Confronting a Serial Killer subject Samuel Little makes shocking reveal about his teen mom
Samuel Little, the most prolific serial killer in the United States, died in December while serving three consecutive life-without-parole sentences. But before the 80-year-old died, he shared his full life story with writer Jillian Lauren, who was on a mission to "understand this kind of abhorrent behavior." That story will now be revealed in the Starz docuseries Confronting a Serial Killer.
In EW's exclusive clip above, Little shares a disturbing account of how his mother tried to end her own pregnancy as a teen.
"My mama told me that she didn't want me. She wasn't but 16 years old," Little recalls in the 5-episode docuseries premiering on April 18. "She said she tried to kill me in the womb. She took a rope, she said, and tied it around her belly, and her and her girlfriend pulled it tight."
FBI via Getty Images
Director and executive producer Joe Berlinger was fascinated with the revealing confessions Little shared with Lauren, who connected with the serial murderer while doing research for a novel. With the information she collected, law enforcement was able to solve multiple cold cases of forgotten women, many of who were from marginalized communities.
"I spent a lot of time making shows about bad people because I'm fascinated by learning at what point people decide to cross a line," Berlinger shares. "What creates a monster? I had a bit of a rough childhood. I couldn't imagine myself doing anything violent. Just because you had a bad mother, a bad childhood, or bad experiences, that can't be the thing that explains this kind of deviant behavior. I don't think you can ever understand it."
Little confessed to 93 murders of which all are credible according to the F.B.I. He targeted disadvantaged women, many were sex workers, feeling they would mostly fall through the cracks of the system.
"He was in the hands of law enforcement so many times even as they suspected he was guilty of worse crimes and was probably a serial killer," Berlinger, who also directed The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel and Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, says. "Eyewitnesses, surviving victims, were not believed because they were sex workers at trial because of societal biases. He was released time and time again."
He added, "It took a lot of strong women to bring this guy down including Jillian and many of the surviving victims who were discarded choosing to re-traumatize themselves to stop this serial killer and bring him to justice. I wanted to shine a light on the systemic racial and gender biases that exist in the criminal justice system. All victims are not treated the same."
Confronting a Serial Killer premieres April 19 on Starz.
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