia native confesses to killing 90 around U.S. — 3 from Georgia
Samuel Little admits victims in 14 states, going back to 1970.
The question isn’t whether 78-year-old Middle Georgia native Samuel Little is a killer — it’s how prolific a killer he is.
Already serving life for strangling three California women, the old unknown boxer and drifter has lately been making confessions, so far claiming he’s killed more than 90 people across the country over four decades. Included among them are three from Georgia: Two women in Bibb County and a Columbus woman found just over the Alabama border.
Authorities are trying to vet his statements, while scouring files to see if he could be connected to more cold cases. Little is from tiny Taylor County, west of Macon.
In the Macon area, Little claims he killed 18-yearold Fredonia Smith, whose parents told The Telegraph newspaper she’d gone out for ice cream and never returned on July, 10 1982. Her remains were found a month later in someone’s backyard, according to the Bibb County Sheriff ’s Office. Little also said he killed a woman whose skeletal remains were discovered on the edge of some woods near Riverside Drive on Sept. 8, 1977. Her identity is still a mystery, though the Georgia Bureau of Investigation last year had an artist make a bust of what her face might’ve looked like.
Two Bibb investigators traveled to interview Little in a Texas jail, where he’s held in connection to yet another homicide.
“Little gave investigators specific details and information, which linked him to both ‘cold case’ homicides, where Little admitted to strangling both women,” Sheriff David Davis said in a news release. The sheriff ’s office didn’t release the specifics tying Little to the cases, other than the fact that Little mentioned a dirt road that investigators then located and found important to one of the deaths. A spokeswoman for the county district attorney’s office said she couldn’t comment because the cases were still under review.
The 18-year-old victim’s brother had harsh words for the man who claims to have killed his sister: “(I’d) put my hands around his neck and squeeze his neck and let him see how it feels, how he did all these women,” Eddie Smith said, according to Channel 2 Action News.
Columbus resident Brenda Alexander’s body turned up off a dirt road in Phenix City, Ala. on Aug. 27, 1979, nude but for her Timex calendar watch with a leather band, according to the Ledger-Enquirer. Detectives with the Alabama city’s police department also interviewed Little in the Texas jail, where he told them he strangled the 23-year-old after meeting her at a dance club in Columbus.
“I don’t believe he was making any of this stuff up. I think he’s just telling a story like he remembers it,” Capt. Jason Whitten of Phenix City police told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He gave some details of the crime that no one else would know.”
Whitten declined to release those details, because he’s still in the process of verifying Little’s statements and preparing a file to present to the local district attorney’s office for consideration. But the investigator said he’s confident the confession can bring resolution to the long-cold case and comfort to the victim’s family.
“They deserve some closure after all these years,” he said. “That’s what it should be about, not the sensational story of this serial killer.”
But Whitten knows how sensational the story is, especially considering Little isn’t like some notorious serial killers who go for decades, even their entire lives, avoiding police and prosecutors. Little has been arrested dozens of times and twice stood trial for violent crimes, including a homicide.
In January 1984, he was acquitted in the death of a 26-year-old mentally disabled woman found dead in fall of 1982 near Gainesville, Fla. A fiber analyst testified at the trial that hairs found on Patricia Ann Mount’s clothes “had the same characteristics as head hairs taken from” Little, Phenix City police who witnesses said had been seen leaving a bar with her, according to the Gainesville Sun. But when cross-examined, the analyst said “it was also possible for hairs to be transferred if two people bumped together.”
By October 1984, Little was arrested in San Diego, accused in the attempted murder of two prostitutes who had been kidnapped a month apart, driven to the same abandoned dirt lot, assaulted and choked, the Associated Press reported. Little was later found with one of the women, but the jury failed to reach a verdict, and Little later pleaded guilty to lesser charges of assault with great bodily injury and false imprisonment.
He served about 2-anda-half years of a four-year sentence and was paroled in 1987. According to him, he just kept killing.
He has now confessed to homicides from 1970 to 2005 in Georgia, Texas, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Illinois, Ohio, California, Indiana, Arizona, New Mexico and South Carolina, according to NBC News.
Little has been in the custody of various authorities since 2012, when he was picked up at a homeless shelter in Kentucky, the AP reported. He had been wanted for a small charge out of Louisiana: possession of a crack pipe. But DNA also connected him to three women strangled in the Los Angeles area in the late 1980s, and he was later convicted and sentenced to life.
The confessions started to flow in recent months after Texas Rangers and FBI agents began meeting with Little.
ACOSTA, Lillie Mae
Homegoing service for Mrs. Lillie Mae Acosta of Atlanta will be held on Wednesday, November 21, 2018 at 11:00 AM from Allen Temple AME Church. Family and friends are asked to assemble at the church the day of service at 10:00 AM. Pollard & Moore Funeral Home, Inc., 827 Pollard Blvd., SW Atlanta, GA 30315 404-688-7073.
ADEBAYO, Abosede
Of Riverdale, passed November 14, 2018. Dortch-Williamson Funeral & Cremation Services, Riverdale, GA.
ANDREWS (Dennis), Louise
Age 100, of Senoia, passed away November 15, 2018. Services Nov. 21, 1:00 PM at Sellers-Smith R.W.S. Memorial Chapel. Sellers-Smith Funeral Home, Inc., Newnan, GA.
BELCHER, Carlton Alexander
Carlton Alexander Belcher, 59, left this life early on the morning of November 16, 2018, after a brave year-long battle with cancer. A native Atlantan from Stone Mountain, Carlton was the fourth of five children of Ray and Peggy Belcher. He attended Clarkston High
School, Berry Academy,
Brevard College, and the University of New Mexico. He was as a project manager for The Boelter Companies in the food services and equipment division, designing commercial kitchens throughout the Southeast. Carlton adored his family. He enjoyed nothing more than entertaining, cooking on the grill for company, and watching Falcons football. He was a man of deep faith, devoted to Rising Church. Preceded in death by his father Ray K. Belcher and sister Patsy Van Ballegooijen, Carlton is survived by his mother Margaret (Peggy) Fender Belcher, wife of 25 years Elizabeth Boswell Belcher, daughters Lilly Jin Belcher and Cassie R. Clark (Kip Stovall), granddaughter Scarlett Ray Stovall, sister Carmen Belcher Dillard (Dennis), brothers Win Belcher (Rhonda), Mark Belcher, Jonathan Belcher, and many beloved nieces and nephews. The family will receive friends on Saturday, December 1, from 2:00 to 4:00, at Crowell Brothers Buford Chapel, 201 Morningside Drive, Buford. A celebration of life will be held on Sunday, December 2 at 2:30, at Rising Church (located in North Gwinnett High School, 20 Level Creek Road NW, Suwanee). A reception will be held immediately following the celebration of life. In lieu of flowers, please consider contributions to an education fund for Lilly: checks, PayPal.Me/lillyedufund, or Venmo: lilly-education-fund. On-line condolences may be expressed at www.crowellb rothers.com. Arrangements entrusted to Crowell Brothers Funeral Homes & Crematory, 5051 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, Peachtree Corners, GA 30092. 770-448-5757.
BENSON, Chris Anita
Age 50, of Ball Ground, passed away Nov. 16, 2018. Service Nov. 21, 11 AM at Ingram Funeral Home, Cumming, GA.
BOYD (Bliss), Beverly Anne
Age 85, of Lawrenceville, passed away November 18, 2018. No Services. Wages & Sons Funeral Home, Lawreenceville, GA.
‘They deserve some closure after all these years. That’s what it should be about, not the sensational story of this serial killer.’
Capt. Jason Whitten
BRODNAX, Jr., Charles Edward "C.E."
Charles E. Brodnax, Jr. of Atlanta, Georgia was born May 10, 1924, passed away November 16, 2018 and was the son of Charles E. Brodnax and Louise Veal Brodnax. He graduated from The Georgia Institute of Technology with degree in chemical engineering in 1948 and was a member of the Chi Phi fraternity. During World War II he joined the army and served in the Pacific from New Guinea to the Philippines and Japan. He was a partner in Practical Builders, a construction company, from 1953 until 2002. In 1951 he married Dawn Bachler and shared over 53 wonderful years with her until her passing in 2005. Charlie and Dawn were charter members of Dunwoody Country Club and life members of Ansley Golf Club. He enjoyed gardening, traveling and photography and his favorite sports were golf and fishing.
Charles is survived by his daughter Dee Dee McClellan and her husband Michael McClellan of Big Canoe, Georgia, daughter Deborah Field and her husband Mark Field of Roswell, Georgia, son Charles E. Brodnax III and his wife Jenny Barth Brodnax of Winter Park, Florida, three wonderful grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
The family will celebrate his life privately.
BUTLER, Alreatha Corien
Of Louisa, VA passed November 17, 2018. Dortch-Williamson Funeral & Cremation Services, Riverdale, GA.