Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The FBIs Most Wanted List

Starting point is 00:00:00 For more than 75 years, the FBI has maintained a list that put some of America's most elusive fugitives directly in front of the public. It's included bank robbers, murderers, terrorists, organized crime figures, and people who remained at large for decades. Some were captured within hours while others were never found at all. And along the way, the list became one of the most recognizable tools in American law enforcement. Learn more about the history of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives List on this episode of everything everywhere daily. Comprehensive. Witty. Speculative. Critical. Insightful. Profound. Wide-ranging. Hopefully doesn't take itself too too seriously. I'm David Remnick, and each week on the New Yorker Radio Hour, my colleagues and I try to make sense of what's

Starting point is 00:00:59 happening in this chaotic world. I hope you'll join us for the New Yorker Radio Hour wherever you listen to podcasts. The thoughtful, exquisite. Just, you know, real. I'm Alan, and I'm Sean, and together we host the Pancing Pony Podcast. Every week I explore Middle Earth with Sean or with other co-hosts lately, with in-depth analysis and plenty of nerd humor. From The Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and more, it's a great way for first-timers to experience J.R.R.R. Tolkien's captivating world. And for if you're ready to take the next step into the most beloved world in fantasy literature, and become a part of a vibrant active community of listeners, then look for The Prancing Pony Podcast, wherever you listen. The FBI's most wanted to

Starting point is 00:01:49 list is one of the FBI's best-known programs. Its origins traced back to before the FBI's formation in the late-1910s. At the time, the FBI's predecessor, the Bureau of Investigation, began issuing identification orders to find and catch fugitives. Identification orders, or IOs, were an early term used to describe wanted posters. The first poster issued was for a 23-year-old soldier named a William N. Bishop, who escaped from a stockade in Northern Virginia. Following Bishop's escape, the U.S. Army's Military Intelligence Division asked for help in locating him. The assistant director of the Bureau at the time, Frank Burke, sent a letter to other government employees with a physical description, a copy of his portrait, and possible locations Bishop might be.

Starting point is 00:02:37 This document became known as Identification Order No. 1 and helped authorities locate and apprehend Bishop just a few months later in April of 1920. Shortly after Bishop's arrest, it became commonplace to issue identification orders to help fugitives. To make the process easier, the orders were standardized into an 8-by-8-inch format that included fingerprints and background information. While this identification method was simple, there wasn't an easily accessible list of wanted criminals, so information was limited to who received the flyers and where they happened to be posted. J. Edgar Hoover was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation in 19. Under his direction, the agency hunted down notorious gangsters and conducted domestic

Starting point is 00:03:22 counter-intelligence, counter-espionage, and sabotage investigations. Under Hoover's direction, the FBI became critical to identifying the country's most wanted fugitives. Hoover and his agency became the top resource in the country for hunting down criminals. The FBI's most wanted list can trace its origins back to 1949. The list was the brainchild of two people. Hoover and the F.B. Editor-in-Chief of the International News Service, William Kinsey Hutchinson. The idea grew out of a conversation between Hoover and Hutchinson, who asked the FBI for the names of some of the toughest fugitives they were trying to capture.

Starting point is 00:03:59 Hoover gave the reporter a list which subsequently received national attention, and that attention helped bring in leads on the fugitives that Hoover had named. Realizing that the most effective form of law enforcement was the cooperation in support of the American people, Hoover established the top ten list of criminals. The first Most Wanted List debuted on March 14, 1950, and the first person to be added to the list was an accused murderer named Thomas James Holden. Holden was accused of murdering his wife, his wife's brother, and his wife's stepbrother. In addition to murder, Holden was a robber and a member of the Holden Keating bank robbing team. Holden was on the list for 15 months until he was recognized from a photograph posted in a newspaper.

Starting point is 00:04:43 After being arrested, he was tried and convicted of the three murders. This first example highlights the list power, showing the FBI's ability to leverage the public to crowdsource leads for law enforcement. As a top ten list, it has understandably changed over the years. It primarily mirrors crime trends across the United States. When it was first released in the 1950s, it mainly consisted of burglars and bank robbers who cross state lines. As it rolled into the 1960s and early 70s, the country experienced more civil unrest and more domestic terrorists were added to the list. During the 70s and 80s, the list transitioned to target drug traffickers and serial killers. Those placed on the list tended to have committed high-profile sensational crimes.

Starting point is 00:05:28 In the 21st century, the list changed once again. The focus turned to prioritizing global crime. This included terrorism, drug trafficking, and cybercrime. To get on to the FBI's most wanted list, the FBI starts by communicating with its field offices. Each office provides a nomination, and FBI headquarters then reviews the submitted names. The list is intended for fugitives, whose identities are known and for whom national publicity has a realistic chance of producing useful leads. Someone whose identity is completely unknown would therefore be a poor candidate

Starting point is 00:06:02 for the program, regardless of how dangerous the unidentified offender might be. These criteria kept a notorious criminal like the Unabomber off of the list. While the Unabomber was a menace to society, they had no clue who he was. Therefore, there was no information to provide to the public that would reasonably help secure his arrest. As of March 26, the FBI offers a reward of at least $1 million for information leading to the arrest of each of the 10 most wanted fugitives, with larger rewards in some cases. The FBI gives three principal ways to be removed from the list, apprehension, dismissal of the federal process against the fugitive, or a determination that the person no longer meets the criteria. Historically, several fugitives have been removed because they no longer qualified as a

Starting point is 00:06:53 particularly dangerous menace. To keep the list in the public's mind, they keep it in easily accessible public areas, including on the internet and in post offices. The 10 Most Wanted list is not ranked. They're not placed on the list in order of danger or how wanted they are. The list is also technically not set at 10. If the FBI identifies another extremely dangerous person but doesn't feel any current members should be removed, they'll just add an 11th slot. This is usually due to an overlap between putting someone on the list and taking someone off.

Starting point is 00:07:27 The longest serving person on the 10 most wanted fugitives list was Victor, Manuel Herrina. Horanah was added to the list in 1984 and is best known for his participation in the White Eagle robbery on September 12, 1983. The robbery saw over $7 million stolen from a Wells Fargo armored car facility in West Hartford, Connecticut. When the robbery occurred, it was the largest cash robbery in the history of the United States. He succeeded in robbing the facility after knocking out his co-workers. Following the heist, Herrina seemingly vanished with the money. As investigators began to look into the case, they learned that Herrina was a member of a Puerto Rican terrorist group known as Los Macheteros. At the time, the group was fighting for Puerto Rican

Starting point is 00:08:13 independence from the United States. On May 14, 1984, Horina became the 386th person placed on the most wanted list. He was never caught and still remains at large. Herena remained on the list until December 15, 2016, a run of 32 years. It's believed that he's probably been in Cuba, and the prospects of catching him, assuming he's still alive, are very low. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the shortest time in the list was in March of 2026.

Starting point is 00:08:45 Samuel Ramirez Jr. was accused of murder and was captured after being on the list for just one hour and 13 minutes. For 55 years, the record for the shortest time in the FBI, 10 Most Wanted List, belonged to Billy Austin Bryant. After escaping from a Virginia prison in 1968, Bryant robbed a Maryland bank in January 1969. FBI agents tracked him to his wife's Washington, D.C. apartment, where Bryant opened fire through the door, killing two agents. He escaped through a window and climbed down a tree. After being placed on the 10 Most Wanted list, Bryant hid in a nearby addict where he became trapped. Police captured him roughly two hours after he was added to the

Starting point is 00:09:27 list. The list also includes many notorious criminals. The most notable are likely serial killer Ted Bundy and Osama bin Laden, who masterminded the 9-11 attacks. Bundy was placed on the list in February 10, 1978, following his second escape from custody in Colorado and a federal charge of unlawful interstate flight to avoid prosecution. By then, while he was on the run, he had also committed the brutal acts at Florida State University's Chio Mega Sorority House. He was captured just five days after being on the list. Osama bin Laden actually was placed on the list before the September 11th terrorist attacks. He was placed on the list in 1999 due to being suspected of participating in the 1998 bombings

Starting point is 00:10:11 of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He would not be removed from the list until he was killed in a U.S. raid in 2011. While the list didn't directly help locate or capture either of these notorious figures, it did put their names and faces in the front of the public and intensified the hunt for them. Leslie Ipsen Raga became the first fugitive captured as a direct result of the FBI's website. In 1996, a 14-year-old American living in Guatemala visited FBI.gov and recognized Roga's photograph on the Ten Most Wanted page. He knew the fugitive as Uncle Bill, a family friend and handyman who had helped install the boy's computer. The teenager alerted authorities, prompting a man-hunt

Starting point is 00:10:53 and widespread publicity. Roga, a prolific bank robber who had been on the lamb since 1990, eventually surrendered to an FBI agent at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City in 1996. Since the inception of the FBI's ten most wanted list, 542 fugitives have been listed. Of them, only 13 of the people placed on the list have been women. In total, 503 were located or captured, a success rate of 93%. And of that, 164 or 31% were located by information provided from the public.

Starting point is 00:11:30 Because of the list's success, the FBI has been inspired to create other lists to seek the public's help. This includes a separate most wanted terrorist list, which was established after the 9-11 attacks. The FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives list has endured because it turns millions of ordinary people into potential participants in the search for dangerous fugitives. Over the decades, the names and crimes have changed, but the basic idea has remained the same. Publicity can be a powerful investigative tool. In it's more than just a collection of wanted posters, the list has become one of the most recognizable symbols of the FBI, and one of the longest running examples of law enforcement using the public to help solve crimes. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel.

Starting point is 00:12:21 The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. Research and writing for this episode was provided by Olivia Ash. My big thanks go to everyone who supports a show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible. And I also want to remind everyone about the community groups on Facebook and Discord. This is where everything happens that's outside of the show. As always, if you leave a review on any major podcast app or in the above community groups, you two can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The FBIs Most Wanted List

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