The case of the disappearing abdominal aneurysm

Confessions of a Serial Killer: Man linked to West Memphis Jane Doe

Little tells investigators one of his dozens of victims was dumped in Arkansas

ralphhardin@gmail.com If Samuel Little’s confessions are to be believed, 35 years ago, a Memphis woman met a grizzly fate and her body was dumped in West Memphis.

In custody in Texas, Samuel Little, 78, told authorities that he met an unidentified woman when she was between the ages of 28 and 29, and strangled her to death in West Memphis.

The self-confessed serial killer has taken to drawing sketches of his purported victims. One such portrait is of a Memphis woman he says he killed after picking her up and taking her to Arkansas in 1984.

During a court appearance last week at the Ector County Courthouse in Odessa, Texas, Little claimed he was involved in dozens of killings nationwide.

Little began offering details on the long list of his alleged victims last year after being captured in Texas. Once he was linked to murders in Texas and California, Little began telling authorities about how he had killed more than 90 people between 1970 and 2005.

Last week, the FBI released 16 drawings of women made by Little in prison, suspected to be of his victims. Each drawing identifies the possible city and year the women were killed One sketch linked Little to the woman’s body found in West Memphis, although the body has not yet been identified, more than three decades after being found along Interstate 40.

According to the FBI, Little confessed to the killings in order to get a prison transfer, prompting local authorities across the country to re-examine cold cases. Little wasn’t arrested until 2012 while in a shelter in Kentucky. He was later extradited to California for narcotics charges.

Los Angeles police used DNA to link Little for three unsolved murder cases in the area between 1987 and 1989. Authorities are still meeting with Little and say they have since been able to confirm more than 30 of the killings.

This is the second time in the past year that the Jane Doe found alongside the highway has been in the spotlight. In May of last year, a high school class in Elizabethton, Tennessee, studying forensics, built a profile of a serial killer they dubbed “The Bible Belt Strangler,” and included the 1984 victim as part of their profile.

By Ralph Hardin