The man dubbed the most prolific serial killer in US history dies

LOS ANGELES (AP) – The man who authorities say was the most prolific serial killer in US history, with nearly 60 confirmed victims, died in California on Wednesday. He was 80.

Samuel Little, who had diabetes, heart problems and other conditions, died in a California hospital, according to the State Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He was serving a life sentence for multiple murders.

Corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters said there was no sign of foul play and that his cause of death will be determined by a coroner.

Little was a professional criminal who had spent decades in prison and for years denied ever killing anyone.

Then, in 2018, he opened up to Texas Ranger James Holland, who was asked to question him about a murder that Little turned out not to have committed. However, during about 700 hours of interviews, Little provided details of dozens of massacres that only the killer would know.

A skilled artist, he even provided Holland with dozens of paintings and drawings of his victims, sometimes scribbling their names if he could remember them, as well as details such as the year and location of the murder and where he dumped the body.

By the time of his death, Little had confessed to killing 93 people between 1970 and 2005. Most of the massacres took place in Florida and Southern California.

Authorities, who continue to investigate his claims, said they have confirmed nearly 60 murders and have no reason to doubt the others.

“Nothing he has ever said has been proven wrong or untrue,” Holland told CBS news magazine “60 Minutes” in 2019.

The numbers are smaller than Green River killer Gary Ridgeway (49), John Gacy (33) and Ted Bundy (36).

Almost all of Little’s victims were women, many of them prostitutes, drug addicts or poor people living on the margins of society. They were individuals, he said he believed, who would leave few people to look for them and not much evidence for the police to track.

Indeed, local authorities in states across the country initially classified many of the deaths as accidents, drug overdoses, or the result of unknown causes.

Most of his victims strangled Little, usually shortly after meeting them during chance encounters. He drowned one, a woman he met in a nightclub in 1982.

He was nearly 80, in poor health, and serving a life sentence in a California prison when he began confiding in Holland in May 2018, after years of refusing to speak to other authorities. Once a strong, sturdy boxer who used his powerful hands to strangle his victims, he now used a wheelchair to get around.

Holland has described Little as both a genius and a sociopath, adding that the killer could never adequately explain to him why he did what he did. Although Holland was known as an expert interrogator, he himself said he could only guess why Little opened up to him.

The ranger worked tirelessly to create and maintain a bond with the killer during their hundreds of hours of interviews, bringing him favorite snacks such as pizza, Dr. Pepper and grits and discuss their mutual interest in sports. He also assured Little that he would not be executed.

Holland would address Little by his childhood nickname, Sammy, while Little Holland called Jimmy and once told the Los Angeles Times that he had “ found a friend in a Texas ranger. ”

He told “60 Minutes” that he hoped his confessions would indemnify anyone wrongfully convicted of his crimes.

“I say if I can help get someone out of jail, you know, maybe God will smile at me a little more,” he said.

A transient who traveled across the country when he was not in prison for theft, assault, drugs or other crimes, Little said he started murders in Miami on New Year’s Eve 1970.

“It was like drugs,” he told Holland. “I started to like it.”

His last murder was in 2005, he said, in Tupelo, Mississippi. He also killed people in Tennessee, Texas, Ohio, Kentucky, Nevada, Arkansas, and other states.

Kentucky authorities finally caught up with him in 2012 after he was arrested for drug possession and his DNA linked him to three murders in California.

When he began to recount the other killings, the authorities were amazed at how much he remembered. His paintings, they said, indicated that he had a photographic memory.

One murder was solved after Little recalled the victim wearing dentures. Another after telling Holland he’d killed the victim at a series of unusual-looking Florida arches. A victim he met outside a Miami strip club in 1984 was remembered as 25 years old with short blonde hair, blue eyes and a ‘hippie look’.

While he kept talking, authorities across the country rushed to investigate old cases, track down relatives, and shut families down.

Little revealed few details about his own life, except that he was raised in Lorain, Ohio by his grandmother. Authorities said he often went by the name of Samuel McDowell.

He was married once, Little said, and had two long-term relationships.

He claimed that he developed a fetish for women’s necks after becoming sexually aroused when he saw his kindergarten teacher touch her neck. He was always careful, he added, not to look down the neck of his wife or girlfriends and never hurt anyone he loved.

“I don’t think there was anyone else who did what I love to do,” he told “60 Minutes.” ‘I think I’m the only one in the world. And that is not an honor, it is a curse. ”

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Don Thompson, Associated Press writer, contributed from Sacramento.