In the winter of 1979, the city of Dallas, Texas, was shaken by the brutal and senseless murder of Steven Craig Little, a 7-year-old Caucasian boy. The holiday season was tragically interrupted on December 27, 1979, when the young boy’s charred remains were discovered inside a garbage can that had been set on fire. The discovery sent a wave of shock and fear through the community, as the details of the crime were almost too horrific to comprehend.
An autopsy revealed the full extent of the violence inflicted upon Steven. Investigators determined that he had been sexually assaulted and then strangled to death before his body was placed in the receptacle and set ablaze. The Dallas Police Department launched an intensive investigation into the shocking homicide, but leads were initially scarce. The case remained a painful open wound for the city and a source of unimaginable grief for his family. For nearly a year, the person responsible for the heinous act remained a mystery.
The break in the case came from hundreds of miles away in November 1980. Authorities in Millville, New Jersey, arrested a drifter named Malcolm Joseph Robbins Jr. for the abduction, rape, and murder of another young boy, 9-year-old Evan Bailey. While in custody, Robbins began to confess to a string of other violent crimes committed across the country. To the shock of investigators, he admitted to killing Steven Craig Little in Dallas almost a year earlier.
Robbins provided a chilling account of his crime. He claimed that he had just arrived in Dallas from California when he saw Steven playing at a playground. He lured the boy into his van, where he sexually assaulted and strangled him. Afterwards, he disposed of the child's body in a trash can and set it on fire. Robbins’s confession included specific details about the crime that had not been released to the public, lending significant credibility to his claims and solidifying him as the prime suspect in Steven's murder.
The confession set in motion a complex, multi-state legal process. Law enforcement officials from Texas, New Jersey, California, and Maine coordinated their efforts to ensure Robbins answered for his crimes. He was first tried in New Jersey for the murder of Evan Bailey, pleading guilty in April 1981 and receiving a life sentence. He was then extradited to California to face charges for the 1980 murder of Christopher Finney. In May 1983, he was convicted and sentenced to death for that crime.
Between 1983 and 1989, Malcolm Robbins also stood trial and was convicted for the murder of Steven Craig Little in Texas, as well as another murder in Maine. Though he later attempted to recant his confession to Steven’s murder, claiming he was psychologically prone to false confessions and offering a questionable alibi, his initial detailed account and subsequent conviction brought a legal resolution to the case. After years on death row in California, Robbins was transferred from New Jersey in 1989 to begin his sentence. The case of Steven Craig Little was officially closed with the conviction of his killer. Malcolm Robbins died in Corcoran State Prison in California from natural causes on January 27, 2023, having spent more than four decades behind bars.
