Offender Record · OFF-2026-002
LITTLE (FBI photo)
Samuel Little
Also known as Samuel McDowell
Sex
Male
Race
Black
Height
6'3"
Born
1940
Custody
Deceased
States
OH, GA, FL, CA, TX, KY
Distinguishing featuresFormer boxer; investigators said he typically stunned victims with a punch before strangling them (FBI).
Custody
Died December 30, 2020 while serving life without parole at California State Prison, Los Angeles County (CDCR).
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Summary of the record
Samuel Little was convicted in Los Angeles County in 2014 of the first-degree murders of three women killed in 1987 and 1989 and sentenced to three consecutive terms of life without parole. In December 2018 he pleaded guilty in Ector County, Texas to the 1994 murder of Denise Christie Brothers in Odessa and received a further life sentence. In 1984 a Florida jury acquitted him of a 1982 murder. Beginning in 2018 he confessed to killing 93 people across the United States between 1970 and 2005; the FBI said in 2019 that 50 of those confessions had been verified. He died in custody in California on December 30, 2020 at age 80.
Documented Arrests, Charges and Convictions
Dispositions are shown exactly as the cited records report them. Pending charges are updated when a court acts; a record with no remaining conviction or pending charge is removed from the site.
Offense date 1982, Gainesville, Florida
Murder of Patricia Mount (Alachua County, Florida, 1982)
Alachua County Circuit Court, Florida · Acquitted Acquitted
Tried and acquitted in 1984. Recorded here because the disposition is part of the public history; an acquittal is not a conviction.
SourcesThe timeline of Samuel Little, the most prolific serial killer in US history; Samuel Little: Confessions of a Killer — FBI confirms 50 murders
Offense date 1987, Los Angeles, California
First-degree murder, three counts (Carol Alford 1987; Audrey Nelson 1989; Guadalupe Apodaca 1989)
Los Angeles Police Department (CA) · Los Angeles County Superior Court · Arrested Sep 2012 · Convicted Convicted · Sentence: Three consecutive terms of life without the possibility of parole
Linked by DNA after a 2012 narcotics arrest in Kentucky; the three women were strangled in Los Angeles in 1987 and 1989.
SourcesL.A. jury convicts man of serial murders; Longtime criminal with history of short sentences faces life term in slayings of 3 LA women; ViCAP links murders to prolific serial killer Samuel Little
Offense date Jan 1994, Odessa, Texas
Murder of Denise Christie Brothers (Odessa, 1994)
Odessa Police Department (TX) · Ector County District Court · Convicted Convicted · Sentence: Life in prison (guilty plea)
Brothers' body was found in a vacant lot about a month after she disappeared; Little confessed to a Texas Ranger in May 2018 and was charged in November 2018.
SourcesSerial killer Samuel Little pleads guilty in Texas woman's 1994 death
Places Lived, Worked and Frequented
Each place and date range comes from a cited record. Dates marked approximate are as reported. Know a place that is missing? Use Edit record under the photo; a moderator reviews it before it appears.
CA
Los Angeles, California
approx. 1987 – 1989 · Period of the three Los Angeles murders
Los Angeles, California
approx. Sep 2012 – Dec 30, 2020 · Los Angeles County jail, then California State Prison, Los Angeles County
FL
Gainesville, Florida
approx. 1982 – 1984 · Charged with the 1982 murder of Patricia Mount; acquitted 1984
GA
Reynolds, Georgia
approx. 1940 · Birthplace
KY
Louisville, Kentucky
approx. Sep 2012 – Sep 2012 · Arrested at a homeless shelter on a California narcotics warrant
OH
Lorain, Ohio
approx. 1940 – 1960 · Raised in Lorain
TX
Odessa, Texas
approx. Jan 1994 – Jan 1994
Texas
approx. 2018 – 2019 · Held in Texas while confessing to the Texas Rangers and pleading guilty in Odessa
Photographs by Year
Little through the years (FBI)
Booking photographs over the years (FBI)
LITTLE (FBI photo)
Timeline
Jun 07, 1940
Born in Reynolds, Georgia; raised in Lorain, Ohio.
1984
Acquitted by a Florida jury of the 1982 murder of Patricia Mount.
1987
Carol Alford killed in Los Angeles; Audrey Nelson and Guadalupe Apodaca killed in 1989. All three later linked to Little by DNA.
Sep 2012
Arrested at a Louisville, Kentucky homeless shelter and extradited to California on a narcotics charge; DNA matched the three Los Angeles homicides.
Sep 25, 2014
Sentenced in Los Angeles to three consecutive terms of life without parole after a jury convicted him of three counts of first-degree murder.
May 2018
Confesses to a Texas Ranger to the 1994 murder of Denise Christie Brothers in Odessa and begins confessing to dozens of other killings.
Dec 13, 2018
Pleads guilty in Ector County, Texas to the murder of Denise Christie Brothers; sentenced to life.
Oct 06, 2019
FBI announces it has verified 50 of Little's 93 confessions and releases his portraits of victims to identify the rest.
Dec 30, 2020
Dies at a California hospital at age 80 while serving his sentences.
Sources
Solve the Case is never the original source. Each item below is the public record a statement on this page rests on, with an archived copy where one exists.
News report · CBS News ·
Samuel Little, serial killer behind 93 murders, has died at 80“Little died Wednesday at a California hospital while serving three consecutive life-without-parole sentences.”
Law enforcement release · Federal Bureau of Investigation ·
Samuel Little: Confessions of a Killer — FBI confirms 50 murders“The FBI has confirmed 50 confessions by Samuel Little, who says he killed 93 people between 1970 and 2005.”
News report · Oxygen ·
The timeline of Samuel Little, the most prolific serial killer in US history“Born in Reynolds, Georgia in 1940 and raised in Lorain, Ohio; acquitted in 1984 of the Florida murder of Patricia Mount.”
News report · NBC News (Associated Press) ·
Serial killer Samuel Little pleads guilty in Texas woman's 1994 death“Little pleaded guilty Thursday in Odessa to the 1994 strangulation of Denise Christie Brothers and received another life term.”
Law enforcement release · Federal Bureau of Investigation ·
ViCAP links murders to prolific serial killer Samuel Little“Little was arrested at a Kentucky homeless shelter in 2012 and extradited to California on a narcotics charge; DNA then linked him to three unsolved Los Angeles homicides.”
News report · Associated Press via Fox News ·
Longtime criminal with history of short sentences faces life term in slayings of 3 LA women“Little was sentenced to three consecutive terms of life in prison without parole for murdering three women in the late 1980s.”
News report · Officer.com (Los Angeles Times) ·
L.A. jury convicts man of serial murders“A jury found Little guilty of three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Carol Alford, Audrey Nelson and Guadalupe Apodaca.”
Discussion
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