The Serial Killer And The 'Less Dead'

Authorities believe Samuel Little may have murdered more people than anyone in U.S. history. Jillian Lauren, the only reporter who’s talked to him, tells how he was caught—and why he almost got away with his crimes.

- Jillian Lauren

CALIFORNIA STATE PRISON,CALIFORNIA STATE PRISON, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, IS LOCATED ROUGHLY 70 MILES NORTHEAST OF THE PALM TREE–LINED BOULEVARDS OF BEVERLY HILLS, BUT IT MAY AS WELL BE 80 MILLION. THE PRISON IS AN ECOSYSTEM UNTO ITSELF, WHERE MORE THAN 3,000 MEN LIVE SANDWICHED BETWEEN THE SUNBAKED TERRAIN AND A WIDE, UNFORGIVING SKY. IN THE MIDDLE OF A SUMMER DAY, WHEN TEMPERATURES REGULARLY REACH 105 DEGREES IN THE SHADE, AND THE DESERT WIND BLOWS SO HOT IT FEELS LIKE IT COULD SEAR THE EYEBROWS OFF YOUR FACE, THE LANDSCAPE CONVEYS AN ALMOST BIBLICAL FEELING OF PUNISHMENT.

On the morning of August 18, 2018, after waiting seven hours for my number to come up, I faced the prison’s iron security gates, but I kept setting off the metal detector. I wound up having to pry the under wire out of my bra with my teeth because there were no sharp objects available. “Gnaw that shit out,” said one of the other visitors watching me in the bathroom. “You got this.”

Nearly ten months before, I’d interviewed LAPD Homicide detective Mitzi Roberts—the model for the Michael Connelly character Renée Ballard—and asked her what case she’d been most proud of in her career. “I’m proud of them all,” she said, “but I did catch a serial killer named Sam Little once. That was pretty cool.”