Bio

Reginald John Little was born in Australia around 1950. By his mid-twenties, he was working intermittently as a cook and had accumulated a criminal record involving petty theft and arson-related offences. Prior to 1975, Little had already been convicted in multiple arson cases, including deliberately setting fire to a shop in New South Wales and igniting a billiard table at a club after being dismissed from employment.

Little was known to seek attention and notoriety. Later court proceedings and media reporting described him as someone who desired recognition through dramatic and destructive acts. By December 1975, he was living a transient lifestyle and was staying as a guest at the Savoy Hotel in Sydney’s Kings Cross district.

Murder Story

On 24 and 25 December 1975 the five story Savoy Hotel on Darlinghurst Road in Kings Cross, Sydney, was full of local workers and holiday makers. At about 5:00 a.m., Reginald John Little, a 25-year-old cook and petty thief, came back from a night out. He let himself in through the back door. He found a stack of newspapers inside the hotel. He set the newspapers on fire near the rear door at about 5:30 a.m. He then went up to his room.

The fire quickly spread up through the two staircases. It trapped about 60 people upstairs and blocked the two fire escapes. The first call to emergency services was at 5:38 a.m. Guests fled upstairs and were forced to either jump or stay in smoke-filled rooms. One woman threw her baby from a five meter high window and then jumped herself, to be caught by firefighters. Many people were trapped inside up to 30 minutes before a hydraulic platform could reach them.

Out of the 60 guests, 15 died and 25 were seriously injured. Many people were found badly burned in their rooms. Some were charred beyond recognition. The Savoy Hotel fire was the deadliest hotel fire in Australia at that time.

Before the Savoy fire, Little had been convicted in other arson cases. These included setting a shop on fire in New South Wales and setting a billiard table on fire at a club after he had been let go from a job.

On 25 November 1976 Little was sentenced to four terms of life imprisonment for the murder of four people. He also received 14 years for maliciously setting fire to the hotel. His sentence was later re-determined with a non-parole period of twenty-eight years. He was also convicted for five more arson cases.

While in low-security custody at the St Heliers prison farm, Little served as a captain of a New South Wales country bush fire brigade. He did fire reduction work such as burn-offs when there were no fires. The fire control officer had heard rumours that he was an arsonist. Little was ordered back to full-time custody when Corrective Services Commissioner Ron Woodham was informed in 1993.

Little was released on parole from Silverwater jail on 12 May 2010. He never admitted to the crime. The Savoy Hotel was owned by alleged crime boss Abe Saffron. The building next door burned down in 1989 with the loss of six lives. Saffron has been linked to other fires.