The F.B.I. has called Samuel Little “the most prolific known serial killer in American history”, after Mr. Little confessed to numerous murders dating back nearly five decades. Samuel Little was already serving life sentences in a prison in Lancaster, California for three murders from the 1980s.  It wasn’t until he was interviewed by a Texas Ranger who convinced Samuel of confessing to murdering 93 people. Samuel Little’s confessions helped solve many cold cases across the country.

James Holland who interviewed Samuel Little was a ranger from Texas trying to solve a missing persons case from 1994. He noticed that Samuel Little was in West Texas during the time that the victim went missing. Ranger Holland decided to fly to California and interview Mr. Little. After only being interviewed for 30 minutes, James was able to not only solve the Odessa, Texas cold case, but many other cold cases. James knew that Mr. Little liked to sketch, he gave him art supplies and asked him to draw his victims. Mr. Little sketched around 50 of his victims. The portraits of the victims were very detailed, sketching them using chalk pastels. The F.B.I agency stated that they verified 50 of the killings and believed that “all of his confessions are credible”.

A serious of videotaped interviews with Mr. Little, showed his excitement when he discussed about his killings. He stated in one of the interviews about a woman he confessed to killing in North Little Rock, Arkansas in 1994, “Oh, man I loved her. I forgot her name. Oh, yeah. I think it was Ruth”. In the interviews, Mr. Little gave very detailed stories and showed no remorse towards his killings. Ranger Holland told the television show, “60 Minutes”, that investigators were able to prove that mostly everything Mr. Little said was true.

Samuel Little was able to be undetected for decades for the killings of over 50 women. The F.B.I stated how many of his victims had initially been ruled as overdoses or accidental and unknown causes. Also, with other cases, the women went missing and the bodies were never found. These cases were turned to cold cases and never drew any attention to investigators. There are still many unmatched confessions of sketches of women that investigators are still trying to match with other cold missing person cases. The FBI is asking the public to help match these remaining unconfirmed confessions.