Samuel Little, convicted serial killer who confessed to 93 murders, has died at the age of 80.
Officials in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Little died in a Los Angeles hospital on Wednesday (December 30).
Authorities said a cause of death hasn’t been determined, but there hasn’t been any indication of foul play, according to Department of Corrections spokeswoman Vicky Waters.
According to a report by The New York Times, Little had been serving a life sentence at a Los Angeles County state prison since 2014 after being convicted for the murders of three women in South Los Angeles during the 1980s.
Little had confessed to committing 93 murders between 1970 and 2005 across 19 states. At least 50 of them have been verified by law enforcement agencies, according to the FBI. Little went undetected for decades, but was convicted for eight murders based on DNA evidence.
The FBI declared Little America’s “most prolific” serial killer in the nation’s history, his number of victims surpassing other infamous serial killers including Ted Bundy. Little’s victims were often young Black women who were disconnected from their families. A lot of times, their deaths failed to garner national attention like other murder victims.
Little had only recently made the confession from his California prison cell, according to the FBI. He admitted to strangling his victims, many of whom whose deaths had been ruled a drug overdose or other undetermined causes.
“For many years, Samuel Little believed he would not be caught because he thought no one was accounting for his victims,” Christie Palazzolo, a crime analyst with the FBI’s Violent Crime Apprehension Program, said at the time of his confession. “Even though he is already in prison, the FBI believes it is important to seek justice for each victim –– to close every case possible.”
The FBI had posted tapes of his confessions to their website last year. The confessions were made possible after a Texas Ranger convinced Little to admit his crimes.
Authorities had considered formally charging Little in murders in at least 14 states before his death.
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