CRIME CORNER
November 11, 2020
Warning: brutality and mention of rape appear in the article
I live in my mind now. With my babies [victims]. In my drawings. The only things I was ever good at was drawing and fighting.
— Samuel Little
We’ve all seen the plots that involve an elderly man or woman acting sweet and defenseless towards everyone they come across, but this exterior only hides the real side of them, resulting in some unlucky people realizing that they’re a murderer.
We’ve also seen this in real life, and one of the most grisly examples is the case of eighty-year-old Samuel Little, the United States’ most prolific serial killer who claimed to kill 93 people.
Little told his life story to authorities, claiming to be the estranged son of a teenage prostitute in Georgia. He was sent to Ohio to live with his grandmother where he ultimately dropped out of high school, which happened to be around the time be began his life of crime.
His crimes started with theft, and it led him to being committed to a juvenile detention center, which seemed to make his crimes worse. Fraud, DUIs, armed robberies, rape, and many other charges were put against his name as he traveled from state to state. He ended up serving 10 years for the various times he was convicted, and this was before he was even arrested for murder.
He wasn’t convicted of homicide until 2012 when he was found guilty of murdering three women in California, and he was charged with life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2014. The murders span from 1970 to 2005, and the reason he got away with it for so long is because most of his victims were drug addicts, the homeless, and sex workers – people considered “nobodies” by society who died of natural causes related to their situations.
Another reason homicide wasn’t considered the cause of death for the victims is because of the lack of violence that occurred. Little never stabbed or shot his victims. Instead, he’d punch them until they’re unconscious and strangle them. He believes there were times when the Devil possessed him while there were other times that he was told to kill by God.
Little claimed his innocence of the three murders for quite a while. However, he soon found himself confessing to 93 murders that ranged across 19 states. Investigators were skeptical of this claim until they realized one important thing:
“He remembers where he was and what car he was driving,” says the FBI. “He draws pictures of many of the women he killed.”
After research, the FBI were able to confirm around 50 of these confession with many more pending.
While Samuel Little may be the most prolific serial killer, he is assisting the FBI with his drawings. Many of them match pictures and descriptions of cold and missing persons cases. One of the FBI’s webpages has the drawings of women he’s claimed to have killed but aren’t identified or whose bodies haven’t been found, asking the public for any help or tips they may have on these women.
When asked about these drawings, Little said, “I live in my mind now. With my babies [victims]. In my drawings. The only things I was ever good at was drawing and fighting.”