If the number of killings 78-year-old Samuel Little claims to have committed proves true, he will become US's worst serial killer.
Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland said Little was booked into jail this week following his indictment in the 1994 death of a Texas woman.
Investigators already have confirmed about a third of the 90 killings, a Texas prosecutor said Thursday.
But Little has provided details in more than 90 deaths dating to about 1970, according to Bland.
Little was brought to Texas in September to be quizzed about unsolved homicides.
Bland said: “They're able to match up over 30 cases so far. So far we don't have any false information coming from him.
During his 2014 trial in Los Angeles, prosecutors said Little was likely responsible for at least 40 killings since 1980.
Authorities at the time were looking for possible links to deaths in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Texas.
Bland said Little recently provided details to Texas Ranger James Holland that showed Little was in Odessa, Texas, when Denise Christie Brothers was last seen in 1994.
Her body was found about a month later in a vacant lot.
Many of Little's female victims were found strangled and nude below the waist, and police concluded these murders as sexually-motivated strangulations.
Little often delivered a punch to women and then proceeded to strangle them while masturbating, dumping the bodies and soon after leaving town.
Holland eventually elicited a confession from Little and admissions to dozens of other killings from about 1970 to 2005, Bland said.
The rangers are an elite team of investigators within the Texas Department of Public Safety. DPS did not respond to requests Thursday to speak with Holland.
Little was being held without bond Thursday in the Ector County jail on a murder charge relating to Brothers' death. Jail records don't indicate whether he has an attorney.
He has a court appearance scheduled for November 26.
Little was brought to Texas for questioning in the case from California, where he was convicted in 2014 in the deaths years earlier of the three women in Los Angeles County.
DNA evidence collected from old crime scenes was used to match samples of his stored in a criminal database.
Los Angeles cold-case detectives at the time suspected Little was a serial killer, a transient and former boxer who travelled the country preying on drug addicts, troubled women and others.
His criminal history includes offences committed in 24 states spread over 56 years mostly assault, burglary, armed robbery, shoplifting and drug violations.
Those detectives determined that Little often delivered a knockout punch to women and then proceeded to strangle them while masturbating, dumping the bodies and soon after leaving town.
Little, who often went by the name Samuel McDowell, grew up with his grandmother in Lorain, Ohio.
His criminal history shows his first arrest came at age 16 on burglary charges.
10 Most prolific serial killers in history
- Erzebet Bathory (Hungary) – Tortured and murdered more than 600 victims from her family estate in Transylvania
- Harold Shipman (UK) – The doctor from Manchester killed over 215 people
- Luis Alfredo Gavarito (Colombia) – Confessed to the rape, torture and murder of 140 children
- Javed Iqbal (Pakistan) – Murdered and mutilated 100 children
- Delfina and Maria de Jesus Gonzales (Mexico) – The sisters owned a brothel and killed 91 prostitutes and clients
- Ted Bundy (US) – Admitted killing 36 young women it is thought he may have killed up to 100 girls and young women
- Andrei Chikatilo (Russia) – Mutilated some of his 53 women and child victims by gnawing on their flesh
- Jeffrey Dahmer (US) – Confessed to killing 17 young men and boys, slept with and ate some victims after killing them
- John Wayne Gacy (US) – Killed and raped 33 young men and boys
- Donald Henry Gaskins (US) – Confessed to murdering 15 people, but is thought to have killed over 100 people
For years he had denied to investigators in different states that he was responsible for any killings.
Bland speculates that he finally confessed after the appeals to his life sentence in California were ultimately rejected and he no longer had any reason to hide his role.
Bland said: "People for years have been trying to get a confession out of him and James Holland is the one who finally got him to give that information.”
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