The homeless shelter where Samuel Little was arrested

This is the homeless shelter where Samuel Little was arrested.

It is called Wayside Christian Mission, and it is located at 432 East Jefferson Street in Louisville, Kentucky.

Little was one of America's most prolific serial killers. Before his death in December 2020, he confessed to murdering 93 women across 19 states.

His last known victim was Nancy Carol Stevens, whom he strangled to death in Tupelo, Mississippi, in August 2005.

Following Stevens' murder, Little seemingly went dormant due to his age and ailing health.

Arrest

On September 5, 2012, U.S. Marshals arrested the 72-year-old drifter at this homeless shelter in Louisville.

At the time, he was wanted on an old narcotics charge in Los Angeles, California.

Little arrived at the shelter a few weeks before his arrest. He caused no problems during his stay.

When the U.S. Marshals located him, he was trying to have his disability benefits transferred to Kentucky.

The authorities were aware that Little was a nomadic career criminal who went by several names. However, they had no idea that the man they had in custody was a serial killer who had evaded detection for more than four decades.

Murders

Little was extradited to California for a minor drug charge for allegedly possessing a crack pipe.

When the Los Angeles Police Department entered his DNA into the system, it linked him to three unsolved murders from the late 1980s.

Realizing the significance of the match, detectives contacted the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP), which began an extensive background check on Little.

Investigators placed him in the vicinity of several unsolved killings. One case that the FBI flagged was the murder of Denise Christie Brothers, who had been strangled to death in Odessa, Texas, in 1994.

In September 2014, Little was convicted of murdering Carol Linda Alford, Guadalupe Apodaca, and Audrey Nelson Everett in Los Angeles between 1987 and 1989.

Despite the verdict, he maintained his innocence.

Confessions

By 2018, Little was so eager to leave the state prison in Los Angeles County that he agreed to confess to his crimes in exchange for a transfer to Texas.

During interviews with Texas Ranger James Holland, he recalled dozens of murders in vivid detail.

Although serial killers have been known to give false confessions, Little's case was different, as investigators were unable to find any discrepancies in what he told them.

Little described what his victims looked like, what they were wearing, their personalities, and the locations where he dumped their bodies.

Despite the passage of time, he also remembered small details, such as their boyfriends' names and the exact routes he took after picking them up.

Little showed no remorse for his crimes. He smiled and casually described each murder as though he were sharing nostalgic stories from his past. On several occasions, he reenacted his victims' final movements before they died.

When asked if he had a "favorite victim," he responded:

"They're all my favorites. They all belong to you."

After searching through cold case files and mortuary records, investigators discovered that his confessions lined up with key facts. They also learned that several deaths weren't treated as suspicious due to the victims' backgrounds and the absence of obvious injuries.