Samuel Little, who was considered the most bloodthirsty serial killer in the history of the United States, died this morning at the age of 80, as confirmed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The criminal confessed to the FBI, in a lengthy videotaped session, that he had killed 93 women over four decades, offering gruesome details of how he perpetrated the murders and even robotic portraits of his victims.
But investigators only managed to prove 50 of those crimes, making him in fact the largest serial killer in the country, by beating Gary Ridgway, who was convicted of killing 49 people.
And actually, he was arrested by chance, for a drug deal that had nothing to do with any of his homicides.
Little, who was serving three life sentences without the possibility of parole, began recounting his crimes for the first time in 2018. He remembered in both detail and coldness the murders he committed more than four decades ago.
He also had a photographic memory that allowed him to make portraits of his victims.
Most were young African-American women, alone, living on the fringes.
All the murders of this ex-boxer were committed between 1970 and 2005, but his crime wave went unnoticed for decades.
Little especially never fled from justice.
The system simply did not detect it.
He was born in 1940 in Georgia.
His first arrest is recorded in 1956. Over the years he was arrested dozens of times.
He was a drunkard and a tramp.
Many times the local authorities were content to throw him out of town.
He killed and went to another place.
He was arrested for rape and murder, but got rid of both charges.
Finally, in 2012, he was detained at a Kentucky homeless shelter on a pending drug matter in Los Angeles.
Little's DNA suddenly solved three crimes from the Los Angeles police files.
Carol Alford, 41, whose body was found in an alley in 1987. Audrey Nelson, 35, found in a dumpster in 1989. Guadalupe Apodaca, 46, whose body was dumped in a garage that same year.
Little denied the accusations to the end.
Two physical evidence had traces of his DNA.
The odds that it wasn't him were 1 in 450 quintillion, prosecutor Beth Silverman told the court.
On September 25, he was sentenced to three life sentences.
“I didn't do it!” He yelled during the hearing.
The FBI confirms that Samuel Little is the greatest serial killer in US history
A life told corpse to corpse
Also known as Samuel McDowell, Little stood 1.9 meters tall and typically knocked out his victims with his fists before strangling them, leaving no obvious signs of homicide, such as stab wounds or gunshot wounds.
That factor, combined with the victims' backgrounds, led to many of the deaths being attributed to drug overdoses or accidents, as well as natural causes.
Little's confessions span 45 years and 37 cities in 14 states.
Three women in Phoenix, 10 in Miami, 18 in Los Angeles, one in many places.
The oldest crime he remembers was in 1970 and the last in 2005. In a
CBS
60 Minutes
report
aired in 2019, cameras show a 2018 encounter between James Holland - a Texas Rangers agent who specializes in obtaining confessions. of murderers - and Little in which the prisoner says, "I've gotten away with numerous murders of women over 50 years."
"Where have you killed the most?" Holland asks.
"Ah, easy, in Miami and in Los Angeles."
There are at least 43 more unsolved cases.