Serial killer admits to four Pennsylvania cold-case murders in the 1970s. Here's why he won't be prosecuted.

A man convicted of murders in two southern states has admitted to six murders during the 1970s in Pennsylvania.

While the serial killer has claimed the homicides, investigators say they won’t pursue new criminal charges as he is already serving life behind bars.

Edward A. Surratt is currently serving two life sentences in Florida and has also been convicted of murder in South Carolina. He was booked into a Florida prison in 1978, according to Florida Department of Corrections records.

Troopers with the Pennsylvania State Police started to speak to Surrat from his prison cell in 2018 about some of their unsolved cases. In March, investigators traveled to his prison to interview the killer.

There, Surratt implicated himself in four homicides — involving six people — in various Pennsylvania counties, according to state police. The killings took place in 1977 and 1978.

The serial killer admitted to the deaths of:

• William and Nancy Adams in Beaver, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 19, 1977.

• GuyLaura Mills in Bedford, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 31, 1977.

• Joel Krueger in McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 31, 1977.

• John Shelkons in Beaver, Pennsylvania, on Jan. 7, 1978.

In each of the four case, district attorneys s agreed not to prosecute the cold-case murder because Surratt is already sentenced to life in Florida.

"[Pennsylvania State Police] investigators never stopped seeking justice for the victims of these terrible crimes and their families," Lt. Col. Scott Price, deputy commissioner of operations for the Pennsylvania State Police, said in announcing the arrests. "We hope that the confessions announced today will help bring some semblance of closure to the victims' loved ones."