Written by: Fancy Macelli

Who Is Sam Little

Sam Little is just your average 79-year-old looking man. He looks a bit weathered in his wheelchair & knit beanie. But upon further investigations, you can see the man he was, a 6-foot 3inch tall, imposing black man who could charm the pants off the ladies who would later fall victim to his overly large hands.

Sam was born in Reynolds, Georgia but did a lot of his growing up in Ohio. Like many serial killers, his issues with women started young when his mom abandoned him on the side of a dirt road as an infant. Little was convicted in 2014 of the murders of 3 women in California between the years of 87–89 and 1 woman in Texas in ‘94.

Little was apprehended in 2012 in a homeless shelter in Louisville, Ky and is serving his time in California State Prison. I first heard of Little when a news article popped on my FB that talked about the man that was drawing the women he killed. I currently live in Louisville and so this was an interesting local case for me.

So how does a man convicted of only 4 murders get the term most prolific serial killer in US history? Because Sam Little is thought to have killed upwards of 90 women and the way the FBI is linking him to these murders is extraordinary.

The FBI Needs Help?

Five years ago analysists with the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VICAP) began linking cases to Sam Little. 18 months ago a Texas Ranger started convincing him to confess to outrageous amounts of murders. Little has confessed to 93 murders across 16 states.

He began strangling prostitutes & homeless women in 1970 & continued into 2005. And the way he describes these women is eerie. One might think he is talking about the great loves of his life. He smiles while accounting the time he spent with each woman and can recall just insane amounts of details about each one. He often refers to them as angels.

Because of the nature of his victim’s lives, many were ruled overdoses or accidental or undetermined. Most went unidentified & several bodies were never found. Little thought for many years he’d never be caught because so many of his victims weren’t accounted for.

Little was apprehended in 2012 at a homeless shelter in Louisville. KY. He had many run-ins with the law but did not get convicted of murder until 2014. In fact in his first incarceration in OH. for robbing a furniture store he learned to draw. Which is interesting since the FBI is using his drawings to help identify these women.

The FBI is now asking for the public’s help in identifying them.

They’re Already Dead

The chilling accounts he gives on the fbi.gov website will make your skin crawl. Little is also drawing his victims from memory & these drawings are just amazing. The details he puts into them is astounding and so accurate. At 79 his memories of these women are unbelievable.

Little describes each lady as if she’s talking about the love of his life. He calls them angels & he believes he was basically saving these women from the death inside.

Marianne

In 1971 or 1972 he lovingly talks about meeting a transgender woman in Miami, FL. He calls her Marianne. He spent several days with her after picking her up at a bar. He even met her roommates. After a couple of days, Little and Marianne were out running errands when he decided to kill her north of Highway 27 near a sugarcane field. He progressed a little further down the road, dragged her body 200 yards into the thick swampland & left her. He doesn’t think her body was ever found.

On Top of a Little Hill

Originally, news reports said he had no victims in Kentucky but he claims one in Covington. KY in 1984 which has yet to be matched to a victim. But she was originally from OH so this might be why they don’t consider it to be a KY murder. Little said he was driving his Lincoln from Loraine. OH to Cincinnati. He met a 25-year-old white female outside a strip club.

He describes her as a hippie type. He says she asked him for a ride to Miami to visit her mother. After spending time together in downtown Cincinnati they crossed over to KY. where he drove up a small dirt road & strangled the woman. He left her body on top of a little hill.

Learn More

To learn more about Little & to hear more of his chilling confessions in their entirety visit the FBI website. Follow The Good Wives on Twitter & IG @TrueCrimeWives and for more true crime visit us at YouTube at Murder by Design.