Samuel Little - The Killer of Women /// Part 1 /// 585 | Forensic Files

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[Music] the most prolific serial killer in American history Samuel little has confessed to 93
murders [Music] it's disturbing to listen to but investigators want to hear it all and
more laughing while I was killing them the most prolific serial killer in American history
[Music] little says he has a photographic memory and has drawn sketches of his victims
bronze sketches Mary brasley was a woman that intimately knew the real life meaning of the word
struggle sadly she had first-hand knowledge of what it meant to struggle and she fully understood the continued
Battle of struggling for Mary life was far from Easy her childhood was difficult
and her early adult years were far worse she kept finding herself falling into the arms of abusive and uncaring Men
[Music] falling for and falling in love with men that just beneath the surface or anything but desirable
they say that life is a journey and not a destination and for Mary it was a journey of
hardships and strife the road map of that Journey was not an easy one for Mary to navigate
she was broken by the husband and boyfriend that abused her and through injury ailment and addiction found
herself unable to care for her children Mary's roads on her life's road map if there ever were such a thing had
collapsed to a single dark and damp tunnel the light at the end of that tunnel was
so dim that she was convinced that the fairy man blew out the flame on his Lantern when she wasn't looking
she had many physical complications and challenges a physically abusive boyfriend injured
her so badly that she had to have hip surgery which left her with metal Parts in her body in a limp
there was also a self-inflicted injury from a kitchen accident when Mary nearly cut off her finger
while chopping vegetables and then refused to have it treated she let the severed portion dangle until
it eventually fell off leaving her with a stump at the end of the digit by 1970 Mary brasley was 33 years old and she
was struggling not struggling to make it she was struggling to exist [Music] some of her troubles were roadblocks set
up by others and some were obstacles that she created herself [Music] by now she was a severe alcoholic
she suffered from cirrhosis of the liver it was nearly anorexic standing five foot four inches tall and weighing a
very unhealthy 80 pounds she was pretty much estranged from her family sometime in June of 1970
Mary walked away from her life in Massachusetts without so much as a single goodbye to anyone
her kids were already in foster care and she didn't care for any of the men in her life
the last reported sighting of Mary is from a story that came from a family member
one of the very few who had not turned their back on Mary this was Mary's sister Claire
Claire says that on June 12 1970 she was told that the night before police picked
Mary up walking along a highway told police she was walking the highway because two men had pushed her out of
their car in Palmer Massachusetts and she hurt her shoulder it's unclear where Mary slept that night
but her family was told that she was planning to take a bus back to Boston where she was staying with her parents
Mary never showed up in Boston she never returned to her parents home Claire later told the media that Mary
would often rely on and get around by taking rides with strangers and Mary could often be found in the company of
anyone that would provide her with alcohol Mary's family never heard from her again
roughly seven months later on January 24 1971. a father and son were out on a Hunting
Expedition what they will find certainly is not what they went out looking for one of the two spotted a leg sticking
out of the ground they reported this immediately to the authorities and as you guessed it the leg was
attached to the rest of the body buried in a shallow six-inch deep makeshift grave
but the Father and Son were not hunting in Massachusetts no they were in the Florida Everglades
one thousand miles away from where Mary was last seen the body was badly decomposed and
detectives could locate no form of identification from the body recovery site this was a homicide
the victim was a female with highly probable sexual assault suspected based on the fact that the body was
found with both legs through one leg hole of the victim's panties detectives believed that Mary's killer
dressed her after the assault and murder before burying her body since investigators could not identify
the victim the county gave the victim a new name one that no one wants in 1971 Mary became another Jane Doe
Mary simply disappeared and decades passed with not one indication of her faith life moved on
children grew up and the body remained at Jane Doe for 47 years but thankfully one day this Jane Doe
would get her birth name back and sadly her family would learn what they may have feared all along
Mary didn't just disappear she was taken taken far away and killed Mary brosly was located after all of
these years and her killer was too Mary might have been this killer of women's first kill
but she was far from his last this is true crime garage oh foreign [Music] San Diego California Thursday September
27 1984. San Diego PD received a complaint of a violent crime Lori Barros called
9-1-1 from her sister's house she told police that a man whom she did not know beat her up raped her and strangled her
and then left her for dead on the side of the road she was able to provide police with a detailed description of
the events that took place as well as the assailant and the vehicle he was driving at the time
according to the report Laurie told police that the man abducted her she was walking and this man pulled up in a
large American car he got out ran up to her and he pulled her by the throw into his car
once inside the vehicle the man threatened her repeatedly all the while driving to a more secluded location once
he arrived at a spot that he found to be satisfactory for whatever it is that he
planned to do he put the vehicle in park and then proceeded to brutalize the woman choking and punching her the LA
Times described portions of the attacks as follows quote with his arm still wrapped around her neck he drove to a
deserted trash strewn lot at the top of a steep hill he pulled her into the back
seat and tied her hands behind her back with her nylons he tried to kiss her and
when she tried to shove him off he began choking her he asked her to swallow he did this over and over again Captain
Lori finally played dead and the man opened the car door and dumped her out onto a pile of garbage
she believes that the man intended to kill her and that he actually thought that he had succeeded when he discarded
her she was not dead however but she lay right where he dumped her She lays still
taking extremely short breaths even though she wanted to gasp for air and fill her lungs with the oxygen that he
had just denied her she laid there not moving a muscle she was afraid he was watching
as the minutes passed she started to convince herself that he had gone but she laid there
still because now the fear was that he would return and find her alive and if so he would most certainly finish the
job Lori believes that she laid there for over 30 minutes or so before she finally
got up stumbled to the nearest pay phone there she called her sister who immediately rushed out to get her
once she finally felt safe when she was back at her sister's house she called the police and reported that she was
attacked and luckily she was able to provide police with a detailed description of the vehicle and her
attacker that's correct a good amount of detail in fact in regard to the events the attack
that took place the attacker and his vehicle or the vehicle he was driving at the time
the man that she described to police she described him as African-American approximately 40 years of age about six
foot one inches tall 230 to 240 pounds with a dark complexion dirty unshaven and he had a gold pinky ring with two
diamonds in it now she said that the attacker was driving a two-door large American-made car with a maroon colored
interior the passenger side window of this vehicle was broken and there was white tape on the window
so this making this vehicle very distinct and possibly easy for police to spot he had foam dice hanging from the rear
view mirror she said the vehicle did not run well so that's a pretty good description of
everything right Captain well the key thing there is the broken window with the white tape well that description
from Lori will in fact lead us to this later event the following month on Wednesday October
24th San Diego Patrol officers happened upon a black Thunderbird parked on a street this was in an area of the city
known for stolen vehicles sex workers and drugs the Thunderbird fit the description of
the car reported by the victim of the September attack the one that we just covered so of course they stopped to
check it out the police now as the officers were shining their lights on the T-bird a black man emerged from the
car zipping up his trousers flicky flicky hands are sticky according to the officer's statements the man quote
appeared to be very nervous one officer said of the man he kept looking at us kept looking at the car then looking at
us and then looking at the car they approached him and asked him what he was doing
the story he gave was that he had had a fight with his wife but they had now made up and they were making love in the
back of that car but the cops could see bloody scratch marks on the man's neck right they took
a look inside the vehicle and saw his I'm using air quotes here Captain wife she was stuffed on her back behind the
driver's seat leg splayed on the back seat naked her eyes rolled back in her head bleeding and bruised the officer
thought the woman was dead at first but then she started gasping for air so the officer could see fresh choke marks on
the woman's throat and remember he saw the scratch marks on the man you don't have to be on the job
too long to have a good idea what you think took place so obviously this guy's lying and obviously he's trying to choke
this lady to death and good thing they were there to stop it and arrest him yeah there's a few things that work out
here in our favor right first we have the great detailed description given by the first victim we have the good police
work by these two officers by spotting this car in a area that it sounds to me like if you're looking to bust somebody
or issue a ticket you can just drive to this area any time of day and find somebody to put the back of your car
somebody that's up to no good but they check on this vehicle and like you said they they see that there's
something strange going on here this woman appears to have been assaulted very badly this man's story doesn't make
sense of course they arrest him and they are told by the man that his name is Samuel McDowell
so Sam's story well his original story will start to fall apart very quickly and he started to admit some truths to
the officers although of course he was not going to be entirely truthful Sam said that he was angry because he
had not gotten his money's worth from his victim So This Woman's name is Tanya Jackson and she is a sex worker at this
time Sam said that he met Tanya at a bar in downtown San Diego where the two of them
agreed that she would perform a sex act for him for twenty dollars he said she directed him to the location
where the officers would later discover the two and his vehicle he says they got
into the back seat of his car and Tanya started fooling around with him Sam says
that he wanted more but then she started to refuse this upset Sam so Sam says that he threatened her and told Tanya
that she wasn't going anywhere until he got what he wanted Sam says Tanya attacked him
and he grabbed her around the throat in self-defense and he's telling the officers this is why the officers are
driving him back to the station after they arrested him they're still asking him what happened back there it's
hard to believe him on anything when he said when he said the victim was his wife and not a sex worker well and then
you have the situation of he's saying now yeah I grabbed her by the throat yeah I was choking her but this was in
self-defense and he's I mean he's not making any buts about it he's telling the officers I did this and you know
what she deserved it so while the officers are driving him back to jail Sam asked them several times quote how's
the [ __ ] is she going to make it with a douchebag then they accused him of raping Tanya
Sam continued to deny raping her but admitted that quote I did kick the [ __ ] out of her he also told police I should
have killed that [ __ ] in both of these cases the September case and the October
case rape exams and kits were conducted this included collecting Sam McDowell's DNA
so Sam was quickly connected to the attack on Lori Barros the previous month because their findings are going to
match up in both of these cases and this is back in the day when police officers
have billy clubs it'd be nice if they would have just pulled over on the side of the road and he never made it back to
the station for the attacks on Lori and Tanya Sam McDowell was charged with several charges including attempted
murder in both cases the state's best evidence in these cases were the two victims themselves of course right their
statements to the police and then later what would be their testimony in front of a jury
but Sam ended up only being convicted on lesser crimes this is due to some complications with
the trial the two victims were both sex workers that complicated things and we'll get into that here in a minute
and little argued that his only crime was hitting one of them in a payment dispute after she tried to
cheat him now this Sam McDowell in court also produced an alibi witness this was a
respectable looking woman carrying a Bible who said that the two of them were out of town on the night of one of the
attacks so the one where he's caught red-handed he can't do much about other than to to claim that he was acting in
self-defense but the one where he wasn't caught he's able to produce an alibi for
right so what we have here Captain is the situation yes those rape kits and exams were conducted in both of these
cases they also connect they also collected this Sam McDowell's DNA but keep in mind
this is 1984. they're not able to go oh well this is the same guy in both of these cases
so he can come up with a defense for the first one saying that one wasn't me even
though you picked me up a month later for about the same thing and now this Lori Boris is picking me out of a lineup
I'm telling you I'm not this guy and on top of that I have a witness who comes in she's carrying a Bible saying you
know what the two of us we are together we're in a relationship and we were both
out of town on the night of the September attack so he's got a somewhat decent defense
here for what should be an easy conviction of two accounts of attempted rape well and also you can make an
argument that the second attack that he's caught red-handed that that's an attempted murder charge yeah but in both
cases he was charged with attempted murder now per the Washington Post uh it says that this Sam McDowell was
convicted of falsely imprisoning the second victim but acquitted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting the
woman in the first attack and the jurors were deadlocked on a host of other charges
so this trial all of a sudden it looked like a slam dunk wasn't going so well for the prosecution
so prosecutors were not very anxious to retry Sam so they allowed him to plead guilty to
two counts of assault with great bodily injury and one count of false imprisonment now I want to read to you a
portion of Lori bars's testimony this will kind of describe our attacker here and his method and what he was like in
that attacking situation her testimony says quote he liked to feel me swallow with his thumb on my
neck it became a game right before I'd go unconscious as my eyes started rolling
back he'd let go and asked me to swallow again he loved when I swallowed it excited him
and he had a smile on his face so she's talking about while this man is choking her strangling her to death
that when she would start to black out he's letting go so she can breathe and come too so he can do it again to her
and going so far that she says that he had his thumb right on the portion of my neck where he could feel me swallow and
wanted to feel me kind of swallow and gag and try to gasp for air this guy is an absolute creep it's sad but the
reality is especially in these types of crimes that the surviving victim is your
best evidence this is often your best tool if you will for apprehending your unknown perpetrator in these crimes and
the victim's stories and Reporting these crimes they did get this monster off of
the streets but not terribly long so unfortunately the way that this plays out in court again we said that it
should have been a slam dunk and it should have been but I I'm not trying to blame this on
any one or two people here but the victims themselves just kind of fell apart in the courtroom
so the October victim who had an addiction problem was drunk and clearly drunk in front of the jury when she was
at trial and when she was giving her testimony this could be from her addiction this could be from the terror
that this man brutalized her and now she's got to sit in front of him just feet from this guy
the woman from the September attack the problem ended up being with her situation is she started to lose
credibility with the jury when she first starts off her complaint to the police and then her testimony to the court
was that she was just walking along the street this guy pulls up jumps out of his car grabs or throws her into his
vehicle and he's abducted her and off they go to a secluded location where he tries to kill her
well very quickly it's figured out that she wasn't just walking on the side of the street she's
a sex worker and she has an addiction problem this caused her to lose credibility with
the jury and now the first attack he's not looking so guilty in and the second attack they're a little confused as to
what's going on because he's saying look I yeah I did fight with this woman I did
assault her but I didn't try to kill her what we end up with here is Sam McDowell most certainly attacked
both of these women he most certainly tried to kill both of them but unfortunately because it fell apart
at court for this he only serves two years in a California prison and then he's released on parole
and once he's released on parole within months of Sam McDowell's release women in South Los Angeles started dying
oh foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] we are back cheers mates cheers to you Colonel cheers to you Captain tall cans
in the air everybody out there listening thanks for joining us this week now we're going to move on here to a couple
of other cases and this takes place in 1987 and then 1989 in and around the Los Angeles area so we're going to go back
starting in July of 1987 where we have the first of three bodies that were found that all
displayed similar characteristics they were all found within a few miles of each other the three bodies were dumped
like trash now I know that that is a rather overused statement in True Crime but in this case these three bodies were
actually dumped along actual refuse the first victim was 41 year old Carol Alford her body was found on July 13
1987. the other two homicide victims that were found were Audrey Nelson age 35 and Guadalupe abadaka age 46.
they were found in August and September of 1989 respectively this killer though unknown at the time
to police his identity let's think about what we know here in the garage as we review those attacks that took place in
San Diego he gets locked up and then he's out he's released and we have these three murders that take place and you go
you know what this guy is he's escalating he's increasing his frequency of attacks but not necessarily this guy
already has escalated to this level of frequency because in 1984 those two attacks took place one month apart
just like here where we have two victims that take place just one month apart this guy whatever he's into he requires
this type of stimulation so much that he's to the point where he's going out and attacking women killing them or in
the 84 cases believing he had killed them within a month of one another obviously
his crimes are sexually motivated yes now for a little more of the Grim details of each of the body recovery
scenes all of these victims were found in the same Central Avenue Alameda street
Corridor near downtown Los Angeles So within five miles of each other Carol was in a back alley against a
fence Audrey was found in a dumpster which was located in a nightclub parking lot
Guadalupe was found in an abandoned creepy old commercial garage structure all three had been manually strangled
and it was determined that all three were dead when they were dumped all had been brutally beaten with blows or
punches to the head all were nude below the waist all had crack in their systems
one victim had mailed DNA under her fingernails two victims had semen stains on their shirts
but in the 80s before CODIS this was a very little help to the murder investigations
and so the three dead women remained victims of a nameless faceless Predator their deaths not linked together until
much much later these attacks seemed similar to me of that of like Ted Bundy but again we're gonna have another
Survivor from these attacks and this is believed to be an attack connected to these others because it's so similar in
nature or similar in belief as to what we think happened to the other three victims it did not survive so another La
woman who narrowly escaped the same fate comes forward and reports the assault and per the Los Angeles Times
we learn some details of that attack and the times reported that the woman reported to the city's police that a man
had pulled her into his black Thunderbird here we see that similar vehicle again
sexually assaulted her then repeatedly choked her unconscious she awoke to find herself lying Left for
Dead amid trash and broken glass with bruising on her neck and popped blood vessels in her eyes but she couldn't
name her attacker when she reported this to police and so just like the three dead victims this case too would go
nowhere this investigation really had nowhere to go so now we're going to skip ahead to over two decades later
this is going to bring us 2012. now in 2012 homicide detective Mitzi Roberts was assigned to the lapd's
Cold Case special section which was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Justice to try to solve the
9000 La murders that remained open after five years her job was screening DNA evidence from cases long since
considered lost causes many of these cases were murders of women that dated back to the 80s the height of the
cocaine epidemic in the city good thing she gets involved because she's going to
come across a CODIS search for two of these crimes that happened in 1989. yeah so she's worked in this case in April of
2012. and Mitzi runs across a CODIS search on the DNA that was found on the two women murdered in Los Angeles in
1989. this is the Audrey case and Guadalupe's case now keep in mind mitzi's working with resources that the
investigators just did not have in 1989. Mitzi arranged for the DNA testing on swabs and items found from those two
victims bodies now in both cases she got a hit to a man who had been arrested and
required to give a DNA sample in connection with a previous arrest and this man's name was Samuel little yes
and the officer Captain she was horrified at what she found when she started reviewing his
record so this man had a rap sheet 100 pages long detailing approximately 100 arrests
this from an article in New York Magazine by Jillian Lauren quote over six decades
he was repeatedly arrested in Ohio Maryland Florida Maine Connecticut Oregon Colorado Pennsylvania New Jersey
Arizona Georgia Illinois Missouri California and the list goes on charges include burglary breaking and entering
assault and battery assault with the intent to Rob assault with a firearm armed robbery assault on a police
officer solicitation of prostitution DUI shoplifting Theft Grand Theft possession of marijuana unlawful flight
to avoid prosecution resisting arrest battery false imprisonment assault with great bodily injury robbery rape and
sodomy end quote and he left out being a huge douchebag yeah that's quite the rap sheet there
Captain yeah scary individual scary individual not only that we didn't even name all of the states
that would have been listed there and so this guy is up to no good frequently up
to no good he's got all kinds of nasty horrible hobbies and he's fine doing them in your neighborhood my
neighborhood and everybody else's all in all this Samuel little had served less than 10 years in prison in total
despite repeated brutal and sexually motivated attacks on and attempted murders of multiple female victims
so of course Mitzi Roberts reviews this information and she freaks out right why
on God's name was this guy on the streets so she decided she was going to be the
one to put an end to this dude to stop him and put him away for good when others could not now the Samuel little
had an outstanding Los Angeles bench warrant for a 2007 narcotics violation so that's good news for us in our
investigation right we got this really bad guy here he's got this lesser charge but it's an outstanding warrant that's a
good excuse for us to go pick this guy up and have a long talk with him not only are you going to be able to talk to
this creep but you're probably going to be able to put him away for at least a short amount of time you're hoping so
now Roberts officer Roberts decided to in fact use that warrant to bring him in but the problem's going to be that she
couldn't locate him from her information he didn't appear to be in California any longer and she
discovered that this Samuel little who was transient moving from place to place well there's some of you out there
scratching your heads going wait didn't you say Samuel McDowell earlier now you're saying Samuel a little well
that's because this guy he's got a list of aliases almost as long as the list of crimes that he's
been connected to and convicted of so he uses aliases like Samuel McDaniel Samuel McDowell Willie Mae Clifton and
Willie Lewis and the list goes on he was nearly impossible to locate and officer Roberts and her team spent weeks
dashing from town to town across the southern U.S as they got hits on a usage of a prepaid Walmart card to which
little Social Security Disability Benefits were being paid so this is one of those situations where
boom they get these hits on these this Walmart credit card that's directly tied to the individual that they're looking
for and we're only dashing from town to town or state to state looking for this guy
or through the snow because we're convinced that he's guilty of all kinds of other stuff in fact we've already
connected him to two homicides you're always a day late and a dollar short because you're you're always
chasing this guy and you're getting your information days after he's probably already left that town
so they're running about looking for this individual they were always about two days behind
him she said Samuel little had been arrested in Kentucky for possession of a crack pipe so they knew that he had been
in the Bluegrass State recently finally in early September of 2012 he used that Walmart card as some Mini Mart in
Louisville Kentucky and the Sheriff's Office was notified and in turn notified the LA authorities Roberts contacted the
U.S Marshals and gave them the address of the homeless shelter that this man was registered at this was the Wayside
Christian Mission they had him in custody within hours this is after 60 years of committing
crimes well once they arrest him they're able to get a DNA swab from him so they
could do a DNA test against the evidence they have in these other crimes yes this
DNA swab the DNA test it absolutely links this man Samuel little to the unknown male profile that
was found on two of our victims this is from 1989 the victims Audrey and Guadalupe so Samuel little was
extradited to California on the outstanding warrant for the narcotics charge and he was sentenced in November of 2012
to three years for that crime but soon he would be termed a serial killer for the murders of Audrey and Guadalupe and
Carol who was the 1987 victim that was found in the same location as Audrey in Guadalupe and yes and quickly they'll be
able to charge him with three murder charges to Samuel little this again from Jillian
Lauren who we will be citing quite a bit in these episodes as she's done gangbusters work on these cases and
spent a lot of time working on these cases she says quote Little's genetic material had been detected on the bra
and fingernail kit of 41 year old Carol Alford who had been found strangled in a
residential South Central Alleyway in July of 1987. it was the Tipping Point in January of
2013 assistant district attorney Beth Silverman filed three charges of murder against Samuel little end quote now at
that time California investigators had no idea that the three murders they were charging Samuel little with were only
and this is a horrible horrible statistic 3.22 percent of his actual murder count
but once they started digging into him they noted a very disturbing pattern just in his known crimes well when you
see crimes like this that are so vicious and you see multiple Crimes by the same
disgusting individual it has to come to mind what other crimes is he involved in
that's correct in the situation that you have here Captain is you look at this and you go okay well
we have DNA evidence connecting him to these three murders that took place one in 87 two in 1989 but prior to that
this dude had been locked up for a couple years on those two attempted murder charges
and once you've secured the arrest on him and he's facing three murder charges in January of 2013.
this is no young man he's no spring chicken at this point this is an older dude with a 100 page rap sheet
two attempted murder charges that he somehow dodged he got off light three pending murder charges and you're
going what else could this guy have been doing two turtle doves he's been out running the streets and running and
hopping from state to state all of his life what else has he what else has he done
who else has he killed yeah because you have to look at a bunch of different crimes that you know he's capable of
attempting murders rape murders this is going to take us to the great states of Florida and
Mississippi so Mitzi Roberts to her horror to everyone's horror actually the records
she says reflected that Samuel Little's name had come up in connection with two murders and two attempted murders of
women in the Gainesville Florida and Mississippi areas in the early 80s it's amazing how much
area that Sam little has covered but again we've we've seen this with other Killers like Ted Bundy well on these
cases Captain this Samuel little was never brought to trial on three Mississippi cases
which were as follows one is from the summer of 1980 this is a sex worker named Hilda who met little at
a club the two agreed on a 50 service fee and went back to her apartment as soon as the door closed he punched
her in the head knocking her out she awoke on her bed naked with Little's hands around her throat she passed out
again he then attempted to drown her in the bathtub using a scarf wrapped around her
neck for leverage she passed out and woke up only to have him choke her out again this goes on
several times luckily Hilda had a pact with another worker Dolores that if either them left with a John and weren't
back in 20 minutes then the other one would come looking for their friend right Dolores knocked on the door of her
apartment of her friend's apartment and then yelled through the window and little let Hilda go and he took off
Hilda woke up in the hospital somehow she survived this brutal attack she didn't bother to report the incident
though even though she spent three days under the care of medical Physicians and
staff in 1981 Samuel little hired a 20 year old sex worker named Leela McLean who had three kids
when she got in his car Sam little cold copter while he was still clutching the steering wheel with
his left hand he then punched her between the eyes he beat her so badly blood ran from her
eyes like tears each time she tried to escape he grabbed her and threw her back in the car
I mean just if you just close your eyes and try to picture this how it's playing
out what this woman is saying was done to her it's horrifying it's absolutely horrifying this guy is like something
out of a horror movie each time she tries to escape he gets out of the car he's throwing her back in
the car finally she's able to get out and she ran half naked across a highway so
she could get help so some Good Samaritans pick her up and take her to the hospital
saving her life then police did not talk to her about the incident at the time basically no one in a position of
authority at this time seemed to care about what happened to Hilda or Leela it's sad
we've seen so many cases where the victims are sex workers and doesn't seem like law enforcement works the case as
hard as they should I I do want to defend law enforcement a little bit here in these situations because it's unclear
if with the first attack it's clearly stated that this was never reported right to authorities and
unfortunately when you have the situation we've talked about this before uh we've talked about this when we first
started up the garage that you if you were to decriminalize prostitution or sex work or whatever you want to call
those titles or or escorts or what have you a lot of the time the victims will not report the crime because they
are committing crimes themselves and so you get into this really dicey area of we want these things to be
reported because the men that are up to this kind of behavior are the absolute worst these are monsters these are
individuals the guy we are describing to you right now will stop at nothing to choke a loud breath and choke again
until the person blacks out who knows how many times before he is done and actually kills the individual and then
dumps them on the side of the road so luckily in these two situations he was not successful and I think that you
know you have to question two this is 1981. things are different we do learn from our mistakes right and I do know
that in most locations if a woman shows up beaten and battered like this near death to the hospital
in a lot of locations I don't know if it's every state but I believe that the doctor has an obligation to report this
to police whether the where whether the person in his care or her care wants to report this or not this is a matter that
needs to be investigated well in this episode we've already talked about so many
crimes but we have to finish off because we haven't got to the third attack in the Mississippi cases yes and
unfortunately this case here the victim does not survive the attack and this took place in September of 1982
we have a 24 year old victim her name is Melinda lapree she was a young mother she unfortunately
was working as a sex worker at this time similar situation to what we've seen at
other attacks yeah a man drives up to the King William Motel this is where lupri was living at the time and also
working and Melinda gets into this man's car well she's never seen alive again in fact her nude body was found on
October 4th dumped in a cemetery ditch her death was ruled a homicide the there was another sex worker that
was at the motel as well that was able to tell police that Melinda got into a pinto Woody with
Alabama tags so now we're getting some good information right the last time that
she's seen this is the kind of vehicle that Melinda was getting into and by the way it has out-of-state plates on it
that car attracted attention of police when it broke down in the area on November 24th
and three occupants were suspected of shoplifting turkeys from a local grocer the cops put together that the pinto was
in fact the same one seen at the King William motel and there they arrested a Samuel McDowell on suspicion of murder
and like we know Samuel McDowell is Samuel little but he's going to get some breaks again in these cases where his
victims aren't so lucky he is having some luck with the criminal justice system unfortunately it always seems to
play out that way right if anybody's going to get lucky in one of these situations it's almost always the
murderer the murder victim is never lucky because of course they lost their life yeah soj about it the investigators
in Mississippi started to put together a case against Samuel little slash Samuel
McDowell bringing Hilda and Leela to in to testify these were the two surviving victims
we have a grand jury that's put together but unfortunately for whatever reason and you'd have to ask these people I
don't know but this grand jury that they put together didn't seem to take any stock in what the two female sex
workers had to say after all I guess you know they agreed to go with Samuel little we know that
unfortunately there was no physical evidence linking Samuel little to the murder case Melinda
lupree the only witness who saw them together was another sex worker so this goes to
the grand jury but it does not get an indictment and because of this since they're not
going to charge him with murder or attempted murder or assault or anything Samuel little Samuel McDowell was free
to go and this pattern happened over and over again except that it almost never got as
far as a grand jury I guess prosecutors knowing that their only Witnesses were sex workers or
addicts what seems to happen here Captain is that they cut deals or reduced Sam Little's charges and he walked after
doing little to no time at all [Music] so much more to get to thanks for joining us here in the garage
thanks for telling a friend until tomorrow be good be kind and don't litter [Music]
thank you

Samuel Little - The Killer of Women /// Part 1 /// 585

Part 1 of 3

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Bundy, Gacy, and the Green River Killer. All topping the list of some of the most prolific serial killers of all time. But the number of victims taken by each of these monsters is dwarfed by the evil work of another killer. A killer who was so stealthy and cunning that often, not only did we not know who was doing the killing but in some cases they weren’t classified as homicides. This killer of women stayed under the radar for decades, killed dozens, and murdered in multiple states. Join us for this True Crime tale, have a cold one, and listen to this serial killer profile delivered by the Garage Guys.

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Brief Summary

Samuel Little, America's most prolific serial killer, confessed to 93 murders, highlighting systemic failures in protecting vulnerable victims.

Key points

The Most Prolific Serial Killer. Samuel Little confessed to 93 murders, making him the most prolific serial killer in American history.
Mary Brasley's Tragic Journey. Mary's life was filled with hardships, leading to her tragic disappearance and eventual murder.
Lori Barros's Harrowing Attack. Lori Barros survived a brutal attack and provided police with a detailed description of her assailant.
Courtroom Drama. Victims struggle to maintain credibility during a tense trial.
A Pattern of Violence. Little's extensive criminal history reveals a disturbing pattern of violence against women.
Samuel Little's Arrest. Detective Mitzi Roberts connects DNA evidence to Samuel Little, leading to his arrest.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Life is a journey and not a destination.

Mary's struggles

4:09WatchOct 22, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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