Inmate linked to more than 60 deaths is most prolific serial killer

A Texas prosecutor announced that a 79-year-old inmate in California was linked to more than 60 killings in at least 14 states, making him the most prolific serial killer in US history.

Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland said Friday that Samuel Little is at the center of ongoing investigations regarding multiple cold case killings dating back to the 1970s across different states, including Little’s native Ohio.

Little was indicted Friday for two murders in Cincinnati and has claimed responsibility for killing more than 90 women across the country, including the deaths of three Los Angeles-area women for which he was convicted and a Texas woman whom he pleaded guilty to killing.

Police in Ohio were reportedly able to tie Little to one woman’s death after an extensive investigation and his confession, but are still working to identify a second victim Little said he killed.

“Regardless of how we got here today, it’s about the victims,” Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac said Friday, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I hope this day can be about closing the door and giving these families some semblance of peace.”

Bland said Little is in failing health and has exhausted his appeals, leading him to be forthcoming with investigators.

“At this point in his life I think he’s determined to make sure that his victims are found,” he said.

He explained that Little’s victims often were suffocated or strangled, in many cases leaving few physical marks and leading investigators to determine the women died of overdoses or of natural causes.

“There’s still been no false information given,” Bland said. “Nothing has been proven to be false.”

During Little’s 2014 trial in Los Angeles, prosecutors said he was likely responsible for at least 40 killings since 1980. Authorities at the time were looking for possible links to deaths in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Texas.

But Little was not forthcoming with information at the time and Bland credits Texas Ranger James Holland with gaining Little’s trust and eventually eliciting a series of confessions.

Holland traveled to California last year to speak with Little about cold cases in Texas. That led Little to be extradited to Texas and to his guilty plea in December in the 1994 strangulation death of Denise Christie Brothers in the West Texas city of Odessa. But Holland’s conversations with Little have continued, even after Little was returned to California to serve his sentences, and it was Holland who determined that he was responsible for 93 deaths, said Bland, who received an update from Holland this week.

Information provided to Holland was relayed to law enforcement agencies in several states, leading to a revolving door of investigators who traveled to California to corroborate decades-old deaths.

Gary Ridgway, the so-called Green River Killer, pleaded guilty to killing 49 women and girls, making him the most prolific serial killer in US history in terms of confirmed victims, though he said he killed 71.

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