little yacht rock serial killer

Where Is Rex Heuermann Now? All About the Suspected Long Island Serial Killer, Accused of Murdering at Least 4 Women (Exclusive)

R ex Heuermann "doesn't congregate" with other prisoners "because of the crimes he's accused of," Suffolk County Sheriff Dr. Errol D. Toulon Jr. tells PEOPLE

It’s been almost a year since Rex Heuermann ’s life went from purported Long Island family man to alleged serial killer.

Today, the former architect sits in a 60-square foot cell with a bunk, toilet, sink, and a plastic mirror at the Riverhead Correctional Facility in Suffolk County where he is awaiting trial on accusations he murdered four women he allegedly met on Craigslist before dumping their bodies along a half-mile stretch of Ocean Parkway in Long Island, N.Y.

Suffolk County Sheriff Dr. Errol D. Toulon Jr. tells PEOPLE the Long Island Serial Killer suspect, 60, has “become more acclimated with jail life,” since arriving at the facility last July.

“For the most part, it just seems like this is a new way of life for him,” Toulon tells PEOPLE. “In the beginning he was a little bit more starry-eyed as to his surroundings. Life has transformed over the last several months. He receives visits, he makes phone calls, and he doesn't congregate with the rest of the population because of the crimes he's accused of.”

“I think his hobbies right now are reading books, reading his discovery, sleeping and watching TV inside of his cell,” says Toulon. "And he's been very compliant. There haven’t been any issues.”

Touten tells PEOPLE that Heuermann’s wife Asa Ellerup has been visiting him around once a week. “Within the first three or four months [of his incarceration] she did not visit him,” says Toulon. “Maybe in the last two months she started visiting more frequently.”

According to Ellerup's attorney Bob Macedonio, Ellerup, who has filed for divorce and is participating in a multi-part documentary following her over Heuermann’s future trial, still has a "very difficult time believing that the Rex, who she was married to for 27 years, is capable of committing these homicides."

About visiting him weekly, Macedonio says, "A lot of that, I think — and I'm not going to speak for her professionally, psychologically — but a lot of that I think is therapeutic for her and to get whatever kind of grasp on the situation she possibly can. I don't want to use the word closure. We don't know where it's going yet."

Related: Rex Heuermann's Wife Participating in Documentary on Gilgo Beach Killings, Deceased Woman's Sister Reacts

Heuermann was charged in July 2023 with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy , Amber Costello and Megan Waterman . He was later accused by authorities of murdering Maureen Brainard-Barnes. All four women had worked as online escorts and had been missing between 2007 and 2010.

Heuermann was allegedly linked to the killings through DNA evidence as well as by burner phones used to rendezvous with the victims, as well as by a piece of his hair allegedly found at the bottom of a burlap bag used to wrap Waterman’s body.

He was also traced to a Chevrolet Avalanche that was registered to him and was allegedly seen at the time of Costello's disappearance.

Authorities said investigators also found evidence that Heuermann was allegedly obsessed with the case and searched for articles about the task force that was formed to investigate the killings.

As to his life now, Toulon says that for the most part, Heuermann spends the bulk of his time in his cell, which is monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week by a corrections officer posted nearby.

Heuermann, Toulon says, is separated from the other inmates but “not isolated.”

“One of the things that we're very committed to is to ensure that justice is served in the courts and not in our jails,” Toulon says. “When Mr. Heuermann has to move throughout our facility, we will stop all inmate movement because we don't want someone that may want to bring up their own street credibility or someone that may want to hurt him because they ... may know a sex worker or just do not like people that commit crimes against women and may take it into their own hands.”

Related: Rex Heuermann Allegedly Linked to 2 More Gilgo Beach Victims by Witness Testimony: Lawyer

Heuermann, Toulon says, has not been attacked by an inmate. “The only ones that he will see when he moves from his cell to whatever area he's going to will be corrections staff,” he says. “For his safety, as long as he's in our custody, we will keep the same protocols in place.”

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As far as connecting with the outside world, Heuermann is allowed as many phone calls as he wants depending on how much money he has in his jail account.

“He can make as many phone calls as he has money in his commissary to make those calls,” he says. “We don't notice any unusual activity. He does speak to his attorney and I'm sure he speaks to loved ones. I don't know who he's speaking to, but he is authorized to speak to call people and talk to him.”

Toulon says he doesn’t know who puts money in his commissary.

He is also allowed one hour of exercise in the yard. “For the most part, all he does is walk around the yard,” he says. “He does have that availability to run or do sprints, shoot a basketball, do some pushups, some pull-ups, some dips. But for the most part he just walks around.”

Last week, ABC7 reported that the multi-agency Homicide Task Force that captured Heuermann and began investigating the unsolved murders of others including a mother found along Ocean Parkway on Long Island is expanding and plans to look at other unsolved cold case killings.

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New Jersey’s Yacht Rock Killer charged with 4th murder

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A New Jersey serial killer already jailed for killing three women is facing new charges of a fourth murder.

Police say they have linked Khalil Wheeler-Weaver to the killing of 15-year-old Mawa Doumbia, whose body was found in an abandoned carriage house in Orange in April of 2019.

Wheeler-Weaver had already been charged with her death. The new charges include attempted sexual assault of a minor, endangerment and the desecration of human remains.

Like his previous victims, prosecutors say Wheeler-Weaver met Doumbia online and asked her to meet for sex in exchange for money.

NJ.com reports he offered the girl $70 and she agreed to meet in October 2016.

She left home, allegedly to meet Wheeler-Weaver on Oct. 8. That was the last time her father and sister saw her alive. She was not heard from again until her body was found nearly three years later.

Previous victims were also found in abandoned buildings in Essex County.

One of his would-be victims, however, was able to break free and call police.

Tiffany Taylor offered crucial testimony in the trial that resulted in Wheeler-Weaver's conviction. He is currently serving a 160-year sentence.

Prosecutors have said they believe there may be other victims but have provided no additional details about their investigation.

Wheeler-Weaver was dubbed the "Yacht Rock Killer" for one of the handles he used to solicit victims online.

He was recently featured in a New Jersey 101.5 article detailing New Jersey's most notorious serial killers.

Eric Scott  is the senior political director and anchor for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at  [email protected]

Click here to contact an editor about feedback or a correction for this story.

New Jersey's Most Terrifying Serial Killers

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The most prolific serial killer in history stopped by police working separately, together

Samuel little’s case demonstrates a commonly voiced complaint of veteran officers: a post-arrest criminal justice system that shows more compassion for criminals than victims.

In this March 4, 2013, file photo, Samuel Little appears at Superior Court in Los Angeles. Little, pronounced the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history, confessed his crimes to homicide detectives well-briefed on how to keep him talking and get the information they needed.

AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File

The most prolific serial killer in U.S. history, Samuel Little , died in December 2020, after admitting strangling to death 93 women over a period of 35 years, from 1970 to 2005. His case highlights how the post-arrest criminal justice system can show more compassion for criminals than their victims.

Criminal history

Samuel Little’s criminal arrest record was 100 pages in length detailing crimes committed over six decades in nearly half the states in the union.

He started by stealing a bike and eventually was arrested on charges of DUI, burglary, breaking and entry, drug violations, assaulting a police officer, sexual assault, resisting arrest, robbery, soliciting a prostitute, false imprisonment, shoplifting, battery, sodomy and murder.

Modus Operandi

Little traveled all over the nation, during which he stole to live, as well as being partially financed by Social Security benefits collected via a pre-paid Walmart card. When the mood hit, Little chose victims to kill he determined to be “less dead,” concluding that their status in life would ensure they would be less cared about by the criminal justice system after he murdered them.

Little told journalist Jillian Lauren, who interviewed the killer after his final capture, “I never killed no senators or governors or fancy New York Journalist. Nothing like that. I killed you (sic) (referring to the interviewer Jillian Lauren), it’d be all over the news. I stayed in the ghetto.”

Little targeted prostitutes, offering them cash and drugs. Once charmed, he would strike a thunderous blow, knocking them senseless. He kept them awake during the sexual aspect of the assault because he explained he liked to “hold them in his arms while they were crying.” Little would strangle his victims with one hand and pleasure himself with the other, drawing the murder process out to prolong the victim’s suffering and his pleasure.

“Slap on the wrist”

On September 11, 1976, Little was arrested by officers of the Sunset Hills (Missouri) Police Department for the rape, robbery and assault of Pamela K. Smith. Pamela managed to escape and run terrified half-naked through the night, landing on a stranger’s doorstep, asking for the police.

Officers arrested Samuel Little and compiled a rock-solid case of rape, kidnapping and attempted murder against him. However, the prosecutor deemed the victim “unreliable” since she was a heroin addict and arranged a plea bargain, which led to Little serving only three months.

“Not guilty”

In September 1982, 26-year-old Patricia Mount was found nude and strangled to death in Alachua County, Florida. Police located eyewitnesses who saw her leaving an establishment with Samuel Little in his Ford Pinto. Hairs matching Little were found on the naked corpse. Police officers arrested Little and charged him with murder, but a jury found him “not guilty” of the murder, leading to his release.

One month later, the cemetery groundskeeper in the town of Pascagoula, Mississippi found the body of Melinda LaPree. Police officers located eyewitnesses who identified Little as the man driving the Ford Pinto LaPree was last seen getting into.

Investigators also found two prostitutes, Hilda Nelson and Leila McClain, who reported they too had been beaten and strangled murderously by Little. Nelson was saved when a neighbor who heard her screams and witnessed the attack in progress screamed as well, causing Little to flee.

Leila McClain said she got into Little’s car when he offered her $50 for her services. Once in the car, his initially kind façade evaporated when he suddenly began to beat and strangle her. Knowing death was imminent, McClain countered with a series of focused blows and escaped, running half-dressed across four lanes of heavy traffic.

McClain and Nelson were positive on their identification of Little as their attacker for his face still haunted their nightmares. However, the District Attorney dismissed the charges brought by the officers deeming the witnesses to be “unreliable.”

Great police work, but…

Laurie Barros

In 1984 Laurie Barros was kidnapped, strangled and sexually assaulted by Little. She had the presence of mind to feign death until she was dumped on the side of a road. Once Little left, Barros ran to safety and reported the attack to the police.

Tonya Jackson

One month later, rookie San Diego officer Wayne Spees and his training officer partner Lou Tumagni were checking the same parking lot where Barros had been attacked. Officer Spees spotted Little stepping out of a vehicle while zipping up his pants. Spees arrested Little after he discovered Tonya Jackson crumpled naked, badly beaten, bloodied and unconscious, inside Little’s black T-bird.

A jury convicted Little, but after serving only four years, a parole board freed him early to kill again.

The final Earthly reckoning

In 2012, Detective Mitzi Roberts working in the Los Angeles Police Department’s Cold Case Special Section, submitted data and DNA from cold case files for possible matches.

Audrey Nelson

There was a match in the case of Audrey Nelson, who in September 1989, was found murdered and discarded in the dumpster like a damaged clothing store mannequin. Audrey had fought with her attacker and, in one last act of desperation, gathered Little’s DNA under her fingernails.

The investigator who collected that evidence must have been moved by the words “TRUE LOVE” tattooed across the back of Audrey’s fingers.

Guadalupe Apodaca

One month later, 46-year-old Guadalupe Apodaca was discovered in an abandoned garage by a young boy. A DNA-loaded sample of sperm was deposited by Little on her skirt.

Spurred on by these matches, Detective Roberts and her partner Detective Rodrigo Amador began peeling back the onion that was Little’s criminal history.

Carol Alford

The detectives submitted the cases to VICAP (Violent Criminal Apprehension Process) and seven months later they discovered Little’s DNA was also found on the bra of 41-year-old Carol Alford, who had been found strangled in an alleyway in South Central Los Angeles.

US Marshals get involved

While Detectives Roberts and Amador worked to strengthen their case, they requested U.S. Marshals find Little for the protection of the public. Marshals were able to locate and arrest him in a homeless shelter in Kentucky on an outstanding drug warrant.

Survivors prove reliable after all

Roberts and Amador crossed the country to interview Little’s earlier victims, Hilda Nelson and Leila McClain. Their testimony would prove priceless since their experiences helped paint a compelling picture of a very driven and dangerous sexual predator who attacked them in a similar manner that had proved fatal to the deceased victims. Little was extradited and charged with three counts of murder.

The case was presented to the jury by Beth Silverman, a prosecutor who like police officers was a compassionate victim advocate. The trial included weeks of powerful testimony from living victims, pathologists, criminalists, scientists and police investigators. Silverman closed the case with a spellbinding closing argument. On September 2, 2014, Samuel Little was convicted on all three counts of first-degree murder.

Texas Ranger takes on the case

After Texas Ranger James Holland learned of the Little case at a homicide conference, he became convinced that Little killed when he lived in Texas. He communicated this firm belief with FBI VICAP Crime Analyst Christie Palazzolo and Department of Justice and VICAP Liaison Angela Williamson and they shared his enthusiasm.

Their data/DNA search linked Little to three cases, including the murder of a Denise Brothers in 1994, during which Sergeant Snow Robertson had diligently collected the physical evidence, which locked in Little as the perpetrator.

Holland established rapport with Little and in time he had Little calling him “Jimmy.”

“Jimmy” convinced “Sammy” that it was powerful to hold the secrets, but it was even more powerful to reveal secrets, causing the flood gates to open. The gory details of 93 murders poured forth.

In taped confessions, Little showed neither remorse nor compassion for any of his victims. Samuel Little even painted his victims. These paintings have a junior-high-art-project-type quality but bear a haunting resemblance to the victims they portray.

The confessions of yet unsolved cases can be viewed here .

Little’s case demonstrates a commonly voiced complaint of veteran police officers. They work with a post-arrest criminal justice system that shows more compassion for criminals than to the suffering of victims.

This case also demonstrates how the efforts of police officers over many years were combined thanks to the investigative leadership of Detective Mitzi Roberts and Lt. Holland to finally bring this killer to justice by working separately, together.

Samuel Little, deemed the nation's 'most prolific serial killer' by the FBI, has died

An official cause of death has yet to be determined.

Samuel Little, the prolific serial killer who was serving three consecutive life sentences, is dead, authorities said Wednesday.

Little died at a hospital shortly before 5 a.m. local time, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement. An official cause of death will be determined by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office. He was 80.

The FBI has deemed Little "the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history."

He was convicted in 2014 of killing three women in the late 1980s, after being linked to the murders through DNA matched to evidence found at the crime scenes.

MORE: Timeline on 78-year-old man suspected of being one of the 'most prolific serial killers in US history'

Subsequently, Little confessed to strangling 93 victims between 1970 and 2005, according to the FBI. The FBI said investigators believed his confessions were credible and had verified 50 as of October 2019.

One of his suspected victims was just identified in October . Patricia Parker, who was a 30-year-old mother from Chattanooga, Tennessee, was found slain and dumped alongside a Georgia freeway nearly 40 years ago. Authorities said they believe Little killed her.

Little's life of crime spanned decades, according to a 2018 FBI report . He was first arrested in 1956 and displayed a "dark, violent streak" in his crimes, which included shoplifting, fraud, drug charges, solicitation and breaking and entering, the FBI said.

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He spent a term in prison prior to his conviction on murder charges in 2014, serving two years in California state prison from 1985 to 1987 for assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment.

In 2012, Little was arrested at a Kentucky homeless shelter and extradited to California on a narcotics charge, the FBI said. That's when police in Los Angeles matched his DNA to three unsolved murders from the late 1980s.

MORE: FBI releases serial killer Samuel Little's drawings of women he killed

"In all three cases, the women had been beaten and then strangled, their bodies dumped in an alley, a dumpster, and a garage," the FBI said in its report.

Despite asserting his innocence, Little was convicted and sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Since his confession in 2018 to killing 93 women, investigators have been racing to identify as many of his victims as possible and help close the unsolved cases.

While jailed, investigators have interviewed Little and had him draw dozens of pictures of women -- almost all women of color -- he admitted to killing over nearly 40 years.

"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 Criminal Apprehension Program, said in a statement when the agency launched its initiative to identify the women. "Even though he is already in prison, the FBI believes it is important to seek justice for each victim -- to close every case possible."

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Samuel Little, The Nation's Most Prolific Serial Killer, Dies At 80

Jaclyn Diaz

The most prolific serial killer in U.S. history died Wednesday at age 80. Samuel Little had confessed to 93 murders in more than a dozen states over 35 years. Handout/FBI via Getty Images hide caption

The most prolific serial killer in U.S. history died Wednesday at age 80. Samuel Little had confessed to 93 murders in more than a dozen states over 35 years.

Samuel Little, a convicted murderer who the FBI says is the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history, died Wednesday at age 80.

Little was serving three consecutive life-without-parole sentences for the deaths of three women in the late 1980s in Los Angeles, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in its announcement of his death.

Little died at 4:53 a.m. An official cause will be determined by the Los Angeles County medical examiner's office.

Convicted Murderer Has Confessed To 90 Killings, FBI Says

In 2018, Little confessed to the murder of 93 women nationwide from the 1970s through 2005. The FBI says it believes all of his confessions are credible.

Since then, law enforcement officers from around the U.S. have tried to connect details of his confessions to unsolved homicides in their regions. They had verified at least 50 of Little's murder confessions as of last year.

Work continues on corroborating more than 40 other cases, an effort that is likely to become more difficult now that Little is dead.

Little's victims and crimes

Little was convicted in 2014 for the murder of the three women killed in Los Angeles in the 1980s, after he was extradited to California from Kentucky on a narcotics charge.

Once in custody for the drug charge, detectives collected DNA from Little that tied him to three unsolved homicides from 1987 and 1989. In all three cases, the women were beaten and strangled, and their bodies were dumped in an alley, a dumpster and a garage, the FBI said. It became Little's modus operandi throughout his 35-year killing spree.

Little's life of crime started when he dropped out of high school and left his home in Ohio in the 1950s. He lived a nomadic life, getting by through stealing, selling his loot and using the money for drugs and alcohol. He had frequent run-ins with police but was often let go after a short stint in jail, the FBI said.

Samuel Little lived a nomadic lifestyle, often stealing to get money for drugs and alcohol. Despite his frequent run-ins with police, he evaded a lengthy stint behind bars until 2012, when he was arrested on a narcotics charge. Handout/FBI via Getty Images hide caption

He chose his murder victims because they were marginalized and vulnerable — often prostitutes or women addicted to drugs, according to the FBI. Their bodies, if they were found, typically went unidentified, and their murders were not carefully investigated.

Little's method of killing — strangulation — didn't always leave reliable signs for local police to determine whether the woman's death was a homicide. The FBI said he usually stunned or knocked out his victims before strangling them, thus leaving no signs of a struggle.

'Most Prolific Serial Killer' In America Confesses To Killing 5 More Women In Ohio

Law enforcement investigation

Little first confessed to the murders in 2018 when he was interviewed by Texas Ranger James Holland. Holland was investigating an unsolved homicide in Odessa, Texas, at the time. Little shared details of the killings because he sought to move prisons and offered information as a deal with police. It's unclear why he wanted a prison transfer or if detectives agreed to make that deal or if Little shared information separate from any agreement with law enforcement.

His confessions touched off a nationwide effort to confirm that Little was tied to unsolved killings in more than a dozen states. Over the course of almost two years, Little shared detailed information about each of his victims, how he killed them and the general location of their bodies.

Little also drew incredibly detailed pictures of his victims, which the FBI has used to help solve the murders. The FBI created a webpage listing the details Little shared with detectives, his drawings, where he believes each woman was from and Little's videotaped confessions.

Detectives hope that with the public's help and the information from Little, they can resolve the remaining 40 unresolved cases.

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VIDEO shows unidentified serial killer who stabbed 3 victims to death in random attacks, cops say

Authorities in Arkansas are searching for a suspected serial killer who they believed carried out four stabbings, three of them fatal, between August 2020 and April of this year.

In the most recent attacks, Little Rock police said the unidentified suspect is believed to have stabbed Debra Walker, 43, 15 times on April 11. Walker survived the attack, but Marlon Franklin, 40, a homeless man who the suspect stabbed a day later, died from his injuries, according to KATV.

Police Chief Keith Humphrey said the four victims were chosen at random. All of the attacks reportedly occurred between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. Humphrey said similarities in the four incidents led them to believe they are linked, but he did not reveal what information led to that assumption.

In the first attack, which occurred on August 24, 2020, Larry McChristian, 64, was found stabbed to death in the front yard of a Little Rock residence. A month later, on September 23, Jeff Welch, 62, was found stabbed in the neck on the front porch of a home. He later died of his injuries.

Walker said she was walking when a man approached her and stabbed her 15 times. She reportedly provided police with a description of her attacker.

According to KATV, the suspect is a Black male who is more than 6 feet tall and has a slender build.

On Thursday, Little Rock police released surveillance footage showing the person they believe committed the four attacks.

A $20,000 reward is being offered for information in this case. Anyone with information is asked to call the Little Rock Police Department at 501-371-4636 .

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[Featured image: Little Rock Police Department]

Local superhero ShadowVision vows to take down the Little Rock slasher

For eight years now, ShadowVision has walked among us. Did you not know? That’s to be expected. ShadowVision stays quiet. He avoids the limelight. But he wants the River Cities to take some comfort in knowing he’s always on duty.

ShadowVision stepped out of the shadows this week to issue a public challenge to the serial stabber blamed for three deaths and one violent attack in the past year. All attacks happened in the wee hours in a section of midtown Little Rock south of I-630.

“I know that the serial stabber is keeping a eye on my page here,” ShadowVision wrote on Facebook. “So this is a threat to you when i find you i will show you what i do to serial killers. I am hunting you right now.”

A quiet presence on the streets but a Facebook phenom , ShadowVision has 4,444 fans, and classifies his page as “community service.” His service record is impressive, but unverifiable. “I’ve stopped a couple of armed robberies. I’ve exterminated two serial killers.” We haven’t heard about those incidents, he said, simply because they happened long ago.

ShadowVision’s origin story? There was no radioactive spider bite, no traumatic family homicides. He was born this way. ShadowVision came here from Scotland eight years ago, which perhaps explains his unusual speech pattern. He made his home in North Little Rock because he felt a calling. “I heard everybody here was losing hope, so I decided to head out here and start helping,” he said.

So he brought his martial arts skills and impressive superhero kit and marked out his patrol area, which is usually confined to North Little Rock. Photos on his Facebook page show him standing vigil at Argenta Plaza, and also beside the fountain drink dispenser at what appears to be the Kum and Go on JFK. Sometimes he teams up with fellow North Little Rock defenders Master Legend and Antihero, but for the most part, ShadowVision works alone.

ShadowVision said he will cross the Arkansas River when he needs to, and that now is one of those times. The suspect in the serial slashings is described as a man on foot, Black, but no one has many more details than that. Little Rock Police released only one photo of the suspect, and his face isn’t visible. Is it enough to go on?  ShadowVision vows to try. “All I can say is, he can either turn himself in or I will hunt him.”

Should ShadowVision find the slasher, here’s what he would bring to the fight: A steel helmet, bulletproof chest and back plates, shoulder pads, fanged arm cuffs he uses to catch himself on downhill slides, handcuffs, two steel sais strapped to his thighs and two katanas that ride on his back.

ShadowVision has a need for speed, and would appreciate your donation to his vehicle fund.

The one obvious thing missing from his arsenal is speed. ShadowVision lacks any type of superhero mobile, so he walks wherever he goes. The vehicle he had before got shot up, he said. So he logs about 80 miles a week, which keeps him in fighting shape. He’s in the market for a car (“A scion xD is what i am after. They are agile and can take turns at high speed,” he wrote on Facebook), and  is accepting donations via Cash App and Paypal.

But ShadowVision said money isn’t really what he’s after. He wants safety from the serial killer that has Little Rock on edge.

“I really do not want any reward,” he said. “I want him off the streets. One way or another, he will be.”

At that, ShadowVision turned and walked east down Bishop Lindsey Avenue, disappearing into the shadows.

The perfect victim

For more than 40 years, america’s deadliest serial killer went undetected., he claims to have killed at least 93 people, nearly all women, many of whom remain unidentified., he got away with it by preying on those on the margins of society whose murders police failed to solve..

Samuel Little guided his car to a stop in a secluded area off Route 27 near Miami and cut the engine. Before long, Mary Brosley had straddled his lap. He started playing with her necklace.

He’d met her at a nearby bar, drinking away the final hours of 1970. She was a frail, vulnerable woman, about 5-foot-4 and anorexic, barely 80 pounds. The tip of her left pinkie finger was missing, sliced off in a kitchen accident, and she walked with a limp from hip surgery.

Brosley said she had left a series of lovers and two children in Massachusetts after endless confrontations about her drinking. Estranged from her family, struggling to survive, she was the kind of woman who might disappear from the face of the Earth without attracting much notice.

Little admired the way the moonlight illuminated her pale throat.

“I had desires. Strong desires to … choke her,” he would later tell police. “I just went out of control, I guess.”

By New Year’s Day 1971, Mary Brosley, 33, had become the first known victim of a man since recognized as the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history. Over more than 700 hours of videotaped interviews with police that began in May 2018, Little, now 80, has confessed to killing 93 people, virtually all of them women, in a murderous rampage that spanned 19 states and more than 30 years.

A gifted artist with an unnervingly accurate memory, Little has produced lifelike drawings of dozens of his victims. And, with the fervor of an old man recalling the exploits of his youth, he has provided police with precise details about their murders, invariably effected by strangulation.

Across the nation, police have spent more than two years using that information to reopen cold-case investigations and attempt to bring closure to families who have waited decades to learn what happened to the mother who vanished, the sister whose suspicious death was never explained.

“If Little hadn’t confessed … then none of this would have been solved,” said Angela Williamson, a Justice Department official who worked on the case. Federal investigators believe his confessions are “100 percent credible,” she said.

So far, officials say they have identified more than 50 victims. Other cases remain in limbo, either because police have been unable to find a killing with circumstances to match Little’s description, or because the victim is an unclaimed “Jane Doe.”

The FBI has pleaded with the public for assistance but has declined to release Little’s case file, saying each murder investigation is being led by local authorities. To fill in the gaps, The Washington Post obtained and analyzed thousands of pages of law enforcement and court records — including a complete criminal history assembled in the early 2000s — and conducted interviews with dozens of police officials, prosecutors, defense attorneys and relatives of Little’s victims. The Post also reviewed video and audio recordings of a number of Little’s confessions.

What emerges is a portrait of a fragmented and indifferent criminal justice system that allowed a man to murder without fear of retribution by deliberately targeting those on the margins of society — drug users, sex workers and runaways whose deaths either went unnoticed or stirred little outrage. In many cases, authorities failed to identify them as murder victims, or conducted only cursory investigations.

Though Brosley was White, at least 68 of Little’s victims were Black, according to officials, news reports and Little’s confessions. At least three were Hispanic and one was Native American. Several had mental disabilities. At least one was a transgender woman.

During an interview with investigators in Ohio, obtained by The Post, Little disturbingly referred to his victims as succulent fruits he could enjoy without penalty.

“I’d go back to the same city sometimes and pluck me another grape. How many grapes do you all got on the vine here?” he said. He boasted of avoiding “people who would be immediately missed.” For example, he said, “I’m not going to go over there into the White neighborhood and pick out a little teenage girl.”

That strategy, coupled with tactics that left little physical evidence, was highly effective. Police officials acknowledge that the vast majority of murders attributed to Little would never have been solved without his voluntary confession.

“If these women had been wealthy, White, female socialites, this would have been the biggest story in the history of the United States. But that’s not who he preyed upon,” said criminologist Scott Bonn, who has written extensively about serial killers.

Little, who also went by the name Samuel McDowell, did not respond to letters from The Post requesting an interview. He is locked up in a California state prison, serving multiple life sentences. Advances in DNA technology and the rise of cold-case units eventually led to his arrest and conviction in 2014. By then, the killing was long over; he has said his final victim died in Tupelo, Miss., in 2005.

But Little’s decades of impunity underscore a troubling truth about the U.S. criminal justice system: It is possible to get away with murder if you kill people whose lives are already devalued by society.

“Could it happen again today?” said Brad Garrett, a former FBI agent who has worked on some of the bureau’s highest-profile cases. “The answer, of course, is yes.”

An early start

Born on June 7, 1940, in Reynolds, Ga., a small town about 100 miles south of Atlanta, Samuel Little has told police he was 7 or 8 years old the first time he got the urge to choke someone. By the fifth grade, he was obsessed with a teacher who rubbed her neck in class, and was fantasizing about killing a little freckled girl he knew.

At the time, Little was living with relatives in northeast Ohio. He told journalist Jillian Lauren that his teenage mother abandoned him as an infant. Georgia officials declined to release Little’s birth certificate, so details of his birth could not be confirmed.

At 13, Little was caught stealing — a bicycle, he has said — and sent to the Boys’ Industrial School, an Ohio reform school, according to a record released by the nonprofit Ohio History Connection. Two years later, he was arrested in Omaha for burglary, according to a copy of his criminal history. A year after that, he was charged with breaking into a furniture store in Lorain, Ohio, and shipped to a juvenile detention center for two years.

Thus began a lifetime of crime that ultimately would include dozens of arrests in cities across the country: Assault in Denver. Soliciting a prostitute in Bakersfield, Calif. Theft in Philadelphia, DUI in Los Angeles and shoplifting in Phoenix.

Sometimes he was locked up for months, or even years. Sometimes he beat the charges, winning acquittals on assault with a gun in Miami and armed robbery in suburban Cleveland. But he always went back to a life of murder and aimless drifting, supported by shoplifting and the occasional odd job.

By 1976, Little was being held in the Dade County, Fla., jail on charges including grand larceny and resisting arrest. Given permission to paint a massive mural on the jailhouse wall featuring such historical figures as Betsy Ross, Sitting Bull and Benjamin Banneker, he was profiled by a reporter for the now-defunct Miami News.

Then 35, Little told the reporter he had taken up drawing while jailed in Baltimore. There, he said, he painted portraits of Martin Luther King Jr. and then-Maryland Gov. Marvin Mandel.

“I’m looking forward to the day I can get out and open a studio on the beach,” he said. “The next time I’m out, it’s do or die.”

Little told the reporter he had been jailed 16 times, though records suggest it was more like 34 at the time; the article appeared under the headline “16-time loser finds himself.”

By then, according to his recent confessions, Little had already killed more than a dozen women.

Missed signs

Mary Brosley had been dead for three weeks when a man and his 15-year-old son, out hunting one Sunday afternoon, stumbled across a body in a shallow grave. Clad in a multicolored dress, underwear and a metal necklace, the dead woman was decayed beyond recognition and carried no ID. Police ran what remained of her fingerprints but found no matches.

Authorities were stuck, unsure who the woman was or how she had died. The medical examiner incorrectly estimated that she had been between 50 and 60 years old and in the ground for about two months.

Strangulation almost always leaves physical signs such as bruising, pinpricks of under-the-skin bleeding in the face, or fractures of the hyoid bone in the neck, said Gary Watts, president of the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners. But Watts and other experts noted that this physical evidence decays with time and that Little killed his victims under circumstances likely to leave fewer telltale marks.

A person impaired by drugs or alcohol is easier to suffocate without a struggle, for example; younger people tend to have more-flexible hyoid bones and thyroid cartilage, making a fracture less likely.

In Brosley’s case, her body lay decomposing for weeks before it was discovered, allowing physical clues to degrade. By the time they found her, Miami police weren’t even sure their Jane Doe had been murdered. The woman’s blood alcohol level was so high — between 0.29 and 0.37 — it was possible she had simply dropped dead. Police deemed the death suspicious, but did not label it a homicide despite the fact that someone had buried the body.

That was a pattern among Little’s confirmed and likely victims. In some cases, the failure to recognize that a murder had been committed led to abbreviated criminal probes.

“In a case like this, you’ve got detectives dealing with a whole load of cases, and this woman is a sex worker, or homeless. There’s nothing to tie her to anybody in particular,” said Garrett, the former FBI agent. “You do the preliminary stuff, fingerprints and DNA. And there are detectives who do more than that. … But you sort of have to get lucky.”

In 1974, Martha Cunningham, a 34-year-old Black woman, disappeared in Knoxville, Tenn., on her way to a New Year’s Eve church service, according to her sister, Jessie Lane Downs. When they found her body, police told local reporters, it was covered in bruises; an autopsy noted that her purse and jewelry were missing, that her stockings and underwear had been pulled down to her thighs, and that her dress and slip had been pulled up.

Still, the autopsy found “no obvious cause of death.” Noting Cunningham’s history of seizures, local authorities told the Knoxville News-Sentinel that the death appeared to be from natural causes.

Mary Brosley was found decayed beyond recognition with a multicolored dress, underwear and a metal necklace. (Obtained by The Washington Post)

In 1977, Mary Ann Jenkins, a 22-year-old Black woman, was found naked but for her jewelry; officials in Illinois incorrectly concluded that she had been killed in a lightning strike.

And in 1994, authorities in Pine Bluff, Ark., found the naked body of Jolanda Jones, 26, a Black mother of two, in a vacant house with a crack pipe under her thigh. Medical examiners found no obvious signs of trauma but did find cocaine in her blood. Her death was ruled an overdose.

Years later, the FBI notified local police that Little had confessed to killing a woman in Pine Bluff. Police said he produced a painting of a woman that resembled Jones and offered details that seemed to match Jones’s case.

“It was like he was there with us” when Jones’s body was found, said Terry Hopson, a retired deputy police chief who was on the scene.

A quarter-century after her death, Pine Bluff police forwarded Jones’s case to local prosecutors.

A cold case

Brosley was still a Jane Doe when she officially became a murder victim in 1982. Joseph Davis, the chief medical examiner in Miami, opened her file during a routine review of unsolved cases. The way she had been partially buried prompted him to reconsider the manner of death, police said; it was changed from “undetermined” to “homicide.”

Police still knew almost nothing about the victim. She appeared to be “an alcoholic female, with two old injuries, strangled, killed, and buried,” Davis wrote in a memo to police. “A saloon ‘hanger-on’ type might be considered.”

Thirty-five more years passed before an investigator with the medical examiner’s office, a specialist in unidentified remains, picked up the file.

The investigator, Brittney McLaurin, plugged a description of the body into a national database of missing persons launched about a decade earlier. McLaurin quickly turned up a report of a missing Massachusetts woman who had lost part of a pinkie and had a medical implant in her hip — just like the unidentified body. The woman, Mary Brosley, also was said to have naturally auburn hair that she occasionally dyed blond — another match.

McLaurin contacted a dental expert, who compared the body’s teeth with Brosley’s dental records. Then McLaurin called police to say she had identified their Jane Doe.

It would take another year to find Brosley’s killer.

In May 2018, Miami-Dade Detective David Denmark got a call from James Holland, a Texas Ranger investigating a serial killer who had confessed to strangling women in South Florida. Miami detectives scoured their archives for unsolved drownings and strangulations, settling on two that seemed to fit Little’s profile: One was a White, mentally disabled sex worker named Angela Chapman who died in 1976. The other was Brosley.

Little, then being held in a county jail in North Texas, agreed to meet Denmark in exchange for a pledge not to use his confessions to seek a death sentence. Denmark finally interviewed Little in October 2018.

It was a disorienting experience, he said. Instead of aggressive interrogation, Little required patience. Denmark learned to listen to his stories without interrupting, “to laugh at all of his little jokes,” to let his memories slowly unspool.

Little began with Chapman, who was 25 when he said he had sex with her, drove her out to the Everglades and tried to drown her.

“He took her out of the water after she passed out, and brought her back to the shore,” Denmark said. “When she woke back up, he choked her [again] and killed her.”

Then Little mentioned another murder: his very first. He said he’d met the woman at a bar in North Miami Beach, a blonde who walked with a limp. He said she told him she was from Massachusetts, and that she had run away. He said he drove her to a secluded area, strangled her and buried her in a shallow grave.

The detectives showed Little a photo of Mary Brosley.

Yes, he said. That’s her.

Unanswered question

Darryl Brosley had long wondered about the mother who vanished when he was a child. Once a bright student, she had endured a long line of violent men. One picked her up during a fight and threw her down so hard she needed hip surgery. Another was Darryl’s father. He remembers watching his dad throw a drinking glass at his mother’s head.

His mother wound up a divorced alcoholic, forced to give up Darryl and his younger sister to foster care. Eventually, a great aunt took them in. The last photo Darryl has of his mother was taken at his first Communion: She showed up with a new man in tow, then disappeared from her son’s life for good.

Eventually, Darryl started telling people his mother died in a car crash. But he liked to imagine that she had just run off to a new life, had maybe married a millionaire.

Last year, he got the chance to find out for sure. His aunt called, saying she had news.

Darryl couldn’t decide at first if he wanted to hear it. In the end, he called back.

The aunt said his mother had been killed in Florida, that her body was found by hunters. The aunt said police believed the killer was a man she’d met in a bar. His mother really had been dead all these years.

Darryl hung up the phone and cried.

A few months later, a local reporter told him his mother might have been the victim of a serial killer. For the first time, Darryl heard the name Samuel Little.

Soon, the story was everywhere. Dozens of police departments were interviewing Little, saying his confessions had helped solve decades-old murder cases. In October 2019, the FBI identified Little as the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history with 93 confessed victims, more than Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer combined. An ex-girlfriend texted Darryl to say she had seen his mother’s killer on TV.

Now 59 and still living near Boston, Darryl knows police had fewer tools at their disposal when his mother was killed. He also knows his mother was easy prey. But he said he still struggles to understand how Little was permitted to kill vulnerable people again and again — 92 more times, by Little’s account.

“It’s hard to fathom. I mean, how does someone get away with that? Transient or otherwise?”

“Jesus,” he said, “I can’t even come to terms with that number.”

Julie Tate contributed to this report.

To contact the authors with information about Samuel Little, send us an email at [email protected] .

About this story

Story editing by Lori Montgomery. Copy editing by Mike Cirelli. Design and development by Lucio Villa. Photo editing by Nick Kirkpatrick. Project management by Julie Vitkovskaya.

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Local superhero vows to ‘hunt’ serial slasher in Little Rock, Arkansas

‘when i find you i will show you what i do to serial killers,’ vigilante says, article bookmarked.

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A masked vigilante in Arkansas has vowed to take on a serial slasher that has killed three people in his city.

The ‘real-life superhero ’ known as ShadowVision has acted as a “protector of the people” in Little Rock for nearly a decade.

He walks the streets of the area meeting and greeting fans while wearing a full black armoured outfit and helmet, vowing to “protect the innocent at whatever cost”.

Now, the “superhero” has promised residents that he will go after a criminal at large that has become notorious in the area.

Police believe the serial stabber to have carried out four attacks, three of which have resulted in deaths, local news reports say.

“I know that the serial stabber is keeping a eye on my page here,” ShadowVision wrote on his Facebook page, which has 7,550 followers.

He added: “So this is a threat to you when I find you I will show you what I do to serial killers. I am hunting you right now.”

In another comment, ShadowVision said: “I am only here to help. The people needs someone to bring them hope. I fight for the people.”

While the hero claims to have “stopped a couple of armed robberies” and have “exterminated two serial killers” such claims remain unverified, according to the Arkansas Times.

The newspaper reported that ShadowVision came to the city eight years ago from Scotland, and “heard everybody here was losing hope” so decided to “start helping” as the masked crusader.

Police have warned that the suspect in the stabbings should be considered armed and dangerous, ABC7 reported. A $20,000 reward for information in the case has been offered.

However, despite his best efforts to help the community, ShadowVision has also expressed that he is lacking one tool he needs to effectively protect the community: a vehicle.

While he continues to hunt villains down on foot, he has also appealed to his followers for donations to buy a new car, as he says his patrols are “limited” without the resource.

However, the masked man says he doesn’t want “any reward” for his purported efforts to stop the serial killer, but that he just wants the dangerous individual “off the streets.”

Either way, Shadowvision says that when he’s not fighting criminals he is stills “spreading hope by putting a smile on people” in Little Rock.

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He Says He Got Away With 90 Murders. Now He’s Confessing to Them All.

By Timothy Williams

• Nov. 26, 2018

Nearly every day for weeks, a white-haired man in a wheelchair, his body ravaged by diabetes and heart disease, has been escorted under heavy guard from a Texas jail cell to an interview room to speak about evil.

Day by day, the authorities say, he has recounted details of long-ago murders: faces, places, the layouts of small towns. He has described how he picked up vulnerable women from bars, nightclubs and along streets and strangled them to death in the back seat of his car.

The man, Samuel Little, 78, has confessed to more than 90 murders, investigators say, stretching back almost half a century. Mr. Little already is serving three life sentences for the murders of three Los Angeles women during the 1980s, but the authorities suspect him of killing women in at least 14 states. Investigators say they have established Mr. Little’s ties to about 30 of the murders so far , and have little reason to doubt his confessions.

[Read More: F.B.I. says Samuel Little is most prolific serial killer in U.S. History]

“By the time we are done, we anticipate that Samuel Little will be confirmed as one of the most prolific serial killers in American history,” said Bobby Bland, the district attorney of Ector County, Tex., where Mr. Little is being held after a grand jury indicted him this summer for a 1994 killing.

Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, was convicted of 49 murders in Washington State during the 1980s and 1990s, the highest number of murder convictions for an American serial killer.

How a serial murderer could go on killing for years, apparently without anyone noticing a pattern, seems perplexing. But even the most effective police departments solve only about three-quarters of homicides, meaning that thousands of people get away with murder each year. Also, the killings Mr. Little is said to have admitted to occurred in a wide range of counties and states. Many of the women whom Mr. Little is believed to have killed were poor and addicted to drugs, alcohol, or both — a group of people that often are not reported missing for weeks and sometimes receive fewer investigative resources than others.

It was DNA evidence collected over years in the criminal justice system that first connected Mr. Little to several women who had been killed. Then, this year, a Texas Ranger named James Holland visited Mr. Little in a Los Angeles County prison and succeeded in winning his confidence, the authorities said. The stories began to tumble out, setting off a transfer to Texas and a frenzy of visits from investigators with cold cases from all over the nation.

Part of Mr. Little’s impetus for talking now, investigators say, is that he seems to prefer the Ector County jail to the noisy, often chaotic environment of a Los Angeles County prison. Investigators who have spoken to him say he also appears to enjoy the attention he is receiving as he recites details only a killer would know, after decades of discussing them with no one.

Officials in Texas said Mr. Little would not be made available for an interview for this article, and a public defender who recently represented him declined to comment.

As the weeks have passed and new cases and details have emerged, more than a dozen local investigators, along with the F.B.I., have flocked to Texas to speak to Mr. Little in person.

The authorities say Mr. Little displays no sign of remorse while discussing the killings. He is exacting with certain details, they say, including where he left the women’s bodies years ago: A dumpster, near a hog pit, under a pecan tree. The investigators say he is matter-of-fact about his actions, and sometimes even chuckles about them; other times, they said, he speaks so quickly, with such excitement, that they struggle to understand his words.

“Believe it or not, you only see evil a few times in your career,” said Tim Marcia, a cold case detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, who dealt with Mr. Little on the three killings he was convicted of there. “Looking into his eyes, I would say that was pure evil.”

In many ways, the investigation into Mr. Little began in earnest in 2012 when Detective Marcia and his partner, Detective Mitzi Roberts, tracked him down at a homeless shelter in Kentucky after his DNA had been found to match two Los Angeles murder victims from the 1990s.

At the time, Mr. Little had served fewer than 10 years in prison, though he had amassed nearly 100 arrests in numerous states over more than 50 years. The charges included kidnapping, rape and armed robbery.

“He got off over and over and over again,” said Beth Silverman, the Los Angeles County prosecutor who ultimately won three murder convictions against Mr. Little. “There are a lot of agencies around the country that dropped the ball on this case.”

Ms. Silverman and others say the killings were sexually motivated, but she also said that Mr. Little takes offense at being called a rapist. He says erectile problems make that impossible. But he is believed to have raped some of his victims, and Mr. Little’s semen has been found on some of the women’s nude bodies or on their clothing.

“The way he gets sexual gratification is during the strangulation,” Ms. Silverman said.

During his interrogation of Mr. Little in October, Sgt. Michael Mongeluzzo, a detective in Marion County, Fla. — where Mr. Little has confessed to killing 20-year-old Rosie Hill in 1982 — said he had been astonished by Mr. Little’s ability to recall various specific details about the 36-year-old crime.

“It’s scary the clarity he has about certain things after all this time,” Sergeant Mongeluzzo said. “He remembers names and faces.”

Mr. Little, detectives say, is a charismatic psychopath who would brutally beat his victims before strangling them. A former boxer, he punched with such force that when he struck one of his victims in the abdomen he broke her spine, according to the autopsy report.

Sergeant Mongeluzzo said he had wondered aloud during the interrogation how Mr. Little had managed to avoid arrest for so long. Mr. Little, he said, had an answer.

“I can go into my world and do what I want to do,” Mr. Little said, according to Sergeant Mongeluzzo, describing neighborhoods around the nation where poverty, drug addiction and unsolved murders are common. “I won’t go into your world.”

Mr. Little has told investigators that his mother had been — in his words — “a lady of the night.”

But many other details about his childhood are unclear, although investigators said he may have been born in jail during one of his mother’s arrests. He was raised mostly by one of his grandmothers in Ohio.

In Opelousas, La., a town of 16,000, Donald Thompson, the police chief, said he has been haunted by a killing for years.

In January 1996, the naked body of Melissa Thomas, 24, the cousin of Mr. Thompson’s wife, was found under a pecan tree in a small cemetery behind a Baptist church.

At the time, Mr. Thompson was the department’s lead investigator on the case. He said he always suspected the killer had been an outsider because no one in the tightknit town had any information.

Last month, Chief Thompson got a call from Texas that Mr. Little had confessed to the murder, and he sent one of his detectives, Sgt. Crystal LeBlanc.

Over two hours, Sergeant LeBlanc found that Mr. Little knew the town’s streets, its bars, the location of the little church cemetery.

Mr. Little told Sergeant LeBlanc that he met Ms. Thomas on a street and they drove to the cemetery to use drugs. He said when they moved into the back seat to have sex, he began to stroke her neck and Ms. Thomas became alarmed.

“He said that she said: ‘Why do you keep touching my neck? Are you a serial killer?’” Sergeant LeBlanc said.

Mr. Little said he became so enraged that he strangled her to death, according to Sergeant LeBlanc.

Toward the end of the interview, Sergeant LeBlanc said she asked about Mr. Little’s religious beliefs. They spoke about the nature of sin. He told her he had no need to fear God.

“He said God made him this way, so why should he ask for forgiveness?” she said. “He said God knew everything he did.”

Manny Fernandez contributed reporting. Doris Burke contributed research.

Watch CBS News

Samuel Little, serial killer behind 93 murders, has died at 80

By Sharyn Alfonsi

December 31, 2020 / 7:16 AM EST / CBS News

Samuel Little, the man the FBI has called the most prolific serial killer in the history of the United States, died Wednesday at age 80, a law enforcement source confirmed to "60 Minutes." The cause of death has not yet been determined.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed Little's death later Wednesday in a press release .

Little, who in 2018 confessed to 93 murders over more than three decades, had been in jail since 2014 for the murders of three women he strangled. He confessed to the other murders under questioning by Ranger James Holland – the story of those confessions was told by " 60 Minutes " in October 2019.

"Probably be numerous people who are-- been convicted and sent to penitentiary on my behalf," Little told "60 Minutes" when asked why he confessed to the murders. "I say, if I can help get somebody out of jail, you know, God might smile a little bit more on me."

Little told authorities that he targeted prostitutes, drug addicts, and other women on the fringes he believed the police wouldn't work too hard to find.

"They was broke and homeless and they walked right into my spider web," Little said in 2019. "I don't think there was another person that did what I liked to do. I think I'm the only one in the world. That's not an honor. That's a curse."

Sharyn Alfonsi is an award-winning correspondent for 60 Minutes.

More from CBS News

4 cold case murders in Canada linked to U.S. serial rapist

Boeing whistleblower John Barnett died by suicide, police investigation concludes

Last pandas in the U.S. have a timetable to fly back to China

College professor to stand trial in death of pro-Israel protester last year

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Samuel Little, serial killer who confessed to over 90 murders, dies at 80

Little is who the FBI describes as ‘the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history’ for his decades-long spree.

The Black man who the FBI describes as “the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history” has died in prison at age 80.

Samuel Little confessed to 93 murders, and FBI crime analysts believe all of his confessions are credible. He said he strangled his victims over a period of more than 30 years.

California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation made the announcement of Little’s death “at an outside hospital” early Wednesday morning, the cause of which has yet to be determined by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Little was convicted in 2014 and sentenced to three consecutive life without parole sentences for the murders of three women.

Read More: Minneapolis police fatally shoot man during traffic stop, first death since Floyd

According to NPR , Little confessed to killing women who were prostitutes or addicted to drugs. Many of his victims were often unidentified or their deaths were labeled drug overdoses because his method of killing — strangulation — didn’t always leave signs of homicide.

Little’s confession in 2018 was part of an attempt to try to be moved from California State Prison in Los Angeles County.

Read More: Ossoff defends Warnock: Kelly Loeffler is ‘campaigning with a Klansman’

“Little remembers his victims and the killings in great detail,” the FBI said . “He remembers where he was, and what car he was driving. He draws pictures of many of the women he killed. He is less reliable, however, when it comes to remembering dates.”

The man has been positively linked to killings in California, Mississippi, South Carolina, Maryland, Ohio, Florida and Georgia, with more confirmed killings than any other serial killer in history. In comparison, Ted Bundy killed 30 women, while John Wayne Gary killed at least 33 young men and boys.

Read More: Dr. Fauci says US could be back to normal by early fall 2021

Despite Little’s death, the FBI is still seeking assistance from the public and other law enforcement agencies to connect more murder victims to his confessions.

He was interviewed in a series of videotaped conversations, during which he also drew pictures of his victims.

In August, The 93 Victims of Samuel Little , a documentary about the victims of his murders, was released on Amazon Prime Video.

Have you subscribed to theGrio’s “Dear Culture” podcast? Download our newest episodes now! TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku . Download theGrio.com today!

The post Samuel Little, serial killer who confessed to over 90 murders, dies at 80 appeared first on TheGrio .

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@user638129475748 on TikTok Remix by Cecilia Lenzen

‘What even is this’: TikToker captures encounter with masked ‘superhero’ hunting suspected ‘Little Rock Slasher’

'nah pack it up avengers.'.

Cecilia Lenzen

Internet Culture

Posted on Jul 7, 2021   Updated on Jul 8, 2021, 8:37 am CDT

In Little Rock, Arkansas, there’s an alleged serial killer on the loose. Fortunately, there’s also a superhero vigilante who reportedly vowed to take down the villain. 

The entire situation was explained in a TikTok, posted by @user638129475748 or Abi. Her video has reached over one million views and about 314,000 likes.

Abi captioned the TikTok, “I can’t with this stupid city. What even is this.” As much as the situation sounds like a comic book plot, according to a KATV story published in April , four stabbings in Little Rock over the past year appeared connected. Three of the stabbings were fatal. 

Little Rock Police Chief Keith Humphrey said that the stabbing victims were chosen at random by the suspected serial killer. They were all people walking around the Midtown area of Little Rock in the early morning hours between 1am and 4am.

In the TikTok, Abi shared a spotting of the superhero vigilante publicly known as ShadowVision, who told the Arkansas Times he’s on the hunt for the Little Rock slasher. 

On May 2, ShadowVision issued a public challenge to the serial stabber, writing on Facebook, “I know that the serial stabber is keeping a eye on my page here. So this is a threat to you when i find you i will show you what i do to serial killers. I am hunting you right now.” His page , which is labeled a community service, has over 10,000 likes. 

ShadowVision claims to have “stopped a couple of armed robberies” and “exterminated two serial killers.” The Arkansas Times pointed out that these claims could not be verified, although ShadowVision asserts they “happened long ago.” 

Folks on TikTok are fans of the “superhero.”

“I can’t why are y’all roasting ShadowVision,” one person commented in defense. Another said, “I KINDA LOVE IT.” 

Others were skeptical of the vigilante, questioning his methods.

“Y’all don’t even understand how deep these guys who dress up as [superheroes] go it’s genuinely crazy,” one person said. Another cracked, “Nah pack it up avengers.”

The FBI is reportedly helping the Little Rock Police Department with the investigation and the Bureau’s Behavioral Analysis Unit is consulting with the case.

Neither ShadowVision nor Little Rock Police responded to the Daily Dot’s request for comment. 

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Cecilia Lenzen is a freelance writer for the Daily Dot.