Between 1970 and 2005, the nation’s deadliest serial killer was responsible for killing dozens of people across the U.S. — including victims in Florida.
That killer — Samuel Little — was ultimately taken into custody in 2012, and he has since confessed to 93 murders, according to the FBI.
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However, the FBI is still working to confirm many of his confessions, as some of the bodies were never found.
Investigators said that over 60 of those confessions were confirmed, thanks in part to Little’s “photographic memory.”
The following are Little’s confessions about killings in Florida that have yet to be matched.
| Victim | Location | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Homestead | White female killed in 1970 or 1971 |
| 2 | Miami | Black female, age 22, killed in 1971. Victim possibly called “Linda” |
| 3 | Miami | Male, age 18, killed in 1971 or 1972. Victim possibly called “Mary Ann” or “Marianne” |
| 4 | Miami | Black female, age 28, killed in 1971 or 1972. Victim possibly worked on Homestead Air Force Base |
| 5 | Miami | Black female between 23-24 years old killed in the mid 1970s. Victim possibly called “Emily.” Victim possibly worked at the University of Miami |
| 6 | Kendall | White female, possibly of Cuban descent, between 25-35 years old. Killed in 1971. Victim possibly called “Sarah” or “Donna” |
| 7 | Fort Myers | Black female killed in 1984 |
| 8 | Tampa Bay | Black female killed in 1984 |
| 9 | Plant City | Black female killed in 1977 or 1978. Met victim in Clearwater, Florida |
Sketches of each victim have also been provided by the FBI based on descriptions by Little.
However, FBI officials said that Little’s memory isn’t always accurate, including his recollection of dates and clothes worn by victims.
Anyone with information linked to Little’s confessions is urged to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or by clicking here.
To see those sketches or for more information about each of these cases, read below.
VICTIM 1 - HOMESTEAD
FBI investigators described this victim as a “white female killed in 1970 or 1971.”
VICTIM 2 - MIAMI
FBI investigators described this victim as a “black female, age 22, killed in 1971. Victim possibly called ‘Linda.’”
VICTIM 3 - MIAMI
In 1971 or 1972 while in Miami, Florida, Little met a “good-looking,” approximately 18-19-year-old, 5’ 6” – 5’ 7” tall, 135-140-pound black male. Little stated the male presented himself as a woman and dressed as a “drag queen,” known to Little as “Marianne.” Little first met Marianne at a bar called the “Pool Palace” near 17th Avenue. The black male told Little he had an ex-boyfriend named “Wes.” A few days later, they met again at a bar in Overtown (Little remembered that “Marianne” liked to drink Rum 51), where Little offered to give him a ride home. Little stated “Marianne” lived with several other “drag queens” in “the projects” between “Brown Sub” [Brownsville] and Liberty City. When they arrived there, one of the roommates asked them to buy a can of Magic Shave shaving cream, so they returned to Little’s car, a gold 4-door Pontiac. Little drove Marianne north on Highway 27, pulled into a driveway, and choked her to death in his car. He then drove further down Highway 27, into the Everglades, and turned down a dirt road that led to a river or a swamp. Little dragged Marianne’s body approximately 200 yards into the thick, muddy water. He does not believe the body was ever found.
Follow-up interview: Little stated “Marianne” hung out with a male transvestite with an extremely long neck, and that he knew this person from the county jail. This individual knew “Marianne” and was one (1) of the transvestites in the apartment that sent him to go get “Magic Shave.” Little had seen the same individual with “Marianne” in a bar on “Second Avenue.” Little stated “Marianne” hung out at the apartment the transvestite lived at.
Follow-up interview: Little stated he drove “Marianne” home, to the projects in “Brown Sub” near Liberty City. Little walked “Marianne” to an upstairs apartment with three (3) “transgenders” in it. Little stated a “tall” transvestite with a “long hooked nose” lived in the apartment. Little stated the “tall black one that looked like a hawk” asked him (known to them as Billy) to go with “Marianne” and buy some “Magic Shave.”
Federal Bureau of Investigation
VICTIM 4 - MIAMI
Little stated while in Miami, Florida, in 1971 or 1972 (or possibly, around 1978 or 1979) he dated an “ugly dark-skinned Haitian woman.” Little described the woman as being approximately 26 to 28 years old, standing between 5’ 4” and 5’ 8” tall, and weighing approximately 120 to 130 pounds. Little described the black female’s hair as being in a knot-like hairstyle, “platted up,” short, “kinda braided,” and “straight…stiff.” Little stated he either picked up the woman in Homestead “walking the street” or at a bar in Homestead. Little stated the bar was off the highway and had a “liquor part” and a “bar part.” Little further indicated he thought the bar was on one of the avenues in Homestead. Little described the woman as a “big mouth rough talking…little, black, skinny girl” and “not feminine, but just a hard-working woman.” Little described the black female as “tough.” Little stated the woman worked as a civilian employee, possibly a janitor, at Homestead Air Force Base and he believed she was also a prostitute. Little took the black female to the woods on military property. Little took the black female a short distance from the road, approximately one-half mile from the bar. Little thought the road was dirt and on-Air Force property. After killing the woman, Little believed he left the black female’s body either on base property in some weeds, approximately one block from the main road, or in a field near the base outside of Miami. Little stated he possibly left the black female “in the woods.” Little did not think “water was too far” from where he left the black female’s body. Little believed that someone would have found the woman’s body.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
VICTIM 5 - MIAMI
Little stated that he killed a black female in Miami, Florida, in the early to mid-1970s. He described the woman as a “fine little pretty yellow girl” who was approximately 23 to 24 years old, stood 5’ 6” tall, and weighed 130-pounds. Little stated the woman was a prostitute who had big legs and wore a skirt and red high heels. Little met the woman at a bar named the “Pool Palace” off 17th Avenue in Miami. Little saw the black female’s University of Miami student identification card, and believed her name was “Emily” or something like that. Little drove the woman down Highway 27. He described the area as a dirt road in the Everglades with trash on both sides. Little stated there was trash, blankets, and mattresses laying along the road. Little started arguing and “wrestling” with the woman, and the woman hit him in his mouth. Little stated he “snapped” and “hit her a couple times” before strangling her to death. Little dragged the black female out of his vehicle, onto a trash pile, and put a mattress over her body. Little threw the woman’s purse/wallet into a nearby field with tall “elephant grass” in it. Little stated a white man observed him discard the black female’s belongings, and he never heard of the woman’s body being found.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
VICTIM 6 - KENDALL
FBI investigators said they were able to match Little’s confession to a Jane Doe.
She is described as a “white female, possibly of Cuban descent, between 25-35 years old. Killed in 1971. Victim possibly called ‘Sarah’ or ‘Donna.’”
VICTIM 7 - FORT MYERS
Little stated in the summertime of approximately 1984 (or possibly 1990 or 1991), he killed a black female in Fort Myers, Florida. Little described the woman as being 26 to 28 years old, standing 5’ 6” to 5’ 7” tall, and weighing 130 to 160 pounds. Little described the black female as having dark brown skin and a nice body. Little stated he originally met this victim two years prior. He stated he and “Jean” (Little’s long-time companion) used to go to her family’s house (in a black neighborhood behind, or possibly on, Nelson Street) and sell clothes to them. Little believed the woman he killed was the daughter of the woman he and “Jean” used to sell clothes to. The woman lived with her mother (and possibly other family members) down the street from a liquor store. Little stated he and “Jean” were staying at a hotel downtown when they sold clothes to the woman’s family. On the day he killed the woman, Little saw the black female outside of a liquor store on Nelson Street “with the shorts on and nice looking…clean and nice looking…” Little stated the black female was “mad about her husband or somebody.” Little stated the woman got in his car and he drove her to an “island” in the road, a wooded tract of land near some railroad tracks by a little section of cleared grass. Little strangled the black female to death and then left her body in the short grass with the woods right next to it. Little stated he left the woman in a “Grass isle…outside the city…wasn’t that far outside the city though, the railroad tracks, train ran by there.” Little stated “I think I got back on, what’s that highway that runs from Naples all the way up to Tampa, Fort Myers, that main highway…I think it might have been 75.” Little thought the black female lived at the house “Jean” used to sell clothes at. Little stated the family lived in a house behind “Nelson Street.”
TRANSCRIPT INFO: Little stated the woman got into his vehicle and he “took off and found the first… (grass) island I could find around there, wooded area, and I think the railroad tracks were around there, by a little section of cleared grass.” Little stated he had anal sex with the woman and then manually strangled her to death. Little stated he left the woman “right there, in that mother … vine, ah in that there island there, little clear, where that grass was nice and short, and the woods was right next to it, I left her right there, and I be careful not to run over her, I just backed out real careful, and left her right there, that was in Fort Meyers, Florida…in the county somewhere. Little stated it was “not that far” from Fort Meyers, “right there, just out in the suburbs, it wasn’t that far.”
Follow-up interview: Little stated he lit the black female’s pubic hair on fire.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
VICTIM 8 - TAMPA BAY
FBI investigators described this victim as a “black female killed in 1984.”
VICTIM 9 - PLANT CITY
In approximately 1977 to 1978 (or possibly 1983 to 1984) Little met an approximately 23-year-old, 5’ 5” tall, 140 to 160 pound, short “chubby” black female in a bar in Clearwater or St. Petersburg, Florida. Little was driving a black Thunderbird at the time. Little stated the woman had a dark complexion (described her skin as “leather colored”) and was dancing in a bar when he met her. Little stated the black female was wearing “some sexy shorts,” but wanted to go home and change. Little drove to the woman’s residence, “in a black neighborhood somewhere,” so she could change clothes. When Little arrived at the woman’s residence, the black female took her shorts off and put on a black skirt. Little stated “about five (5) of her little siblings, sisters and brothers come running out” yelling his name “Sam, Sam.” The black female entered Little’s vehicle and he told the woman he was going to “Lakeland.” Little drove the woman to a beach, where he got his vehicle stuck in a barbed-wire fence and sand. Little stated several “white boys” who were drinking beer helped get him out of the sand. Little drove the woman to a grassy/wooded area not far from the beach with railroad tracks nearby, possibly outside of Tampa heading to Plant City. Little stated when driving, he first saw buildings, and then saw vegetation. Little drove the woman to “an island of grass, round, with a curb around it.” Little stated he ”found this grassy lane…some grass and woods back over there…and we parked…I know there was a railroad track that run across this one…cause I’m looking right at the train go by, the man up in the window, the engineer, sit n’ up n’ there going woo, woo, woo, I waved when he went by.” Little stated he dumped the woman “right there on the spot… by a railroad track, outside of Tampa heading toward Plant City.” Little stated the woman was wearing “that bad…tight mini-skirt, and a blouse, and left her drawers in the car, I started to keep them drawers for a trophy.” Little strangled the woman then left her body near railroad tracks, on the grass, out in the open. Little believed this area was in the city limits of Tampa, possibly within a mile of downtown. Little stated that after he killed the woman, “I backed up and hit the highway.” He said that he drove through Plant City and arrived in Lakeland.
TRANSCRIPT INFO: Little stated when he discarded the black female she had a skirt on “but it was way up over her waist, I think she still had her blouse on, think she was fully clothed,…but I might have had her drawers off.”
Follow-up interview: Little stated he dragged the woman by her arms. Little believed he left the woman lying on her back with her arms up over her head.
Additional details: Little stated he left the Tampa victim in “a grove in railroad tracks going by.” Little stated he left this woman in the city limits of Tampa, possibly within a mile of downtown. Little stated he drove one (1) to three (3) miles from the beach to a wooded area in Tampa. Little stated there were railroad tracks near the wooded area. Little stated he could “hear the train” from the location he discarded the woman’s body.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
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