He didn't look like a monster. Honestly, if you saw Samuel Little in his later years, slumped in a wheelchair with a sketchbook in his lap, you’d probably just see a frail old man. But looks are deceiving. Very deceiving.
Between 1970 and 2005, Samuel Little strangled at least 93 women. That isn't a typo. The FBI has confirmed 60 of those deaths, and they have no reason to doubt the rest. For decades, he was essentially the last known serial killer of that specific, terrifying "golden age" of American predators—a man who operated in the shadows of the justice system by choosing victims the world was too quick to forget.
The Killer Who Fished in the Shadows
Little wasn't like Ted Bundy. He didn't have a "type" in the way people usually think. He wasn't looking for college students or girls next door. Instead, he targeted women on the fringes. We're talking about sex workers, drug users, and women living in poverty. He knew. He knew that if a woman went missing from a street corner in Jackson, Mississippi, or a bar in Miami, the police might not look too hard.
It’s a grim reality.
He was a former boxer. That gave him a specific, lethal advantage. He’d knock his victims out with a single punch and then strangle them while they were unconscious. Because there were no stab wounds or bullet holes, many of these deaths were chalked up to overdoses or "accidental" causes. Local coroners just moved on.
This is how he stayed under the radar for nearly forty years. He was nomadic, driving across the country, living out of his car, and killing in over a dozen states. He was a ghost in the machine of the American interstate system.
How the Cold Case Finally Cracked
It wasn't a brilliant detective's hunch that caught him initially. It was DNA. In 2012, Little was arrested at a homeless shelter in Kentucky and extradited to California on narcotics charges. While he was in custody, Los Angeles authorities linked his DNA to three unsolved murders from the 1980s.
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Even then, nobody knew the scale.
Texas Ranger James Holland is the man who finally got the truth out of him. Holland spent hundreds of hours sitting with Little. He didn't yell. He didn't judge. He brought the man milkshakes and let him talk. Little, it turns out, had a photographic memory. He started drawing.
He drew portraits of his victims. Dozens of them.
The Portraits of the Missing
The FBI’s ViCAP (Violent Criminal Apprehension Program) began releasing these sketches to the public. It was a macabre art gallery. Little remembered the color of a woman's sweater, the shape of her earrings, or the specific shade of her lipstick from a Tuesday in 1978.
- In 1984, he killed a woman in Cincinnati.
- In 1993, he left a body in a dumpster in Las Vegas.
- He confessed to a 1977 murder in Pascagoula, Mississippi, where the victim was previously unidentified.
The sheer volume of detail was staggering. He wasn't just a killer; he was a collector of moments.
Why Samuel Little Matters Now
Some people wonder why we still talk about this. Little died in prison in 2020 at the age of 80. He's gone. But the last known serial killer of this magnitude leaves behind a massive hole in our understanding of the legal system.
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The "Little Case" exposed a massive failure in how we report and investigate deaths among marginalized communities. If the system had cared more about the "marginalized," he would have been caught in the 70s. He had a rap sheet longer than a phone book—theft, assault, attempted rape—yet he kept slipping through the cracks.
Basically, he was a predator who understood the prejudices of society better than the police did.
Addressing the Misconceptions
People often think serial killers are geniuses. They aren't. Little wasn't a mastermind; he was a transient who took advantage of a fragmented police system. Before the era of digitized records and CODIS (the DNA database), a killer could cross a state line and become a brand-new person.
Another big myth? That serial killers always have a "signature."
Little’s signature was silence. He left no forensic trail because he used his hands. He didn't leave "messages." He just disappeared.
Moving Forward: What Can We Do?
We can't change the past, but the legacy of Samuel Little has forced a change in how the FBI and local agencies communicate. The push for better "death investigation" protocols is real.
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If you are a true crime enthusiast or someone interested in justice reform, here is how you can actually contribute to the ongoing work related to these cases:
1. Support Unidentified Persons Projects
There are still dozens of women in Little’s sketches who haven't been named. Organizations like the Doe Network or NamUs work tirelessly to match missing persons reports with recovered remains. You can volunteer your time or donate to help fund DNA testing for "Jane Does."
2. Advocate for Victim Advocacy in Marginalized Groups
The biggest lesson from Samuel Little is that killers thrive where society looks away. Supporting groups that protect sex workers and provide addiction resources makes those communities less vulnerable to predators.
3. Follow the FBI’s Unsolved Gallery
The FBI still has several of Little's sketches posted online that haven't been linked to a specific case. Reviewing these—especially if you have family history or knowledge of "cold" disappearances in the 70s and 80s—can actually lead to a breakthrough.
Justice for these families is decades overdue. It starts with remembering that these weren't just "victims"—they were daughters, sisters, and friends who deserved a system that looked for them.
The era of the nomadic serial killer might be closing thanks to technology, but the work of identifying those left in the wake of Samuel Little is far from finished.