Ten-most-wanted lists
The Ten Most Wanted Lists are a prominent program established by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to highlight and publicize the names and images of the most dangerous criminals who are actively evading law enforcement. This initiative began in 1950, following a journalist's inquiry into the ten most sought-after fugitives, and has since evolved into a vital tool for raising public awareness and assisting in the apprehension of fugitives who are deemed particularly dangerous to society. The individuals listed typically have serious criminal histories and are sought for violating federal laws, particularly when they cross state lines to escape prosecution.
The selection process for the list is meticulous, involving suggestions from FBI agents and a thorough review to ensure that only those fugitives who pose significant threats are included. Over the years, the nature of the criminals featured has shifted in response to changing crime trends, with the focus evolving from bank robbers and burglars to organized crime figures and international terrorists. The program boasts a high success rate, with over 90% of fugitives previously listed being apprehended, aided by extensive media coverage that encourages public participation. Despite some criticisms regarding its efficacy and fairness, the program remains a key element of the FBI's efforts to track down high-profile criminals and ensure public safety.
Ten-most-wanted lists
IDENTIFICATION: Federal Bureau of Investigation program (FBI) that publicizes the names and images of the most dangerous and sought-after criminal fugitives
SIGNIFICANCE: Since the inception of this Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) program, most-wanted lists have helped to raise public awareness of law-enforcement work while serving as an effective tool in apprehending criminal fugitives.
In 1949, a journalist writing for the International News Service (INS) asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for a list of the ten “toughest guys” that the agency was then seeking and published the list in the Washington Post. The list attracted so much public interest that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover decided to make publication of most-wanted lists a regular FBI program. On March 14, 1950, the agency issued its first official list of the ten most-wanted fugitives. Since then, the lists have occasionally been expanded to include more than ten names as special circumstances justified exceptional additions.
Because the ten-most-wanted lists are part of a federal law-enforcement program, the fugitives listed by the FBI must be sought for violating federal laws. The primary crimes with which most of the fugitives are charged—such as murder, rape, assault, and robbery (except bank robbery, which can be a federal offense)—are violations of state laws over which the federal government has no jurisdiction; however, when the fugitives cross state lines to avoid prosecution or punishment, they become guilty of violating federal laws and thus become eligible for the ten-most-wanted lists. In 1962, the US Congress passed the Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution Act, which authorized the FBI to pursue fugitives from justice who cross state lines, regardless of the nature of their original offenses. Since the 1960s, it has been illegal to flee across state lines to avoid prosecution, custody, or confinement for any felony or capital crime or to flee to avoid giving testimony in felony proceedings.
Suggestions for names to put on the lists are made by agents in the FBI’s fifty-six field offices. Their suggestions are reviewed by special agents in the criminal investigative division of the FBI who are familiar with the bureau’s fugitives and the Office of Public and Congressional Affairs. After the suggestions are narrowed down, they receive a final review by the FBI’s deputy director or director.
Criteria for Selection
The selection of only ten fugitives to list is a complicated process because at any given moment, the FBI may be seeking as many as twelve thousand different fugitives. Fugitives selected for the list are those who have lengthy records of committing serious crimes and who are considered particularly dangerous to society. No fugitive’s name goes on the list unless there is some reasonable hope that publicizing the fugitive might actually assist apprehension. Hence, a fugitive who is already widely known from other publicity might not be listed.
Names are removed from the list when the fugitives die, are captured, or no longer fit list criteria. The latter may occur when a fugitive is no longer regarded as a major threat to society, but this rarely happens. As names are dropped from the list, others are added.
Since the program’s inception, the makeup of the lists has reflected the changing nature of crime in America as well as the changing criteria of the FBI. During the program’s early years, bank robbers, burglars, and car thieves dominated the list. During the 1960s, political radicals charged with destruction of government property, sabotage, and kidnapping predominated. During the 1970s, as international organized crime and political terrorism increased, the makeup of the lists changed again. Since the early 1990s, organized crime figures, international drug dealers, serial murderers, and international terrorists have predominated.
Impact of the Program
Of the approximately five hundred fugitives whose names were listed between 1950 and 2005, more than 90 percent were apprehended. One of the reasons for this success rate is the FBI’s use of television and radio to draw the widest possible public attention to its lists of fugitives. Among the broadcast programs that have publicized the lists are John Walsh’s America’s Most Wanted (1988- ) and Unsolved Mysteries (1987- ) on television and radio’s FBI, This Week, an ABC network program produced in cooperation with the FBI that became a podcast in the 2020s. In 1995, the FBI began posting its lists on the Internet. Other commercial uses of the lists are prohibited, as the program exists for the sole purpose of getting the public to help track down fugitives.
Publicity has had a psychological impact on the fugitives themselves, some of whom have voluntarily turned themselves in when they realized that they are targets of nationwide manhunts. Nevertheless, some fugitives evade capture for many years.
The ten-most-wanted list program has attracted a number of criticisms. First, some people have charged that it is merely a publicity event and a waste of taxpayers’ money. The FBI rebuts this charge by pointing out that the program’s main purpose is to generate publicity that will enlist public cooperation in the pursuit of dangerous criminals.
It has also been charged that the lists too often target small-time criminals, while leaders in organized crime and major drug traffickers remain at large. This charge may be refuted by the fact that high-ranking crime leaders rarely become fugitives because they can afford to hire expensive lawyers for their legal defense. The FBI rarely needs help in locating such people.
A third criticism of the list is its frequent inclusion of political radicals. It might be conceded that some names have found their way onto the FBI’s list because of the personal political agendas of FBI leaders, such as Hoover, but the FBI would counter that criminal offenders cannot be allowed to legitimize their crimes on political grounds.
Bibliography
"FBI Increases Ten Most Wanted List Fugitives Reward." Laws, 23 June 2023, laws.com/fbi-increases-ten-most-wanted-fugitives-reward/. Accessed 11 July 2024.
Matera, Dary. FBI’s Ten Most Wanted. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. Profiles of some of the most notorious fugitives on the FBI list, including Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader who is believed to have masterminded the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. Also includes an appendix listing all the names that have appeared on FBI lists.
Mejias-Rentas, Antonio. "How Angela Davis Ended Up on the FBI Most Wanted List." History.com, 3 Jan. 2024, www.history.com/news/angela-davis-fbi-most-wanted-list. Accessed 11 July 2024.
Newton, Michael, and Judy Newton. The FBI Most Wanted: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 1989. Case-by-case descriptions of all the fugitives who made the FBI’s list between 1950 and 1988, with details on their crimes.
Swierczynski, Duane. The Encyclopedia of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List: 1950 to Present. New York: Checkmark Books, 2004. More up-to-date collection of profiles of fugitives listed by the FBI.
Walsh, John, and Philip Lerman. Public Enemies: The Host of “America’s Most Wanted” Targets the Nation’s Most Notorious Criminals. New York: Pocket Books, 2002. Anecdotal appraisal of publicized searches for fugitives by the host of television’s America’s Most Wanted.