Prolific Serial Killer Pleads Guilty To 2 Murders In Cleveland

CLEVELAND — Prolific serial killer Samuel Little has pleaded guilty to murdering two Cleveland women in 1984 and 1991. Prosecutors believe Little may be connected to a third unsolved murder in Northeast Ohio.

“Samuel Little made a career out of killing vulnerable women. His sinister actions were inflicted upon numerous victims throughout the country,” said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley. “The diligent work of the FBI and our Special Investigations Division helped solved these cases.”

Little — hailing from Lorain County in Ohio — has confessed to 93 murders. His proclaimed killing spree lasted for decades, beginning in the 1970s and continuing through 2005, the FBI said. Investigators have confirmed about half of Little's claimed murders.

In the early summer of 1984, Little met Mary Jo Peyton, 21, at a bar near E. 105th Street and Euclid Avenue, prosecutors said. The two left the bar together and Little drove them to an abandoned factory.

Little strangled Peyton to death and then dragged her body out of the car and threw her to the bottom of a basement stairwell, prosecutors said. Peyton's body was discovered by two employees of a nearby business on July 3, 1984.

In August 1991, Little met Rose Evans, 32, while driving in the area of E. 55th Street and Central Avenue. He offered Evans a ride and then drove her to a vacant lot near E. 39th Street. He strangled her to death in his car.

Little hid Evans' body beneath two tires he found in the vacant lot. On August 24, 1991, a person walking by the lot found Evans' body.

In 2013, Little was sentenced to life in prison for murdering three women in California. He was then extradited to Texas in 2018 where he pleaded guilty to a fourth murder and received an additional life sentence.

The investigation into Little's Nortehast Ohio murders started on October 1, 2018 when the FBI told Cuyahoga County prosecutors of their conversations with Little and his claim of killing 93 people.

Northeast Ohio law enforcement officials flew to Texas and met with Little earlier this year. He gave them a detailed confession for his three murders. Investigators have been unable to find a body matching Little's description of his third killing in the area. That case remains open, the county prosecutor's office said.

Earlier this year, the FBI released sketches, done by Little, of the serial killer's unidentified victims. He said he drew them from memory. A second batch of sketches was released months later.