Cracks in the System

Mitzi Roberts and others answer questions from listeners to the podcast. (Part 2)

Mitzi Roberts and others answer questions from listeners to the podcast. (Part 1)

Chapter 10 - Final thoughts and reporting on the Sam Little case. The LAPD went on two ride alongs with Sam Little in an effort to clear the 17 additional murders he said he committed in the area. To date only one has been solidly identified. It leaves one investigator to question whether Little’s numbers are exaggerated. Meanwhile, all three of the partners Detective Mitzi Roberts worked with on the case have retired and Roberts has been promoted to head of the cold case unit where 6,000 unsolved cases await her attention.

Chapter 9 - Jillian Lauren contacts Detective Roberts about the Black Dahlia case but picks up on Sam Little. An obsession begins, a relationship between a writer and killer begins.Sam Little talks to Jillian and starts confessing. She starts driving around the killing fields of South L.A. – attempting to connect Little’s confessions with locations and victims, confirming murders he has confessed to.

Chapter 8 - A Texas Ranger befriends Sam Little and the man who claimed innocence now starts confessing to murder after murder. Sam starts drawing detailed sketches of his victims. Ranger Jim Holland becomes the gatekeeper to Sam Little. The work of the women who caught and prosecuted him is all but forgotten. Sam Little becomes a celebrity. He gets hundreds of letters, several marriage proposals. He’s a star – to some.

Chapter 7 - A third LA murder case is added and the trial begins, presented to the jury by prosecutor Beth Silverman. Three survivors testify.The verdict is guilty. At his sentencing Little protests his innocence, calls the proceedings a lynching. Detective Roberts waves goodbye; Sam Little waves right back. But it was not the end of the case.

Chapter 6 - An acquittal in a Florida murder case is followed by dozens and dozens of murders. In San Diego another chance to put this man away for good slips away. Little is literally caught by police officers in the act of strangling a woman. But the case goes sideways, he takes a deal and serves only two years. The officer who caught him laments the case’s outcome and the murders that could have been avoided.

Chapter 5 - Sam Little took a 17 year old boy off the streets and forced him to be his driver. In a textbook interview Roberts leads Danny Beckless down the path from “I don’t remember anything” to an emotional break and “Sam told me he liked to choke them.”Amazing, exclusive audio that shows Roberts’ character, empathy and relentless drive on the case.

Chapter 4 - Roberts and partner Rick Jackson hit the road to build the case, uncovering a trail of rape and murder and a justice system that didn’t appear to care about high risk victims from the fringe. Survivors tell their harrowing tales of cheating death at the hands of Sam Little.

Chapter 3 - Two LAPD detectives conduct the first interview with Sam Little in a jail in Louisville. Before denying he had killed anyone, he unwittingly provides detectives with a road map of the cities he had spent time in and when he had been there. (Exclusive audio of the interview.)