Police say serial killer Samuel Little may be linked to two cases in Houston

Miya Shay Image
Friday, November 30, 2018
Sgt. Richard Rodriguez of HPD's cold case squad talks about two cases that may be linked to serial killer Samuel Little.
Sgt. Richard Rodriguez of HPD's cold case squad talks about two cases that may be linked to serial killer Samuel Little.

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The Houston police cold case squad believes that serial killer Samuel Little may have killed at least two young women here in Houston.

Little, a 78-year-old inmate, says he has killed 90 people as he moved across the country for nearly four decades.

Little has agreed to talk to authorities about his killings in exchange for being moved from a California prison to a prison in North Texas.

The Texas Rangers and HPD cold case investigator Sgt. Richard Rodriguez interviewed Little in prison.

Rodriguez sat down with ABC13 to detail what he has uncovered so far.

Sgt. Rodriguez says he traveled to meet in person with Little last month.

"Talking to him, my initial impressions of him was that it's like I'm talking to a grandpa, and that's really how he came across," said Rodriguez.

Little gave details that appear to possibly match two unsolved cold case murders here in the Houston area. The cases are from the 1970s and from the 1980s.

"He admits committing at least one murder here in Houston, and he also did say he didn't like Houston very much, so he didn't spend a whole lot of time here," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez says Little would travel to Houston during that time via I-10.

"He was driving into town, got that urge, pulled off the freeway, started driving around a little, found somebody, picked her up, she told him where to go, they drove over there," Rodriguez said. "He's admitting to not having sex with her, but admitted to killing her and dumping her on the side of the road and driving off."

The victim he describes was an African-American female prostitute, in her early 20s.

"One of the cases we are looking at, we still have yet to identify her, so she is a Jane Doe at this point," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez says he has more detective work to do and will be re-interviewing Little in the next several weeks. He hopes it will lead to conclusively closing at least one cold case.

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