Serial Killer Samuel Little, in Prison for Three Murders, Confesses to Killing 90 Women Since 1970s

Samuel Little during a hearing in Los Angeles in 2014.
Nick Ut/Associated Press

Samuel Little got away with murdering women for decades and vehemently denied the ones that eventually put him behind bars for life — but it was a request for a prison transfer that ultimately led him to confess to killing 90 more.

Little was serving three consecutive life sentences in California for murdering three women in the late 1980s when investigators realized that a Texas cold case sounded like a Little murder. The former competitive boxer usually knocked out and then strangled his victims.

Texas Ranger James Holland went to California to interview Little, who gladly shared information because he was hoping to change prisons and wanted to be extradited to Texas, according to the FBI.

“Over the course of that interview in May, he went through city and state and gave Ranger Holland the number of people he killed in each place. Jackson, Mississippi — one; Cincinnati, Ohio— one; Phoenix, Arizona — three; Las Vegas, Nevada — one,” said crime analyst Christina Palazzolo, who was present.

The confessions were an about-face for Little. During his 2014 trial in the killings of the three California women, he maintained his innocence “even as a string of women testifying for the prosecution told of narrowly surviving similarly violent encounters with Little,” according to the FBI.

Little, 78, is very good at remembering his victims and where he killed them, a considerable effort since the murders spanned more than a dozen states between 1970 and 2005. The FBI has so far linked him to 34 of them.

“He remembers where he was, and what car he was driving,” an FBI statement said. “He draws pictures of many of the women he killed.”

But he’s hazy on dates.

And investigators are facing another challenge in connecting Little with the killings he has confessed to — for the same reasons that he was able to elude law enforcement for so long.

Little moved around a lot. He also targeted “marginalized” women who were involved in prostitution and drugs, according to the FBI.

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SOURCE: NBC News, Elisha Fieldstadt