Serial Killer's Victim May Have Been From Salem

SALEM, MA -- One of the victims of the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history may have been from Salem. Samuel Little, who has confessed to killing 90 women between 1970 and 2005, told authorities about meeting a 19-year-old woman in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1972 who told him she was either from Springfield or Salem, but that he could not remember which one. While the woman's body was found in a wooded area of Laurel, MD in December 1972, investigators have never been able to identify her.

The woman’s death "was nothing to him. He gets energized describing how he killed his victims. You are dealing with a monster in every sense of the word," Prince George’s County, Md., police corporal Bernard Nelson told the Boston Globe, which first reported this story.

Little told investigators that he met the woman, who was working as a prostitute, while she was talking on a payphone in a bus station and learning that her divorce had been finalized. "She was happy to hear that," Little told investigators. "She didn’t have much time to celebrate."

Little convinced the woman to drive around the country with him, but then strangled her when they stopped in a wooded area of Laurel to have consensual sex. "She told him she was too young to die and pleaded for mercy," Nelson said. Little continued on to Boston, which may have been the original plan he made with the woman, according to the Globe.

Little was arrested and charged with theft in Boston on June 7, 1972, his birthday. The FBI has not linked him to any unsolved murders in greater Boston.

Little has already been convicted of three murders in California and sentenced to three life terms. He is in a Texas jail and reportedly confessing to the murders in hopes of getting transferred back to California, where he believes he will receive better treatment for a long list of health ailments. Investigators have been able to confirm 34 of the accounts of the 90 murders he claims to have committed.

For more on this story, see the Boston Globe. Never miss another local news story: Get free local news alerts right to your inbox.

An undated file photo provided by the Ector County Texas Sheriff's Office shows Samuel Little. The FBI says 78-year-old Little, who has confessed to some 90 killings nationwide spanning nearly four decades, offered his confessions as a bargaining chip to be moved from a California prison. (Ector County Texas Sheriff's Office via AP).

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).