78-year-old man confesses to 90 murders, may be most prolific serial killer in US history
Washington, Nov 29: Samuel Little, a 6ft 3in (1.9m) former boxer also known as Samuel McDowell, was arrested at a homeless shelter in Kentucky in 2012 and extradited to California to face drug charges.
A 78-year-old drifter in prison in Texas has confessed to 90 murders and is being investigated as possibly the most prolific serial killer in US history.
Samuel Little preyed mainly on drug addicts and prostitutes during a decades-long murder spree that stretched from coast to coast, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said in a report.
Little, a 6ft 3in (1.9m) former boxer also known as Samuel McDowell, was arrested at a homeless shelter in Kentucky in 2012 and extradited to California to face drug charges.
Once there, DNA evidence linked him to three cold cases and Little was convicted in 2014 of murdering three women in Los Angeles between 1987 and 1989. All three had been beaten and strangled.
Sentenced to life in prison, Little was transferred to Texas in connection with the investigation into another murder.
Bobby Bland, district attorney of Ector County where Little is being held, said he eventually confessed to the 1994 murder of Denise Christie Brothers in Odessa, Texas.
And after a Texas Ranger named James Holland gained his trust, Little began confessing to dozens of other murders committed between 1970 and 2005, Bland said.
FBI crime analyst Christina Palazzolo said during the course of an interview in May 2018, Little “went through city and state and gave Ranger Holland the number of people he killed in each place.
“Jackson, Mississippi - one; Cincinnati, Ohio - one; Phoenix, Arizona - three; Las Vegas, Nevada-one...” Palazzolo said.
A total of 90 murders in all, of which law enforcement has so far verified 34 killings.
“Little will be confirmed as one of, if not the most, prolific serial killers in US history,” Bland said in a statement.
The deadliest known US serial killer is believed to be Gary Ridgway, the so-called “Green River Killer” convicted of 49 murders who is serving a life sentence in Washington state.
The FBI said it was working with the department of justice, Texas Rangers and dozens of state and local agencies to match Little’s confessions to unsolved murders across the country.
According to the FBI, Little “remembers his victims and the killings in great detail” but is “less reliable, however, when it comes to remembering dates.” Because his victims were mostly drug addicts and prostitutes, in some cases the women were never identified and their deaths were not investigated.
“Little’s method of killing also didn’t always leave obvious signs that the death was a homicide,” the FBI said.
“The one-time competitive boxer usually stunned or knocked out his victims with powerful punches and then strangled them,” it said.
“With no stab marks or bullet wounds, many of these deaths were not classified as homicides but attributed to drug overdoses, accidents, or 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 dates back to 1956 with arrests for shoplifting, fraud, drugs and breaking and entering. He was accused of murdering women in Mississippi and Florida in the early 1980s but was not convicted.
The FBI said Little is in poor health and is likely to spend the remainder of his days in prison in Texas.
The FBI did not say what ailments he suffers from but The New York Times said he is wheelchair-bound and has heart disease and diabetes.
Sergeant Michael Mongelluzzo, a Florida detective, told the Times that he had asked Little during an interrogation how he managed to avoid arrest for all these years.
“I can go into my world and do what I want to do,” Mongelluzzo recalled Little as saying. “I won’t go into your world.”
Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com
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EC demands extra security as unrest grips Bangladesh afresh
Dhaka (PTI): The Election Commission (EC) has demanded extra security for its chief, other commissioners and officials as fresh unrest visibly gripped Bangladesh after gunmen shot an upcoming parliamentary polls candidate and frontline leader of last year's violent street movement dubbed 'July Uprising'.
"The EC has written to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) urging comprehensive security arrangements for the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Election Commissioners (ECs), senior officials of the Election Commission Secretariat," the state-run BSS news agency reported on late Saturday.
The EC simultaneously sought the extra security for its field-level offices ahead of the 13th national election, as two of them came under attack in southeastern Lakshmipur and southwestern Pirojpur by unidentified miscreants after the announcement of the schedule for the upcoming polls on Thursday.
The commission demanded an additional escort vehicle for the CEC, while one such police escort with a vehicle was currently in place for him. It asked for round-the-clock police escorts for the four commissioners and the senior secretary.
The letter said the enhanced security measures were "urgent and necessary," while EC officials said their 10 regional offices, 64 district election offices and 522 sub-district level offices would store important documents and election materials.
The EC on Thursday said the upcoming parliamentary election would be held on February 12 next year, while a day later, Sharif Osman Hadi was shot from a close range in the head, critically wounding him, as he initiated his election campaign from a constituency in the capital.
Critically ill former prime minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) simultaneously asked Muhammad Yunus' government to provide security for all candidates in the upcoming election after the attack on Hadi, who leads a radical right-wing cultural group called Inquiab Mancha.
"We demand that the real culprit be identified immediately and brought under the law, and we call upon this government to ensure the security of all candidates without delay," BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said.
Hadi was also a frontline leader of last year's student-led violent uprising that toppled then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5, 2024.
His Inquilab Mancha was also at the forefront of a campaign to disband the Awami League, which the interim government complied with in May this year, disqualifying the party from contesting the polls.
The government on Saturday ordered a nationwide security clampdown called 'Operation Devil Hunt 2' amid escalated fears over the law and order situation and promised to issue firearms licenses for election candidates for their own security.
Home adviser (retd) Lieutenant General Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said the government had taken steps to ensure special security for the "frontline fighters" of the July Uprising and promised to issue firearms licenses for the election candidates.
He emphasised that the second phase of the 'Devil Hunt' was aimed at helping ensure public safety and combat the growing threat of illegal arms.
The operation was initially launched in February this year following protests over an attack on the private house of a former minister of the ousted government in the northern suburb of the capital, when it targeted alleged "henchmen" and supporters of the now disbanded Awami League.
