The murder of Julia Critchfield
Saucier, Harrison County, Mississippi · 1978
Overview
Julia Critchfield, a 36-year-old mother of four who loved karaoke, was found on January 22, 1978, at the bottom of a dirt pit below a cliff in Saucier, in Harrison County, Mississippi. An autopsy and a coroner's inquest showed she had been strangled by hand and died about two hours before she was thrown from the cliff. She had been at Chris's Lounge on Courthouse Road the night she died, but no suspect was found and the case went cold. A sheriff's investigator and a crime scene investigator took it up again a few years before 2018. In October 2018 the Texas Rangers told them that Samuel Little, a 78-year-old inmate, had given information linking him to a killing in Harrison County while being questioned about a Texas cold case. Little had been convicted in 2014 of three Los Angeles murders after a DNA match in those unrelated cases, and he was by then confessing to a Texas Ranger. On October 31, 2018, Harrison County investigators interviewed him at the Wise County Sheriff's Office in Decatur, Texas; the sheriff said he confessed, giving details only the killer would know, and he was charged with murder. Little eventually confessed to 93 killings between 1970 and 2005, of which the FBI had verified 50 by October 2019. He died in custody on December 30, 2020, aged 80. The sources reviewed report no trial in Mississippi.
How it was solved
This case was solved by a confession, not by forensics. The 1978 investigation, which included an autopsy and a coroner's inquest, established that Julia Critchfield was strangled by hand, but deputies found no suspect and the case went cold. A sheriff's investigator and a crime scene investigator took it over a few years before 2018 and, in 2016, said it could have been solved back then with today's technology. The break came from another jurisdiction. Samuel Little had been arrested at a Kentucky shelter in 2012, and a DNA match in three unrelated Los Angeles killings led to his conviction in 2014. That DNA link did not involve Critchfield. FBI ViCAP analysts then helped the Texas Rangers target an Odessa case, and Ranger James Holland began interviewing Little in May 2018, promising that prosecutors would not seek the death penalty if he spoke truthfully about Texas killings. According to the Harrison County sheriff, Little gave information linking himself to a 1970s killing there while he was being questioned about a Texas cold case at the Wise County jail. The Rangers passed that to Harrison County in October 2018, and on October 31 county investigators interviewed Little in Decatur, Texas. The sheriff said Little confessed, giving details only the killer would know, and that the information matched the Critchfield case; Little was charged with murder and publicly named on November 19, 2018. Reporting on how Little's confessions were confirmed said modern forensics played no role. The public reporting describes no physical evidence tying him to the scene beyond his statements. Little died on December 30, 2020, and the sources reviewed report no trial in Harrison County. Sources differ slightly on place names: the Sun Herald calls the case a Gulfport cold case, while other reports place the body in Saucier.
Sources
- Confessed serial killer charged with 1970s murder of South Mississippi woman (November 19, 2018)
“Authorities say the information Little provided matches up with the murder of Critchfield.”
- She was strangled, thrown in a Coast dirt pit in 1978. Now a suspected serial killer has confessed. (November 19, 2018)
“Harrison County investigators went to the Wise County Sheriff’s Office in Decatur, Texas, on Oct. 31 to interview Little, and he confessed, telling details that only the killer would know, Peterson said.”
- Daughter of Woman Slain by America's Deadliest Serial Killer 'Dreams of the Horrors' Mom Endured (January 16, 2020)
“That day finally came in 2018 when Samuel Little confessed to the killing, giving authorities graphic details only the killer would know.”
- ViCAP Links Murders to Prolific Serial Killer (November 27, 2018)
“Once Little was in custody, Los Angeles Police Department detectives obtained a DNA match to Little on the victims in three unsolved homicides from 1987 and 1989 and charged him with three counts of murder.”
- Samuel Little: Confessions of a Killer (October 6, 2019)
“Little has confessed to 93 murders, and FBI crime analysts believe all of his confessions are credible. Law enforcement has been able to verify 50 confessions, with many more pending final confirmation.”
- A Texas Ranger got a prolific serial killer to talk. This is how (September 26, 2019)
“Modern forensics played no role. The inquiries came down to shoe-leather police work: interrogation and digging through dusty files for clues”
- Samuel Little, the man called most prolific serial killer in U.S. history, dies at 80 (December 30, 2020)
“The man authorities say was the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history, with nearly 60 confirmed victims, died Wednesday in California, officials said. He was 80.”
- Suspected serial killer confessed to more than 90 murders, prosecutors say (November 14, 2018)
“Little, also known as Samuel McDowell, is serving three life sentences for strangling three women in the Los Angeles area from 1987 to 1989. He was convicted of those murders in 2014, according to NBC Los Angeles.”
- Samuel Little, the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history, dies at 80 (December 30, 2020)
“Little, who in 2018 confessed to 93 murders over more than three decades, had been in jail since 2014 for the murders of three women he strangled.”