Samuel Little's Letters to a Reporter: CBS46 Atlanta Report, 2019
A CBS46 Atlanta report from May 2019 in which reporter Brittany Edney shows the letters Samuel Little wrote her from prison, and a psychologist reads what they reveal.
- Subject
- Samuel Little
- Recorded
- about May 8, 2019
- Runtime
- 2:53
Content warning: Concerns the strangling of women; one brief description of how he killed.
The Report
This is a three-minute CBS46 Atlanta news report from May 2019. Reporter Brittany Edney had been corresponding with Samuel Little, and the report shows the letters he wrote her from prison: an envelope inscribed with a pet name, "Little TV Lady", compliments, and complaints that she had not answered. Little himself is not heard; the anchor's phrase "speaking exclusively with CBS46" refers to these letters. Edney reads lines from them aloud, and psychologist Dr. Dave Davis comments on what they suggest about the man who wrote them.
Historical Context
Little, a drifter born in Reynolds, Georgia, was convicted in Los Angeles in 2014 of three murders and sentenced to life without parole. From 2018 he confessed to dozens more killings across the country between 1970 and 2005, eventually 93 in all, and investigators set about matching his confessions to unsolved cases. The report gives the number matched as 34, the figure the FBI had announced in November 2018.
Circumstances of the Report
Little's confessions were national news in 2018 and 2019, and several of the killings he described were in Georgia. The report presents Edney's correspondence as a way inside his thinking, and closes with an invitation to a Facebook Live session in which she would answer viewers' questions about the letters.
What the Report Covers
Edney sets the letters' tone against what Little told investigators: he described watching the life leave his victims' faces as he strangled them, yet he complimented her as "a woman of great stature and strength". In one letter he asks why she did not answer an earlier letter; Edney says that letter never reached her. Davis reads the letters as flirtation and manipulation, "He's playing you to some extent. He wants to drag this out", and suggests the charm may have been part of how Little drew women in. On Davis's reading, the letters do not suggest mental illness, but a personality disorder is likely, which the report describes as the "Madonna-whore complex".
What Makes the Recording Significant
The report shows a different side of Little's confessions period: not his interviews with investigators but his attempts to cultivate a reporter by letter, with an expert's view of what those attempts reveal.
Archival Importance
Little died in custody in December 2020. Recordings in which he describes his killings himself exist elsewhere (the FBI-released confession clips); this report preserves local coverage of his prison correspondence from the height of the national attention in 2019.
Important Caveats
Little does not speak in this video; his words appear only as quotations from his letters, read by the reporter. The psychologist's views are his professional opinion, offered from the letters alone, not a clinical diagnosis. The figures in the report (more than 90 killings, 34 matched) were current in early 2019; the FBI's later count of confirmed cases was higher. The psychologist's name is spelled from the audio and has not been verified.
Anchor: Also new at 11, a man who likely is America's most prolific serial killer speaking exclusively with CBS46. Samuel Little says he killed more than 90 women nationwide. The FBI has matched 34 confessions so far. CBS46's Brittany Edney has been corresponding with Little, and she takes us inside her conversations with a serial killer.
Dr. Dave Davis: The inside of the envelope there: "Little TV Lady."
Brittany Edney: A pet name inscribed on the envelope.
Dr. Dave Davis: In other words, you belong to me.
Brittany Edney: Psychologist Dr. Dave Davis examines all of my conversations with a serial killer.
Dr. Dave Davis: Playing you. [unclear: "Edney"]
Brittany Edney: Handwritten letters straight from Samuel Little himself. What do you mean?
Dr. Dave Davis: Well, he's trying to appeal to you. You know, he's flirting with you.
Brittany Edney: Little confessed to strangling more than 90 women since the 1970s. He described to investigators how he watched the life leave their faces as he squeezed their necks with his bare hands. This same man compliments me for being, quote, "a woman of great stature and strength."
Dr. Dave Davis: He has a charming streak to his personality, but I also suspect that he may have used this as part of his enticement.
Brittany Edney: The killer's note looks dramatic. In an elaborate script, Little wonders why I didn't respond to his last letter. The thing is, these are the only letters I've ever received from him. The one that he's referring to, it was never delivered.
Dr. Dave Davis: He's telling you in the letter that he's missed you. He's concerned about you. He's worried that something might have happened to you.
Brittany Edney: Concern isn't something this man has shown to many women.
Dr. Dave Davis: He's playing you to some extent. He wants to drag this out.
Brittany Edney: I've often wondered about his blatant attempt at allurement. Quote, "I would like to keep on talking to you about you and your beliefs."
Dr. Dave Davis: He wants to keep your attention. So if he answers all your questions, that might end it or stop things.
Brittany Edney: [In] Davis's analysis of the letters, Little is not mentally ill.
Dr. Dave Davis: Matter of fact, the sentence structure and the content is such that I would say he's probably not mentally ill.
Brittany Edney: But [he] adds a personality disorder is very likely. Psychologists call it the Madonna-whore complex, where Little only sees women as one of two things: the virtuous good or the sinful bad. Little's targets were often prostitutes and drug addicts.
Dr. Dave Davis: In one way he likes women; another way, must really hate them.
Brittany Edney: If you've got your phone, tablet or laptop handy, join me on CBS46's Facebook page live, where I'll answer your questions on Samuel Little and the letters he's written to me from prison. I'm heading to our newsroom now, and we'll meet you on there. Live from the studio, Brittany Edney, CBS46 News. ---