How many women did Samuel Little murder? America’s ‘most prolific serial killer’ claimed his count was 93
Nineteen states, 35 years, and at least 60 murders - such was Samuel Little's slate. In the leagues of Charles Mansion and Richard Ramirez, one of the most notorious names that often gets omitted is that of Little - who just might be the most prolific serial killer in the history of the United States. But although the FBI has confirmed Little's involvement in some 60 murders, his later confessions after being incarcerated see the serial killer's body count rise to much higher numbers.
His story, his crimes, and his confessions are being closely explored, yet again, on the Reelz documentary 'Confessions of a Serial Killer: Samuel Little' airing this weekend. But nothing investigators allege could take away from the horror of Little killing close to 100 women.
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Who was Samuel Little?
Born in 1940, to a mother he claimed was a prostitute, the Reynolds, Georgia, native was raised in Lorain, Ohio, by his grandmother, after his family moved there shortly following his birth. He went through a troubled school life, and by 16 he had already been charged with breaking and entering, thus spending time in a juvenile institution. He then moved to Florida with his mother and began working at a cemetery; that's when his run-ins with the law began, ending with him being slammed with a slew of charges that ranged from driving under the influence, fraud, shoplifting, and solicitation to armed robbery, aggravated assault, and also rape.
When was Little arrested?
Little first went to prison for three years in 1961 for breaking and entering into a store. By 1975, he had been arrested 26 times in 11 states for crimes including theft, assault, attempted rape, fraud, and even attacks on government officials. Little was charged with murder for the first time in 1982, for the death of 22-year-old Melinda Rose LáPree from Mississippi. A grand jury declined to indict him, and Little was extradited to Florida for the murder of 26-year-old Patricia Ann Mount, from which he was once again acquitted in 1984 due to mistrust of witness testimonies. Little moved to California, but by October that year, he was charged with kidnapping, beating, and strangling two different women - thus imprisoned again for the next two years. Immediately after being released in February 1997, Little allegedly moved to Los Angeles and killed 10 more people.
Finally, on September 5, 2012, Little was arrested from a Louiseville homeless shelter for drug-related charges, and authorities were able to match his DNA samples with findings from the murders of three other women. All three had died between 1987 to 1989, with their bodies found in the streets of Los Angeles. Little was finally charged with the murders of these women on January 7, 2013, and shortly after, authorities revealed he was being investigated for the murder of close to three dozen women.
How many women did Samuel Little kill?
By 2013, authorities revealed that Little was being tested for his possible involvement in the murder of 93 women. In September 2014, he was found guilty in the murders of the three Los Angeles women and sent to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Little kept insisting on his innocence during the initial phases of his incarceration, but by 2018, and throughout the month of November that year, Little confessed to killing more and more women. The Ector County, Texas District Attorney and Wise County, Texas Sheriff's Office announced that Little's dozens of murders happened in 14 states and through three decades from 1970 to 2005.
In December 2018, Little was indicted for strangling 23-year-old Linda Sue Boards to death, and again in May 2019, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, prosecutors indicted Little with four counts of aggravated murder and six counts of kidnapping for the murders of two other Cleveland women. Before his death on December 30, 2020, Little also confessed to two more Florida murders, for one of which another man had been wrongly convicted. Little died in a Los Angeles County area hospital from speculated diabetes, heart problems, and other health conditions.
'Confessions of a Serial Killer: Samuel Little' premiers this Saturday, May 1, at 8/7 C only on Reelz.