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The 78-year-old was already spending the rest of his life in jail after being convicted of killing three people. But his name was mentioned in the FBI's apprehension program for criminal violence, known as ViCAP, in connection with a series of unsolved murders across the country.
A murder in Odessa, Texas, seemed particularly relevant, two FBI crime analysts and James Holland, the Texas Rangers, went to see Little and tried to make him talk.
Investigators confirmed 34 of the reported killings, the authorities said. Many others are waiting for confirmation and a number has not been corroborated yet.
Nevertheless, the nonsense confessions could make Little the most prolific serial killer in US history if he was convicted, according to Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland.
"There has been a lot of law enforcement cooperation across the country as the Texas Rangers are checking out the murders," Bland told CNN.
The FBI article stated that few marginalized and vulnerable women, often involved in prostitution or drug addicts, were targeted. Palazzolo and Angela Williamson, Senior Policy Advisor at the Department of Justice and Liaison with ViCAP, who both spoke to Little, said that he remembered the details of the murders.
He remembered where he was, what car he was driving and could even draw the women he killed, the FBI announced. It was however less reliable on the dates of these incidents, specified the FBI.
CNN has reached out to E.J. Leach, the lawyer representing Little in the Texas case, has still not received a response.
How did he get here
Little is serving three consecutive life sentences for the murders he's committed in Los Angeles County, according to Bland.
In his article on his website, the FBI stated that Little had already faced charges of shoplifting, fraud, drug abuse, solicitation and break and enter.
In September 2012, he was arrested in a homeless shelter in Kentucky and extradited to California, where he was wanted for narcotics, the FBI announced. Once in custody, detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department obtained a genetic match with Little about the victims of three unsolved homicides of 1987 and 1989 and charged him with three counts of murder, said the FBI.
The victims, all women, were beaten and strangled and their bodies thrown into an alley, a dumpster and a garage, the FBI announced. He pleaded his innocence but was sentenced in 2014, the FBI announced.
Authorities in Los Angeles have passed on their DNA to the FBI's ViCAP program for complete information about him. ViCAP then contacted the Texas Rangers to investigate the murder of Denise Christie Brothers in Odessa.
Bland said Little had provided details stating that he was responsible for Brothers' death, found strangled in an empty parking lot located two blocks from a motel in January 1994.
Over the next few months, Little, also known as Samuel McDowell, has cooperated with the authorities and provided additional details about about 90 murders that he allegedly committed, according to Bland.
James Holland, a Texas Ranger trained in the coldest cases, visited Little in a California jail and gradually gained his trust, said Bland.
The Texas Rangers are still checking out many killings and none of the information provided by Little has been refuted, Bland said. No official charges have yet been laid on any other murders.
Now in poor health, there are still few prisoners in Odessa, and Holland has conducted almost daily interviews to get the most accurate and complete picture of his confession, announced the FBI.
The Texas Department of Public Safety declined to comment.
Hollie Silverman from CNN contributed to this report.
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