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In late 1949, during a game of Hearts , FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and William Kinsey Hutchinson, International News Service (the predecessor of the United Press International ) Editor-in-Chief, were discussing ways to promote capture of the FBI's "toughest guys." This discussion turned into a published article that received so much positive publicity it resulted in the birth of the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives." On March 14 , 1950 , the United States Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI) began its "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list to increase law enforcement's ability to capture dangerous fugitives. It continues to maintain a public list of the people it regards as the ten most wanted 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 suspect's sequence number and date of entry appear below, whenever possible.

The list is commonly posted in public places such as Post Office s. Listed fugitives have been known to turn themselves in upon becoming aware of their listing. As of October 29 , 2004 , 479 fugitives have been listed (seven of them women), and 450 captured, 147 of them due to public assistance. The FBI also maintains a list of Most Wanted Terrorists , along with FBI Crime Alerts , Missing Persons , and other fugitives.


CURRENT MOST WANTED LIST


The current most wanted fugitives includes (in no particular order):


Osama 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. Osama 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 Oct. 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 individuals charged with a crime by a Prosecutor or under Indictment by a Grand Jury . Bin Laden has been named as an Unindicted Co-conspirator in, for instance, the federal indictment against Zacarias Moussaoui , but has not been formally indicted for his role in the September 11 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 .

Usama Bin Laden's FBI Most Wanted Fugitive Alert
Rewards for Justice Wanted Terrorist Osama bin Laden







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 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.

Gerena's FBI Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitive Alert





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.

Goldberg's FBI Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitive Alert





James J. 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.

Bulger' s FBI Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitive Alert





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.
Godwin's FBI Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitive Alert





Diego Leon Montoya Sanchez

May 5, 2004 #478

Diego Leon Montoya Sanchez is being sought in connection with the manufacture and distribution of multiple tons of Cocaine , knowing or intending that it will be imported into the United States. Montoya is reputedly one of the principal leaders of the Colombian North Valley Drug Cartel . The North Valley Cartel is believed to be the most powerful and violent drug trafficking organization in Colombia . The cartel reportedly relies heavily for protection on illegal armed groups, taking help from right-wing paramilitaries as well as leftist rebels.

Montoya's FBI Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitive Alert





Robert William Fisher

June 29, 2002 #475

Robert William Fisher is wanted for allegedly killing his wife and two young children and then blowing up the house in which they all lived in Scottsdale , Arizona in April of 2001.

Fisher's FBI Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitive Alert





Donald Eugene Webb

May 4, 1981 #375

Donald Eugene Webb is wanted in connection with the murder on December 4 , 1980 , of the police chief in 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.

Webb's FBI Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitive Alert





Jorge Alberto Lopez-Orozco

March, 2005

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 dollars.

Lopez-Orozco's FBI Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitive Alert




PREVIOUS ENTRIES




Ted Bundy

listed between December, 1977 and February 13, 1978 #35-




INFAMOUS, BUT NOT TEN MOST WANTED

The following infamous suspects may often be mistaken to have been listed among the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, but despite their notorietry, they did not formally make that list. Below is a listing of the year they attained their notoriety, the act for which they are notorious, and their last known status:




1971

D. B. Cooper

Skyjacking of Northwest Orient Boeing 727 from Portland

status: disappeared (parachuted into Pacific Northwest forest)




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