Samuel Little: America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer?

How does a serial killer murder women across America for more than four decades, repeatedly encounter law enforcement, and keep getting away with it?

Samuel Little confessed to 93 murders, making him the most prolific serial killer in American history according to the FBI. But how many women did he actually kill? And how did he remain virtually undetected for so long?

In this episode of UNMARKED, investigative journalist and author Jillian Lauren, who spent years interviewing Little and helped uncover the staggering scope of his crimes, reveals what she learned from getting inside the mind of one of America's most notorious serial killers.

I'm also joined by journalist and former prosecutor Beth Karas, who has investigated Little's crimes and interviewed survivors, witnesses, and people who knew him.

Together, we trace Samuel Little's life, his childhood, his violent fantasies, and a killing spree that stretches across America from the 1970s until his arrest in 2012.

This is more than the story of a serial killer. It's an investigation into the failures of law enforcement, the victims dismissed as the "less dead," and the circumstances that allowed one man to become potentially the most prolific serial killer in American history.

Research in This Episode: 
MacCulloch MJ, Snowden PR, Wood PJ, Mills HE. Sadistic fantasy, sadistic behaviour and offending. Br J Psychiatry. 1983 Jul;143:20-9. doi: 10.1192/bjp.143.1.20. PMID: 6882989.

Kim, A., Beauregard, E., & Chopin, J. (2023). “Strangulation in sexual homicide: Is it opportunity, victim’s vulnerability or sadism?” Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, 94, 102488. DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2023.102488.
Marono, A. J., Reid, S., Yaksic, E., & Keatley, D. A. (2020). A behaviour sequence analysis of serial killers’ lives: From childhood abuse to methods of murder. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 27(1), 126–137. https://doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2019.1695517

Show Notes: 

If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself. 

Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesbuddyday/

For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.

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UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom. 
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