Murder: True Crime Stories - SOLVED: America's Deadliest Serial Killer 1

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

He’s believed to be the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history. With 93 victims and a trail of cold cases left behind, Samuel Little’s crimes went undetected for decades. Now, detectives are piecing together how a petty thief turned into a serial killer responsible for dozens of deaths. Murder: True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. For ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Don’t miss out on all things Murder: True Crime Stories! Instagram: @murdertruecrimepod | @Crimehouse TikTok: @Crimehouse Facebook: @crimehousestudios X: @crimehousemedia YouTube: @crimehousestudios To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Crime House. Investigating a cold case can feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack. There are so many factors at play and so many possibilities. Sometimes a detective might get a solid lead, only to learn their suspect has an ironclad alibi. Other times there's little to no evidence, it's like the killer vanished into thin air. It's not just frustrating, it's also heartbreaking for loved ones who are hoping for answers. But sometimes, all it takes is time. Time for technology to develop, and for a fresh set of eyes to come along and take another

look at the case. And when the floodgates do open, well, the results can shock even the most seasoned detective. People's lives are like stories with a beginning, a middle, and an end. But sometimes the final chapter comes far too soon and we don't always get to know the real ending. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder True Crime Stories, a Crime House original. Thank you to our Crime House community. Please rate, review, and follow Murder True Crime Stories to show your support.

And to enhance your listening experience with ad-free, early access to each two-part series plus bonus content, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. New episodes come out every Tuesday. And if you're interested in more true crime stories from this week in history, check out Crime House The Show. Each episode covers multiple cases, unified by the same theme. So every week, you get something a little different. This is the first of two episodes on the many victims of Samuel Little, thought to be the

most prolific serial killer in US history. Even decades later, Samuel remembered each one of his victims, and there were many. Before his death in 2020, Samuel confessed to an astounding 93 murders. Today I'll introduce you to the detective who finally tracked him down and helped uncover the truth about Samuel Little. Then I'll tell you about Samuel's troubled childhood in Ohio, I'll explain how he shifted from petty crime to violence, and how his dark tendencies eventually turned into serial murder. Next time, I'll detail Samuel's later crimes and how the authorities realized there was a brutal

killer in their midst. After wreaking havoc for 35 years, DNA technology finally caught up to Samuel and he couldn't deny the evidence against him. All that and more, coming up. Get unlimited grocery delivery with PC Express Pass. Meal prep? Delivered. Snacks? Delivered. Fresh fruit? Delivered. Grocery delivery? On repeat for just $2.50 a month. Learn more at PCExpress.ca Solving cold cases is always an uphill battle.

But that was especially true in the 20th century. If there wasn't enough evidence to lead investigators to a suspect, they had to wait for someone to come forward with a new tip. It took time and patience to put the pieces together. Even then, it wasn't always enough to make an arrest or get a conviction. But the advent of DNA testing completely changed all that, and in 2012, the Los Angeles Police Department got an upgrade to their cold cases unit. Now, they would be using DNA evidence to revisit and hopefully close unsolved murder investigations. And famed detective Mitzi Roberts was on the job.

Back in the year 2000, she'd become one of the first women to serve in the LAPD's robbery-homicide division. Now, she was being tasked with solving the department's most challenging cold cases. One day in April of 2012, she got some exciting news from VICAP, or the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. VICAP is a national database administered by the FBI which helps local police departments compare open cases and bring perpetrators to justice. It also helps with DNA matching, which is why they reached out to Detective Roberts that morning. There was a break in a cold case from 1989 when two women were murdered in Los Angeles. Audrey Nelson and Guadalupe Apodaca

were found just a month apart in dirty alleyways, their bodies stripped below the waist. Although their killer had left genetic material behind, testing hadn't been advanced enough to identify him, but with the latest advancements, they were finally able to come up with a match. The results returned one name, 73-year-old Samuel Little. Now Detective Roberts had to figure out, who was he? Like so much of Samuel's life, his earliest memories are a bit of a mystery. He was either born on June 6th or 7th, 1940, in the small town of Reynolds, Georgia.

His mom, Bessie May, was 16 years old, and his dad, Paul McDowell, was 19. Now most of what we know about Samuel's childhood comes from his own recollections, but according to him, Bessie May wasn't interested in being a parent. Later he came to believe she was sexually trafficked as a child and eventually became a sex worker. He also said she abandoned him on the side of the road when he was just an infant. Whether or not that's true, it seemed like Samuel's father wasn't around much either. But his grandmother was. By the time he was 13 years old in 1954, Samuel had moved in

with Paul's mother, an older black woman named Fannie Mae McDowell in Lorraine, Ohio. But this stability was short-lived. In February of that year, Samuel committed his first known crime when he stole a bicycle. Although we don't know any other details, it does seem like local authorities took the theft pretty seriously. After Samuel was caught, he was sent to the Boys Industrial School, a reform school in Lancaster, Ohio. There, Samuel lived in a cottage with 40 other boys and split his days between schoolwork and hard labor. But even then, the structured schedule didn't do much to improve his behavior.

By the time 15-year-old Samuel was released in September 1955, after a year and a half at the school, he'd racked up 47 disciplinary violations, and his life of crime was just beginning. Over the next few years, Samuel was in and out of detention facilities for various petty crimes. After finishing one of these sentences in 1957, Samuel was caught breaking into a local dry cleaners in his hometown of Lorraine, Ohio, and even though he was only 17, he was sent to the Ohio State Reformatory, an adult prison in Mansfield. Decades later, Mansfield would become so infamous for overcrowding that a

federal judge had the place closed down. But despite the harsh conditions, Samuel didn't seem to come out a changed man. In 1961, when he was 21 years old, Samuel found himself back at Mansfield yet again, this time for breaking and entering. He spent the next three years behind bars. After getting paroled in October 1964, Samuel was quiet for a few years, but by 1966, the 25-year-old had moved on from stealing and burglary to violence. That year, Samuel was arrested in Cleveland for assaulting a woman. Somehow he managed to avoid more jail time, but it seemed like he knew he'd gotten lucky.

Because at some point in the late 1960s, when he was in his twenties still, Samuel decided it was time for a fresh start. His mom, Bessie May, was living near Miami at the time. Maybe Samuel wanted to reconnect, or maybe he'd worn out his welcome with Fannie Mae. Either way, Samuel moved to Florida to be near his mother. Soon after moving to the Sunshine State, Samuel got two jobs, one with the sanitation department of Dade County and the other at a local cemetery. However, instead of using his newfound stability to get on the straight and narrow, Samuel

descended deeper into violence. On the night of December 31, 1970, 30-year-old Samuel was at a bar in Coconut Grove, Florida, celebrating New Year's Eve. It wasn't long until he locked eyes with a woman he later remembered as a sex worker wearing a floral sundress and fishnet stockings. She was 33-year-old Mary Brosley. According to her sister, Mary was suffering from alcoholism, anorexia, and liver disease. She also had a 7-year-old son and a husband back in Massachusetts.

They hadn't seen Mary for six months, not since June of 1970, which was when they reported her missing. Her family was still holding out hope that Mary would finally come home. Tragically, she never got the chance. As the night progressed, Samuel started chatting with Mary. He noticed she was wearing a chain necklace. Ever since he was a young boy, Samuel had been fascinated with women's necks. But over the years, it had turned into a full blown obsession, and according to Samuel,

when Mary brushed her fingers over her neck, he took it as a sign from God that he should kill her. By the time the sun had come up on January 1st, 1971, Mary was dead. Samuel had taken her to a wooded area outside of Miami, strangled her to death, and buried her body in a shallow grave. Mary was Samuel's first victim, and now that he had gotten a taste for killing, he wasn't going to stop. On January 1, 1971, 30-year-old Samuel Little claimed his first victim, 33-year-old Mary

Brosley. After strangling her to death, Samuel buried Mary in a shallow grave on the outskirts of Miami. But he didn't do a very good job of hiding her body. Later that month, a father and son who were out hunting came across Mary's remains. They alerted the police, and officers quickly arrived. Judging from the crime scene, they suspected that Mary had been murdered and likely sexually assaulted. But because of the warm, swampy climate, her body was so decomposed they couldn't determine how she'd been killed, much less identify her.

And so Mary became Jane Doe. Before long, her case went cold, her family back in Massachusetts, who had no idea Mary's body had been found, never heard from her again. And according to Samuel, Mary was just the first victim he claimed in the Miami area. In the following months, he said he killed six other women. As he told it, one victim was a black transgender woman in her late teens who went by the name Mary Ann. He also described killing a Haitian woman who worked at a military base and a student at the University of Miami who Samuel picked up at a bar. Samuel chose victims who were vulnerable, who he believed would never be sought after

or remembered. Even so, it seemed like Samuel was getting nervous about just how many bodies he'd left in his wake, because in 1971 he decided to leave Florida and make his way back to Ohio. This time around, Samuel landed in Cleveland. Eventually, he started dating a woman named Lucy Madero, and before long he'd roped her into one of his criminal plots. Sometime in 1971, 31-year-old Samuel tried robbing a gas station at Gunpoint, but before he could cause any damage, he was arrested and thrown in jail.

Lucy was booked alongside him as an accomplice, though she was later cleared of any charges. But that didn't mean Samuel was off the hook. While he waited to go on trial, Samuel met a woman named Aurelia Jean Dorsey. She was a career criminal in her early 60s who Samuel called Jean. She also happened to be cellmates with Lucy when she was arrested that night. According to Samuel, Jean told him that Lucy planned to testify against him. Thanks to that intel, Samuel knew what to expect when his trial started in early 1972. Gene, who'd gotten out of jail by this point, even testified on Samuel's behalf, helping

him to discredit Lucy. And when the trial ended in early March, the jury found him not guilty. After Samuel walked away a free man, he realized he and Jean were a great team. Although she was nearly twice his age, Samuel was 31 and she was in her 60s, Samuel began a relationship with her. They were never sexually intimate, he found other women for that, but still Gene was as close to true love as Samuel ever got, and together he knew they would be unstoppable. Shortly after Samuel was acquitted, he and Gene moved on from Cleveland and became full-time nomads. Jean was an expert shoplifter and thanks to her skills, they were never short on groceries

or supplies. Eventually, she even taught Samuel how to sell her stolen merchandise. Samuel used the money on drugs, alcohol, and sex workers, who he still liked to hire for intimacy despite his revulsion for them. In return, he provided Gene with protection and companionship. For a few years, their life on the road was relatively uneventful. Although Samuel was charged with various petty crimes in eight states between 1971 and 1974, nobody suspected he was a serial killer.

But later he claimed to have murdered two women in 1974 and one in 1975, and by the fall of 1976, when Samuel was 36, the authorities finally got the chance to identify the monster in their midst. On the night of September 11th, a homeowner in Sunset Hills, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, heard a frantic banging at their back door. They rushed to investigate and found a woman standing outside. She was naked from the waist down with her hands tied behind her back. She said her name was Pamela K. Smith and she'd just been assaulted. The homeowner immediately let her inside where they helped Pamela call 911.

When police arrived, Pamela told them a chilling story. She explained that a middle-aged man had picked her up about 15 miles away in St. Louis. It's not clear if Pamela was hitchhiking or offering sex work, but as soon as she got into the man's car, he choked her and knocked her unconscious. Then he drove to Sunset Hills and sexually assaulted Pamela. At some point, Pamela regained consciousness and managed to escape, making her way to the kind stranger's home nearby. After police heard Pamela's story, they asked her for a more precise location of where the

assault had taken place. Luckily, Pamela remembered, it was just a few blocks away. The officers raced over and were surprised to find the man still sitting there in his parked car. It was Samuel Little. And Pamela's missing clothes and jewelry were still inside the vehicle. It's not clear why Samuel didn't speed off after Pamela escaped. After nearly a dozen murders, maybe he'd lost his sense of urgency, or maybe he was

just too high to drive. Because throughout his life, Samuel had abused drugs and alcohol. It's something he and Pamela had in common. For her part, Pamela suffered from opiate use disorder, with heroin being her drug of choice. Unfortunately, her substance use may have impacted how authorities chose to proceed. Because despite her eyewitness testimony, physical injuries, and the evidence found in Samuel's car, police never brought the case to trial.

Samuel was taken into custody where he denied sexually assaulting Pamela, but admitted to beating her. He ultimately pleaded guilty to assault with intent to ravish rape, a specific type of felony in that state. Today it's punishable by life in prison, but in 1976 there was no minimum sentence, and in the end Samuel was sentenced to just three months behind bars. In his eyes, this must have been confirmation that his strategy was working. As long as he targeted vulnerable women with questionable histories, he would continue to get away with murder.

And he did. After serving his brief sentence, 36-year-old Samuel reunited with Gene in late 1976. They got back on the road and resumed their travels, and this time around, Samuel didn't hold back when it came to his murderous impulses. According to the FBI, from 1976 to 1981, Samuel killed countless women across the country, including in Mississippi, Illinois, Texas, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and Ohio. Sadly, most of these victims are still unidentified. Only one woman from this period was ever named. And that only made Samuel more confident. Most of the time he barely even covered his tracks, dumping their bodies in shallow graves

where they could easily be discovered. But it was just a matter of time until his arrogance caught up to him. In 1982, 24-year-old Melinda Leprie, who went by Mindy, was in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was originally from New Hampshire and had a difficult childhood. According to her brother, their mother died when Mindy was seven. After that she was abused by their father. She did her best to cope with the trauma but by the time she was in her late teens or early twenties she decided it was

time to leave New Hampshire for good. She made her way south, eventually landing in Pascagoula. Along the way she started using marijuana and cocaine. She also began dating someone. Sometimes the couple was able to find work on shrimp boats, but when money got tight, Mindy's boyfriend got her involved in sex work. That's how she ended up getting into Samuel Little's station wagon in September 1982. A month later, an unidentified body was found in a cemetery near Gautier, Mississippi. When Mindy's brother heard about the discovery, he had a sinking feeling.

It was his sister. He worked with an anthropologist and using dental records, they were able to confirm his suspicions. Plus witnesses had seen Mindy getting in Samuel's car on the night of her death. Based on their statements, the authorities were able to track Samuel down and arrest him. But getting him convicted wouldn't be that easy. There wasn't much physical evidence, and the people who came forward were sex workers

like Mindy. Because of that, the authorities cast doubt on their testimony, and in the end, a grand jury chose not to indict Samuel from Mindy's murder, but it turned out Mindy wasn't the only woman Samuel had killed during this period, which meant he wasn't off the hook just yet. While Samuel was being held at a Pascagoullac jail, there was another murder investigation brewing in Gainesville, Florida, and Samuel was the primary suspect. Earlier in 1982, before Mindy was killed, Patricia Ann Mount, 26-year-old woman with

intellectual disabilities, was found dead near Gainesville. She was last seen leaving a local bar with a man matching Samuel's description. He was driving a wood-paneled station wagon, just like the one Mindy had gotten into. It was enough for the state of Mississippi to extradite Samuel to Florida, where he was charged with Patricia's murder. This time there was more evidence. The bar's owner remembered seeing Samuel dancing with Patricia, and an expert testified that hairs found on Patricia's clothing likely belonged to Samuel.

Unfortunately, that was about all the evidence they had. Samuel's lawyers argued that he could have simply bumped into Patricia while dancing, leaving his hair on her clothes that way. Beyond that, the eyewitness testimony was only enough to prove that Samuel had met Patricia, not that he had killed her. So in January 1984, a jury acquitted 43-year-old Samuel Little again after deliberating for just 30 minutes. Because of double jeopardy laws, he would never be tried again for Patricia's murder. Today, her case remains officially unsolved.

After escaping justice once again, Samuel met up with Jean, who by this point was in her mid-70s. Now it's not clear if Jean knew he was guilty of murder or not, but it seemed like she didn't care. She stuck by his side through every trial from state to state. And in the wake of his latest acquittal, Jean and Samuel decided it was time for a fresh start. But while Gene might have been looking for greener pastures,

Samuel was gearing up to take his murder spree to a whole new level. The new BeMo VI Porter MasterCard is your ticket to more. More perks. More points. More flights. More of all the things you want in a travel rewards card. And then some. Get your ticket to more with the new BeMo VI Porter MasterCard and get up to $2,400 in value in your first 13 months. Terms and conditions apply. Visit bmo.com slash VI Porter to learn more. From the team that brought you up and vanished comes an all new podcast that brings you a weekly dose

of true crime cases. She's in an unknown area. Do you know if she's here now or was she released? They said she was released. I'm Payne Lindsay. And I'm Maggie Freeling. This is Up and Vanished Weekly. Join me as I talk through cases with special guests and true crime experts.

There's got to be something at the heart of that evidence that they've got. It's got to be DNA. Yeah. Tune in as Payne Lindsay lays out the crime in true Up and Vanished style. A late night knock at the door, a missing car, and a mysterious shadowy figure caught on camera. We cannot see that person's face ever. Luckiest person in the world.

What new evidence will it take to solve one of Florida's most high profile missing persons cases? Up and Vanished Weekly is available now. Listen for free on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. After being acquitted of Patricia Ann Mount's murder in Gainesville, Florida, 44-year-old Samuel Little decided

he'd give the West Coast a try. In early 1984, he and his girlfriend and partner in crime, Gene Dorsey, made their way to the Golden State. Along the way, he killed almost nonstop. Later, Samuel confessed to strangling two women in the Atlanta, Georgia area. He murdered another woman in Columbus, Ohio, then drove her body over the state line into Kentucky where he dumped her remains. After that, it seemed like he was feeling sentimental. The timeline is murky, but sometime in mid-1984 he decided to visit his old stomping grounds

in Cleveland, where he'd first met Gene. That's where he came across 21-year-old Mary Jo Payton. Like so many of Samuel's victims, Mary Jo was troubled. Originally from Kentucky, she had her first brush with the law at 18 years old when she was arrested for prostitution in Cleveland. A year later she was arrested again for the same reason. According to Samuel, when he met her two years later in 1984, Mary Jo was still doing sex work, though that hasn't been confirmed, but for Samuel that was enough to coax her into his car and

drive to an abandoned factory. There, he strangled Mary Jo to death and threw her body down a six-foot stairwell. Samuel probably thought that was the end of it. However, the factory wasn't as abandoned as he thought. A few months later in July, a group of people were looking for a lost cat inside the building. As they walked up and down the stairs, they noticed a horrible stench. That's when they came across Mary Jo's body. The people called the police who rushed over.

Despite Mary Jo's history of arrests, her fingerprints didn't return any matches, and didn't help that her body was incredibly decomposed by this point. Even a coroner was unable to determine her cause of death, so for the time being she remained a Jane Doe who died under mysterious circumstances. Meanwhile, forty-four-year-old Samuel was long gone. By the fall of 1984, he and Jean had made it to California, and it didn't take much time for Samuel to run into trouble. In October of that year, he beat and strangled 22-year-old Lori Barros.

Afterwards he threw her onto a pile of trash in a San Diego parking lot and left her for dead. But Samuel had made a critical mistake. Lori was still alive. Once Lori came to, she hurried to the police and gave them a detailed description of her assailant and where he'd left her. When Samuel returned to that same parking lot a month later, the authorities were waiting for him.

It's not clear how they knew when Samuel would be there, but they recognized Samuel immediately based on Laurie's statement, and he had an unconscious woman in the back seat of his car. They arrested Samuel on the spot and called an ambulance for his latest victim, who was still alive but bleeding profusely. Like Laurie, the woman survived. Now Samuel was facing two attempted murder charges from two women who were prepared to testify against him. Attempted first degree murder is punishable by life in prison, but going into Samuel's

trial later that year, prosecutors knew they had an uphill battle. Both women were sex workers, which unfortunately cast doubt on the reliability of their testimonies. In the end, the jury was split, meaning it was grounds for a retrial. But the prosecutors decided not to try Samuel again. Instead they struck a bargain, allowing him to plead guilty to less serious charges of assault and false imprisonment. He was sentenced to two and a half years in a federal prison. Gene again waited patiently for his release. After completing his sentence in 1987, 47-year-old Samuel was eager to keep killing.

He and Gene stayed in California, but headed north to Los Angeles. That's where Samuel found his next victim. It's not clear where they met, but in July of that year, he killed 41-year-old Carol Alford and dumped her body in an alley. At some point, Samuel had also sexually assaulted Carol and left his semen on her clothing. In doing so, he gave the authorities a major clue. DNA had been used as forensic evidence for the first time the previous year in 1986, but it was still in its infancy. It was such a new technology that Samuel probably didn't even know it existed yet. But that wasn't the only mistake he'd made when he decided to murder Carol.

Samuel thought he was only targeting women on the fringes of society whose deaths would go unnoticed. However, Carol Alford wasn't one of those people. She had loved ones in her life who cared deeply about her. When they found out what happened to her, Carol's family vowed to bring her killer to justice, no matter how long it took. Thanks so much for listening, I'm Carter Roy and this is Murder True Crime Stories. Come back next week for part two as I discuss how Samuel Little, the most prolific serial killer in US history, was finally caught.

While you're waiting for the next episode, take a moment to help the FBI identify Samuel Little's victims. If you knew a woman who went missing between 1970 and 2005 and who has not been found, go to the FBI.gov link in our show notes to view unidentified victims' portraits, as painted by Samuel, as well as a map and other details from his unmatched confessions. If you think you can help the FBI match a confession to a victim, please submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov or by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI. Murder True Crime Stories is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios.

Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media at Crime House. Don't forget to rate, review, and follow Murder True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And to enhance your Murder True Crime Stories listening experience, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad-free, and instead of having to wait for each episode of a two-part series you'll get access to both at once plus exciting bonus content. We'll be back

next Tuesday. Murder True Crime Stories is hosted by me Carter Roy and is a Crime House original powered by PAVE Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team, Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertsofsky, Lori Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Yelena Warr, Beth Johnson, and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening.