FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives!

FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives!

The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list arose from a conversation held in late 1949, during a game of Hearts between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, and William Kinsey Hutchinson, International News Service (the predecessor of the United Press International) Editor-in-Chief, who were discussing ways to promote capture of the FBI's "toughest guys." This discussion turned into a published article, which received so much positive publicity that on March 14, 1950, the FBI officially announced the list to increase law enforcement's ability to capture dangerous fugitives.

The list itself has no particular ranking. However, the FBI has in the past identified individuals by the sequence number in which each individual has appeared on the list. Some individuals have even appeared twice, and often a sequence number was permanently assigned to an individual suspect who was soon caught, captured, or simply removed before his or her appearance could be published on the publicly released list. In those cases, the public would see only gaps in the number sequence reported by the FBI. For convenient reference, the wanted suspects sequence number and date of entry appear below, whenever possible.

Individuals are removed from this list upon capture or death, and replaced by a new entry selected by the FBI. Individuals can also be taken off the list should the charges against them be dropped. In five cases, the FBI removed individuals from the list after deciding that they were no longer a "particularly dangerous menace to society". Donald Eugene Webb, added to the list in 1981, has been on the list longer than anyone. Billie Austin Bryant spent the shortest amount of time on the list, being listed for two hours in 1969. On very rare occasions, the FBI will add a "Number Eleven" if that individual is extremely dangerous but the Bureau does not feel any of the current ten should be removed.

The list is commonly posted in public places such as post offices. Listed fugitives have been known to turn themselves in upon becoming aware of their listing. As of October 19, 2006, 484 fugitives have been listed (seven of them women), and 454 captured or located, 148 (31%) of them due to public assistance. That produces a success rate of 94%.

The FBI also maintains a list of Most Wanted Terrorists, along with FBI Crime Alerts, Missing Persons, and other fugitives.

The most recent capture of a Ten Most Wanted Fugitive is John W. Parsons.

FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives

1. FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives Donald Eugene Webb, May 4, 1981 #375

Donald Eugene Webb is wanted in connection with the Murder on December 4, 1980, of a police officerin Saxonburg, Pennsylvania who was shot twice at close range after being brutally beaten about the head and face with a blunt instrument. On the list since 1981, no person has been on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list longer in its history.

2. FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives Victor Manuel Gerena, May 14, 1984 #386

Victor Manuel Gerena is wanted in connection with the armed robbery of approximately $7 million from a security company in West Hartford, Connecticut in 1983. He allegedly took two security employees hostage at gunpoint and then handcuffed, bound and injected them with an unknown substance in order to further disable them.

3. FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives Glen Stewart Godwin, December 7, 1996 #447

Glen Stewart Godwin is being sought for his 1987 escape from Folsom State Prison in California, where he was serving a lengthy sentence for Murder. He was subsequently imprisoned in Mexico on drug trafficking charges, but escaped from prison there as well.

4. FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives Usama bin Laden, June 7, 1999 #456

Osama bin Laden is the leader of al-Qaeda, and is wanted in connection with the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States embassies in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. These attacks killed over 200 people. Usama and al-Qaeda are also responsible for the October 12, 2000, attack on the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen, which killed 17. Although bin Laden also later appeared on the first publicly released FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list on October 10, 2001, he was listed there for the 1998 embassy attack, and not for his alleged role in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000, because the most wanted lists name fugitives charged with a crime by a prosecutor or under indictment by a grand jury. Bin Laden was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in, for instance, the federal indictment against convicted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, but has not been formally indicted for his role in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Bin Laden is the subject of a $25 million reward through the State Department's Rewards for Justice program targeting international fugitives, especially terrorists, plus $2 million through a program developed and funded by the Air Line Pilots Association and the Air Transport Association.

5. FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger, August 19, 1999 #458

James J. Bulger is wanted for his role in numerous Murders (18 counts) committed from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s in connection with his leadership of an organized crime group that allegedly controlled extortion, drug deals, and other illegal activities in the Boston, Massachusetts, area. He has a violent temper and is known to carry a knife at all times. He was once the boss of Boston's Irish mob before he went into hiding.

6. FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives Richard Steve Goldberg, June 14, 2002 #474

Richard Steve Goldberg is wanted for allegedly engaging in sexual activities with several female children under the age of ten in Long Beach, California, from January through May of 2001.

7. FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives Robert William Fisher, June 29, 2002 #475

8. FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives Diego Leon Montoya Sanchez, May 6, 2004 #478

9. FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives Jorge Alberto Lopez-Orozco, March 17, 2005 #480 Jorge Alberto Lopez-Orozco is wanted in connection with the Murders of a woman and her two young children, ages 2 and 4, in Elmore County, Idaho. The victims' charred remains were found on August 11, 2002, inside a burned-out vehicle. He may be travelling with his brother, Simon Lopez-Orozco, and Simon's wife, both of whom have been charged as accessories in the crime. Reward of up to $100,000.

10. FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives John Ward Warren Parsons, September 30, 2006 #484

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