Little was indicted in Cleveland for the deaths of two women and in Cincinnati for the 1981 murder of Anna Lee Stewart

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Investigators in Ohio who interviewed a convicted serial killer about two women he claims were among his victims have described him as a friendly, normal-seeming person with chillingly abnormal desires.

Samuel Little, now 79 and also known as Samuel McDowell, was convicted of three murders in California in 2013. Last year, he pleaded guilty to another killing in Texas. He claims to have killed more than 90 women.

Convicted US murderer Samuel Little confesses to killing 90 women Read more

In February, the FBI released sketches drawn by Little of some of his victims. In Odessa, Texas, Ector county district attorney Bobby Bland said 50 cold homicide cases had been closed as a result of Little’s confessions.

Little grew up in Lorain, in north-east Ohio. He was indicted last week in Cleveland for the strangulation deaths of two women. Authorities are trying to identify a third Cleveland-area victim.

In Cincinnati on Friday, Hamilton county prosecutor Joe Deters announced Little had been indicted for the 1981 murder of Anna Lee Stewart, who was last seen alive in the city and whose body was found in Grove City, near Columbus.

Little has been charged with a second murder in Cincinnati, having confessed to killing a woman whose identity remains a mystery. Little provided a sketch and description. Deters said interns were studying coroner’s records in hopes of determining who she was.

Little told investigators he targeted women who would not be missed, such as homeless people or sex workers.

“To him, strangulation was sex,” said Mark Piepmeier, chief assistant Hamilton county prosecutor. “That’s how bizarre this person is.”

Cincinnati police detective Kelly Best said: “He described it as telling a normal man that normal sexual intercourse was a crime. And when he got the urge, that’s when he would seek out a woman and commit his crimes.”

She and Piepmeier said Little seemed to be trying to help.

“He was friendly, conversational, very open, very helpful,” Best said, adding that there appeared to be nothing about him that would give “a vibe” of danger.

Deters and Franklin county prosecutor Ron O’Brien both called Little “evil”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A detail of sketches provided by the FBI shows drawings made by admitted serial killer Samuel Little, based on his memories of some of his victims. Photograph: AP

O’Brien came to Cincinnati two days after announcing the murder indictment of an Ohio doctor, William Husel, in the deaths of 25 hospital patients who, authorities say, were killed with deliberate overdoses of painkillers, many administered by others on his orders in one of the biggest cases ever brought against a US healthcare professional.

“You think you’ve seen it all … but then something new happens and you shake your head,” O’Brien said.

Deters expects Little will plead guilty later this year to the Hamilton county cases via Skype from jail in California. He appears to have killed more people than serial killers including John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgway.