MULTIPLE VICTIMS

Samuel Little, America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer, Confesses to Murder That Sent Innocent Man to Prison

Jerry Frank Townsend spent 22 years in prison for the murder of Dorothy Gibson in 1977, which prosecutors now attribute to Little.

Samuel Little, dubbed America’s most prolific serial killer for his confessions to 93 murders and counting, has been identified as the killer of two more people in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Authorities now believe Little killed Karen O’Donoghue in the early 1970s and Dorothy Gibson in 1977. O’Donoghue’s body was never found, and Gibson was discovered strangled near a hotel in Miami. Prosecutors said Little has confessed and provided corroborating evidence that he was the killer, and law enforcement officials believe he killed two other Miami women. An innocent, intellectually disabled man, Jerry Frank Townsend, was previously convicted of Gibson’s slaying and three others. He spent 22 years in prison before he was finally released in 2001. DNA testing and further investigation cleared him, and he eventually received settlements from the city and the county.