Samuel Little, who had diabetes, heart problems and other illnesses, died in a California hospital. He was serving a life sentence on several murder charges.
California Department of Corrections spokeswoman Vicky Waters said there was no sign of a crime and that the cause of death will be determined by a coroner.
A career criminal who has been in and out of prison for decades, Little has for years denied that he ever killed anyone.
Then, in 2018, he opened up with the Texas Ranger James Holland, who was asked about a murder Little did not commit. During approximately 700 hours of interviews, however, Little provided details of dozens of murders that only the killer would know.
A skilled artist, he even provided Holland with dozens of paintings and drawings of his victims, sometimes scribbling their names when he could remember them, as well as details like the year and place of the murder and where he had thrown the body.
RELATED: The Deadliest Serial Killer in U.S. History, Linked to the Murder of a Woman in Houston
At the time of his death, Little had confessed to killing 93 people between 1970 and 2005. Most of the murders took place in Florida and southern California.
Authorities, who continue to investigate their allegations, said they confirmed almost 60 murders and had no reason to doubt others.
Nothing he said has been proven to be wrong or false, “Holland told CBS magazine” 60 Minutes “in 2019.
The numbers outnumber Green River killer Gary Ridgeway (49), John Gacy (33) and Ted Bundy (36).
Almost all of Little’s victims were women, many of them prostitutes, drug addicts or poor people who lived on the margins of society. They were individuals, he said he believed they would leave few people behind to look for them and not much evidence for the police to follow.
In fact, local authorities in several states across the country initially classified many of the deaths as accidents, drug overdoses or the result of unknown causes.
He hardly strangled most of his victims, usually shortly after meeting them during casual encounters. He drowned a woman he met in a nightclub in 1982.
He was in his late 80s, in poor health and serving a life sentence in a California prison when he began confiding in Holland in May 2018, after years of refusing to speak to other authorities. Once a strong and robust boxer who used his powerful hands to strangle his victims, he now used a wheelchair to get around.
Holland described Little as a genius and a sociopath, adding that the killer could never adequately explain to him why he did what he did. Although known as an expert interrogator, Holland himself said he could only imagine why Little opened up to him.
The ranger worked tirelessly to create and maintain a bond with the killer during his hundreds of hours of interviews, bringing him favorite snacks like pizza, Dr. Pepper and grains and discussing his mutual interest in sports. He also gave Little assurances that he would not be executed.
Holland addressed Little by his childhood nickname, Sammy, while Little called Holland Jimmy and once told the Los Angeles Times that he “met a friend at a Texas ranger”.
He told “60 Minutes” that he hopes his confessions can exonerate anyone unjustly convicted of his crimes.
“I say that if I can help get someone out of prison, you know, then God can smile a little more at me,” he said.
A passenger who traveled around the country when he was not arrested for theft, assault, drugs or other crimes, Little said he started killing in Miami on New Year’s Eve 1970.
“It was like drugs,” he told Holland. “I started to like it.”
His last murder was in 2005, he said, in Tupelo, Mississippi. He also killed people in Tennessee, Texas, Ohio, Kentucky, Nevada, Arkansas and other states.
Kentucky authorities finally caught him in 2012 after he was arrested on drug charges and his DNA linked him to three California murders.
When he started counting the other deaths, the authorities were surprised at how much he remembered. His paintings, they said, indicated that he had a photographic memory.
A murder was resolved after Little remembered that the victim wore dentures. Another after telling Holland that he killed the victim near an unusual-looking set of bows in Florida. A victim he met outside a strip club in Miami in 1984 was remembered as 25 years old, with short blond hair, blue eyes and a “hippie look”.
As he continued to speak, authorities across the country rushed to investigate old cases, track relatives and close down families.
Little revealed few details about his own life, except that he was raised in Lorain, Ohio, by his grandmother. Authorities said he used to use the name Samuel McDowell.
He was once married, Little said, and had two long-term relationships.
He claimed he developed a fetish for women’s necks after getting sexually aroused when he saw his kindergarten teacher touching her neck. He was always careful, he added, to avoid looking at his wife or girlfriends’ neck and never hurting anyone he loved.
“I don’t think there was anyone else who did what I liked to do,” he told “60 Minutes”. “I think I’m the only one in the world. And that’s not an honor, it’s a curse.”
Copyright © 2020 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.