(Samuel Little. Picture credit: World Boxing News)
When it comes to talking about one of the worst, if not, the most deadliest serial killer in American history, the name Samuel Little will forever pop up in conversation. However, he isn't talked about as much as the likes of Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer and it's a mystery as to why? I have included 30 shocking facts below about this frightening individual. I have included him in my group of 1970s serial killers because his first known murders took place in the 70s. Samuel was reportedly (by his own confession) active (as a serial killer) during the 70s, 80s, 90s right up to 2005. Before he became a fully fledged murderer he had been involved in countless incidences of petty crime.
So here are the 30 shocking facts about Samuel Little that I have put together from my research:
1) Samuel Little was born on the 7th of June 1940 in Reynolds, Georgia. He claimed that he had been born in a prison cell and that his mother was a sex worker who later abandoned him.
2) He struggled academically at school and had issues with authority figures. In kindergarten he claimed to have discovered a fetish that would paint a significant factor in his future crimes. He claimed that he witnessed his teacher touching her neck and for some reason this excited him and he began to think about strangulation. This became a fixation for him that would continue all through his life.
3) Samuel had a keen interest in true crime but also liked to collect imagery from magazines which depicted women being strangled.
4) Throughout his teen years he was always on the wrong side of the law committing a series of petty crimes which then progressed on to sexual attacks and murder.
5) Although he had shortcomings academically, he was a talented boxer but unfortunately he would use the skills that he learned in his training to kill his victims later on. He would knock out and strangle his victims in such a manner that their deaths would often appear to look like and be accepted as accidental overdoses as a lot of his victims were known dependents on substances.
6) Samuel mostly targeted black women who were either sex workers, substance dependent or mentally vulnerable.
7) His method of killing was strangulation, however, he did admit to drowning one of his victims.
8) When confessing to his crimes he recalled in specific detail what he had done to particular victims, the locations of their remains and even insisted on sketching his victims by memory which was shockingly accurate in a lot of cases. Many of the victims families recognised their loved ones from the sketches that Samuel had drawn. The unidentified sketches were then listed together and placed on the FBI website with an appeal to the public for information.
9) During the time that Samuel was confessing to his crimes, he and a Texas Ranger by the name of James Holland spent a total of 48 days in a room together eating pizza and talking. This enabled Samuel to feel comfortable enough to share specific details about his crimes.
10) Samuel Little confessed to killing 93 women.
11) Out of the victims, there are reportedly 60+ unidentified 'Jane Does'
12) Samuel began confessing to his murderous crimes because he wanted to make a deal with the authorities. He promised them details if they moved him to another prison.
13) During his boxing days, Samuel was a light-heavyweight prize fighter and his nicknames were 'Mad Daddy' and 'Mad Machine'
14) A brave survivor of Samuel Little spoke about how he would strangle her, tightening his grip around her throat and then (when she was just about to pass out) he would release his grip.
15) He did manage to have a long-term relationship during his murderous spree that spanned decades but the lady he was romantically involved with at that time, claimed to have no idea that he was a murderer.
16) Another sad fact of this case is that one of the reasons he was able to go undetected for so long is because the deaths of the women were not taken seriously or investigated properly because there was a lot of prejudice about their backgrounds with sex work or substance misuse.
17) He claimed for years that he was innocent but finally confessed to killing 93 women in 2018.
18) He claimed that his first ever crime was stealing a bicycle when he was a young teenager. He was sent to juvenile detention over this incident as an attempt to give him a sharp shock but it did nothing to calm his ways, he just progressed to more petty crime and far worse was to come as the years rolled on.
19) As well as his mother (who he claimed was a sex worker) abandoning him, he went into detail about that experience in his life. He claimed that she had just dumped him in the middle of nowhere on a dirt road. He was just a young child at the time and stated that his grandmother then raised him.
20) He had been on the wrong side of the law in one way or another since the 1950s.
21) Samuel believed that his only talents were his boxing skills and drawing.
22) He lived a nomad lifestyle through the decades and this was also another factor as to why he remained undetected, he moved around the states quite a lot over the years and committed crimes in various different locations.
23) His victims were often found dumped in alley ways, behind trash bins or garages.
24) He referred to his victims as ''My Babies''.
25) Survivors reported how he would tell them that he loved them during their ordeal, he would also try and kiss them.
26) Samuel Little was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (x4)
27) He is also known as 'The Choke - and - Stroke Killer'
28) Samuel Little died at the age of 80 on the 30th of December 2020. He had suffered from quite a few health ailments over the years which included heart problems and diabetes.
29) Some investigators believe that he could have started his murder spree as early as the 1960s.
30) Samuel's long-term girlfriend (who has since passed away) not only claimed to have been completely unaware of his murderous crimes but she herself was actually a prolific shop-lifter and no stranger to the wrong side of the law. He often spoke of how she was such a professional thief that they actually made a living doing this for quite some time.
And there you have it, 30 shocking facts about Samuel Little. I'm sure there are far more details that I could have included but I thought that the information that I have shared here is quite enough for a brief post about him and his crimes. I have included a list of further reading and sources for anyone who is interested in delving in deeper to this particular serial killer.
As Samuel was responsible for taking so many lives, it's impossible to list accurately all of his victims here so I will simply say that they are in my thoughts and have been throughout my research. I'm thinking of those who had their lives so cruelly taken and the victims who remain unidentified and the brave survivors. My heart also goes out to the families of all victims involved as many relatives did not discover the true fate of their loved ones until many years later and many families are still left with unanswered questions to this day.
Further Reading & Sources:
Thank you for taking the time to check out my second post in this 1970s Serial Killers series, I hope you will join me in the next instalment.
Take care and in the meantime, I hope to see you on my socials x
Good evening Jo.
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading your second instalment of your serial killers series. I’ve seen a documentary about him a long time ago but I agree with you, not too much has been said about him compared to Bundy or Dahmer.
What a monster !!! Killing over 90 women ? That’s beyond crazy. He is certainly one of the cruelest individuals to ever steep a foot on earth. What he has done is pure nightmare, pure evil. How can somebody do that ?
So many unidentified victims. I hope that one day, families of these unidentified victims will be able to find some sort of closure.
I like your creativity Jo. 30 facts about the case, that’s brilliant!
I was so disturbed to read that he referred to his victims as “My Babies”. I can’t find the proper word to describe my feeling. He is one of the creepiest killers ever. At least, that MONSTER is gone.
Masterful work as always Jo.
RIP to the victims and to all the unknowns victims of this crazy monster.
Thank you so much for your comments and I'm glad you appreciate the style of this post, I like doing little bitesize pieces of info. Have a good week x
DeleteI absolutely love your true crime posts and this was no exception!
ReplyDeleteI find all of your cases to invoke such a broad spectrum of emotions while I read them, sometimes anger, sometimes sorrow, sometimes horror and yet even while reading these cases there is always that underlying tone of compassion and respect for the poor victims and families of these monsters.
This monster was no exception of my prior paragraph and the confusion as to why people like this become the monsters they become is no less. To think that this monster started thinking these creepy and terrifying thoughts at such a young age in kindergarten is to me quite frightening.
One of the most disturbing thoughts to me is the fact that this guy was not just a sick horrifying serial killer but also a light-heavyweight prize boxer, I can only imagine how his opponents in the ring must of felt when the news broke that a man they fought in the ring was a serial killer!
And again this is another one of those cases where while being a murderous monster he was in a long-term relationship with a woman who as so many other women in other cases claim to have no clue about what was happening!
Heartbreaking to think of the poor victims and the devastation the families must feel from the loss of their loved ones.
Again my appreciation for your true crime cases has only grown with every post that you write, these cases and the dedication and hard work that you put into each of your cases is astounding! 🙏
Thank you so much and coming from you is a big compliment as I know how hard you work on your music and are quite the perfectionist. I appreciate your comments, thanks you so much x
DeleteGreat work you do CK. Keep it up.👍
ReplyDelete