S4 Ep5: TCP Ep 56: Confronting America's Most Prolific Serial Killer with Jillian Lauren

The Writer Stuff Podcast

Tonight, I’m talking about serial killer Samuel Little with Jillian Lauren, author of “Behold the Monster: Confronting America's Most Prolific Serial Killer.”

Jillian Lauren

Jillian Lauren is a writer, storyteller, adoption advocate, rock-wife, and lousy kickboxer. She is the New York Times bestselling author of the memoirs EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED, and SOME GIRLS: My Life in a Harem, and the novel PRETTY. SOME GIRLS, which recounts her time spent in the harem of the Prince of Brunei, has been translated into eighteen languages.

She was the only journalist to extensively interview Samuel Little, the most prolific serial killer in American history. This experience is chronicled in Joe Berlinger’s hit STARZ documentary series, CONFRONTING A SERIAL KILLER, and in Michael Connelly’s podcast MURDER BOOK: The Women Who Brought Down Samuel Little. Her book BEHOLD THE MONSTER: Confronting a Killer is forthcoming.

Jillian has an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University. Her writing has appeared in New York Magazine, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Paris Review, The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, Elle, Flaunt Magazine, The Daily Beast, Salon, and many others. Her work has been widely anthologized, including in The Moth Anthology, and True Tales of Lust and Love.

Jillian is a regular storyteller with The Moth and performs at spoken word and storytelling events across the country. She did a Tedx talk about adoption and identity at Chapman University in 2014. She has been interviewed on The View, Good Morning America and Howard Stern, to name a few.

Jillian is married to Weezer bass player Scott Shriner. They live in Los Angeles with their two sons.

Behold the Monster

Jillian Lauren had no idea what she was getting into when she wrote her first letter to prolific serial killer Samuel Little. All she knew was her research had led her to believe he was good for far more murders than the three for which he had been convicted. While the two exchanged dozens of letters and embarked on hundreds of hours of interviews, Lauren gained the trust of a monster. After maintaining his innocence for decades, Little confessed to the murders of ninety-three women, often drawing his victims in haunting detail as he spoke. How could one man evade justice, manipulating the system for over four decades?

As the FBI, the DOJ, the LAPD, and countless law enforcement officials across the country worked to connect their cold cases with the confessions, Lauren's coverage of the investigations and obsession with Little's victims only escalated.

New York Times bestselling author and lead of the Starz docuseries Confronting a Serial Killer Jillian Lauren delivers the harrowing report of her unusual relationship with a psychopath. But this is more than a deep dive into the actions of Samuel Little. Lauren's riveting and emotional accounts reveal the women who were lost to cold files, giving Little's victims a chance to have their stories heard for the first time.

Find Jillian on X @Jillylauren and IG @jillianlauren or www.jillianlauren.com

Don't forget to check out Spoilers on amazon or wherever books are sold. Ty Benhoff two coming soon.

Thanks to Forget the Whale for the music.

Tripecoh Media LLC.

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