A man who may be one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history has admitted killing more than 90 people, including three from Tennessee, according to a new FBI report.
Texas Rangers said 78-year-old Samuel Little, who has been in prison in Texas since 2012, admitted he traveled the country for more than three decades killing women, including one from Knoxville, one from Memphis and one from Chattanooga, FBI crime analysts reported Tuesday.
The FBI is working alongside the Texas Rangers, the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance and state and local agencies to match Little's confessions with cold cases on the women who turned up dead between 1970 and 2005.
Incidents are either linked to victims who have not yet been identified (Jane Does) or to killings described by Samuel Little that have not yet been definitively corroborated by law enforcement (unmatched confessions).
Little, who was born in Ohio, was arrested at a homeless shelter in Kentucky in September 2012 on a drug charge from California. Once extradited, DNA evidence connected him to several unsolved homicides in the state from 1987 and 1989, leading to a conviction and life prison sentence in 2014.
According to the new report, Little was on law enforcement's radar for years after avoiding a murder indictment in Mississippi and a conviction in Florida in the 1980s.
Here are Tennessee's reported victims:
- Black female, age 25, killed in 1975 in Knoxville: Unmatched confession
- Black female between 28-29, killed in 1984. Victim picked up in Memphis, killed in West Memphis, Arkansas: Unmatched confession
- Black female between 25-30, killed in 1980 or 1981. Picked up in Chattanooga, killed in Dade County, Georgia: Confession matched to a Jane Doe
In the Knoxville case, a spokesperson for the Knoxville Police Department said investigators have not been able to find a record of an unsolved homicide matching that description, but some of those older files are stored off site and they will continue looking. KPD has not been contacted by Texas Rangers.
His 2012 arrest led the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program to create a profile on Little. So far, authorities have confirmed 34 of Little's 90 confessions.
According to the FBI, Little chose to kill marginalized women who were often involved in prostitution and addicted to drugs. Many of the women were never identified or had their deaths investigated.
Little was once a competitive boxer and usually punched his victims to knock them out and then strangled them, the FBI reported. Many of the deaths were attributed to accidents, drug overdoses and natural causes.
Get breaking news: Subscriptions to The Tennessean are now on sale
Reach Natalie Neysa Alund at nalund@tennessean.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.