Samuel Little: Worst Serial Killer in American History?

Author:
Readmikenow
Updated:
Sep 11, 2023

The Worst Serial Killer in American History

Samuel Little has the title of being the most prolific serial killer in the history of the United States. He confessed to killing 93 people, mostly women. In 2012, Little was convicted of three murders, and in 2018, he was convicted of killing another woman. It was then that he started to confess to his many crimes and investigators started to understand the full scope of his horrific killing spree.

The FBI gathered evidence that proved Little was involved in approximately 60 of the 93 individuals he admitted to murdering. This is the largest number of deaths attributed to any serial killer in American history.

Early Years of Samuel Little

Samuel Little was born on June 7, 1940, in Reynolds, Georgia. He claimed his mother was a prostitute at the time. Soon after he was born, Little's family relocated to Lorain, Ohio, where he was raised by his grandmother.

Little was a student at Hawthorne Junior High School, where he struggled with discipline and academic achievement. Little told investigators that it was during this time that he started having sexual fantasies that involved strangling women. One of his hobbies was collecting true crime magazines, preferring the ones that depicted women being choked.

Criminal Behavior

Little was convicted of breaking and entering in 1956 into a property in Omaha, Nebraska. At 16, he was sent to an institution for juvenile offenders.

In the late 1960s, Little went to Florida to live with his mother. He held various jobs, from ambulance attendant to cemetery worker, and many others. According to Little, he started traveling more and continued to have run-ins with law enforcement. He was arrested in eight different states.

His crimes included aggravated assault, driving under the influence, armed robbery, fraud, solicitation, shoplifting, attacks on government officials, as well as rape. By the time he reached the age of 35, Little had been arrested more than 25 times in 11 states.

Murder Acquittals

It wasn't until 1982, in Pascagoula, Mississippi, that Little was charged for the first time with murder. Melinda Rose LáPree was 22 years old when she went missing. In this case, a grand jury did not indict Little.

After the decision by the grand jury, he was taken to Florida and tried for another woman's murder. The victim in this case was Patricia Ann Mount, 26. Her body was discovered in September 1982. Witnesses identified Little during his trial, but there was a high level of mistrust concerning their testimony, resulting in Little once again being acquitted of murder charges in 1984.

Convicted

After his acquittal, Little relocated to California and lived near San Diego. Months later, he was arrested for beating, kidnapping and strangling a woman named Laurie Barros. The 22-year-old woman survived the attack.

A month after this attack, law enforcement discovered Little in the back of a vehicle with a woman who was unconscious and had been beaten as well as strangled, near the area where Laurie Barros had been attacked. Little was convicted of both crimes and incarcerated for 2.5 years.

Little admitted that after he got out of prison, he relocated north to Los Angeles, where he claimed to have committed an additional 10 murders.

Additional Murders

Little was arrested in September 2012 in Louisville, Kentucky. He was living in a homeless shelter. Little was then sent to California to face a narcotics charge.

During the investigation, his DNA was used by officials to see if it matched forensic evidence found at crime scenes. The results established he had been involved with the murder of three women who were killed and left on the streets of Los Angeles.

Within a few months after these charges, Little was investigated for his possible involvement in over 30 different murders committed during the 1980s. Little was eventually tested for possible involvement in approximately 93 murders of women.

Samuel Little speaking with investigator

Trial and Prison

Little was once again put on trial for murder in September 2014. DNA evidence was used extensively by prosecutors, as well as witness testimony by people who had been attacked by Little. He was found guilty on September 25, 2014.

Little was given a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Prior to this conviction, Little was in prison for 10 years for various offenses.

Scroll to Continue

reader-review-of-how-to-solve-your-own-murder-by-kristen-perrin

business-magic-turning-ordinary-customers-into-raving-fans

Map of murders committed by Samuel Little

Confessions

Little decided to start confessing his murders. He did this in exchange for being transferred out of the Los Angeles County prison. In November 2018, the FBI announced it was able to confirm 34 of Little's confessed murders.

The FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VCAP) worked extensively on the rest of the murder confessions by Little. They proved his involvement in known murders as well as suspicious deaths. Little drew images of women he had killed. He made 16 portraits of his victims.

Drawings done by Samuel Little of his murder victims

Undetected

It is believed the reason Little's murder spree lasted so long and took so many victims is that he chose female victims who were on the fringes of society. They were usually drug addicts, sex workers, and the homeless—marginalized communities that rarely provoke a timely response from law enforcement.

Little attempted to rationalize his killing spree by explaining to authorities that he never killed a governor or senator or a fancy New York journalist. He told investigators he chose to stay in the ghetto.

Most of his victims continue to be unidentified. It is common for their deaths to have been listed as a drug overdose, accidental, or natural causes.

His method of murder involved punching his victims so hard that they would become unconscious. Little would then strangle them to death. His method of killing involved no stab wounds or bullets. This caused law enforcement to struggle with identifying the women he killed as victims of murder.

Death

Samuel Little died on December 30, 2020. He was in a Los Angeles County area hospital. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, there was no final determination as to what specifically caused Little's death. It is known that Little suffered from heart problems, diabetes, as well as other types of health conditions.