Samuel Little, who surpassed even deadly predators such as Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy to become the most productive serial killer in U.S. history while being unnoticed for decades, died Wednesday in a Los Angeles hospital, correctional officials said. California said. He was 80.
No cause of death has yet been determined for Mr. Little, who has been serving a life sentence in a Los Angeles County state prison since 2014 for the murders of three women in South Los Angeles during the 1980s.
There was no sign of foul play in connection with the death of Mr. Little does not, Vicky Waters, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said in an email Wednesday night. The Associated Press reports that Little had diabetes, heart problems and other unspecified ailments.
Mr. Little admitted that he committed 93 murders between 1970 and 2005, at least 50 of which were confirmed by law enforcement, the FBI said. He was convicted of at least eight murders, some of which were solved using DNA analysis.
Lots of mr. Little’s victims are marginalized, young black women alienated from their families and struggling with poverty and addiction. In many cases, their deaths did not attract the same attention or outrage as other murders.
Only in the last few years has Mr. Little admits the murder from a California prison, his third term in a state prison. He said he strangled his victims, many of whose deaths were originally described as overdoses or attributed to accidental or indefinite causes, the FBI said. The story of his crimes took place after a Texas Ranger asked for information about Mr. Little te nader.
Last year, the FBI arrested Mr. Little formally declared himself the most productive serial killer in American history and asked the public’s help to connect him with dozens of murders for which he confessed.
The FBI has released a series of icy confession videos with Mr. Little posted on his website, along with sketches of his victims. The agency said at the time that it believed all of its confessions were credible.
“For many years, Samuel Little believed he would not be caught because he thought no one was considering his victims,” Christie Palazzolo, a crime analyst with the FBI’s violent detention program, said at the time. “Although he is already in jail, the FBI believes it is important to seek justice for every victim – to close every possible case.”
In one of those videos, Mr. Little became visibly excited when he discussed the murders. When asked by a detective about a woman he killed in 1994 in North Little Rock, Ark., Mr. Little replied, ‘Oh man, I loved her. I forget her name. Oh yes. I think it was Ruth. ”
Before the death of mr. Little the prosecutors considered formally prosecuting him for the many murders in at least 14 countries, which he described to authorities.
The number of murders that Little Little has confessed to substantially exceeds that of known serial killers.
Gary Ridgway, known as the Green River killer, was convicted during the 1980s and 1990s of 49 murders in Washington state, the highest number of murder convictions for a U.S. serial killer.
Mr. Bundy was committed to the murder of as many as 36 young women before being executed in 1989.
Mr. Gacy, convicted of the sex murder of 33 young men and boys, was killed in 1994 by a lethal injection.