He became the worst serial killer in US history

He became the worst serial killer in US history

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — (TNS) Samuel Little, a 79-year-old man with a penchant for storytelling and drawing chalk pastel portraits in his California prison cell, was recently labeled by the FBI as the United States’ most prolific serial killer. Over the past two years, Little has confessed to charming, beating and strangling more than 90 women between 1970 and 2005 _ at least a dozen in Florida. About 50 of these murders have so far been confirmed by the FBI and local state detectives, but nine still are unsolved in southern and central Florida.

 The vast majority of Little’s victims were homeless, runaways, drug users or prostitutes _ women so on the fringes of society that many investigators struggled to figure out their real names. Their bodies were found half-buried in wooded areas alongside highways or stuffed into dumpsters. Without the technology to perform DNA analysis, their deaths often were wrongly attributed as accidental or the result of drug overdoses. In a collection of videos recently released by the FBI, Little smiles while telling detailed and whimsical tales confessing to murdering women in Florida and other states including Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky and Nevada. By his own admission, his decades-long reign of terror stretched all across the country. But according to the FBI and Little, he cut his teeth in the business of murder in South Florida. THE FIRST KILL In a North Miami Beach bar on New Year’s Eve in 1970, Little, a charming man with crystal blue eyes and a stocky, former boxer’s frame, struck up a fateful conversation with Mary Brosley. Brosley, 33 at the time, had been reported missing from her hometown of Massachusetts in June that year. At the bar, detectives said Brosley and Little shared a drink. Brosley told Little she’d left Massachusetts after her family confronted her about her drinking problem. 

Later, the New Year rang in and Brosley joined Little in his car. They drove up U.S. 27, toward the Everglades, and stopped in a secluded area. Detectives said Brosley sat on Little’s lap and played with a chain on his neck. Then Little strangled her and left her body in a shallow grave. Little recently confessed to the FBI that Brosley was his very first kill. Brosley’s decomposing body was found 23 days later. Like many of Little’s victims, authorities were unable to identify the body and the autopsy report listed the manner of death as unclassified, according to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. In 1982, the autopsy report was refiled for unknown reasons and the death was deemed a homicide. The body continued to go nameless until 2017, when the Medical Examiner’s Office used dental to records to identify Brosley. A break in the cold case did not come until 2018, when Miami-Dade Homicide detectives were among many agencies across the country to get a call from a Texas Ranger with crucial information to share. 

Little’s nearly 40-year murderous spree was interrupted at various points for minor charges and prison stints for shoplifting, fraud, drug possession, and breaking and entering. The FBI said that in Florida in the 1980s, he came closest to being caught for real. In 1982, Little was suspected of the murder of an Ocala woman named Rosie Hill, but there was not enough evidence to indict. A year later, he was arrested for the murder of a Gainesville woman named Patricia Ann Mount. According to news reports, he was acquitted in 1984. (Little has since confessed to killing both women.) In 2012, Little was found in a Kentucky homeless shelter and extradited to Los Angeles for a narcotics charge, according to the FBI. The Los Angeles Police Department ran his DNA _ a procedure that did not exist when Little committed most of his murders. A hit came back on three unsolved murders in the state between 1987 and 1989. In all three cases, the women had been beaten and strangled, and authorities wondered whether Little might be connected to more crimes that fit the same pattern. 

Christie Palazzolo, a crime analyst in the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, a unit that analyzes serial violent and sexual crimes, looked for similar cold cases and landed on one in Odessa, Texas, in the 1980s. But authorities couldn’t get Little to say anything about it. In 2014, he was convicted for the California murders and sentenced to life, three times over. However, Palazzolo and her colleague Angela Williamson, a liaison between the FBI and the Department of Justice, didn’t stop thinking about Little. In 2017 Williamson ran into Texas Ranger James Holland who she said is known for interrogating a vast number of serial killers over his career. In the minds of many, she said, he is something like a serial killer whisperer. Williamson mentioned Little to Holland and some months later, in 2018, Palazzolo, Williamson and Holland paid Little a visit. Williamson and Palazzolo sat in another room while Holland sat across from Little. Palazzolo remembers Holland making Little feel comfortable and offering him a chance to set the record straight. Little, after all, was 78 at the time and knew he would be in prison for life. He had nothing to lose, Palazzolo said, so Little started talking _ in detail. 

Not only about the Odessa murder, but about another 20 murders he said he had committed. Little, who hadn’t had a visit in three years and at the time was housed in a prison with a population of young gang members, said he had information about 90 murders in total. However, he would spill only if authorities transferred him to a better prison in Texas. Palazzolo said Little was looking for somewhere quieter, as well as a change of scenery. He got his wish. Once in Texas, Little spoke to Holland for more than 700 hours, detailing murder after murder. MAPPING OUT THE VICTIMS With each new confession Little made, Palazzolo and Williamson worked to gather as much information about the victim for local authorities to look into. However, the details Little provides are often far from the basics that authorities need to close a case. Little recently confessed to the FBI that Brosley was his very first kill. Brosley’s decomposing body was found 23 days later. Like many of Little’s victims, authorities were unable to identify the body and the autopsy report listed the manner of death as unclassified, according to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. In 1982, the autopsy report was refiled for unknown reasons and the death was deemed a homicide. The body continued to go nameless until 2017, when the Medical Examiner’s Office used dental to records to identify Brosley. A break in the cold case did not come until 2018, when Miami-Dade Homicide detectives were among many agencies across the country to get a call from a Texas Ranger with crucial information to share. Little’s nearly 40-year murderous spree was interrupted at various points for minor charges and prison stints for shoplifting, fraud, drug possession, and breaking and entering. The FBI said that in Florida in the 1980s, he came closest to being caught for real.

 In 1982, Little was suspected of the murder of an Ocala woman named Rosie Hill, but there was not enough evidence to indict. A year later, he was arrested for the murder of a Gainesville woman named Patricia Ann Mount. According to news reports, he was acquitted in 1984. (Little has since confessed to killing both women.) In 2012, Little was found in a Kentucky homeless shelter and extradited to Los Angeles for a narcotics charge, according to the FBI. The Los Angeles Police Department ran his DNA _ a procedure that did not exist when Little committed most of his murders. A hit came back on three unsolved murders in the state between 1987 and 1989. In all three cases, the women had been beaten and strangled, and authorities wondered whether Little might be connected to more crimes that fit the same pattern. Christie Palazzolo, a crime analyst in the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, a unit that analyzes serial violent and sexual crimes, looked for similar cold cases and landed on one in Odessa, Texas, in the 1980s. But authorities couldn’t get Little to say anything about it. In 2014, he was convicted for the California murders and sentenced to life, three times over. 

However, Palazzolo and her colleague Angela Williamson, a liaison between the FBI and the Department of Justice, didn’t stop thinking about Little. In 2017 Williamson ran into Texas Ranger James Holland who she said is known for interrogating a vast number of serial killers over his career. In the minds of many, she said, he is something like a serial killer whisperer. Williamson mentioned Little to Holland and some months later, in 2018, Palazzolo, Williamson and Holland paid Little a visit. Williamson and Palazzolo sat in another room while Holland sat across from Little. Palazzolo remembers Holland making Little feel comfortable and offering him a chance to set the record straight. Little, after all, was 78 at the time and knew he would be in prison for life. He had nothing to lose, Palazzolo said, so Little started talking _ in detail. Not only about the Odessa murder, but about another 20 murders he said he had committed. Little, who hadn’t had a visit in three years and at the time was housed in a prison with a population of young gang members, said he had information about 90 murders in total. However, he would spill only if authorities transferred him to a better prison in Texas. Palazzolo said Little was looking for somewhere quieter, as well as a change of scenery. He got his wish. Once in Texas, Little spoke to Holland for more than 700 hours, detailing murder after murder. MAPPING OUT THE VICTIMS With each new confession Little made, Palazzolo and Williamson worked to gather as much information about the victim for local authorities to look into. However, the details Little provides are often far from the basics that authorities need to close a case. FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — (TNS) Samuel Little, a 79-year-old man with a penchant for storytelling and drawing chalk pastel portraits in his California prison cell, was recently labeled by the FBI as the United States’ most prolific serial killer. Over the past two years, Little has confessed to charming, beating and strangling more than 90 women between 1970 and 2005 _ at least a dozen in Florida. 

About 50 of these murders have so far been confirmed by the FBI and local state detectives, but nine still are unsolved in southern and central Florida. The vast majority of Little’s victims were homeless, runaways, drug users or prostitutes _ women so on the fringes of society that many investigators struggled to figure out their real names. Their bodies were found half-buried in wooded areas alongside highways or stuffed into dumpsters. Without the technology to perform DNA analysis, their deaths often were wrongly attributed as accidental or the result of drug overdoses. In a collection of videos recently released by the FBI, Little smiles while telling detailed and whimsical tales confessing to murdering women in Florida and other states including Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky and Nevada. By his own admission, his decades-long reign of terror stretched all across the country. But according to the FBI and Little, he cut his teeth in the business of murder in South Florida. Get the Daily Briefing newsletter in your inbox. Start your day with the morning?s top news In a North Miami Beach bar on New Year’s Eve in 1970, Little, a charming man with crystal blue eyes and a stocky, former boxer’s frame, struck up a fateful conversation with Mary Brosley. Brosley, 33 at the time, had been reported missing from her hometown of Massachusetts in June that year. At the bar, detectives said Brosley and Little shared a drink. Brosley told Little she’d left Massachusetts after her family confronted her about her drinking problem. Later, the New Year rang in and Brosley joined Little in his car. They drove up U.S. 27, toward the Everglades, and stopped in a secluded area. Detectives said Brosley sat on Little’s lap and played with a chain on his neck. Then Little strangled her and left her body in a shallow grave. Little recently confessed to the FBI that Brosley was his very first kill. Brosley’s decomposing body was found 23 days later. Like many of Little’s victims, authorities were unable to identify the body and the autopsy report listed the manner of death as unclassified, according to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. In 1982, the autopsy report was refiled for unknown reasons and the death was deemed a homicide. The body continued to go nameless until 2017, when the Medical Examiner’s Office used dental to records to identify Brosley. A break in the cold case did not come until 2018, when Miami-Dade Homicide detectives were among many agencies across the country to get a call from a Texas Ranger with crucial information to share. Little’s nearly 40-year murderous spree was interrupted at various points for minor charges and prison stints for shoplifting, fraud, drug possession, and breaking and entering. The FBI said that in Florida in the 1980s, he came closest to being caught for real. In 1982, Little was suspected of the murder of an Ocala woman named Rosie Hill, but there was not enough evidence to indict. A year later, he was arrested for the murder of a Gainesville woman named Patricia Ann Mount. 

According to news reports, he was acquitted in 1984. (Little has since confessed to killing both women.) In 2012, Little was found in a Kentucky homeless shelter and extradited to Los Angeles for a narcotics charge, according to the FBI. The Los Angeles Police Department ran his DNA _ a procedure that did not exist when Little committed most of his murders. A hit came back on three unsolved murders in the state between 1987 and 1989. In all three cases, the women had been beaten and strangled, and authorities wondered whether Little might be connected to more crimes that fit the same pattern. Christie Palazzolo, a crime analyst in the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, a unit that analyzes serial violent and sexual crimes, looked for similar cold cases and landed on one in Odessa, Texas, in the 1980s. But authorities couldn’t get Little to say anything about it. In 2014, he was convicted for the California murders and sentenced to life, three times over. However, Palazzolo and her colleague Angela Williamson, a liaison between the FBI and the Department of Justice, didn’t stop thinking about Little. In 2017 Williamson ran into Texas Ranger James Holland who she said is known for interrogating a vast number of serial killers over his career. In the minds of many, she said, he is something like a serial killer whisperer. Williamson mentioned Little to Holland and some months later, in 2018, Palazzolo, Williamson and Holland paid Little a visit. Williamson and Palazzolo sat in another room while Holland sat across from Little. Palazzolo remembers Holland making Little feel comfortable and offering him a chance to set the record straight. Little, after all, was 78 at the time and knew he would be in prison for life. He had nothing to lose, Palazzolo said, so Little started talking _ in detail. Not only about the Odessa murder, but about another 20 murders he said he had committed. Little, who hadn’t had a visit in three years and at the time was housed in a prison with a population of young gang members, said he had information about 90 murders in total. However, he would spill only if authorities transferred him to a better prison in Texas. Palazzolo said Little was looking for somewhere quieter, as well as a change of scenery. 

He got his wish. Once in Texas, Little spoke to Holland for more than 700 hours, detailing murder after murder. MAPPING OUT THE VICTIMS With each new confession Little made, Palazzolo and Williamson worked to gather as much information about the victim for local authorities to look into. However, the details Little provides are often far from the basics that authorities need to close a case. STORY FROM THE INNOVATION CENTER FOR U.S. DAIRY Cow power: dairy’s ties to renewable energy Palazzolo and Williamson said Little remembers intimate details about victims, such as what they were wearing or distinguishing marks on their body. He can also recount specifics about the way he killed them and the cars he drove. He’s not so great with the names, dates or nailing down locations of where the murders took place. To try to provide local authorities with more information, Williamson and Palazzolo came up with a creative idea. They noticed how passionate Little would get when talking about his victims, who he called his “babies,” as well as all the detailed portraits he’d drawn of celebrities and hung around his cell in California. They asked if he might take a crack at drawing his victims.

The gamble paid off and Little turned out portrait after portrait of victims, drawn using pastel chalk. Even with the portraits, Palazzolo said initial outreach to detectives in various states is often difficult. A lot of times she doesn’t have names to present them or a solid date of when the murder occurred, so they’d have to look through a 10- or 20-year period. Then there is the fact that many victims might not have been ruled a homicide, so investigators would likely have to look at all deaths that occurred during a given period. Continue reading