Today in History—March 14: The Birth of the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted List
In February of 1949 a reporter for the Washington Daily News made an unusual request to the FBI: He asked for the names of the “toughest guys” the Bureau was after. The FBI complied. The paper ran 10 photos and bios on the front page, and several of the men were soon turned in.
Knowing a good thing when he saw one, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover made the list a permanent program. Just like that, the bureau’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list was born.
The first official list was published on this day in 1950.
It included the likes of Thomas James Holden (“triple murderer,” arrested in 1951 while working as a plasterer), Morley Vernon King (“wife slayer,” caught in 1951 while shucking oysters), William Raymond Nesbit (“killer-dynamiter,” caught the same month the list came out, turned in by children who knew him as the friendly local cave hermit), and Lee Emory Downs (“elite safe cracker,” found in 1950 with nine sticks of dynamite in his Florida trailer).
Two ideas govern the composition of the list: The person must pose a danger to society, and publicity must be deemed useful. All 56 FBI field offices can submit nominees. Special agents in the Crime Division review the cases, the Office of Public Affairs weighs in, and FBI executives grant final approval.
The original list circulated on Most Wanted posters, mostly hung in post offices. These days—like everything else—it’s largely online, appearing on social media and digital billboards. There is also an app (of course).
Since its creation, 538 fugitives have appeared on the list—and 500 have been caught. Of those, 163 arrests were aided by public tips. Two of these tips, amusingly, came from people who were on tours of the FBI headquarters.
Over time, there’s been a shift in crimes on the list. Early decades featured bank robbers and burglars. In the 1970s, during the FBI’s crackdown on mobsters, organized crime dominated the list. Today the list often includes terrorists, drug traffickers, and white-collar fraudsters.
The Most Wanted list is in no particular order.
The idea behind the list’s success hasn’t changed: It’s harder to hide your face—even in another country, which is where roughly 10 percent of those on the list have been captured—if everyone is looking for it.
Without further ado: here are the current toughest guys (and gals).
- 2 hours: Shortest amount of time anyone was on the list
- 32 years: Longest amount of time anyone was on the list
- $1,000,000: Standard reward for info leading to an arrest
- 1743: The first American town hall meeting is held, at Boston’s Faneuil Hall
- 1899: German officer Ferdinand, Graf von Zeppelin, patents a “navigable balloon”
- 1973: POW and future U.S. Sen. John McCain is released by the North Vietnamese
