Photo: YouTube
He's drawing his victims, and The FBI hopes that will identify them.
By Rebekah Kuschmider — Written on Sep 01, 2020
It's Serial Killer Week on Investigation Discovery, and the crime network is set to air a slew of new specials throughout the week. A two-part special investigating the Samuel Little murders kicked off the week, and if you're unfamiliar with Samuel Little, then buckle up, because you're in for a very wild ride.
Who is Samuel Little, and what did he do?
In 2014, Samuel Little was tried for three murders from 1987-1989. While he claimed his innocence at trial, a jury convicted him and he was sentenced to sentenced to three consecutive terms of life in prison without parole for the beating and strangulation murders of Carol Alford, Audrey Nelson, and Guadalupe Apodaca.
Little has been serving his sentence in a prison in Texas. In 2018, a crime analyst with the FBI — who was investigating other cases possibly linked to Little — interviewed him alongside a Texas Ranger also assigned to the case.
What Little told them was a shock: he confessed to killing over 90 people (mostly women) over the course of 35 years.
He claims to have murdered people in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Illinois, Ohio, California, Indiana, Arizona, New Mexico, and South Carolina.
Now that Little has shared the extent of his crimes, he has started doing the one thing that could help authorities identify and solve all these murders. He is drawing his victims. He doesn’t know their names but he’s drawing their faces and telling police where he killed them. The police hope that releasing the drawings will help identify the women.
What was Samuel Little's childhood like?
Little was born in Georgia in 1940. It is possible his mother was in prison at the time of his birth, and he has said that she was a sex worker. He soon moved to Ohio where he was raised by his grandmother. He was arrested as teen and did time in a juvenile detention facility before he finished high school.
How many times has Samuel Little been arrested?
The first time Little went to prison was in 1961, on a charge of breaking into a furniture store. He served three years and was released in 1964. At that point, be began moving around the country, often getting in trouble with the law. By 1975, he had been arrested 26 times in 11 states for crimes such as theft, assault, attempted rape, fraud and attacks on government officials. At the time, many of his known associates were prostitutes and pimps.
When was Samuel Little's first murder charge?
In 1982, Little was arrested in Mississippi. He was charged with the murder of a prostitute named Melinda LaPree, who had gone missing in September that year. He was not convicted of the crime but after his trial, he transferred to Florida to be tried for the murder of Patricia Mount, whose body was also found in September 1982. Witnesses connected Little to Mount, but their testimony was considered unreliable and Little was once again not convicted.
What other crimes did Samuel Little commit?
In 1984, Little was sent back to prison for beating two women in San Diego. He served until 1987 and moved to Los Angeles upon his release. In L.A. he would commit the murders that would ultimately send him to prison 30 years later.
When did Samuel Little get arrested for murder?
In 2012, authorities tracked Little to a homeless shelter in Kentucky where he had been living. He was brought in on an outstanding drug charge and was then connected to the murders of Carol Elford, killed in 1987, Audrey Nelson, killed in 1989, and Guadalupe Apodaca, killed in 1987, all in Los Angeles. He had been tied to the crimes by DNA evidence and he was extradited to California to stand trial. At that time, investigators announced that Little was possibly connected to over 60 unsolved murders from the 1980s.
At trial, eyewitnesses confirmed that Little had been seen with the victims, and other witness testified to having been violently attack by Little during that same time period. He was convicted and sentenced to three life sentences.
How many murders did Samuel Little confess to?
Various authorities were trying to figure out the exact nature of Little’s crimes. In early 2018, he finally confessed to 1996 fatal strangulation of Melissa Thomas. Later, he confessed to 1994 murder of Denise Christie Brothers in Odessa, Texas. He was tried and given another life sentence in a Texas prison. After that, Little confessed to literally dozens of other murders.
By the end of 2018, the Violent Crimes Division of the FBI had verified 34 of Little's confessions and was working to match the remainder to known murders or suspicious deaths.
Why does Samuel Little draw his victims?
In 2019, the FBI released a set of 16 hand-drawn portraits that Little says are women he murdered. While he is unable to provide identifying information such as names, he does claim to recall the locations where they died and he has shared that information.
Authorities say that two of the drawings have already been matched to unsolved cases.
The FBI hopes that by making the portraits public, someone will recognize the women and lead investigators to them. FBI spokesperson Shane Buchwald says, “We want to give these women their names back and their family some long-awaited answers. It’s the least we can do.”
How can you help the FBI with the Samuel Little murders?
So far the FBI has identified 50 of Little's 93 victims. He confessed to strangling 93 women between 1970 and 2005, and now, the FBI needs your help in identifying 43 of those women. He often targeted vulnerable and marginalized women such as drug addicts and sex workers. The FBI has released information about five of the unsolved cases in the hopes that the right people will see it, recognize the victim and help them solve the case.
The 93 Victims of Samuel Little Part II airs at 9/8c on September 1 on Investigation Discovery.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and she is a co-host of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.