The Drifter’s Darkness: Samuel Little's Reign of Terror (Part 2)

In this second installment of The Drifter’s Darkness, we continue unraveling the twisted life of Samuel Little, America’s most prolific serial killer. Picking up where we left off, Little's trail of terror expands as he evades justice time and time again. With his accomplice Jean by his side, cleaning up his crimes and providing alibis, and a justice system ill-equipped to stop him, Little's reign of terror knows no bounds.

This episode delves into Little's manipulation of the vulnerable, his chilling ability to blend in and disappear, and the devastating stories of those who encountered him—including one survivor whose life was forever shattered. With close calls, failed investigations, and haunting confessions, the frustration of this case reaches new heights.

Subscribe now for this gripping continuation of Samuel Little's dark legacy, as the Partners in Crime (PICs) uncover the horrors and heartbreak of his unstoppable spree.

Transcript

Sam Little 2 (00:00)
Hey everybody, welcome back to the PIC True Crime Podcast for the second installment of America's most prolific serial killer, Samuel Little. In part 1 we met Samuel Little, the son of a prostitute who gave birth to him in prison and abandoned him the moment he was born. Growing up with his grandparents, he was subjected to abuse and certainly did not grow up in the most affluent neighborhood.

Life was tough and young Samuel proved early on that he fit into the criminal side of society very well, and he developed a strange fetish for women's necks, and his ideas of sex and violence and death bled into one another

as early as the age of five. After spending the better part of his youth in the prison system, and the majority of his twenties too, he finally gave in to his dark desires. Given his transient lifestyle and a much older girlfriend, Jean Dorsey,

who was always willing to supply him with an alibi.

While Little's murderous escapades have gone completely unnoticed by authorities thus far, when we ended last week,

Samuel was 34 years old and he'd already killed somewhere in the ballpark of 15-20 women. Almost all of them were prostitutes or addicts.

The most vulnerable women, who no one bothered to look for when they disappeared. He'd just beaten his long term but devoted girlfriend, Jean, to death, fled the scene and picked up a new girlfriend, a mentally disabled young woman by the name of Nina.

But now he'd been in contact with Jean and he Nina are on their way to reconnect with her.

road trip to reunite the state-hopping Bonnie and Clyde with each other, and poor Nina is the disposable passenger on a joyride heading straight for hell.

Let's continue to the disturbing and confusing life of Samuel Little. To our returning listeners, welcome back. And to those of you who are new here, welcome. I'd highly advise that you go back and give part one a listen if you haven't yet. Little spent 35 years operating in the shadows.

You don't want to go into part two without the full story. With that said, I'm Bree. And I'm Heather. And I'm Mike. So Little arrives in LA and he's on his way to see Jean. Why don't you kick it off for us, Heather?

Yes, and he was smart enough to leave Nina in a hotel when they arrived, promising to come back for her in a day or two. Funny detail here, he booked Nina into the Cecil Hotel.

No way. The famous Hotel of Death on the Strip? We really should have a sit down just on the Cecil Hotel someday. It's like the seedy Hollywood version of the Stanley Hotel. Please don't tell me Nina's one of the Cecil's victims. I want to say sort of again. Never mind. We'll wait until you get there. All right. So.

Little goes to Jean where he's welcomed like he returned from war or something. Jean cooks for him, pampers him, and they kick their relationship off like nothing happened. For two weeks, he completely forgets that Nina even exists. When he finally remembers that he left a mentally challenged woman all by herself with no food or money, he goes out to the Cecil to check in on her. Nina, unfortunately, had never taken care of

or made decisions by herself. After a week of being alone in the room, she had a complete mental breakdown. The manager of the hotel was able to calm her down enough that she could remember her mother's name and phone number, but she was so distraught that she couldn't talk over the phone. So the manager ended up being the one to explain to Nina's relatives that the disabled woman was abandoned at his hotel. So she was like...

really disabled like severely

Just when I thought Little couldn't get any darker. That's a level of abuse that I'd put above even murder. That's just sick.

Poor Nina was picked up by her mother, but she kept mumbling about dead girls and ghosts. no. She really knew. Definitely. Nina was institutionalized and spent several years in an asylum. She was never the same after her time with Little. I don't know, maybe the ghosts of the CESA Hotel had something to do with her breakdown too? That place has seen about as much death inside its walls as Samuel Little's massive hands did.

And no one talked to her, listened to her stories? A mentally challenged woman who'd completely fallen apart? Nina wasn't all that coherent and not taken seriously. Besides, no one suspected Little of being a serious criminal. I doubt that anyone even knew that Nina was traveling with him. Who knows? At least she survived, and that was a miracle on its own. Jean and Little stayed together, traveling all over the country.

And here's where you can stop feeling sorry for Jean. She definitely knew what Little was doing.

they stayed at cheap motels, Little went out, killed a girl, and when he returned, Jean would clean up the backseat where the murder occurred. If there was blood, she'd wipe it down. Jewelry, pawn it, IDs, personal effects, those just got thrown away.

And if police ever came around looking for Little for some robber or another, Jean was always there to give him an alibi. The oddball Bonnie and Clyde were now aged 70 and 35 by the end of 1975.

Little was sure he killed three women that year, maybe more. He didn't know any of their names at the time, but based on descriptions of the crime scenes and appearances, we've been able to discover one of the names. 33-year-old Martha Cunningham,

A singer and pianist who was at the time listed as dying of natural causes, even though she was suspiciously dumped in the woods.

But she didn't have a mark on her and she was known to have a seizure condition. Well, what else was the coroner supposed to say?

In 76, after adding another three victims to his count, Little, already the world's most sloppy murderer, accidentally allowed one victim to live. Not that he didn't try to kill her, if anything this was probably his most violent attack yet. Little kidnapped Pamela K. Smith in Missouri, bound her hands, and proceeded to beat, strangle, and sodomize her.

This is the first time we've heard of a sexual assault from him that actually goes that far. Was there anything that set it off?

No idea, but he never mentions anything in his interviews about why Pamela was attacked so violently. But Pamela managed to get away. Somehow she got her feet under her and she ran until she found houses. One very startled homeowner opened the door to her frantic screams and bangs on the door. He took one look at the naked, bleeding and hysterical woman and pulled her inside where she hid

Well, he called the police. Are you ready to get really mad? Don't tell me this guy gets away with this again.

yes, Pamela picked Little out of the lineup, no problem,

and he was charged with kidnapping, assault, rape, and a bunch of other stuff. Little admitted to beating Pamela up, but he said he never sexually assaulted her. Unfortunately, the justice system never took heroin addicts with a rap sheet for prostitution very seriously. Little's charges were reduced to assault with the intent to ravage. What the hell kind of charge is that?

The kind that only got him three months in jail. I don't know if I want to cry, punch the wall, or just straight up throw up. We haven't even gotten to the 80s yet and I'm honestly exhausted with the police. This is a nightmare.

While the nightmare continued in December of 76 when Little got out,

Predictably, Jean picked him up at the jail and he killed another unnamed woman in her mid-twenties, in Missouri, as a parting gift to the state as they were driving out of it. Then another in Illinois. All we know about them is that they were African American and that neither body was ever found. He ended off the year with the murders of 20-year-old Yvonne Pless, 21-year-old Lee Ann Helms in Texas,

and Claire Birdlong, aged 44.

Now we've reached April of 77. Samuel killed Mary Ann Jenkins and dumped her naked body in a field. Police came to the conclusion that she died after being struck by lightning.

What did you just say? I wish I was joking. Since Mary Ann had no bruises, no signs of sexual assault, and no outward signs of violence, well, that's the only explanation they could come up with. Look, I get that cops have a hard job, and I'm not trying to talk bad about them, but there was no questions about why she was naked in a field miles out of town? Apparently not.

Next they went to Florida where Little killed 17 year old Dorothy Gibson.

Another man was tried and charged with Dorothy's murder and served 22 years behind bars for it before he was exonerated.

Julia Critchfield, 36, Evelyn Weston, 19, and another unidentified woman followed soon after. But 77 had one last surprise in store for us. Nina, Little's mentally ill ex-girlfriend comes into the picture again. Ow, wasn't she under the care of her relatives by now?

Nope, she was still at a mental institution and somehow Little found out where she was and he and Jean went to get her out.

But why she's locked up and out of her mind, probably because of what he made her witness. Wouldn't it be safer to just leave her where she was?

Not just for her own well-being, but for Little's identity to remain safe too. It's been two years she'd have to talk by now if she could have, right? I mean, if she hadn't yet, it would be safer for her to stay where she was.

Whatever the thinking, Little and Jean somehow broke her out of the institution and loaded her into the car.

It sounds insane that Nina would go with them willingly. The last road trip on the Little express didn't end all that well for her,

But in Nina's defense, I don't think she was in any state to make decisions anymore. Little and Jean could barely get a coherent sentence out of her. When Little realized how much Nina's mental capacities had broke down, he dropped her off at a movie theater with the instruction to buy them all tickets while he looked for a parking spot. Little abandoned her there and never looked back. Now I need to stop and make a confession here.

Nina's side of the story is unverifiable. I found one complete account of her and the rest were all just brief mentions. None of them listed their sources and the FBI database doesn't mention her at all. I still think she was who they claim her to be, but by the time authorities caught up to Little,

She'd either passed away or her mental state had declined so much that she was not a viable witness. Like I said, there's a lot on Little's arrest and his last murders, but almost nothing on his life or his victims before, and Nina was definitely a victim here.

Yeah, Nina was treated horribly, not just by Little. I wonder if her family just dumped her in the system to forget about her. I mean, it's not like they were around when their obviously mentally challenged family member was alone in the streets before. Poor thing, I hope she at least got some peace after this last abandonment.

We need to go on a bit of tangent before we reach 1978 though. Dorothy Gibson, the 17 year old prostitute that another man was charged for is just a terrible story. You see, met Jerry Frank Townsend and they ran around together for a few weeks. Jerry wasn't a hardened criminal like Little and he was in way over his head.

Jerry was severely mentally disabled and it's thought that he had an IQ equal to an 80-year-old.

They solicited Dorothy for her services, but Little took her away and killed her. After he dumped the body, he got in his car and sped away to the next town. People saw both of them talking to Dorothy and, unfortunately, Jerry, with his slow and labored speech and obvious disability, stood out

to witnesses more and they remembered him. Jerry was grilled during interrogations so much that he ended up admitting to the crime.

Putting aside the fact that Littles just abused another mentally disabled person, when this later came out, did the police at least have to answer for this? I can only call it a gross abuse of a vulnerable individual. Nope. By the time it all came out, all of those policemen were long retired, some of them dead. But it gets even worse. Jerry was convicted of the ad murder.

And then he got hauled right back in and was coerced into confessing to five more murders that were later proven to have been committed by another serial killer, Eddie Lee Mosley. good grief. L.A. is a damn horror movie.

I can't give any updates as to Jerry's whereabouts after he was exonerated, but he did receive a $4.3 million settlement from the state of Florida for that wrongful conviction. It's thought that he's somewhere in an assisted living facility, given the immense trauma he's endured and the higher degree of care that he'd need in his old age.

I thought it couldn't get worse than what he put Nina through. Let's just move on to 78. I can't take this level of cruelty. It's a whole different kind of torture. Now, we reach 78. We know of seven victims in this year. Or at least that's what Little remembers. Three unidentified victims. Julia Critchfield, 19-year-old Evelyn Watson, 23-year-old Brenda Alexander, and his youngest victim of all,

Carleen Jones at just 14.

no, she was just a Little kid.

Little did something different with Karleen's murder other than her being so incredibly young. Her age isn't what's strange. In 78, his victims ranged from 14 to 45. So it's not like he had a preference. It's how he abducted her that's concerning. Karleen was just a schoolgirl and she didn't do drugs, work as a prostitute or frequent bars.

He learned Karleen's mother's name and with that information was able to lure her away to a secluded place before killing her. Another escalation.

Speaking of escalation, it was only in the last three years before 78 that his victims were being found in various states of undress. Before that, he was so frenzied to strangle them that they were rarely found naked. But now he was taking more time with his victims, enough to sexually assault them before killing them. From what I can make out, these additional assaults started around 74 or 75.

Not that he was taking any time to hide evidence or dispose of bodies all that well.

Of the seven known victims, only the three unidentified women were never found. The others were all found and immediately classified as homicide victims.

Little was still using his random state hopping to hide the fact that there was a serial killer more prolific than America had ever seen out there. That and the fact that the majority of his victims were living on the rough side of the tracks. When the 80s came rolling around, things started to change drastically. Now DNA was no longer just a theory. It was universally accepted that this would be the way forward to identify criminals.

No, they didn't yet have the capabilities to test DNA samples, but everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before they could. So samples were being collected and properly stored in the hopes that crimes could be solved in the future when technology caught up. But let's face it, that technology was still far away. So get ready for more terrible police work and a great deal of unorganized luck for Little.

1980 started with another unidentified woman added to the count and then Little moved on to a sex worker named Hilda Nelson in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Little approached her for her services and they went to Hilda's apartment to, well, do the deed.

Little pounced into action with every intention of killing Hilda. But another prostitute who lived in the building interrupted him and he fled the scene. Hilda was so badly beaten that she spent three days in the hospital. Unfortunately, she lied to police about the incident because she didn't want her family to know what she was doing for a living. Hilda told them that a man broke into her apartment and was in the middle of robbing the place when she got home. A fight ensued.

And that's why she was beaten and strangled within an inch of her life. She would be the third victim to actually escape Little's attempt at murdering them.

After Hilda came two more unidentified women and a particularly active evening on the 28th of October, somewhere in Mississippi.

On that night, Little murdered 18-year-old Valeria Boyd, drove back into town and abducted Mary Ann Porter. Both women were reported missing and their remains were discovered before the year was out. Predictably, there were no suspects, barely any clues, and the investigation led nowhere. At the end of 1980, Samuel Little had killed at least 38 people, possibly more.

In 81, he didn't let the Christmas snow melt before adding to that number. Next was 18-year-old Linda Boards. Little said that she was so beautiful that he genuinely was not planning on killing her.

He wanted to preserve Linda so that he could pay for her services again in the future. But his need to get those claws around someone's neck was too alluring and Linda did not survive the assault.

Geez, he keeps referring to these women like they're livestock. Well, that's not far from how he viewed him.

But if they were livestock, then he was the butcher. Since the murder of 14-year-old Karleen Little started liking the act of stalking his victims,

Proven by the murder of 33-year-old Annie Lee Stewart, who was walking back from visiting her sister on a rainy day, followed her for a few blocks before offering her a ride. Desperate to get out of the rain, Annie accepted the offer. And as you could have guessed, she became another victim. Also in 81 was Patricia Parker and three more victims that haven't been found or identified, bringing Little's count past 40.

He ended the year with a very close shave and honestly, I wish I could find this woman and give her a medal. Little stopped in Pascagoula, Mississippi again, where he'd failed to kill Hilda just a few months prior. A woman named Layla Mae Mclain was approached by Little for her services. She accepted, got into his car, and together they set off for a motel. But when Little drove past the motel and headed for the woods,

Leila knew something was wrong.

When Little refused to stop and let her out, this 110 pound Little thing pulled the steering wheel, forcing Little to pull over. He jumped on her, trying to strangle her, but Leila, for all her tiny stature, put up a fight with a strength that had only could have come from a divine source. She scratched at his eyes, punched him aiming for his head, and after repeatedly getting punched and pummeled and failing to get a good grip on Leila's neck,

Little suddenly collapsed. The diminutive woman, standing and weighing as much as a child, had successfully punched the six-foot giant owl. Go didn't stop long enough to make sure that he was down for good. She jumped from the car and with her torn clothes and battered face

She ran over a busy highway and didn't stop until she found someone who could help her. The Good Samaritan took her to the hospital, but Leila did not report the incident.

Damn it. was sure she would. Leila knew what police would think of a woman like her working in the industry that she was in. They weren't going to help her.

I wish I could say different, looking at what it is now, 40 victims, it's hard to disagree with her. The police weren't doing squat. At least this close call chilled Little out for a few months. He packed up Jean and they got out of the state.

damn, is Jean still around? I'm surprised he hasn't abandoned her already. Abandon her? I'm more surprised that she's still alive. How old was she in 81? Jean was 76 years old by now and still pilfering any jewelry and purses that Little victims left behind in his cars.

Let's see what 1982 held in store for the pair. 82 was an interesting year, full of close calls for Little.

It started with Fredonia Smith,

The 18 year old fought hard enough to leave Little with scratches and bruises all over his face. Then came Dorothy Richard, a 55 year old in Louisiana, and two more unidentified women that Little dumped in the swamps, going back to his old habit of letting the gators take care of the bodies for him. But there are two other victims and one acquaintance that we need to focus on.

Danny Beckless was a kid that ran around with Little in that year. He'd met them somewhere in the south, and together Beckless and Jean made quite the soft lifting pair, but he saw some suspicious things that scared him enough to cut ties with them. He was the one who'd later give police a good deal of insight into Little and Jean's odd relationship,

As well as a verbal admittance from Jean that she'd killed an ex-boyfriend and his lover when she was younger. The double homicide was later investigated and it's likely that this secondhand confession was probably true. Makes sense now why she's so okay with cleaning up after a killer. She was one herself.

The first of the two victims that nearly got Little caught again was Rosie Hill down in Florida. Little approached her for her services in full view of some other sex workers. She was reported as missing and miraculously, police brought Little in this time. He went by his father's surname and they referred to him as Samuel McDowell in their records.

Authorities really liked him for the motor, but legally they couldn't keep him without any evidence. No evidence at all? Are you serious?

Nothing. No hair, no semen, no trace in his car. Remember, Jean's the one cleaning it and by now I'm guessing she's gotten pretty good at it too. Anyway, they set off for 10C and here is when the second victim of interest comes up. The second victim got him even closer to arrest. Little was acquainted with woman named Patricia Ann Mount.

who frequented a bar that Little spent afternoons drinking at while he waited for Beckless and Jean to finish up looting from every store in the vicinity by the day.

Patricia was mentally disabled to an even greater degree than Nina, his previous mentally challenged girlfriend was.

It's thought that Patricia had an IQ of under 50.

This is going to be unpleasant to listen to, it? His treatment of Nina had been the worst of all so far. I don't think I can hear it all over again.

Well, he didn't make Patricia's suffering a year's long ordeal at least. He lured her from the bar with a bottle of wine,

parked his car in a field and left her body next to a hay bale.

During the struggle, Patricia pulled at Little's hair, managing to grab a handful of it. And when she was dead, her bowels released its content on the backseat of Little's car. This is a common occurrence right after death and it's almost certain that Little had this happen during his murder spree before. But not to worry, that's probably why he kept Jean around for so long, she always cleaned it up. You know, I'm starting to hate Jean as much as I hate Little.

I think she's always been as sick as he is. He didn't make her that way.

I agree. Back to Patricia. Her body was found the next day and police had a description and the name of the guy she was last seen with, but when they went looking for Little, he, Jean, and Beckless were already gone. Here's where Beckless saw enough to give a statement all those years later. That morning after Patricia's murder, he walked out to the car to see the mess in the back seat.

When he asked Little about it, Little said it was some messy hooker and not to worry about it. Beckles was unnerved, not just because the car was covered in feces, but because of how weird the whole thing was. Jean came out and cleaned up the mess like this was an everyday occurrence and Little was being intentionally vague about the whole thing. Beckles, however, had hung around Little enough to know that he liked to brag about roughing up

prostitutes. He never admitted to killing anyone, but Little liked to make a big show over drinks about how he beat up sex workers. While Jean cleaned, Little loaded the cart and they were ready to leave as soon as she'd finished up. It didn't take the Mississippi police long to connect the dots between the Samuel McDowell that was questioned in another state for the death of Rosie Hill in Florida earlier that year.

and the description of the man last known to be with Patricia in Tennessee. I mean how many 6 foot tall black men, whose name was Samuel, could be on the suspect list for two almost identical murders that took place in the same state.

Even the description of the car was the same in both cases. They put a bolo out on him, but Little, Jean, and a very nervous Beckless were already out of Mississippi and onto the next state over. Little didn't stay gone for long though.

The three of them were back in Pascagoula a few months later.

I mean, why keep going back to the same places? This guy isn't afraid of long drives. Is he trying to get caught or is this like a game of chicken where he's trying to taunt the police even though they don't even know there's a serial killer on the loose?

Playing chicken is a good way to put it. I think he liked living on the edge. There's a quote here that gives you an idea of how his head worked. here it is. They didn't know who the hell was doing it. I would go back to the same city, sometimes pluck me another grape. How many grapes have y'all got on the vine here?

that is just too disturbing.

Pascogula had denied him two victims before and Little was determined to change that. He was feeling particularly unhinged that night. He drove out to an apartment building, mostly rented out by sex workers, and solicited the services of Melinda Rose LaPree Melinda's face is one of the more notable faces of Little's victims.

Her smiling, fresh face usually comes up when researching this case.

Melinda was a 22 year old sex worker who had just given birth three weeks before. She and her boyfriend Billy Hampton were both addicts and he acted as her pimp. Unfortunately, he wasn't there that evening, though there were plenty of other girls on the street who knew Melinda and saw her get into the brown station wagon with Little.

He drove them out to the edge of the graveyard, something he found quite amusing in those later interviews. He was in such a fringed state that he killed Melinda so quickly that he didn't even realize she was dead at first. Melinda was one of the very few women whose hyoid bone was broken during the struggle, most likely because he was so violent during the attack.

and maybe just because this monster didn't deserve more luck than he'd gotten thus far. After he dragged her out of his car, he stole some flowers off a nearby grave and laid it on her body because to quote Little here, when they die, they're all your favorites. They all belong to you.

Is there a limit on how many times we can say, ew? I don't think I can describe it in any other way, that icky feeling he leaves behind with his words. It's like listening to worms in high def. Just... ew.

Worms in high death. That's one heck of a way to describe it. It's pretty accurate though. Disturbing, heartbreaking, all rolled into one.

Speaking of heartbreak, Melinda was not Little's usual victim. She hadn't grown up on the wrong side of the tracks and she was greatly loved by her family. As a child she'd been a bit of a musical prodigy, able to play any instrument that he put into her hands. Her mother died when she was seven and her life just sort of fell apart after that. What I mean is, people were looking for her. She was missed.

When her boyfriend reported her missing, the cops told him to wait 24 hours. Not that BS again. They weren't totally being lazy scumbags. She was a prostitute and an addict. It's not like the industry is known to have people who stick around in one place for too long. When he came back the next day, they opened a file on her and interviewed all the girls who'd witnessed her getting into the brown station wagon.

Billy called Melinda's father and brother and they arrived less than a day later.

Mandy was missed by many, and she was a new mother with a three week old baby that she adored. No, this was not the kind of girl who'd just disappear,

no matter how hard her life had become. Police learned of the car, the big man driving it, and the name Samuel. Some detective, a good one for a change, made the connection between Melinda's disappearance and the two murders that were virtually identical in the last year that Little was suspected for.

Now they just needed to find her. Two weeks went by before the graveyard's groundskeepers stumbled onto Melinda's badly decomposed remains in a ditch that bordered the property.

How did it take two weeks?

In another stroke of luck, the coroner was able to find the broken hyoid bone, proving strangulation, as well as a few fractured vertebrae. A rare find for Little victims. Most of them were never found, or when they were, the hyoid was not broken,

Or they were so decomposed that the small bone had disintegrated so much that no cause of death could be determined. The damaged vertebrae indicated an assailant of enormous strength, much more than just an average guy could possibly exert.

Like someone who was six foot tall with a background in boxing, should we say? Mm-hmm. It took two months, but finally police found Little. He, Jean, and Beckless were arrested for shoplifting in November of 82, somewhere in Mississippi. The Pascagoula Police Department got wind of the arrest and raced to the station.

But Little and his accomplices were keeping a tight lip about any involvement with the murder of Melinda LaPree.

Police were at a dead end besides a few receipts proving that the trio wore in Pascagula at the time of Melinda LaPree's death. They had nothing. I mean, what about the car? Did they search it?

Yes, apparently Jean was a damn ninja cleaner. There wasn't a hair to be found. Outside of some receipts and a matching description of a car and a big man, they had nothing physical to tie Little to the body. They brought in the witness that had seen Little pick them up and told police about the two near-death experiences of their fellow street workers. They went out and found our favorite Little fighter, Layla.

who nearly knocked Little out cold and the assault survivor Hilda Nelson. Both Layla and Hilda identified Little and his car as soon as they lined him

the Melinda LaPree and the assault on Layla and Hilda. But why not the murders of Rosie Hill in Florida or Patricia in Tennessee?

I mean, Patricia at least had Littles hair on her body. Lapree's case is solely based on witness testimony, so there's nothing concrete there. Wouldn't it have been better to get him for Rosie and Patricia? Pascagoula police were aware of their cases, but the Florida and Tennessee departments were in other states. Most likely, they were waiting for the court proceedings to run their course before jumping into Rosie and Patricia's cases.

He was in custody, at least.

Pascagula knew that LaPree's case would probably fall through, but they felt very confident about the two assaults on Leila and Hilda. If they could push for the maximum sentence, well, he'd be off the streets for a good few years. At the very least, Lieutenant Darren Versiga...

the investigator in charge could buy some time to tie Little to other cases. Versiga was certain that Samuel Little was guilty of a lot more than three cases he'd brought to court, but he wanted to do it right. So are we finally going to get our bingo? No dice, I'm afraid. come on, man. You can't be serious. Not again.

What kind of sick comedy is this?

Both women were addicts, prostitutes, and had rap sheets that were as long as my arm. They nearly weren't allowed to testify at all, but Lieutenant Versiga pushed for them to get to the stand. When Hilda arrived at the courtroom, eight months pregnant at the time, she took one look at Little and lost control of her bladder. Hilda was in complete hysterics and had to be removed from the building.

Okay, I don't blame Hilda for losing it after what she'd been through, but what about our favorite Spitfire, Leila? She's the one who took this from a messy thing all the way to a damn circus. Leila walked in and let out a slew of profanities aimed at Little.

If there weren't people there, she'd probably have tried to punch him out properly this time. She had to be forcibly removed from the court.

Needless to say, the assault cases were thrown out. Melinda LaPree's case followed suit. There just was no physical evidence to tie him to it. I'm exhausted with all this. How many times is he going to keep getting away like this?

and we're only at the end of 83 now. You realize Little's got like 20 years left of this madness.

Now we reach 1984 and Little is 42 years old. The moment he was released from custody, he was on the road hopping states again. Only now he's on the police radar. The Pascagoula Police Department that took him to court, led by Lieutenant Versiga, aren't giving up. They've still got the murders of Rosie Hill and Patricia Parker, a mentally challenged woman who'd managed to pull some hair out of his head before her death. Neither of these cases

took place in Mississippi, where Pascagoula is located. So they had to cross state lines to put a case together.

It soon became clear that Rosie Hill's case wasn't worth exploring. Despite many witnesses that saw her getting into the brown station wagon with Little, whom they all picked out of a lineup,

There just wasn't any physical evidence to tie him to the crime except for close proximity. So they honed in on Patricia and the hairs that she'd pulled out. DNA was known about, but the technology just wasn't capable of proving more than a blood type at the time.

Besides a hair match under a microscope, well, Patrice's case wasn't exactly shaping up to be a slam dunk yet either. The witnesses at the bar weren't sex workers, but they were addicts. All of them were alcoholics. The jury weren't impressed with any of their testimonies. Beckless, the young man who'd been traveling with them for the past two years on the other hand, was a solid witness.

He'd seen the aftermath in Little's car and saw Jean clean up the feces in the backseat. Combined with Little's frequent boasts of beating up prostitutes, well, now they had something they could go on. Sadly, Beckless fled the state and disappeared into thin air before the trial came to be and the whole thing fell apart too. It already wasn't a great case to begin with, but when frail

an old gene took the stage, it was all over. Based on the alibi given by the sweet old lady who looked like she could hand out cookies to her grandkids, the jury found Samuel Little not guilty yet again. Between court appearances and indictments and being moved from Mississippi for the assault charges to Georgia for Patricia's murder, Little was in custody for more than a year.

1983 would also be the only year that Little went on a hiatus from killing, because even a guy as lucky as Little couldn't continue killing from a jail cell with police breathing down his neck. But now he's out. How long did it take him to hit the road again? He was declared not guilty in January of 84 and released from custody sometime in February.

He picked up a new car, a Thunderbird this time, and with Jean started hopping States again. It took three months for him to feel safe enough to go out on Hunting Spree again. Aren't police following him? They have to have enough to warrant surveillance. Actually, no, they don't. I mean, think about it. He was brought in for three murders and two assaults. Both assaults and two of the three murders were brought to trial, but he got off.

Legally, he's innocent of those crimes, judged by a jury no less. There are no legal bounds to surveil him for any evidence based on those cases. As for the murder of Rosie Hill, well, there is no physical evidence there except a hunch and a few witnesses, all of whom were once again sex workers. No judge would sign off on it. They were forced to set him loose.

So, Little was clean for about a year and a half. As you can imagine, once he went out with the intent to kill, he took off with a bang.

And that, unfortunately, is an explosion of violence we'll have to hear about next week as we are out of time again, I wouldn't use the word unfortunately here at all. I mean, it's a good time to call it a day. Really, this whole case has given me palpitations. Every time you think, all right, he's going to get caught and it's finally going to be over, the carpet just gets ripped out from under you and off.

this animal goes, killing indiscriminately like it's nothing.

So what will police do next now that they suspect Little of being much more than just a marauding hobo with an ancient girlfriend who cooks up a great gumbo? And how many more yous are we going to have to utter before we're out of our misery? Quite a few, unfortunately. Little still got more than 20 years of killing left in him, and then there's his retirement and later arrest.

You'll have to stick with us for part three before we can move on to something a Little lighter.

man, I'm off to get myself an antacid and not get any sleep at all. Though I'm not sure if I'm going to be kept awake by the horror or from the pure frustration that I'm feeling right now.

Thank you for joining me and my PICs. Remember to subscribe so you never miss an episode and we will see you next time with more Truth Crime.