CA CA/OH/LA/MS/TX - SAMUEL LITTLE, aka Samuel McDowell, 1970's thru 2012, Serial Killer

Can we go into the missing files for these states and help identify possible victims


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A homeless man in Louisville, Ky has been linked to three cold case murders in California. His name is Samual Little, also known as Samuel Little and Samual/Samuel McDowell.


http://www.wdrb.com/story/20543301/serial-killer-discovered-in-louisville-homeless-shelter

"U.S. Marshals say they found a 72-year-old suspected serial killer hiding out in a Louisville homeless shelter. Samuel Little is charged with three cold case murders out of Los Angeles that date back to the 1980s.

Marshals say Little is a career criminal who went by several other names and that his criminal rap sheet spans 24 states.

He was arrested in September at Wayside Christian Mission on an old narcotics charge and sent back to Los Angeles. New DNA test results have linked him to the cold cases."


http://www.wave3.com/story/20538174/police-arrest-homeless-man-suspected-of-murders-in-california

"Wayside officials said Little had been staying at the shelter only a few weeks. They said Little didn't cause problems while he was there. Authorities don't know what brought Little to Louisville. DNA evidence has him behind bars now.

"I think Samual McDowell, Samual Little is a monster,' said Los Angeles Police Detective Mitzi Roberts.

Little went by several different names over the years. He was known as a drifter, a career criminal who has been in trouble with the law in more than 20 states. He somehow made his way to Louisville and found shelter at Wayside Christian Mission."
 
I searched for his name and didn't see anything on Websleuths about Little/McDowell. I haven't had the chance to look more into his murders but will try soon.

I work in a doctor's office and it's flu season, so I'm far too exhausted to jump into it right now. If you have any additional info, feel free to put it here. I need to take a brain break.
 
Here is a story that mentions his victims and some of his past crimes. It also states that he had "a violent side" and likely purposely targeted drug addicts and prostitutes.

I don't have many more details about him, but that sounds like he's an "average" serial killer who's learned where to find his victims... in someone who likely wouldn't call the cops if they ran into trouble.


http://global.christianpost.com/new...-samuel-little-cold-case-serial-killer-87891/

"Police discovered DNA that links Little to the crimes, according to The Los Angeles Times. The three victims were listed as Carol Alford, 41, found dead on July 13, 1987; Audrey Nelson, 35, whose body was discovered Aug. 14, 1989; and Guadalupe Apodaca, 46, found Sept. 2, 1989."

"Little, who once identified himself as Samuel McDowell, had been charged with two murders and two attempted murders in Florida during the early 1980s, but escaped charges. Little also served two years in a San Diego prison after being convicted of assaults on two separate women."
 
This is a little off-topic, but it comes from something in the wave3.com story above...

"Officials at Wayside said they do not do background checks on the clients they serve. To stay at the shelter all a person needs hey say all you is an ID, a TB card, and they make sure a client isn't on the sex offender registry."

This angered me because I already feel like society is "too monitored." There are countless cameras recording you as you go about your life. You need to show your ID for this and for that. You need to register this and that or be in violation of the law. It is truly (at least in KY now) much more of a hassle/paperwork/etc to purchase a box of Mucinex-D (or anything containing pseudoephedrine/Sudafed) than it is to pick up a box of Demerol or Fentanyl!

How easy is it for a homeless person to get an ID? They don't have residences, so (unless it IS their residence) the homeless likely aren't going to have an vehicle or easy way to the government buildings they'd need to go to. What would they use as their address? I've been checked/cleared in regard to TB, but I don't have a card stating such. I could get it from my doctor, but I don't know how easy that would be for someone who just needs to find a place to sleep for the night. And those that don't pass the screening, are they just told to sleep on the streets, which the shelters are put in place to prevent?
 
This is a little off-topic, but it comes from something in the wave3.com story above...

"Officials at Wayside said they do not do background checks on the clients they serve. To stay at the shelter all a person needs hey say all you is an ID, a TB card, and they make sure a client isn't on the sex offender registry."

This angered me because I already feel like society is "too monitored." There are countless cameras recording you as you go about your life. You need to show your ID for this and for that. You need to register this and that or be in violation of the law. It is truly (at least in KY now) much more of a hassle/paperwork/etc to purchase a box of Mucinex-D (or anything containing pseudoephedrine/Sudafed) than it is to pick up a box of Demerol or Fentanyl!

How easy is it for a homeless person to get an ID? They don't have residences, so (unless it IS their residence) the homeless likely aren't going to have an vehicle or easy way to the government buildings they'd need to go to. What would they use as their address? I've been checked/cleared in regard to TB, but I don't have a card stating such. I could get it from my doctor, but I don't know how easy that would be for someone who just needs to find a place to sleep for the night. And those that don't pass the screening, are they just told to sleep on the streets, which the shelters are put in place to prevent?

I agree with "too monitored", however, I understand why a homeless shelter asks for I.D. and a health card. Most still let people in without them, but there are a lot of criminals in the shelters and more crimes occur. Health card is so you are not passing crap to the others in the cots beside you, or drinking, eating, smoking after you.

Otherwise, I'm with you on that rant!
 
Very good links, thorough job. But as there has been no conviction(s) this person is not a serial killer but a suspected one.
 
I understand why a homeless shelter asks for I.D. and a health card.

I didn't mean that I didn't understand them. I was just trying to think about being homeless. Due to some legal issues, my drivers license is suspended. And my ID (which has the address of an apartment I was staying while my house was being rebuilt after a fire) is not expired. So I guess it is valid, even though I've moved. And I was just trying to think of how complicated it would be for someone with no full-time home.

And I would indeed worry about whether there was a "criminal" in the cot next to me, were I to have to stay in a shelter.

But I don't think that a criminal (sex offender or what-have-you) should be turned away if the shelter has at least some form of supervision or security.

The only other option is to let the criminals/etc stay out on the street "in public" (with the most basic sense of the term).
That would put the neighborhood in even more needless danger, wouldn't it?
 
Very good links, thorough job. But as there has been no conviction(s) this person is not a serial killer but a suspected one.

I didn't mean to be slanderous to this fellow.

He'd been arrested on some kind of a drug warrant earlier in 2012. Then they got the DNA hits on the cold cases. I figured that meant that the arrest wasn't based on mere gossip or circumstance or other factors (àla Casey Anthony, Drew Peterson, etc, whose names are out there for good).

I mean, Dean Corll was never actually convicted of murder for a single one of the victims found in his boat shed. Yet we still use his name without fear. I thought the DNA matches would trump mere "accusations" and such.
 
Samuel Little: 3 Cold Case Murder Charges For Suspect Who Could Be Serial Killer -- LAPD

DNA evidence cases were linked to him through the California Department of Justice's DNA Combined Internet Index System (CODIS) offender databank earlier this year on the Audrey Nelson and Guadalupe Apodaca cases.
.. Cold case detectives are continuing to work with other law enforcement agencies throughout the nation in areas where Samuel Little has been known to frequent. Other Los Angeles area cases are still being reviewed for a possible connection to Little.


More at link:
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/...serial_murders_charged_lapd_cold_case_dna.php
 
Man, 72, held in 1980s serial killings

Los Angeles Police Department detectives allege that Samuel Little preyed on women in downtown and Central Los Angeles, meeting some at bars before strangling them and dumping their bodies.

If the allegations are true, it would mark the discovery of yet another serial killer operating in Los Angeles during the 1980s. Two years ago, the LAPD arrested a man it said was the notorious Grim Sleeper allegedly responsible for at least 10 slayings in South L.A.

"It was theft by day and murderer by night," Jackson said of Little.

More at link:

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/08/local/la-me-serial-killer-suspect-20130108
 
Victims of alleged L.A. serial killer all had children, LAPD says

Officials would not elaborate on the backgrounds of the victims but said all three had children.

Police identified the victims as Carol Alford, 41, found dead on July 13, 1987; Audrey Nelson, 35, whose body was discovered Aug. 14, 1989; and Guadalupe Apodaca, 46, found Sept. 2, 1989. Their bodies were discovered in the Central Avenue-Alameda Street corridor, just south of downtown.

Little was being held in Wasco State Prison after being extradited and could not be reached for comment.

The LAPD is now working with other jurisdictions to determine whether Little might be a suspect in additional killings.

“If any law enforcement agencies have similar killings that occurred between 1960 and the present, they should contact LAPD cold case detectives,” Roberts said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/01/alleged-serial-killer-victims-had-children.html
 
Here's a 1984 article about McDowell's trial in Gainesville for the murder of Patricia Mount, 26.

January 18, 1984
Mount Murder Trial Begins

Mount's naked, bruised body was found in a field near Alachua, September 12, 1982
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...RexQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3-kDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4394,833894

January 19, 1984
Jury acquits man of strangling woman

Jurors deliberated less than half an hour before acquitting a man accused of murdering a woman witnesses say he picked up in a bar in September, 1982
http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AIBAJ&pg=2948,1226589&dq=patricia-mount&hl=en


That's it. After a one day trial, less than half an hour's worth is all the consideration the jury gave to his possible guilt. Had they put forth a little more effort, those six individuals could have delivered justice for Mount and saved the lives of at least three more women.

A little more background:

Gainesville Sun
December 28, 1983


Evidence grows against suspect in slaying

The story continues on p. 7B


Apparently Mount put up an intense struggle as she was battered and strangled. Investigators say they are hoping that blood, hair and skin scrapped [sic] from under Mount's fingernails will indicate her attacker's identity
 
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20130402/ARTICLES/130409914/1002/news01?p=all&tc=pgall&tc=ar

New Jersey to Florida, the entirety of the appalachains, the southwest to the northwest. This guy was on the move - shoplifted by day to support his alcohol habit, murdered by night. One of his two accomplices was 20 years his senior - and washed his car in the morning after his night time activities.

I have contacted my case contact (new york state police) as well as the department in Florida where the case broke. I'm crossing my fingers, toes, and any other body part I can -- that this case will lead to finding many of our beloved missing persons -- and bring justice and peace to his victims.
 
http://news.yahoo.com/cold-case-arrest-prompts-cross-country-probe-175509452.html


LOS ANGELES (AP) — When Los Angeles cold case detectives caught up with Samuel Little this past fall, he was living in a Christian shelter in Kentucky, his latest arrest a few months earlier for alleged possession of a crack pipe. But the LA investigators wanted him on far more serious charges: The slayings of two women in 1989, both found strangled and nude below the waist — victims of what police concluded had been sexually motivated strangulations.Little's name came up, police said, after DNA evidence collected at old crime scenes matched samples of his stored in a criminal database. After detectives say they found yet another match, a third murder charge was soon added against Little.Now, as the 72-year-old former boxer and transient awaits trial in Los Angeles, authorities in numerous jurisdictions in California, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, Mississippi and Ohio are scouring their own cold case files for possible ties to Little. One old murder case, in Pascagoula, Miss., already has been reopened. DNA results are pending in some others.Little's more than 100-page rap sheet details crimes in 24 states spread over 56 years — mostly assault, burglary, armed robbery, shoplifting and drug violations. In that time, authorities say incredulously, he served less than 10 years in prison.


Long read, but scary guy! Who knows how many he has killed.
 
I hope this will answer some questions for family members of murder victims in cold cases around the country. He sounds like a monster.
 
Here's some information about Pascagoula victim Melinda LaPree.

By April M. Havens | gulflive.com
on January 11, 2013 at 5:45 PM, updated January 11, 2013 at 5:55 PM


The suspected serial killer first showed up in Pascagoula in 1977, Versiga said, and local investigations discovered at least 2 women who claimed Little had attacked and strangled them in 1980 and 1981.


"He was back in 1982, and picked (LaPree) up on Sept. 26," Versiga said.



"She was found 3 weeks later in a cemetery in what is now Gautier. She was pretty decomposed."

http://blog.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news/2013/01/pascagoula_cold_case_heats_up.html
 

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