Samuel Little's Claims Reach Tennessee: NewsChannel 5 Nashville Report, 2018
A NewsChannel 5 Nashville report from November 2018, as Samuel Little's confessions to a Texas Ranger began to point to unsolved killings in Tennessee and Kentucky. Little is not heard.
- Subject
- Samuel Little
- Recorded
- about November 15, 2018
- Runtime
- 2:41
Content warning: Concerns claimed murders of women; no graphic detail.
The Report
This is a NewsChannel 5 Nashville news report from November 2018, made a few months after Samuel Little began confessing to a Texas Ranger. It is not an interview with Little: he is not heard and none of his recorded confessions are played. Reporter Nick Beres explains that Little was now claiming more than 90 victims in 14 states between 1970 and 2005, including some in Tennessee and Kentucky, and asks whether he can be believed. A Nashville legal analyst urges caution, and a Metro Nashville detective recalls questioning another suspected serial killer, Bruce Mendenhall, for comparison.
Historical Context
Little, a drifter who grew up in Lorain, Ohio, was arrested in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2012 and convicted in 2014 of three murders in Los Angeles, for which he was serving life without parole. In 2018 he was brought to Texas to face a charge over the 1994 killing of Denise Christie Brothers in Odessa. In May 2018 he began talking to Texas Ranger James Holland, and over the following months described dozens of killings across the country. Investigators around the country began comparing his accounts with their unsolved cases.
Circumstances of the Report
The report was broadcast in mid-November 2018, while Little was still giving details to the Texas Ranger and before his December 2018 guilty plea in Odessa. At that point, as the anchor says, Texas prosecutors had not said what Little had told them about Kentucky and Tennessee. The report draws a contrast with Bruce Mendenhall, the truck driver arrested by Metro Nashville homicide detectives in 2007, who, the reporter says, "won't talk".
What the Report Covers
The report sets out Little's claims: more than 90 victims, most of them women, in 14 states. It notes that police had confirmed one claim about an unsolved murder in Texas, so his other claims were being taken seriously. Legal analyst Nick Leonardo says such claims from an inmate should be taken "with a grain of salt" but that cold-case investigators would want to hear from him. The detective describes asking Mendenhall whether he was "the person we've been looking for" and receiving the reply "if you say so". The report ends by predicting that Nashville homicide detectives would visit Little if he offered details that could be confirmed.
What Makes the Recording Significant
The report captures the moment Little's confessions began to spread beyond Texas, as local police departments, including those in Tennessee and Kentucky, started to ask whether he was responsible for their unsolved killings. It records the caution with which his claims were first received, before the FBI announced in October 2019 that he had confessed to 93 murders.
Archival Importance
Little's confessions led the FBI and police departments across the country to compare them with their unsolved killings. This report preserves early local coverage from Nashville, where his claims touched on unsolved cases, alongside the parallel case of Bruce Mendenhall.
Important Caveats
Little does not speak in this video. The numbers of victims are his claims as reported in November 2018; the FBI said in October 2019 that he had confessed to 93 murders and that 50 had been verified. The quotation "if you say so" is the detective's account of Bruce Mendenhall's answer, not Little's. The detective is not named. The speaker near the end is not introduced in the video; NewsChannel 5's web version of the story attributes the words to Texas prosecutor Bobby Bland (Ector County District Attorney). The transcript is from a machine pass without captions to check it against.
Anchor: Good evening. He may well be the most prolific serial killer in American history. Samuel Little sits in a Texas prison, and now, after years of silence, he's talking, revealing more victims. As NewsChannel 5's Nick Beres tells us, Little claims he's killed many others across the country, including in Kentucky and right here in Tennessee.
Nick Beres: The big question is, can you believe him? Samuel Little now claims to have killed more than 90 victims, most of them women, in 14 states from 1970 to 2005. Little is already serving a life sentence for three murders, but he's 78, and [unclear: "they finally want" / "he finally wants"] to come clean. He's confided in a Texas Ranger he trusts, telling him of other victims.
Nick Leonardo: I think you have to take that with a grain of salt when it's coming from an inmate. You know, there has to be some sort of veracity to the information that this individual has.
Nick Beres: Police have already confirmed one of Little's claims regarding an unsolved murder in Texas, so his other claims, including some in Tennessee, are now being taken seriously.
Nick Leonardo: There's several different cold cases, and, you know, if this individual has any information that could somehow solve those kinds of cases, then I'm sure that everyone's going to be interested to hearing from him.
Nick Beres: Legal analyst Nick Leonardo says the process of vetting Little's claims is likely just now getting started in Tennessee and elsewhere, but there's precedent here for tracking the bloody trail of a serial killer.
Detective: And then I asked him, I said, "Are you the person we've been looking for?" And he just looked at me, and he shrugged his shoulders, and then his response was, "If you say so."
Nick Beres: Metro homicide detectives arrested Bruce Mendenhall in 2007. The alleged serial killer is serving life for one murder, but he's suspected of several more across the country. The thing is, Mendenhall won't talk. Little is, and Texas prosecutors think this could lead to solving cases across the country, including Tennessee and Kentucky.
Bobby Bland: I always feel like justice can be delayed, but it doesn't mean that it necessarily has to be denied. And in this case, there are people all over this country that haven't had answers, haven't had justice, but now they will.
Nick Beres: If Little offers specifics that can be confirmed, it's a good bet that homicide detectives here will visit with him soon in hopes of solving cold cases. Nick Beres, NewsChannel 5.
Anchor: Thanks, Nick. Prosecutors in Texas have not said specifically what Little has told them about murders in Kentucky and Tennessee, but he continues to talk and share details with the Texas Ranger. More to come on this still developing story. ---