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Thread: Samuel Little Sentenced to 3 Consecutive Life Terms in CA Serial Stranglings of Three Women in the 1980's

  1. #11
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    Guilty plea hearing set for suspected serial killer

    Odessa American

    Suspected serial killer Samuel Little is expected to appear in court at 10:30 a.m. today for a guilty plea hearing, court records show.

    The hearing will take place in the 70th District Court of Judge Denn Whalen.

    Little, also known as Samuel McDowell, was indicted by an Ector County grand jury in July in connection with an Odessa cold case homicide investigation from 1994 involving the death of Denise Christie Brothers.

    He has been previously convicted of the cold-case murders of three women and law enforcement across the country has since connected him to multiple murders. The Odessa American previously reported Texas Ranger James Holland, in conjunction with the DA’s office and Odessa Police Department, was able to use Brothers’ case as a catalyst to continue to gain trust and information from Little in order to solve dozens of other cases.

    McDowell is already serving three life sentences, but could be sentenced to another one should he be convicted of the murder of Brothers as well.

    https://www.oaoa.com/news/crime_just...1232f31a0.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #12
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    Martha Cunningham (L) and (R) Martha Cunningham, back row, third from the left, grew up performing with her family in a gospel group known as the Happy Home Jubilee Singers. Cas Walker, back row, far left, featured the family on his "Farm and Home Hour" television show.


    Knox woman's death dismissed as natural until serial killer Samuel Little's confession

    By Hayes Hickman
    Knoxville News Sentinel

    Confessed serial killer Samuel Little claims he never meant to take the life of the Knoxville woman he remembers only as "Martha."

    In fact, he contends he genuinely liked her.

    Her death tells a different story.

    She is one victim of among 90 murders — spanning 35 years and more than a dozen states — that Little has recounted in vivid detail during a series of ongoing interviews with investigators. While most of the slayings remain uncorroborated, FBI crime analysts say the 78-year-old drifter may prove to be one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history.

    Federal, state and local authorities from California to Florida now are working to match his accounts to unsolved homicides and missing persons cases.

    David Davenport, a veteran cold case investigator with the Knox County Sheriff's Office, has sifted through police files and newspaper archives to identify "Martha" as a Knoxville mother whose death in 1975 was dismissed as natural.

    In the nearly 44 years since, the truth of what happened to Martha Cunningham has remained a mystery only to her family.

    "I never believed my sister died of natural causes — none of us did," Jessie Lane Downs told the USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee last week. "But now we know, thank the Lord."

    A murder in hindsight


    Cunningham's body was discovered in a wooded area off Oglesby Road in East Knox County nearly three weeks after she had last been seen on New Year's Eve 1974, according to News Sentinel archives.

    Her body was found by a pair of hunters on the afternoon of Jan. 18, 1975. She was bruised and nude from the waist down; her pantyhose and girdle bunched around her knees. Her purse and some of her jewelry were missing. Her body appeared to have been dragged into the woods and dumped behind a pine tree, authorities said at the time.

    "My sister didn't drive," Downs notes. "How was she going to get out there?"

    Despite the mysterious circumstances, detectives attributed Cunningham's death to natural causes within a day of the discovery. The medical examiner's investigative report lists the probable cause of death as "unknown."

    "That's hindsight," Davenport said of the investigation's shortcomings. "It's easier to look in the rear-view mirror now."

    The FBI notes Little targeted marginalized and vulnerable women, often prostitutes or drug addicts.

    A former boxer, his preferred method of killing was to sucker-punch his victims and then strangle them. Without any obvious signs of trauma, such as a stabbing or gunshot wound, many of the deaths mistakenly were attributed to drug overdoses, accidents or natural causes, according to the FBI.

    'She was a good woman'


    Cunningham was heading to an evening prayer service at her church, Parkview House of God in East Knoxville, that New Year's Eve, her sister said.
    Faith and family were the cornerstones of her life.

    Cunningham was a talented singer and pianist, who grew up performing with her parents, Mary and Clyde Lane, and her six younger siblings in a gospel group known as the Happy Home Jubilee Singers.

    The family toured regionally, performing at churches, tent revivals and on the radio. They appeared on Cas Walker's "Farm and Home Hour" television show.

    In 1982, the Lane family reunited for a performance at the Knoxville World's Fair — Cunningham's daughter, Mary Lucille Neal "Tootsie" Gary, sang her late mother's part.

    Gary died in 1999, having never known the truth of Cunningham's death.

    Little implied his victim, like many of the others, was a prostitute.

    Knox County authorities have no criminal record for Cunningham, though. And her loved ones are adamant she was never involved in sex work.

    "She was not a prostitute," Downs insisted. "She was a good woman."

    Vivid details, fallible memories


    Many details Little has offered reveal his memory is not always reliable.

    He told investigators he remembers his victim had a 9-year-old son. Cunningham had a teenage daughter.

    He remembered her living in a house on a corner along 4th Street or 4th Avenue. Cunningham lived at the corner of East Fifth Avenue and Milligan Street.

    Other portions of Little's confession still proved enough to convince Davenport that Little's murder claim was true, and Cunningham was his victim.

    Notably, the killer remembered her first name. And he described her, fairly accurately, as a short, light-skinned black woman who wore glasses. He guessed her to be about 29 or 30. Cunningham was 34.

    Little said "Martha" suffered from seizures. The medical examiner's report and Cunningham's sister confirm she was epileptic and took medication to help control her seizures.

    "There's just too many circumstances that make it fit," Davenport said.

    In his confession to authorities in Texas, later relayed to Davenport in Knoxville, Little described taking "Martha" to eat at a restaurant. He took her back home late that night in the rain, but an older woman she lived with would not let her in, he claimed.

    Little said he then drove his victim into the hills around Knoxville, about halfway out of town, and parked — he didn't say exactly where. But he remembered his car briefly became stuck in a ditch.

    In the car, Little said he tried to kiss her. He put his hand on her neck, and she pushed him away. They struggled.

    He grabbed at her underwear, pulling it down around her knees as he tried to pin her down, he remembered. She suffered a seizure and died while he strangled her with his hands.

    Little spent about three months in Knoxville, but was never arrested during that time, Davenport said.

    He left town shortly after the killing.

    'I wonder if it was him'


    Downs' unanswered questions about her sister's fate were compounded by a mysterious phone call that has haunted her since.

    A man — who didn't give his name and whose voice she didn't recognize — called her at work shortly before Cunningham's body was discovered.

    "He said, 'You can find your sister off Asheville Highway,'" Downs remembers.

    The location was vague, but Downs and her husband drove to an open area near Asheville Highway at Gov. John Sevier Highway and attempted to search on foot.

    With no luck, they returned to their car, just in time to hear a news report on the radio about an unidentified woman found dead in East Knox County. They soon learned it was Cunningham.

    "I'll never forget that phone call," Downs said. "I wonder if it was him."

    She received another call about her sister last week, this time from Davenport.

    Despite the hard truth he had to share, Downs thanked the investigator for the closure his work has brought the family.

    "It's always been on my mind," she said. "How our sister died, who killed her? Why?

    "After all the years of praying, the Lord has answered our prayers."

    Another Knoxville victim


    In 2014, DNA evidence led to Little's conviction on murder charges for three California homicides from 1987 and 1989. He was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
    Last month, Little was indicted in the 1994 death of a Texas woman. In exchange for his transfer to a Texas county jail, he agreed to reveal the true extent of his crimes.

    According to the FBI, Little has confessed to killing three other, unidentified women he met in Tennessee: one from Chattanooga in 1980 or 1981, one from Memphis in 1984, and another Knoxville woman around 1975.

    Davenport said Little claimed he met the other, uncorroborated Knoxville victim six to eight weeks before Cunningham.

    Little described her as a "chubby" black woman in her late 20s to early 30s, approximately 5 feet, 6 inches tall and 120-130 pounds, working as a prostitute.

    Based on Little's recollections, Davenport believes the killer picked up the woman in the vicinity of Magnolia Avenue, possibly near the former Circle Inn Tavern. Little said he strangled her and dropped her body a few blocks away in an overgrown gully.

    Davenport has yet to match the account to any reported deaths.

    Anyone with information may contact the KCSO Cold Case Unit at 865-215-2222.

    https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/...am/2224669002/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #13
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    Denise Christie Brothers


    Edited:

    Serial killer pleads guilty in Texas woman's 1994 death

    By Associated Press

    ODESSA, Texas -- A 78-year-old prisoner who says he killed about 90 people over nearly four decades as he moved around the country pleaded guilty to murder Thursday in the 1994 strangulation of a Texas woman.

    Samuel Little entered his plea in the West Texas city of Odessa, where the body of Denise Christie Brothers was discovered in a vacant lot about a month after she disappeared. He received another life prison term, Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland said in a statement.

    Little was convicted in 2014 of killing three Los Angeles-area women in separate attacks in the late 1980s and was serving life sentences when authorities say he confessed this year to killing dozens more people in 20 states since 1970.

    https://abc13.com/serial-killer-plea...death/4892077/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  4. #14
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    Edited:

    Convicted serial killer charged in 1981 death of Smiths Grove woman


    By Justin Story
    Bowling Green Daily News

    A man linked to dozens of killings over nearly four decades has been charged with murder in the 1981 death of a Warren County woman.

    A Warren County grand jury indicted Samuel Little, 78, on a count of murder.

    Little is accused of strangling Linda Sue Boards, 23, of Smiths Grove at some point between May 12-15, 1981. Boards’ body was found May 15, 1981, in a field on a Hydro-Pondsville Road farm off U.S. 68, according to a 1981 Daily News article.

    Then-Warren County Coroner J.C. Kirby told the Daily News that it was likely that Boards was killed in another location and her body brought to the field.

    She was last seen alive May 11, 1981, when she traveled with her sister and brother-in-law to a Bowling Green nightclub, according to a May 17, 1981, Daily News report.

    “(Boards) reportedly decided to stay in town rather than leave with her relatives,” the report said, attributing the information to Kirby.

    Kentucky State Police Detective Gary Travis testified this week before the grand jury.

    “We’ve had a lot of luck through the years on some cold cases and any time you can hopefully give some measure of closure to a victim’s family, especially in a violent crime, it means a lot to everybody involved in law enforcement,” Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Cohron said.

    KSP Post 3 in Bowling Green was contacted in September by Investigator Carolyn Nunn of the KSP Central Forensic Laboratory regarding a lead in the case that had been received by the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, a unit of the FBI that analyzes serial violent and sexual crimes.

    Nunn informed Post 3 Lt. Chad Winn and Capt. Tim Adams that the federal database identified a person who had committed crimes in California that matched the method in which Boards was killed, KSP said.

    The investigation led KSP to Texas, where a member of the Texas Rangers had interviewed Little regarding crimes committed there.

    Ranger Jim Holland told KSP that Little could be connected to Boards’ death, and KSP investigators traveled to Texas in October to interview Little. The information provided in the interview led to the case being presented to the grand jury.

    https://www.bgdailynews.com/news/con...5f42769ce.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Edited:

    Police confirm more than 40 victims of US serial killer — so far


    Daily Nation

    CHICAGO - US investigators have so far confirmed that a 78-year-old drifter — who could potentially be the most prolific serial killer in American history — is responsible for more than 40 murders, authorities said Thursday.

    Samuel Little has confessed to 90 murders committed between 1970 and 2005, targeting mainly drug addicts and prostitutes across the country, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

    Bobby Bland — the district attorney in Ector County, Texas, where Little was being held on a murder charge — announced Thursday that at least six more of his confessions have been verified over the last two weeks, bringing the total number of confirmed killings to more than 40.

    "He's talking about things, cases that happened up to 50 years ago, and he's giving details on all these different murders, and none of the statements he's made have proven to be false," Bland told AFP.

    https://www.nation.co.ke/news/world/...bkz/index.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Confessed Serial Killer Draws Sketch Of 1972 Laurel Victim In Cold Case

    CBS Baltimore

    LAUREL, Md. (WJZ) — Earlier this week, convicted serial killer, Samuel Little, sketched a drawing of a young woman he confessed to killing in Prince George’s County in 1972.

    The Prince George’s County police department released the photo in the hopes it would lead detectives to identify the woman.

    She is one of around 90 women who Little admitted to murdering in the U.S. starting back in the 1970s.

    The victim has still not been identified, but a medical examiner determined the victim is a Caucasian female, approximately 5’2”–5’6”, with dirty blonde or reddish hair. She was approximately 19 years old at the time of the murder.

    Convicted Serial Killer Admits To Killing Woman In Maryland In 1972


    Texas law enforcement contacted police in Washington, DC in October with information that Little had confessed to murdering someone in the DC region in the early 1970s.

    The victim’s body was found in December 1972, when a hunter found the skeletal remains in a wooded area off of Route 197 and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway

    Little told investigators “specific and previously unreported details” about an unsolved murder in Laurel that happened in 1972.

    During the interview with Little, he said he picked the victim up at a bus station on New York Ave. in D.C. Little said the victim said she was recently divorced and from the Massachusetts area. She may have also been a mother.

    Samuel Little is currently serving multiple life sentences for murders in California and Texas in the 1970s and 1980s.

    Anyone with information is asked to call (301) 772-4925. Those wishing to remain anonymous may call Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477), or go online at www.pgcrimesolvers.com, or use the “P3 Tips” mobile app.

    https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2018/...-in-cold-case/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  7. #17
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    Little linked to more murders

    By Brian Little
    Wise County Messenger

    A convicted serial killer was back in Wise County recently as he continued to cooperate with law enforcement agencies across the country on a number of unsolved murder cases.

    On Dec. 11, 78-year-old Samuel Little, also known as Samuel McDowell, was sentenced to life in prison for the 1994 murder of 38-year-old Denise Christie Brothers. The murder happened in Odessa.

    Following his sentencing in Ector County, Little returned to the Wise County Jail where he had spent nearly two months from mid-September to mid-November speaking to investigators from across the country on various unsolved murder cases that might be connected to him. From Dec. 11 until Dec. 21, Little continued to cooperate with investigators on the unsolved cases at the Wise County Jail, according to the Wise County Sheriff’s Office.

    “To date, Little has provided information linking him to 95 murders nationwide,” the Wise County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. “Little has been positively connected to over 45 murders.

    During his recent incarceration at the Wise County Jail, Little provided information to investigators from Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, New Mexico, Arizona and the Texas Rangers. Little provided detail on additional cases in Los Angeles, Calif., as well.”

    The positive connection to more than 45 murders places Little among the most prolific serial killers in United States history, ahead of such notorious serial killers as John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer.

    Little is serving a life sentence after being found guilty in 2014 for the murder of three women in the Los Angeles area in the late 1980s.

    Earlier this year, Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland agreed to waive the death penalty on the condition that Little plead guilty to the murder of Brothers, give a full confession and not contest extradition to Texas.

    In addition to providing information about Brothers’ murder, Little agreed to cooperate with Texas Ranger James Holland, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and law enforcement agencies across the country on various unsolved murder cases that range from 1970 to 2005.

    Last Friday, Little was flown from the Decatur Municipal Airport back to California to continue serving his life sentence.

    https://www.wcmessenger.com/2018/new...-more-murders/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  8. #18
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    He may have found the body of a serial killer's victim. Now he needs to find her name.

    SAMUEL LITTLE REMEMBERED HER FACE, HER BODY AND HER BOTTOM. HE REMEMBERED KILLING HER. BUT HE DOESN'T REMEMBER HER NAME

    By Alissa Zhu
    Jackson Clarion Ledger

    The serial killer, now imprisoned and in his late 70s, can't remember her name but recalls her figure and death with ease.


    She lived in Gulfport but was originally from the Jackson area, the killer said.


    She was attractive. She was in her early 30s, weighed about 130 pounds and had light skin and an ample bottom. Her hands were rough from her job as a pipe fitter at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula.


    From the moment he met her, he was planning to kill.


    That's what Samuel Little, who has been in prison since 2014 for murdering three women in California, told investigators.


    A few months ago, he began confessing to more killings, including several in Mississippi. At first, investigators had trouble matching Little's description of the young woman from the Jackson area he met in Gulfport to a name — or a body.


    Now, Lt. Darren Versiga with the Pascagoula Police Department thinks he has probably found her remains, which had sat nearly forgotten for decades in the offices of a late forensic anthropologist whose help law enforcement sought in identifying the victim.


    Versiga, who specializes in solving cold cases, is trying to track down her identity and bring a sense of closure to her family, who may still be looking for her after all these years

    "There is no greater feeling than bringing them home," he said. "That's why I do it."


    The cold case investigator has traveled twice to Texas to interview Little about his crimes.


    Little has now confessed to 93 killings total, Versiga said, in hopes of getting credit for his deeds. The FBI has said Little "may be among the most prolific serial killers" in this country's history.


    Jackson Police have reopened a separate case from the 1980s, which they believe may be connected to Little. They know the identity of the victim — who Versiga said was a transgender woman — but are declining to name the individual as the investigation is ongoing.


    She was a 'great woman,' her killer said

    For things like distance and time, Little's memory can be faulty. However, when it comes to the graphic details of his crimes, he has a "photographic memory," Versiga said.

    Little and the victim met at a bar in Gulfport sometime before 1982, Versiga said. After talking for a while, they went across the street to the boarding house where she was staying. There, Little had an accident in the bathroom. He defecated outside of the toilet bowl. She came in and cleaned up after him.


    Little told Versiga that she was a great woman and would have made a good wife.


    Another man at the boarding house — possibly someone the victim had a prior relationship with — didn't like the fact that Little was over.


    So, that same night, Little and the woman went to Pascagoula. He bought her one last meal at a bar in Carver Village. Then he drove her a ways away and strangled her. He dumped the body in the the woods, off a dirt road.


    "He had sexual gratification from strangulation and control and killing of a human being," Versiga said. "That's what got him off, for lack of a better term. He probably didn't have a normal sex life like other people. That's the way he got the relief he needed ... Why would God put a human being like that on earth? I have no idea."


    A possible match is identified


    On Dec. 27, 1977, hunters stumbled upon the skeletal remains of a woman near a wooded area, off the side of the road, north of Pascagoula, Versiga said.

    Back then, forensic anthropologist Clyde Snow was asked to take a look at the body. He estimated that the body had been there since August or September of 1977.


    Snow examined the skeleton and noted that she had an area in her left jaw that may have caused her pain and she may have had a limp in her left leg, possibly from an old injury.


    Snow also said it appears the victim had at least one child, possibly more.


    The woman would have been 5 feet, 6 inches to 5 feet, 8 inches tall, he said, and 35 to 45 years old.


    A couple of local newspapers reported the discovery of the body, but investigators were unable to make an identification.


    Versiga didn't locate the case file until 2012. He found out that Snow kept the skeletal remains at his office in Oklahoma after examining them. Versiga asked Snow's office to send him photos of the body. In 2017, the
    Mississippi State Crime Lab received possession of the remains.


    Even before Little began confessing to more killings, Versiga suspected it might have been the work of the serial killer.


    Police records show Little was in the area in August 1977, when he was arrested for stolen clothes out of his trunk, Versiga said.


    "We're comfortable now we have found (the victim Little described)," Versiga said.


    Versiga said the timeline matches. The build of the body appears to be similar to the victim Little described. The location seems about right.


    Versiga showed Little photographs of a forensic sculpture, molded from clay off the skull and adorned with a wig. These types of sculptures, Versiga said, are "only suggestive," offering an interpretation of what the person could have looked like when they were alive.


    After seeing the first few photos, Little said it wasn't her. Then he looked at another picture of the sculpture from an angle with a different wig.


    "This looks just like her. This picture right here," Versiga remembers Little saying.


    One thing in particular leads Versiga to believe he's on the right path.


    The anthropologist's notes said the hair on the body that was found was "plaited," and said it was an indication she probably regularly wore wigs.


    During an interview, Little used the same word — "plaited" — to describe his victim's hairstyle. He said he remembers that she had a wig because it fell off when he strangled her.


    There is one discrepancy. The skull found in 1977 has two prominent gold incisors. The gold on her front tooth has a distinctive triangle-shaped cutout, which may have had something in it at one point, Versiga said.


    Little didn't remember any gold teeth in the victim's mouth, and believes it's something that would have stuck out.


    Despite the teeth, Versiga feels fairly confident that the body matches Little's confession, but it's not "100 percent."


    "He could be off," he said. "We could be off."

    Pascagoula police are open to looking at other cold cases, Versiga said, if this body is not the one.


    He said he encourages anybody with information about missing persons to reach out to Pascagoula police.

    "I want to make sure if they have somebody missing, they need to be calling and we need to be looking into that as well," he said.

    'It's going to be a long process'

    The next step in the investigation is looking for the location where Little met his victim.

    The bar and boarding house are now gone, Versiga said. He's going to try to find records from that time period that might give clues as to where they used to stand.


    "Going back to '77, especially after Hurricane Katrina (wiped everything out) is going to be hard," he said. "But we're going to try."


    Versiga will also try to find records, starting in 1977 and going to 1983, of any black females from the Jackson area who didn't show up to work one day and was terminated.


    "It's going to be a long process," he said.


    Another investigator with the Pascagoula Police Department, Joseph Bignell, said DNA


    The plan is to get a DNA sample from the skeletal remains and submit it to a database that will match it to potential relatives, Bignell said. It's the same type of technology that allowed law enforcement in California to identify the man suspected of being the Golden State Killer last year.


    Versiga plans to remain in contact with Little, who he is now "pen pals" with.


    They bonded over the fact they're both former fighters.


    At one point, Little sent him a letter with a playful jab: "I'm a better fighter than you." He drew a smiley face.


    Versiga replied with something like, "Well I bet I'm a better artist than you."


    Versiga said he'll put on a friendly face with Little as long as it helps him get the information he wants.


    "He's not my buddy, he's not my pal. He is a killer. I've never lost sight of that," he said.

    https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2019/01/09/investigator-believes-hes-found-body-woman-sam-little-killed-serial-killer/2482507002/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  9. #19
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    Edited:

    The FBI wants help identifying the women in a confessed serial killer’s hand-drawn portraits of his victims

    Fox 2 Now St. Louis

    The FBI is hoping portraits of women drawn by the man who says he killed them will help them to identify the victims and notify their families.

    The agency released 16 images on Tuesday, drawn from memory by Samuel Little, who told authorities they are just some of the more than 90 people he killed over three decades.

    "We are hoping that someone -- family member, former neighbor, friend -- might recognize the victim and provide that crucial clue in helping authorities make an identification," said FBI spokesperson Shayne Buchwald. "We want to give these women their names back and their family some long-awaited answers. It's the least we can do."

    The strategy has worked before, Buchwald said. Women who appeared in two previously released portraits were identified, he said.

    https://fox2now.com/2019/02/13/the-f...f-his-victims/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #20
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    North Florida woman’s 1993 disappearance linked to serial killer

    By WCTV Eyewitness News

    PERRY, Fla. (WCTV) – Authorities say they’ve connected the disappearance of a woman in Taylor County in 1993 to a convicted serial killer.

    Perry Police Chief Jamie Cruse says 78-year-old Samuel Little has admitted to killing 19-year-old Ruby Lane of Perry.

    “We’re very positive that he’s responsible,” said Cruse. “He knew details about where the body was discovered and the clothing she was wearing, showing he had intimate knowledge of the crime.”

    Perry detectives traveled to interview Little after Texas Rangers reached out. Investigators noticed similarities between the Ruby Lane disappearance and other missing persons cases tied to Little.

    The police chief says the case will be taken to a Taylor County grand jury in the next couple months to seek an indictment against Little.

    Ruby Lane disappeared from Perry in 1993. A missing person case was opened, but classified as cold about a year later, according to the police chief. Foul play was suspected, and the case was occasionally reviewed, but there were no leads.

    In 2010, skeletal remains were found in neighboring Madison County. DNA testing later confirmed they were those of Ruby Lane.

    Witnesses say they remember Samuel Little being in the Perry area at the time of Lane’s disappearance.

    https://www.wctv.tv/content/news/Ser...505890341.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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