ST. LOUIS -- A laborer who lived in the same apartment building with a Roman Catholic nun who helped people pay their utility bills was charged with first-degree murder Thursday in her killing and two other slayings, police said.
Jerry L. Little, 32, was charged not only with the Sept. 27 slaying of Sister Patricia Ann Kelley but with the March strangulation of Imogene Jackson, who lived in the same apartment building where Kelley was found dead in her office.
Little also was charged with the 1985 slaying of Rose Jackson, a south St. Louis woman who had befriended the ex-convict.
Police Col. James Hackett said at a news conference a 'priority squad' of eight detectives formed last Thursday worked full time on the case until Little was arrested early Thursday. Little admitted to all three slayings under questioning in a videotaped confession, Hackett said.
'We knew we had a tough job, but we thought all along that the two murders were connected,' Hackett said. 'It's more than a coincidence when you have two females strangled and murdered in the same apartment building.'
Hackett said Little had been living in the building with his wife, Ruth Little, since last summer but had not been questioned by police until this week. The apartment was registered in the wife's name and police did not know Little lived there, Hackett said.
Little was connected with the slayings from a suspect profile compiled by the FBI. He had been a suspect in the Rose Jackson case because he had been seen at Jackson's house an hour before her body was found.
'Little was befriended by a very religious woman who visited the Pacific (Mo.) correctional institution,' Hackett said. 'They got acquainted and after he got out, he visited her in her home.'
Little was returned to Jefferson City as a parole violator shortly after the Rose Jackson slaying on Dec. 19, 1985. He also spent time at a Kansas City halfway house after his release from prison.
Police had come under fire for the unsolved slaying of Kelley, which occurred about three weeks after five people were murdered at a supermarket in north St. Louis. Police charged two suspects in those slayings in March but say the case still is open.
Kelley, 50, was found raped and strangled in her first-floor office at Missouri EnergyCare Inc. The office had been ransacked and several checks were missing. The checks were not recovered, police said.
Kelley headed Missouri EnergyCare and Dollar Help Inc., which helped poor and elderly people in the city find money to pay their utility bills.
Police had said Kelley probably knew killer. Hackett said Little was acquainted with both Kelley and Imogene Jackson, 28, who was found March 10 in her bedroom in the apartment building. She also had been strangled and raped. There was no sign of forced entry at the apartment.
Little was charged in warrants with three counts of murder, two counts of rape and one count of robbery. The robbery charge stemmed from Kelley's death, Hackett said. Little was being held without bond Thursday, said Tony Gonzales, assistant district attorney.
Little, as a teenager in 1971, was sent to prison on convictions of rape, robbery, sodomy and unlawful use of a weapon, police said.
Hackett said the priority squad, which started over on the investigation as a brand new case, was responsible for solving the slayings.
