New Details Released in Unsolved Samuel Little Murders | Department of Public Safety - the Texas Department of Public Safety

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AUSTIN – The Texas Rangers, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program and the United States Department of Justice are releasing new details in more than a dozen unsolved murders committed by serial killer Samuel ​Little, AKA Samuel ​McDowell, in hopes of bringing closure to these cases.

“The information contained in these narratives could be the missing piece to solving some of these murders,” said DPS Director Steven McCraw. “It’s critical that anyone with information comes forward, as time is running out.”

Little was interviewed extensively by Texas Ranger James Holland from June 2018 to shortly before his death in December 2020. During the course of these interviews, Little confessed to committing 93 murders between 1970 and 2005. More than 60 of Little's confessions have been definitively matched to victims through DNA evidence and/or extensively corroborated interviews.

Little had a photographic memory and was able to ​describe where he met and killed the victims, where he left their bodies and what the victims looked like. Little lacked the ability to accurately judge timeframes and distance. At times, Little was proven to be off by more than 10 years and 40 miles. ​Therefore, years and distances provided in the linked narratives should not be considered definitive. Little stated he strangled all of his victims, with the exception of two who were drowned, and was adamant he never shot or stabbed them. Investigators say the manner in which Little killed his victims was more reminiscent to suffocation then strangulation, in that several of his victims did not have broken or fractured hyoid bones in the throat. Multiple victims' ​deaths were misclassified in autopsy reports and listed as drug overdoses or natural deaths. 

Little was incarcerated during the below periods (six months or more):

• 05/28/1971 - 03/14/1972
• 11/25/1982 - 01/18/1984
• 10/25/1984 - 02/01/1987
• 06/05/1988 - 04/11/1989
• 06/20/1990 - 12/09/1990
• 01/15/1998 - 04/26/2002

All unmatched murders occurred between 1970 and 1997. If you have any information you believe will help investigators solve any of these cases, please contact the Texas Rangers at rangers@dps.texas.gov or 1-512-424-2160, or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov.

California:

• Los Angeles, California, Black Female:  Between January 31^st and February 1^st, of 1987, shortly after getting out of prison (and while on parole), Little met a black female wearing shorts near Central Avenue in Los Angeles, California.  Little went to a drug dealer’s house and the drug dealer (pimp) told the female to leave with Little.  Little walked down Figueroa Avenue with the woman and then turned left onto Florence Avenue.  Little bought some “dope” with the female and then walked back down Figueroa Avenue to a vacant house located next to Florence Avenue.  There was a gas station on the corner of Florence Avenue and Figueroa Avenue near the vacant house.  There was a garage right in front of the vacant house with only a hook on the door.  There was a fence around the house.  The house faced Figueroa Avenue, the garage had a wooden door on rollers, and the house had a driveway.  There was a brick residence next door to the garage.  Little entered the garage with the female.  The garage contained sawhorses, wood planks, and paint.  There was a wide ledge or shelf around the interior of the garage. The ledge/shelf was approximately five feet off the ground, and made of solid 2 x 4’s.  Little described the black female as having a “big” butt and being approximately 23 to 24 years old.  The woman was “dark skinned,” stood approximately 5’ 0” tall, and weighed approximately 140 pounds.  Little got onto the shelf/ ledge with the woman.  The woman began playing with her necklace, and Little then strangled her.  The woman fought and they both fell off the shelf onto a wide platform.  Little then strangled the woman to death while sitting on the woman’s back.  The black female was left fully clothed lying on a board/ elevated platform, laying on her stomach.  Approximately two weeks later Little walked past the garage and the garage had yellow police tape on it.  Little killed this woman a couple weeks after he got out of prison. Little believed he killed the woman in the middle of February.  When Little walked by the garage several months later it had been torn down.
  • TRANSCRIPT INFO: Little walked with the black female down Figueroa from Florence Avenue.  Little bought “dope” and then went into a vacant garage that was located on Figueroa.  There were a lot of houses around the garage and Little thought it was located on 71^st or 72^nd and Figueroa.  The garage was in front of a house.  The black female crawled onto a ledge and then “took off her pants.”  Little grabbed the woman around her neck, and the woman fell onto the floor and landed face down on a table. Little “choked her” and then left.  Little described the black female as standing approximately 5’ 5” tall with “brown skin,” and weighing approximately 150 pounds.  Little thought the woman was around 25 years old.  The black female was wearing shorts.  Little left the woman face down and choked her “down on that tabletop.”  Little thought he killed the woman in either 1987, 1993, or 1995.  Little did not have a car when he killed the woman.
  • Follow-up interviews:
    • Date: 1989-1991
    • Victim: FB/24-25, wearing short pants and a white blouse.
    • Heavyset
    • Round face
    • Dark skin
    • Big afro
    • Big butt
    • Short & wide build

• Los Angeles, California, Black Female:  In approximately February, March, or April of 1987, while driving his black Thunderbird, Little met a slender 5’ 7” to 5’ 10” tall, 120 pound, “pretty yellow skinned” black female that was a “crackhead,” at Tams Hamburger stand located at 51^st Street and Central Avenue in Los Angeles, California.  The woman lived in the motel next to the hamburger stand.  The black female was wearing a mini skirt style sun dress.  The woman got into Little’s vehicle and they drove to a laundry matt on Central Avenue, closer to downtown (possibly at the intersection of Martin Luther King).  Little parked near vegetation in the parking lot of the laundromat.  Little and the black female both climbed onto the back seat and he strangled the woman until she passed out.  After the woman came to, Little strangled her again.  Little drove “all the way-out Central Avenue past Imperial Avenue” until he got to a Seven Eleven type convenient store (possibly he took a right off Central Avenue).  Little pulled the black female into the vacant lot next to the convenient store and dragged the woman to a rail.  The woman became “hung up on the rail,” and Little left her on the iron pipe rail next to the convenient store.  Little left the woman clothed in a dress and shoes.  Facing the convenient store, Little left the woman on the right side of the store, approximately 20 feet away from the store.  There were trees and vegetation in the vacant lot next to a big field.  Little thought he was in the county.
  • TRANSCRIPT INFO: Little killed a black female in Los Angeles and left her body on a rail next to a convenient store.  Little met the woman at 51^st and Central in a motel next store to Tam’s Hamburgers.  The woman walked from the motel to the Tam’s parking lot.  Little described the woman as being approximately 5’ 5” to 5’ 6” tall with light “honey colored” skin.  The woman weighed approximately 120 to 125 pounds and was approximately 23 years old.  After Little met the woman at Tam’s, he rode around with her for a while “way down Central Avenue off of Martin Luther King, I think it was, that’s where I killed her at right there.” Little drove the woman’s body “straight out Central Avenue somewhere or another, I got off Central Avenue, I guess, cause I didn’t see it no more…one of those 7-11’s with a rail on there in front of …it was late at night…I laid her right there on the rail, I thought she was gonna fall over, a little car rail, but she didn’t, she fell half way, that’s the way they found, half standing up on that rail.”  Little stated he drove down Central Avenue way past Imperial, and it “was a mystery how I got off Central.” Little mentioned he could have been in “Long Beach.”  Little left the woman’s body on the rail at 2:00 or 3:00 AM, and he thought he killed this woman in 1987. 

• Los Angeles/ Compton, California, Black Female:  In approximately March or April of 1987, Little met a 5’ 5” to 5’ 6” tall, 120 pound, approximately 19 year old young “honey colored” black female “crack head…gang banger” in Compton, California.  The woman was a “blood,” had a red bandana on, and had tattoos on her body.  Little took the woman to a parking lot in Compton.  Little strangled the black female, who fought him “vigorously,” to death.  Little drove the black female to the “Hills” out toward Hollywood.  Little drove on a winding road around the hills with a fence around it.  Little ended up near “Hollywood Hills.”  Little pulled to the side of the road near a fence with heavy vegetation on the other side of the fence.  There was a hill or drop off on the other side of the fence.  Little picked up the black female and attempted to throw the woman over the fence.  The black female got caught on the fence, and Little eventually pushed the woman all the way over the fence.  Little stated he could hear the woman roll at least halfway down the hill.  The black female was fully dressed.  The fence was chain link and approximately five feet tall.  Little believed he drove west out of Compton toward Hollywood.     

• Los Angeles, California, Black Female:  In approximately 1996, while driving his blue Cadillac, Little met a 5’ 6” tall, 120 pound, 23 to 25 year old “golden colored” black female at Tam’s Hamburger stand on Figueroa Avenue and Imperial Avenue in Los Angeles, California.  The woman was with a masculine looking lesbian black female.  Little gave both women a ride and made a date with the black female the following day at 4:00 PM.  Little met the woman at the same hamburger stand the following day.  Little drove the woman to Vermont Avenue and 81^st Street near where he was living.  Little then drove to Vermont Avenue and Florence Avenue.  Little strangled the woman to death in his vehicle.  Little put the woman in the trunk of his vehicle and then drove the woman to a large field.  Little dragged the woman out of the trunk of his vehicle and put the woman down in the weeds, possibly on her back.   Little left the woman clothed in a black dress.  
  • TRANSCRIPT INFO: Little met a 5’ 6” tall, 120 pounds, 25-year-old, “golden brown skinned” black female at Tam’s Hamburgers on Figueroa.  Little stated the woman had a “girlfriend.”  Little gave the woman and her “lesbian girlfriend” a ride.  Little made a date with the black female for the following day at four o’clock behind Tams.  Little stated the woman was wearing a black dress and was a “blood.”  Little was driving a blue Cadillac and the year was 1996.  Little “choked” the woman out and “put her in the trunk.” Little “took her out” to a convenient store with a field right next to it.  Little left the woman in the field, “laid her down in that field, and it was off from a convenient store too.”  Little backed up into a field, “opened the trunk, drug her…up into that grass, that’s where I left her.”  Little stated he drove all the way down Vermont Avenue somewhere.  Little left the woman in the field.  Little stated he passed “way past 103^rd” Avenue and Rosecrans.”  The field was right next door to a convenient store.  Little left the woman “concealed by the weeds.”  Little stated “I know they found her the next day…they had to there wasn’t nothing to conceal, right next door to a busy 7-11.”  Little backed his vehicle off the “asphalt” and into the grass field.   The woman had “medium short” pretty hair.   Little stated “she was a pretty girl.”  Little stated he passed a “horse ranch” when he discarded the woman’s body.  Little did not think he went all the way out to “Hawthorne,” but he may have.  Little stated it would have been near “Hawthorne,” where “Vermont started thinning out,” and that the victim was possibly named “Shela” or “Sheila.”

• Los Angeles, California, Black Female:    In approximately September or October of 1992, while driving his “raggedy Cadillac,” Little met a 5’ 7” tall, 200 pound “light skinned” black female at the Tam’s Hamburger stand on Figueroa Avenue and Imperial Avenue in Los Angeles, California.  The woman lived off Figueroa Avenue in an apartment close to Interstate Ten going toward San Pedro.  Little drove with the woman to his residence.  Little then drove down Central Avenue to Compton in the rain.  Little parked behind a store in Compton while some type of rioting was going on.  Little strangled the woman to death. While strangling the woman, she honked his car horn and got the attention of a Hispanic male.  The woman fought for her life before she died.  The woman was wearing some type of religious turban on her head.   Little propped the black female up in the front seat of his vehicle, like the woman was asleep and then drove to a closed down loan company or bank branch deeper in Compton.  Little pulled the woman out of his car and dragged her to a manicured lawn behind the building.  Little left the woman lying face down on the manicured lawn behind the building.  Little left the woman lying on her side face down with her dress all pulled up in the rain.   

• Los Angeles, California, Black Female:  In approximately 1996, Little met a 5’ 5” tall, 200 pound, heavy set, 23 to 24 year old “chocolate brown” black female prostitute named “T-Money,” on San Pedro and Manchester Streets in Los Angeles, California.  The black female was very popular and all the children in the area knew her name.  The woman saw Little driving a car one day and agreed to go on a date with him.  Little eventually took the woman to a hamburger stand that was located on Slauson Avenue across from a medical clinic.  Little thought the hamburger stand was located at Slauson Avenue and San Pedro Avenue.  Little strangled the woman to death in the parking lot of the hamburger stand and then dragged the woman’s body into an alley behind the hamburger stand.  The alley was completely full of garbage, and barely passable.  Little placed the woman in a pile of garbage and placed a decaying mattress on top of her body.  Little thought the woman was clothed in a black dress.
  •  Follow-up interviews:
    • Address: The City of Los Angeles (possibly in the area of Slauson Avenue and San Pedro Street)
    • Date: 1996
    • Victim: FB/24-25, possibly named “T-Money,” who was wearing a black dress with a “slit” down the side, no panties, and who had makeup in her purse that she had earlier purchased in the city of Downey, according to Little.

• Los Angeles, California, White Female:  In approximately 1996, Little met a 5’ 0” tall, 110 pounds, 23-to-25-year-old white female with blonde hair and blue eyes in Los Angeles, California.  Little met the woman at a homeless camp off Central Avenue and Hooper Street by some railroad tracks.  Little met the woman the same day he received his “SSI” check.  The woman had a boyfriend.  Little rode a bus with the woman to Western Avenue and digitally penetrated the female on the second floor of a motel.  Little walked toward the K-Mart store on Vermont Avenue with the woman and then walked down Slauson Avenue and bought some crack cocaine.  While at the “crack house” the white female left for about fifteen minutes with two “black guys” that were associated with the woman that was selling crack cocaine.  The white female came back crying and told Little that the two black “gang bangers” had both had sex with her.  The white female led Little to a vacant house with a fence that was off a side street of Slauson Avenue.  The house was vacant, but in good shape, and there was an apartment type house next door to it.  The white female led Little to the side of the house where there was a five-foot chain-link fence.  The white female climbed the fence, and Little immediately followed her over the fence.  They entered the house which had wooden floors in the front room.  The white female walked back and forth on the dusty wooden floors and left footprints.  Little strangled the woman to death in a bathroom inside the residence and then removed her blue jeans and tennis shoes in an attempt to have postmortem anal sex.  Little stated he could not have sex with the white female.  Little placed the female sitting up in a bathtub with her top on.  Little stated the woman looked like she was sixteen and still alive sitting up in the bathtub.  Little left the white female’s tennis shoes and blue jeans in the bathroom and then carefully wiped down his fingerprints.  Little stated he was careful not to leave footsteps in the dust when he left. 
  • Follow-up interviews:
    • Address: Slauson Avenue, between Budlong Avenue and Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles
    • Date: 1996
    • Victim: FW/20-21, wearing a white blouse, blue jean pants, and white athletic shoes
    • Homeless
    • 5’ 6” to 5’ 7”
    • 120-130 pounds
    • Sandy blonde, shoulder-length, hair
    • Blue eyes
    • Heroin user with needle marks on arms and stomach

• Los Angeles, California, Black Female:  On January 31^st, February 1^st or February 2^ndof approximately 1987, immediately after getting out of prison, Little killed two women in Los Angeles, California on the same day.  Little met the first woman, a dark skinned, “slightly chubby,” grey haired (grey and black) approximately fifty-year-old black female named “Granny” in Los Angeles, California.  The woman was clothed in a dress, and Little thought he had sex with the woman.  Little took the woman to a framed house with a concrete floor and no roof.  Little stated it appeared construction had been stopped on the residence after the 2 by 4 framing had been completed.  The structure could have been located in Inglewood, but Little was not sure.  The structure was near where Little lived with his girlfriend “Jean” on Vermont Street and 81^st Avenue.  Little strangled the black female to death and left her in the structure.  Little stated the structure may have been located behind San Pedro.

• Los Angeles, California, Black Female:  On January 31^st, February 1^st or February 2^ndof approximately 1987, immediately after getting out of prison, Little killed two women in Los Angeles, California on the same day.  Little met the second woman, a young 22 to 23-year-old “skinny black girl,” in an alley behind what he thought was her residence.  Little described the woman as small, thin, and “dark skinned.”  Little was driving his blue Buick station wagon with brown wood trim down the side, when he met the woman.  Little did not think the woman was a full-time prostitute, and thought she was trying to hide making extra money from her family.  The black female was dressed in pants and looked like the “gang banger type.”  The black female was dressed like a “gang banger,” and wore a hat.  Little strangled the woman to death in his vehicle on the side of a very clean alley that was next to the black female’s suspected residence.  Little left the woman’s body behind her suspected house near the side of the alley.

• Los Angeles, California, Black Female:  In approximately 1992 or 1993, while driving his Cadillac, Little met a 5’ 5” to 5’ 6” tall, 160 to 180 pound, “dark skinned…big butted” black female in Los Angeles, California.  Little met the woman at a liquor store on 49^th Street and Central Avenue.  The woman had a “big butt” and wore pants.  Little drove “way out” out into the county, possibly down Central Avenue, and took the black female to a side road with “elephant grass” behind some trees.  Little took off the woman’s pants and strangled her to death in his vehicle.  Little dragged the woman’s body out of his vehicle into some “real tall” elephant grass.  Little left the woman face down with her “big ol’ thighs” showing in the grass.  The woman was naked except for having her shirt on.  When Little dragged the woman, her shirt became pulled up over her head.  Little dragged the black female by her shirt and left her in the county.  Little stated he later found out that a helicopter flying over the body discovered the woman.

• Los Angeles, California, Hispanic Female:  In approximately 1992 or 1993, while with his girlfriend “Blind Barbara” and driving his “same old raggedy…Cadillac,” Little met a 5’ 9” tall, 120 to 130 pound, slim, 24 to 25 year old Hispanic female in Los Angeles, California.  Little believed the Hispanic female who had long hair, and was wearing a dress, was from Phoenix, Arizona.  Little met the woman at a liquor store on Central Avenue and 22^nd Street.  Little drove around with the woman and then bought crack cocaine at some apartments off Figueroa Avenue.  Little took the woman to an alley behind a business near Vermont Avenue until the business owner told them to leave.  Little then drove around with the woman and drank Vodka.  Little drove the woman west toward Hollywood.  The Hispanic female stripped naked in his back seat [tripping].  Little drove to near where a Coast Guard telescope or observatory was located.  Little described the building as having a round dome and being military in appearance.  On or just off the same driveway as the observatory, there was a road that went downhill through some woods.  Little drove down the road/hill with woods on both sides of it and stopped approximately 100 yards from a gas station/business park at the bottom of the hill.  Little strangled the woman to death and pulled the woman down the sloped hill that had bushes and trees down it.  Little dragged the woman approximately 30 yards down the embankment from the road into the woods.  Little stated after he discarded the woman’s body, he filled up with gas at the nearby gas station.     

• Los Angeles, California, Black Female:  In approximately 1991 or 1992, while driving his Ford F-250 van, Little met a 5’ 4” to 5’ 5” tall, 120 pound, 20 to 22 year old dark skinned “little” black female near Frontier Hotel and 3^rd  Street (the original Skid Row) in Los Angeles, California.  Little stated the woman was a “crack head” from San Francisco.  Little went several places with the woman including: 71^st and Broadway, Griffith Park, Vermont Street, 74^th and Broadway and Popeye’s Chicken.  Little eventually drove down Florence Avenue to Central Avenue, and then drove “way out into the county (Central Avenue).”  Little drove to a “bald head hill” that had a couple trees on it and was close to a couple houses.  Little drove on a dirt road behind the houses and then drove up a hill on the dirt road.  Little strangled the woman to death and left her naked body on its side or back next to some trees.

• Los Angeles, California, Black Female:  In approximately 1996, while driving his Cadillac, Little met a 5’ 7” to 5’ 8” tall, 130 pound, approximately 25 year old “chocolate” black female in Los Angeles, California.  Little originally met the woman near where she was living at a halfway house located off Florence Avenue and a dead-end street that buts up to Interstate Ten.  Little described the woman as having a “big” butt, and “dark skin.”  Little “messed around” with the black female across the street from the half-way house in a garage behind a vacant house, until she rebuked his advances.  Little later saw the woman on 81^st and Figueroa Streets wearing a long flower dress.  Little took the woman to nearby automotive supply building.  There was a driveway between the building and another building that led to the back of the building.  There was an empty trailer (residential) and an empty/ dilapidated pickup truck behind the building.  The “off-brand establishment” auto supply store was on Florence Avenue between Vermont and Figueroa Streets.  The driveway to the back of the store was paved.  Little got into the dilapidated truck with the black female and began strangling her.  While strangling the woman, both of them fell out of the truck onto the ground.  Little strangled the woman to death and then dragged the black female’s body to a nearby trash/ rubbish pile (possibly with beer cans).  There were two garbage piles in the back area of the business, and one of the piles belonged to the adjacent neighbors.  Little dragged the woman by her arms, while on her back, to the neighbor’s garbage pile.  Little left the woman clothed in a dress.
  • Follow-up interviews:
    • Address: Possibly 329 or 529 – 531 Manchester Avenue, Los Angeles
    • Year: 1996
    • Victim: FB/23, possibly named “Helen,” who was wearing a dress and long fur coat
    • 5’ 8” tall
    • Dark skin
    • Slightly overweight
    • Short straight shoulder-length hair

• Los Angeles, California, Black Female:  In approximately 1987, Little met a 5’ 7” tall, 140-pound light/ “yellow skinned” 26 to 27-year-old black female on Florence and Broadway Streets in Los Angeles, California.  The woman advised Little she had just gotten out of the county jail.  Little drove the woman to the Griffith Park area, and his car, a black Thunderbird, would not start after they parked.  Little left his vehicle in the park, possibly behind closed gates.  Little walked to a bus stop with the black female and had intercourse with the woman at the bus stop.  Little then took a bus with the woman to his residence located at 81^st Street and Vermont.  Little gave the woman five dollars to eat food at a chicken establishment around the corner while he went inside to speak to his girlfriend “Jean.”  A short time later the black female knocked at his door.  Little stated he secured the keys to his green Mercury and then drove with the woman past Highway Five to the backside of Griffith Park.  Little drove down a dirt road on the back side of the park that was next to or near a “superhighway.”  The dirt road traveled through woods.  Little strangled the black female to death and then laid the woman’s body by a tree.  The woman was clothed in a dress.  Little stated the woman had a “big” butt, and red panties. 

• Los Angeles, California, Black Female: In approximately 1984, Little met a “honey-colored,” short, thick, black female that stood 5’ 5” tall, weighed between 120 and 130 pounds, and was wearing shorts, near the intersection of Florence and I-10.  Little drove with the black female up a grassy hill/slope leading to I-10, then stopped halfway up the hill, and dumped the black female’s body along a service road.
  • TRANSCRIPT INFO: Little killed a black female in Los Angeles in 1984, “off of Florence and IH-10.”  Little dumped the woman on the “slope from IH-10.”  Little dumped the woman between the “road (IH-10) and the side road.” Little described the woman as being “short, pretty, honey colored skin…stout, stacked, big pretty legs...”  Prior to meeting the black female, she “got outa some guys car and he drove off.”  Little stated after “I offed her, I took her to this slope that lays up to this IH-10, I pulled her halfway up the hill and left her there.”  Little left the woman in “grass and weeds and stuff.”  At the bottom of the slope was a service road that ran along Interstate Ten (10).  Little stated he had sex with “her right there off the highway, then I drug her body up the hill to IH-10.”  Little thought he later read the black female was found, and “they” thought she was “thrown off the highway…and rolled down there.”  Little stated that was the first woman he killed in Los Angeles in 1984.
  • Follow-up interview: Little stated immediately before his San Diego arrest [on 10/25/1984] he “killed a girl in LA.” 

• Los Angeles, California, Black Female: In approximately 1991 or 1992, while driving his F250 van, Little met a short, dark-skinned, 23-year-old, 5’ 0” tall, 120 pound prostitute named “Linda” and her friend “Christina” on Figueroa Street.  Little and “Linda” went to the alley behind Figueroa and Hoover where he strangled her and threw her over a possibly spiked wooden fence. The body landed in a backyard near a garage/sidewalk. The front of the house was at 71^st and Hoover. The homeowners’ kid found the body.  “Linda” was wearing “work clothes” – possibly a dress.  After Little killed “Linda” he went to a liquor store on Hoover and saw “Christina.” LAPD was called and Little lodged a complaint against “Christina” for selling him wax instead of crack cocaine. LAPD arrested Christina on an outstanding warrant and let Little go.
  • TRANSCRIPT INFO: Little killed a woman named “Linda” and left her “behind a Mexican’s yard by an alley…right off of Figueroa.”  Little stated “she’s off Figueroa and Florence…you go down Florence until you get to Hoover, it’s only two (2) blocks, then there is an alley that goes down there.”  Little stated he had a recreation vehicle in 1991 or 1992, “I’ll show you the fence I threw her body over, into this guy’s yard, and his little kid…found her body…I heard it from the talk around the neighborhood.” 
  • TRANSCRIPT INFO:  Little killed “Linda” in an alley between Figueroa and Hoover.  Little threw the woman over a wooden fence into “a guy’s backyard.”  There was a garage in the backyard that had a sidewalk leading to a house.  The front of the house was located on 71^st Street and Hoover Avenue.  Little killed the woman near a police station on 77^th Street.  Little left the woman dressed in “working clothes,” and thought the woman was wearing a dress, but he wasn’t sure. 
  • Follow-up interviews:
    • Address: 900 block Florence Avenue, Los Angeles (East/West alleyway behind the market on Vermont/Florence)
    • Date: 1991-1992
    • Victim: FB/22, possibly named “Linda,” who was wearing pants and blouse (unknown color)
    • 5’ 5” to 5’ 6” tall
    • Dark skin
    • Thin or slender build
    • Straight hair

Florida:

• Miami, Florida, Black Male:  In 1971 or 1972 while in Miami, Florida, Little met a “good-looking,” approximately 18-19-year-old, 5’ 6” – 5’ 7” tall, 135-140-pound black male.  Little stated the male presented himself as a woman and dressed as a “drag queen,” known to Little as “Marianne.”  Little first met Marianne at a bar called the “Pool Palace” near 17^th Avenue.  The black male told Little he had an ex-boyfriend named “Wes.”  A few days later, they met again at a bar in Overtown (Little remembered that “Marianne” liked to drink Rum 51), where Little offered to give him a ride home.  Little stated “Marianne” lived with several other “drag queens” in “the projects” between “Brown Sub” [Brownsville] and Liberty City.  When they arrived there, one of the roommates asked them to buy a can of Magic Shave shaving cream, so they returned to Little’s car, a gold 4-door Pontiac.  Little drove Marianne north on Highway 27, pulled into a driveway, and choked her to death in his car.  He then drove further down Highway 27, into the Everglades, and turned down a dirt road that led to a river or a swamp.  Little dragged Marianne’s body approximately 200 yards into the thick, muddy water.  He does not believe the body was ever found. 
  • Follow-up interview: Little stated “Marianne” hung out with a male transvestite with an extremely long neck, and that he knew this person from the county jail.  This individual knew “Marianne” and was one (1) of the transvestites in the apartment that sent him to go get “Magic Shave.”  Little had seen the same individual with “Marianne” in a bar on “Second Avenue.”  Little stated “Marianne” hung out at the apartment the transvestite lived at.  
  • Follow-up interview:  Little stated he drove “Marianne” home, to the projects in “Brown Sub” near Liberty City.  Little walked “Marianne” to an upstairs apartment with three (3) “transgenders” in it.  Little stated a “tall” transvestite with a “long hooked nose” lived in the apartment.  Little stated the “tall black one that looked like a hawk” asked him (known to them as Billy) to go with “Marianne” and buy some “Magic Shave.” 

• Miami, Florida, Black Female:  Little stated while in Miami, Florida, in 1971 or 1972 (or possibly, around 1978 or 1979) he dated an “ugly dark-skinned Haitian woman.”  Little described the woman as being approximately 26 to 28 years old, standing between 5’ 4” and 5’ 8” tall, and weighing approximately 120 to 130 pounds.  Little described the black female’s hair as being in a knot-like hairstyle, “platted up,” short, “kinda braided,” and “straight…stiff.” Little stated he either picked up the woman in Homestead “walking the street” or at a bar in Homestead.  Little stated the bar was off the highway and had a “liquor part” and a “bar part.” Little further indicated he thought the bar was on one of the avenues in Homestead.  Little described the woman as a “big mouth rough talking…little, black, skinny girl” and “not feminine, but just a hard-working woman.” Little described the black female as “tough.” Little stated the woman worked as a civilian employee, possibly a janitor, at Homestead Air Force Base and he believed she was also a prostitute.  Little took the black female to the woods on military property.  Little took the black female a short distance from the road, approximately one-half mile from the bar.  Little thought the road was dirt and on-Air Force property.  After killing the woman, Little believed he left the black female’s body either on base property in some weeds, approximately one block from the main road, or in a field near the base outside of Miami.  Little stated he possibly left the black female “in the woods.”  Little did not think “water was too far” from where he left the black female’s body. Little believed that someone would have found the woman’s body.

• Miami, Florida, Black Female:  Little stated that he killed a black female in Miami, Florida, in the early to mid-1970s.  He described the woman as a “fine little pretty yellow girl” who was approximately 23 to 24 years old, stood 5’ 6” tall, and weighed 130-pounds.  Little stated the woman was a prostitute who had big legs and wore a skirt and red high heels.  Little met the woman at a bar named the “Pool Palace” off 17^th Avenue in Miami.  Little saw the black female’s University of Miami student identification card, and believed her name was “Emily” or something like that. Little drove the woman down Highway 27.  He described the area as a dirt road in the Everglades with trash on both sides.  Little stated there was trash, blankets, and mattresses laying along the road. Little started arguing and “wrestling” with the woman, and the woman hit him in his mouth.  Little stated he “snapped” and “hit her a couple times” before strangling her to death.  Little dragged the black female out of his vehicle, onto a trash pile, and put a mattress over her body. Little threw the woman’s purse/wallet into a nearby field with tall “elephant grass” in it.  Little stated a white man observed him discard the black female’s belongings, and he never heard of the woman’s body being found.

• Fort Myers, Florida, Black Female:  Little stated in the summertime of approximately 1984 (or possibly 1990 or 1991), he killed a black female in Fort Myers, Florida.  Little described the woman as being 26 to 28 years old, standing 5’ 6” to 5’ 7” tall, and weighing 130 to 160 pounds. Little described the black female as having dark brown skin and a nice body.  Little stated he originally met this victim two years prior. He stated he and “Jean” (Little’s long-time companion) used to go to her family’s house (in a black neighborhood behind, or possibly on, Nelson Street) and sell clothes to them.  Little believed the woman he killed was the daughter of the woman he and “Jean” used to sell clothes to.  The woman lived with her mother (and possibly other family members) down the street from a liquor store.  Little stated he and “Jean” were staying at a hotel downtown when they sold clothes to the woman’s family.  On the day he killed the woman, Little saw the black female outside of a liquor store on Nelson Street “with the shorts on and nice looking…clean and nice looking…”  Little stated the black female was “mad about her husband or somebody.” Little stated the woman got in his car and he drove her to an “island” in the road, a wooded tract of land near some railroad tracks by a little section of cleared grass.  Little strangled the black female to death and then left her body in the short grass with the woods right next to it.  Little stated he left the woman in a “Grass isle…outside the city…wasn’t that far outside the city though, the railroad tracks, train ran by there.”  Little stated “I think I got back on, what’s that highway that runs from Naples all the way up to Tampa, Fort Myers, that main highway…I think it might have been 75.”  Little thought the black female lived at the house “Jean” used to sell clothes at.  Little stated the family lived in a house behind “Nelson Street.”
  • TRANSCRIPT INFO:  Little stated the woman got into his vehicle and he “took off and found the first… (grass) island I could find around there, wooded area, and I think the railroad tracks were around there, by a little section of cleared grass.”  Little stated he had anal sex with the woman and then manually strangled her to death.  Little stated he left the woman “right there, in that mother … vine, ah in that there island there, little clear, where that grass was nice and short, and the woods was right next to it, I left her right there, and I be careful not to run over her, I just backed out real careful, and left her right there, that was in Fort Meyers, Florida…in the county somewhere.  Little stated it was “not that far” from Fort Meyers, “right there, just out in the suburbs, it wasn’t that far.” 
  • Follow-up interview: Little stated he lit the black female’s pubic hair on fire. 

• Tampa Bay/ Clearwater, Florida, Black Female:  In approximately 1977 to 1978 (or possibly 1983 to 1984) Little met an approximately 23-year-old, 5’ 5” tall, 140 to 160 pound, short “chubby” black female in a bar in Clearwater or St. Petersburg, Florida.  Little was driving a black Thunderbird at the time.  Little stated the woman had a dark complexion (described her skin as “leather colored”) and was dancing in a bar when he met her.  Little stated the black female was wearing “some sexy shorts,” but wanted to go home and change. Little drove to the woman’s residence, “in a black neighborhood somewhere,” so she could change clothes.  When Little arrived at the woman’s residence, the black female took her shorts off and put on a black skirt. Little stated “about five (5) of her little siblings, sisters and brothers come running out” yelling his name “Sam, Sam.”  The black female entered Little’s vehicle and he told the woman he was going to “Lakeland.” Little drove the woman to a beach, where he got his vehicle stuck in a barbed-wire fence and sand.  Little stated several “white boys” who were drinking beer helped get him out of the sand.  Little drove the woman to a grassy/wooded area not far from the beach with railroad tracks nearby, possibly outside of Tampa heading to Plant City.  Little stated when driving, he first saw buildings, and then saw vegetation.  Little drove the woman to “an island of grass, round, with a curb around it.” Little stated he ”found this grassy lane…some grass and woods back over there…and we parked…I know there was a railroad track that run across this one…cause I’m looking right at the train go by, the man up in the window, the engineer, sit n’ up n’ there going woo, woo, woo, I waved when he went by.”  Little stated he dumped the woman “right there on the spot… by a railroad track, outside of Tampa heading toward Plant City.”  Little stated the woman was wearing “that bad…tight mini-skirt, and a blouse, and left her drawers in the car, I started to keep them drawers for a trophy.”  Little strangled the woman then left her body near railroad tracks, on the grass, out in the open.  Little believed this area was in the city limits of Tampa, possibly within a mile of downtown. Little stated that after he killed the woman, “I backed up and hit the highway.” He said that he drove through Plant City and arrived in Lakeland.
  • TRANSCRIPT INFO:  Little stated when he discarded the black female she had a skirt on “but it was way up over her waist, I think she still had her blouse on, think she was fully clothed,…but I might have had her drawers off.”
  • Follow-up interview:  Little stated he dragged the woman by her arms.  Little believed he left the woman lying on her back with her arms up over her head. 
  • Additional details:  Little stated he left the Tampa victim in “a grove in railroad tracks going by.”  Little stated he left this woman in the city limits of Tampa, possibly within a mile of downtown. Little stated he drove one (1) to three (3) miles from the beach to a wooded area in Tampa.  Little stated there were railroad tracks near the wooded area.  Little stated he could “hear the train” from the location he discarded the woman’s body. 

Georgia:

• Savannah, Georgia, Black Female:   In approximately 1974, while driving his white Thunderbird, Little killed a 19- to 23-year-old black female in Savannah, Georgia.  Little described the black female as standing approximately 5’ 5” to 5’ 6” tall, weighing 140 to 150 pounds, “thick” and “big-thighed,” with a dark complexion and pretty-face.  Little believed the black female was originally from Savannah and that she may have had mental problems.  Little met the black female at a restaurant in Savannah and she brought him to her house in a black neighborhood near the Salvation Army, where she lived with a 40-year-old female that “chewed snuff” (dipped tobacco).  The woman lived in the upstairs of a two-story residence, and Little spent the night there with her.  The black female showed Little pictures of herself and another man near a pier and on a boat. The next day, Little drove the woman to a park with a parking lot.  Little referred to the area as an “island, with roads on both sides.” Little stated he had sex with the woman and choked her in his vehicle.  Little stated the woman was dazed but did not die.  Little then walked the naked woman into the park/ grassy area and choked her while she was standing.  The black female became dizzy and fell to the ground.  Little stated “smoke” was coming off the woman’s body.  Little immediately left and drove around the park.  When Little returned to where he left the woman’s body there was a red car there, possibly a police vehicle.  Little stated he wasn’t sure whether he killed the woman.  Little stated the black female called him “Cain” or “Kane.” Little thought the black female’s name was name was “Katherine,” “Kat,” or “Jane.”  Little may have bitten the black female.

• Atlanta, Georgia, Black Female:   In approximately 1981, Little stated he killed a woman in Atlanta, Georgia.  Little described the woman as a black female with “mahogany” skin the color of “leather.”  The black female was in her late twenties to late thirties, stood approximately 5’ 6” to 5’ 9” tall, weighed 130-160 pounds, and wore “shorts made to look like a dress.”  Little danced with the woman in a bar on Auburn Avenue, and he believed the black female was having problems with her boyfriend.  The black female agreed to leave with Little but did not want anyone to see them leave together.  Little went out to his vehicle, a 1967 Lincoln Mark III, and a few minutes later, the black female came over to his car and sat on the front right fender and began to cry.  The black female eventually got into Little’s car, after she looked around to make sure nobody saw her get in, then laid down so no one would see her.  The woman directed Little to Interstate 75, and he headed south into the county.  Little did not think he drove far before exiting the highway onto a side street under construction.  Little described the road as “wide but lonesome…there wasn’t no houses, nothing but trees on the road, right off the highway.”  Little followed the road until it dead ended and then parked in an area with woods on both sides of the road.  Little stated he choked the woman and that she defecated all over herself and in his vehicle.  Little strangled the black female in his vehicle then carried her body across the street and laid her down in the grass approximately ten feet into the woods.  Little stated he left the black female with her clothes on and her eyes closed “like she was asleep.”  Little then went back to his hotel and utilized a bucket full of soapy water to clean off his seat.  The manager of the hotel, who was wearing an Atlanta Falcons hat, approached Little and asked what he was doing. Little stated he thought he got disinfectant from the hotel manager.

• Atlanta, Georgia, Black Female:   In approximately 1984, while Little was driving his green station wagon, he killed a woman in Atlanta, Georgia.  Little described the woman as a black female, approximately 22-25 years old, “slim and tall,” standing 5’ 9” tall and weighing 120-130 pounds.  Little met the female at a quiet bar on the corner of Auburn Street in Atlanta.  Little remembered when he entered the bar, the black female was sitting in a booth.  Little thought the woman told him she went to college and was angry because something had happened in college (he later went through her wallet and found her college ID; he believed it was from Morehouse College).  Little “made a date” with the woman, and they left the bar and drove together on a highway “way out” until he exited onto a little dirt road surrounded by canals.  Little strangled the woman in his car, but then his vehicle would not start.  Little stated a “white boy in a hot rod” gave him a jump start, then he drove a long way down a side road next to the main highway.  The road led into the woods, ran adjacent to a canal, and was barely big enough for two cars to get by.  There were no houses in the area.  Little placed the woman’s body in the canal, and he thought she fell into the water.  Little stated “it wasn’t like she was floating down the river, she hung up on something down there, they probably seen her the next day.”  Little believed the black female was still wearing a dress and that he threw her “boxy” purse into the water with her.

Louisiana:

• Monroe, Louisiana, Black Female:   Little stated he killed a black female in Monroe, Louisiana, sometime after 1987.  Little took a Greyhound bus into town and stayed at a shelter downtown for two to three days.  Little stole meat from a supermarket in Monroe and sold it in “the black neighborhood,” which he said the locals referred to as the “embankment.”  This area was across the street from a graveyard and near some railroad tracks.  Little described the black female as being 20-24 years old, standing 5’ 6” – 5’ 10” tall, weighing between 150 and 160 pounds, and being “yellow” or light-complected.  Little stated the woman was a prostitute who worked for a madam named “Mammy Wae.”  Little took the woman to a hotel where she signed her name on the hotel registry for either Room Number 8 or 9.  The following day Little convinced the black female to go with him into a wooden shack/garage across the street from a McDonald’s and just down from the “big graveyard.”  Little stated the garage was near a bus stop, and approximately one (1) mile from the bus station that was located in the county on the outskirts of town.  The garage was locked, so Little and the black female had to crawl through a dog door to get in.  Inside the garage were paint supplies, ladders, and tools.  Little stated he strangled the woman to death and left her body inside the shed.  Little stated he left the woman’s body on the floor of the garage between several ladders, and “bit her” causing the black female to bleed.  Little said a day or two after he killed the woman, he saw yellow crime scene tape around the garage, so he immediately left town.  On a later trip to Monroe, Little noticed that the garage had been torn down and the area was now a vacant lot.  Little stated they were in the process of tearing down a lot of buildings, but the McDonalds was still there. 

• New Orleans, Louisiana, Black Female:  Little stated that in approximately 1982, possibly in the autumn, he met a black female in New Orleans, Louisiana.  He described the woman as approximately 30-40 years-old, 5’ 8” – 5’ 9” tall, weighing 160 pounds, having “honey-colored” brown skin and medium-length straight hair.  The black female was wearing a “pretty dress” with buttons in the front.  Little met the black female in a club where she was attending a birthday party with a friend that Little described as a small, light-skinned “Creole girl.”   While at the club, Little met the woman’s sister (she may have had more than one) and several of her friends.  Little remembered that while dancing with the woman, he saw her sister dancing with another man.  The sister left the party with a man at the same time he [Little] left with the woman in his vehicle, a Lincoln Continental Mark III.  The black female told Little she lived with her mother, who was sickly and possibly an invalid.  The woman also gave Little the keys to her house.  Little drove the woman to the “Little Woods” exit where he turned down a dirt road along a canal that was being dredged.  They exited his car, then Little pulled the woman towards the canal.  There, he held the woman’s head face-down in the water, choking her while sitting on top of her back.  Little left the woman’s body there with her head in the water and her body on the water’s edge.  The black female was still wearing her dress, but it was pulled up.  Immediately after killing the woman, Little drove to the motel where he was staying in Pascagoula, Mississippi.  Shortly thereafter, he realized that he still had the woman’s keys, so he threw them on top of his motel that was located off of U.S. Highway 90.

Mississippi:

• Gulfport, Mississippi, Black Female:  Little stated in approximately 1980 to 1984 (or possibly the late 1970s), while he was driving his black Thunderbird, he killed a “pretty, dark skinned girl” in Gulfport, Mississippi.  Little described the black female as approximately 22-25 years old, “short but wide with pretty legs, pretty body,” who stood 5’ 3” to 5’ 5” tall and weighed 120-130 pounds.  Little stated the black female was soft spoken, “sophisticated,” “clean and intelligent looking” with a “beautiful personality.”  Little met the woman at a bar in the “black projects area” of Turkey Creek, approximately two blocks from Highway 49.  While he was parked outside the bar, the black female approached him and asked if she could get in.  Little believed she had been in an argument with her boyfriend because she was angry.  The black female asked Little to take her to get something to eat, so Little drove her to a restaurant on Highway 49 and bought her dinner.  Afterward, he drove with the woman on Pass Road toward Biloxi. When they got to the “Jitney Jungle” supermarket, Little turned right heading back to the ocean and away from the “ghetto.”  Little described driving a few blocks toward a “black settlement (Soaia City)” until he came to an isolated area that may have been a park where the “grass was cut low and good.”  Little stated he strangled the woman in his vehicle, pulled her out of the car, and dragged her body onto “an island of grass encased in concrete.”  Little said the woman carried a “butcher knife” on her that fell out in his car, so he put the knife point-down in the ground next to her and pushed the

Nevada:

• Las Vegas, Nevada, Black Female:  In 1993, while driving his 1978 yellow Cadillac Eldorado, Little killed a black female in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Little stated he was traveling to Los Angeles, California, when he met a black prostitute on Owens Avenue or Jackson Street.  Little stated the woman looked like an “old housewife” and described the woman as a skinny, dark-skinned black female, 40-something years old, standing approximately 5’ 5” tall, and weighing 110-120 pounds.  Little believed the woman had naturally short hair but wore a long-haired wig (as depicted in his drawing).  Little thought the black female was wearing pants when they met.  The black female introduced Little to her son, a 19 to 23-year-old black male, who was standing near the woman.  Little took the black female to a motel room where he strangled her to death, then placed the woman’s body in the trunk of his vehicle and drove toward Searchlight, Nevada.  Little described driving to the edge of the Las Vegas city limits before pulling over on the side of a remote road.  Little stated he rolled the woman’s naked body down a steep slope into a ditch, then threw her clothes out further down the road.

Ohio:

• Cincinnati, Ohio, Black Female:  Little stated that in approximately 1974, or possibly 1977-1979, he killed a black female in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Little described the woman as being in her 40s, tall, with short hair and very dark skin.  The black female wore glasses and a wig and had a long “scrawny” neck.  Little met the woman when she was standing in the doorway of an apartment building two blocks down from a liquor store.  The slender, “studious looking” woman lived there with her “fat Mexican girlfriend.”  Little stated he drove the woman in his Ford Thunderbird to an area in the “projects” and backed up to a dumpster.  It was pouring down rain when he strangled the woman in his car and her wig fell off.  Little then drove her up a hill to an area with houses where you could see cars driving on the “the big highway” below.  Little stated he dragged the black female’s fully clothed body past a flower bed into grass that was under a billboard advertising Kool cigarettes.

South Carolina:

• Charleston, South Carolina, Black Female:  Little stated in approximately 1972-1973 (alternatively remembered as 1977 to 1982), while he was driving his black Thunderbird, he met a black female with a large “bubble butt” near a military base in Charleston, South Carolina.  Little possibly picked up the black female at “Gate 7” where there were a couple of bars.  Little described the woman as being approximately 28 years old, standing 5’ 5” to 5’ 6” tall, and weighing 150 pounds.  Little drove with the black female south down a road close to the city (possibly Highway One) to a field with an asphalt or concrete circle around it, possibly a helicopter landing pad.  Little stated he thought there was a “closed down hospital” next to the asphalt circle.  Little stated he strangled the woman to death and dragged her by her legs into the tall grass close to the pad.  Little left the black female face down with her dress pulled up.

Tennessee:

• Knoxville, Tennessee, Black Female:  Little stated in approximately January of 1975, he killed a black female in Knoxville, Tennessee.  Little described the black female as being approximately 25 years old, standing 5’ 5” to 5’ 6” tall, weighing 120 to 130 pounds, “medium sized,” with “golden colored skin” and short “non-afro” style hair.  Little stated he originally met this woman in a black neighborhood near or at a graveyard, possibly around 4^th Avenue.  Little drove the black female to a road that ran around a deep gully or hole, overgrown with trees and weeds with possibly old refrigerators, stoves, and other trash in it.  Little thought the gully was within one-half mile of Vine Street, near the “black projects.”  Little stated he strangled the woman to death and rolled her body into the gully.  Little believed the black female was possibly clothed in pants and a blouse.

### (HQ 2021-083)

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December 02, 2021 at 12:25AM
https://www.dps.texas.gov/news/new-details-released-unsolved-samuel-little-murders

New Details Released in Unsolved Samuel Little Murders | Department of Public Safety - the Texas Department of Public Safety

https://news.google.com/search?q=little&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en