The Killer With a Photographic Memory

Samuel Little has recently caught the attention of the media due to his unique yet grotesque story. He claims to remember every detail of every murder he has ever committed, including what the victim looked like. He seems to recall nearly ninety murders. Now, he seems to be helping the FBI close some cold cases using his portraits in hopes that someone will identify these Jane Does.

Childhood

Little was the child of a prostitute, and he often referred to his own mother as “a lady of the night” which indicates to me that he probably holds either some resentment or some odd fascination with his mother’s career choice. He was raised mostly by his grandmother, but they lived quite the nomadic lifestyle. They often moved and couldn’t stay in one place for very long. In high school he was arrested for the first time for breaking and entering. He continued to take part in petty crimes since he did not move on to higher education, so he just had labor work during the day and crime in his free time.

The Crimes

In 2012, an arrest warrant was put out for Samuel Little’s arrest, but it was for a narcotics possession charge. From a young age, Little had been committing crimes, and he had previously been arrested for crimes such as robbery, breaking and entering, assault, and attempted rape. However, this arrest in 2012 proved to be more than any official had expected. When they took a DNA sample from him, they were able to link his DNA to three unsolved murder cases from the 1980s. During his trial, he maintained his innocence, but a jury found him guilty on all three counts of murder.

All three women were beaten, strangled, and left in some deserted area such as an alley or an old barn. There was definitely a trend with his kills, but the problem was, they were all in completely different states, so no one ever thought to link them together. This is because Little constantly moved around as he made a living off of theft and robbery.

Eventually, while he was incarcerated, Little was looking to move to a different prison facility. He made a bargain stating that he would give up more information in return for moving to a different location. Officials agreed, and this was when Little gave up all of the information regarding his kills. He gave incredibly detailed stories of murders that had happened decades previously. He could recall how many women he killed in each location and could describe how he killed them. By the time he was finished, he had confessed to over ninety killings. The FBI went to work, and were able to confirm 34 unsolved cases to him, but the rest remain unsolved and unconfirmed.

The Portraits

To “help” officials try and close the cases, Little began painting portraits of his victims thanks to his photographic memory. The FBI released the portraits in hopes that someone would recognize the victims.