when asking the question of how to get
away with murder there's no better place
to start than the case of samuel little
a man that could have killed 93 people
in the u.s over several decades he died
in 2020 aged 80 but before he bit the
dust he let his story be known he said
he started killing people in 1970 and he
kept on killing without detection for
over four decades he was eventually
arrested in 2012 but it wasn't until a
few years later when he started
confessing to many more crimes that he
became known as one of the worst of the
worst he told the authorities in lured
detail what he'd done and his stories
added up but how did a guy get away with
killing for so long well there are a few
reasons in the case of little firstly he
moved around a lot killing in 19
different states he might have had a
criminal record as long as your arm but
all that movement made it hard to
connect him to various murders when a
criminal moves a lot various police
departments might not be working
together which was certainly the case
when he started killing in the 70s but
perhaps the main reason why he evaded
capture for so long was that he killed
people who might not have prompted the
most rigorous investigations many of his
victims were very poor some were
homeless and many were addicted to drugs
or selling their bodies on the streets
some people he killed were unidentified
remaining jane does there was a matter
of race when little confessed he made
people take a long hard think about race
in class wealthy white girls and women
he stayed far away from knowing that
this would elicit a meaningful response
from the police little told the
washington post i'm not going to go over
there into the white neighborhood and
pick out a little teenage girl in a
separate interview he echoed that
statement saying i never killed no
senators or governors or fancy new york
journalists nothing like that i kill a
journalist it'll be all over the news
the next day i stayed in the ghettos he
was actually picked out in a photo
lineup by a woman who'd gotten away from
him but the district attorney's office
said they were not comfortable
prosecuting a man when the only
witnesses were prostitutes in his own
words they was broken homeless and they
walked right into my spider web there's
a theory related to police work and
murder which states there are less dead
people they're less dead because they
were less alive meaning they were the
most vulnerable folks in the society
whose lives in terms of how the
authorities looked at them weren't as
important as other people's lives one
academic put it like this a great deal
less pressure is felt by the police when
victims of a crime comes from the
marginal elements just about all of
little's victims could be said to have
been less dead and because he moved
around so much when picking his victims
this was why he wasn't caught for so
long but not all serial killers go for
this type of victim and certainly not
all serial killers have a colorful rap
sheet sometimes it's quite the opposite
take the case of ted bundy he was a good
looking charming well-educated man that
was proud to say he worked in politics
on election campaigns he was liked by
the people he worked with he was also
greatly admired by the woman he married
and had no idea what he was up to in his
spare time what's even more shocking is
one of his jobs was working as the
director for the seattle crime
prevention advisory commission when he
killed and by god he killed a lot he
usually chose pretty middle-class young
women many of whom were studying at
university these people did not fit into
that less dead category that we just
talked about but bundy didn't fit the
mold of a maniac either for that reason
he could hide in plain sight there's no
way little could have done such a thing
killers often look for ideal victims
just as companies look for a target
audience bundy was seen numerous times
by people in places where women had gone
missing people reported seeing a guy
with his arm in his sling if he didn't
know bundy did this to make himself look
more vulnerable and needy those people
told the cops what he looked like and
later others would come forward and
describe the man they had seen the
sketches looked just like him the thing
with bundy was he was a psychopath his
narcissism made him think he was too
clever for the cops and he was able to
use his so-called winning smile to gain
people's trust the authorities weren't
exactly looking for a guy with a great
job and a wife he even once worked for
the department of emergency services and
talked a bit about missing women part of
his job was to look for women that he'd
killed himself he was basically armed
with a kind of cloaking device based on
society's biases rather like what is
depicted in the novel american psycho on
top of that they didn't have much
forensic evidence to work with and some
of the bodies were missing at one point
cops were looking for a guy named ted
since someone had given them that name
they had the description of his face and
body and they knew about the vw beetle
one of his colleagues even called the
cops and said i think ted bundy could be
the man you're looking for but then
police received around 200 similar calls
every day then when the going got tough
and bodies were being found bundy left
the state he started killing again of
course but again when different states
are involved it can be hard for police
to link murders there's an actual term
for this called linkage blindness even
an ex-girlfriend of his called the
police and said she thought she had
dated the killer her name was elizabeth
koppler and it seems her story fell on
deaf ears it was only when the cops had
computerized the databases to work with
that they realized that from the 26
names they had one was ted's later when
he was pulled over driving around salt
lake city and his car was searched
police found these items a ski mask
trash bags handcuffs a crowbar lengths
of rope and an ice pick that was pretty
much the serial killer's starting kit
bundy escaped from custody twice and
killed again but we won't go into that
in conclusion he got away with it for so
long for a few reasons he just didn't
fit the description of a killer moving
across states created linkage blindness
and of course dna evidence wasn't
available while the cops did have an
archaic database bundy might have been
caught earlier if they had the kind of
tracking technology they had today but
sometimes police just do very bad work
as you'll now see in 1979 in a suburb of
bradford in northern england a policeman
turned up at a house to interview its
occupant his name was peter sutcliffe
the man that would later become known as
the yorkshire ripper that cop had a
sketch to go on provided by some of the
women who had escaped the clutches of
this maniac and the guy he talked to
that day over a cup of tea looked
identical to the sketch when the cop
went back to the station to tell the
chief about the man the chief shouted
back anybody mentions photo fits to me
again we'll be doing traffic for the
rest of their service that chief was
following one line of investigation
which is a reason why some killers have
gotten away with their crimes for so
long sutcliffe was married to a teacher
and lived in a house on a quiet suburban
street and so yet again he wasn't what
police immediately thought of when they
looked at the bodies of women that had
been torn apart he was interviewed by
the cops nine times before he was
eventually arrested and he killed quite
a few times in between those interviews
it's natural for cops and the public to
think of some kind of monster when we
hear about people being eviscerated down
dark alleys in the past sometimes
werewolves were blamed for such crimes
but more often than not the killer looks
and behaves just like you and me police
know better now but there is little
doubt that a man who lives a very
ordinary life might be the last person
police look at in this case of bad
policing you could say the cops had a
one-track mind first they said the
killer only chooses prostitutes as
victims even having the gall to call
non-prostitutes normal women police at
first said one of the attacks on a girl
was not the same man because the killer
only chooses prostitutes she survived
and gave the police a description of
sutcliffe she also said he definitely
had a strong yorkshire accent which if
you know english accents is pretty
unmistakable police dismissed her story
as not linked to the serial killings
when they finally realized the guy kills
indiscriminately they called one of the
victims the first innocent person these
were the kinds of people on the job they
had closed minds they weren't the best
investigators they also worked with
paper not computers they had so many
files after years of investigations that
they had to reinforce the floor where
they were kept that didn't help the
investigation at all they finally got a
break when a banknote was found hidden
in one of the victim's purses sutcliffe
had given her the money before he killed
her and when cops looked at the numbers
on that crisp note they had a list of
places where it could have been used to
pay people one was t and w h clark
holdings where sutcliffe worked he was
even interviewed there by the police
still even with an entire ripper squad
looking for him he killed again and
again what happened next is one of the
biggest police bloopers of all time they
received a recorded message from a man
claiming to be the killer although this
man didn't have a yorkshire accent the
man speaking to the head of the
investigation said i'm jack i see you're
having no luck catching me i have the
greatest respect for you george but lord
you're no nearer catching me now than
four years ago when i started linguists
who were hired said this accent is not
from yorkshire but tyne and weir in the
northeast of england they were right and
the cops were very very wrong to pursue
a line of investigation into this tape
they looked for the mysterious jack
rather than the peter on their doorstep
meanwhile peter kept on killing the
person who actually faked being the
killer even called the police to say he
lied but for some reason they kept
looking for jack the fbi's fairly new
behavioral science unit went over to
england and told the investigators you
realize of course that the man on the
tape is not the killer don't you they
said you're looking for a man with
mental health issues who likely works as
a driver that theory was spot on then
one of sutcliffe's former friends wrote
to the comps in bradford the anonymous
letter marked priority number one went
like this i have good reason to know the
man you're looking for in the ripper
case this man has dealings with
prostitutes and always has had a thing
about them his name and address is peter
sutcliffe five garden lane heaton
bradford shipley he said he was with
sutcliffe one night and he likely killed
someone for some reason that letter was
just filed and left alone the guy even
went to the police station the next day
and told the cops again he was pretty
sure the killer was sutcliffe the report
of that meeting mysteriously vanished
sudcliff was eventually caught but only
after he was pulled over on a traffic
stop even when he was in handcuffs the
ignorance of the authorities didn't stop
when he stood in court a prosecutor said
while some of the victims were
prostitutes perhaps the saddest part of
this case is that some were not the last
six attacks were on totally respectable
women as for what went wrong in the case
well take your pick the police were
single-minded they seemed to embrace a
top-down structure in which newer cops
could not criticize more experienced
cops they also likely discounted
sutcliffe as a possible perpetrator
because of his normal home life they
followed false leads they had way too
much paperwork and dots didn't get
connected those yorkshire cops were
behind the times when it came to
understanding the minds of serial
killers still he didn't cross state
lines and killed mostly close to where
he lived he should never have gotten
away with it for so long the british
media rightly called the investigation
stunningly mishandled sticking with
britain let's have a look at the case of
dennis nilsson the serial killer that
strangled boys and young men and then
spent time watching tv with the corpses
this bespectable man was well liked at
work where he held the role of executive
officer in a civil service job prior to
that he'd been a soldier and even worked
as a policeman he was quiet and
intelligent so when he smelled a booze
or took days off work to dismember and
burn his decomposing victims no one
thought anything of it he didn't just
come across as normal but so harmless
that people felt a bit sorry for him
nilsson drank heavily and it was his
astounding tolerance for alcohol that he
used to subdue his victims when he
invited them around and plied them with
booze they collapsed in a drunken heap
and he was just fine nonetheless one guy
survived nilsson strangling him and he
went to tell the cops this is where the
police again showed some amount of
short-sightedness they just dismissed
the crime as a homosexual lover's tiff
this was the 80s when homophobia was
rife among the english police forces the
cops it seems thought that what happened
was consensual and they didn't press any
further when the man said he wasn't
going to press charges another survivor
of nilsson didn't even report what
happened to him for fear of being outed
a very similar thing happened in the u.s
to a very similar kind of killer jeffrey
dahmer also enjoyed spending time with
his dead victims and he had a similar
run-in with homophobic cops dahmer
applied one of his victims with alcohol
containing sleeping pills after which he
drilled a hole in the kid's head and
injected hydrochloric acid like nilsson
he had a thing about people leaving him
dahmer wanted to create his own kind of
obedient zombie the kid eventually
escaped only for three women to find him
in the street looking very confused and
distraught they called the cops but when
the police turned up they didn't believe
the women when they told them something
was very wrong here they believed dahmer
though when he arrived on the scene and
told them they'd just fallen out the
police almost used the same words as the
cops had done in the nilsson case they
wrote it down as a lover's quarrel even
though blood could be seen around the
victim's backside they helped to walk
the kid back to the apartment one of the
cops even noted how dahmer's apartment
smelled the disgusting that was because
bodies were decomposing in there it
should also be said that dahmer also had
a criminal record involving sexual
deviancy dahmer killed the teenager
shortly after with that in mind we can
come to the conclusion that some killers
have evaded capture from time to time
because of police discrimination in both
these cases the cops either felt
uncomfortable with homosexual men or had
outlandish preconceptions in regard to
what goes on in the gay community in
dahmer's case he certainly should have
been on the police radar he had a record
and after arrests had been called a
sociopath with sadistic tendencies by
psychiatrists they also said this man
will strike again he did but one drugged
man survived the ordeal dahmer was
arrested yet again with the psychiatrist
this time saying he was seriously
disturbed impulsive and dangerous still
dahmer went back to the streets he was
only caught after one of his victims got
away still in handcuffs and flagged down
a cop car as for dennis nilsson he
didn't have a history of criminality and
unlike dahmer from the outside he looked
like a respectable office worker who
just liked to spend a lot of time alone
in his quiet leafy london suburb house
it did seem though that the police
turned a blind eye when it seemed
obvious that nilsson had seriously
assaulted someone we should also point
out in fairness to the cops nielsen did
a pretty good job at disposing of bodies
at the start at least because the cops
in london and elsewhere for that matter
have been accused of such prejudice they
might at times have kept their distance
this could lead to negligence and such
stigmatization of the gay community
could lead to serial killers getting
away with crimes we can't stress enough
that keeping an open mind is very
important where serial killers are
concerned nielsen would likely have not
been caught if he hadn't made a very big
mistake after being forced to move and
not having a garden anymore to burn
bodies he had to make do with the flat
to dispose of his victims he did his
best to chop them up and liquefy them
but what he shoved down the drain led to
some blockages he was actually one of
the tenants that called the landlord and
said something had to be done about
those blockages when some workers opened
the drains they discovered something
horrible what looked and smelled like
bits of rotting flesh nilsson actually
went outside and told the guys it was
likely discarded kfc there was no
brilliant or particularly bad police
work after that after finding a head
arm's feet and other body parts in his
flat nilson turned to the cops and said
it's a long story goes back a long time
i'll tell you everything i want to get
it off my chest he killed 12 to 15
people over a five-year period and as
the english might say the police didn't
have the foggiest now for the last one
what if there's a serial killer out
there that is the worst you could
possibly imagine and yet police still
haven't uncovered this crime it's very
possible richard cottingham aka the new
york ripper is currently serving time in
prison in new jersey police know he
definitely killed 11 people most of them
vulnerable young women who he brutally
tortured before killing he started in
1967 but wasn't arrested until 1980
since he's been in prison he's had a
change of heart at times and admitted to
more murders in fact he said he'd killed
in the region of 100 people he's spoken
about it to the serial killer historian
peter bronski but sometimes he says he
can't recall what he did with some of
the victims or their body parts cutting
him was another family guy that no one
ever expected of killing people never
mind doing the atrocious things he did
to his victims he held down a very good
job as a computer operator at an
insurance company that he was adored by
his three kids he was also not on the
police radar when he was finally
arrested that happened because he was
confident enough to try and kill a girl
at the exact same hotel he'd mutilated
and killed another girl just weeks
earlier when the staff thought they'd
heard screams they called the police
their minds still traumatized by what
happened 18 days earlier the question is
though could this man be the most
prolific serial killer ever in the u.s
and the cops just don't know about it
well as vronsky points out in his books
there are massive gaps between his first
murder and when he was caught cottingham
said he never stopped killing in those
13 years but he was only convicted of
just a handful of murders by the way
vronsky was inspired to start writing
about serial killers after bumping into
cutting him in a hotel after he just
dismembered two women when cutting him
got out of the elevator his bag hit
fronski's knees it was heavy and it hurt
that's because there were two heads and
two pairs of hands in that bag in one of
his books fronsky writes at the time
when cottingham was on the loose on 8th
avenue north of west 42nd street there
were so many hookers that the nypd put
up wooden barricades along the sidewalks
to keep them and their pimps from
spilling off the sidewalks onto the
avenue and blocking traffic at the time
the city was awash with crime and there
was in the region of 40 000 prostitutes
working there when cottingham wasn't
showing off his computer skills in his
manhattan job he was frequenting a red
light district which was also an analog
pornhub nicknamed the deuce women and
girls went missing a lot in 1974
marianne pryor aged 17 and lorianne
kelly age 16 were last seen at a bus
stop in the area their naked bodies were
found later behind a parking lot it
wasn't until april 2021 that detectives
with the help of fronski finally solved
the case cutting them had savagely
killed them both other cold cases were
also solved after cottingham's
confessions but did he kill 100 people
that's the riddle detective robert
anzalotti tried to solve for a long time
over the years he visited cottingham
each time building up a kind of rapport
to make him open up about what he'd done
one day caught him just said i'm going
to give you one he described a murder he
committed saying things only the killer
would have known anzalotti told the new
york times in 2021 he remembers certain
aspects of a person one would remind him
of a tv actress look her up she looks
like her others he remembered from a
haircut unfortunately since cutting him
didn't know his victims at all he
couldn't recall any names detectives are
still working on many cases so perhaps
the extent of cottingham's crimes will
one day become known he's getting old
though and according to anzalotti
getting anything out of him is hard i
think sometimes he grapples with his own
gruesomeness back then anzelotti said
richard conningham might be in prison
but it seems in some respects he's still
getting away with murder now you need to
watch could this be the deadliest serial
killer in the history of mankind or have
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