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LOS ANGELES: Samuel Little, America’s most prolific serial killer according to the FBI, died in California at age 80 on Wednesday, prison officials said.
Little confessed to 93 murders, mostly women, committed between 1970 and 2005, but his wave of killings from coast to coast went undetected for decades.
The former boxer’s victims were mostly drug addicts and prostitutes, and in many cases the women were never identified or their deaths were not investigated.
After Little began naming the victims behind bars, the Federal Bureau of Investigation last year confirmed Little’s involvement in at least 50 of the deaths and described all of his other claims as “credible.”
He died in the hospital early Wednesday morning, and Los Angeles medical examiners have yet to determine the cause of death, the California Department of Corrections said in a statement.
Little was serving three consecutive sentences of life in prison without parole, after being incarcerated in 2014.
Also known as Samuel McDowell, Little stood 1.9 m tall and typically knocked out his victims with powerful punches before strangling them, leaving no obvious signs of homicide, such as stab wounds or gunshot wounds.
That factor combined with the victims’ backgrounds meant that many of the deaths were attributed to drug overdoses or accidents, as well as natural causes.
Little grew up in Ohio, dropped out of high school and lived a “nomadic life,” shoplifting or stealing to buy alcohol and drugs, the FBI said.
His criminal record began in 1956 with arrests for theft, fraud, drugs, and burglary.
He was charged with murdering women in Mississippi and Florida in the early 1980s, but was not convicted.
US media reports recently said that he suffered from heart disease and diabetes.
