FBI's Most Wanted – Incredible History of the Innovative Program

The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, and William Kinsey Hutchinson who were discussing ways to promote capture of the FBI's "toughest guys". For sixty years, the FBI has sought the public's assistance in a special way through one of our most effective and longest running publicity programs, which, since 1950, has led to the location of more than 460 of our nation's most dangerous criminals. Content: FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" Program: The Beginnings Today The Program Criteria for Placement on the List The List Removal from the List How the FBI Gets Its Men and Women: A 20-Year Study of the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" Program 1989-2009 Today's "Top Ten" List More Likely to Include Terrorist, Organized Crime Figures and Child Predators "Top Tenners" Cannot Hide for Long Many Fugitives Found far from Home "Top Ten" Fugitives Increasingly Caught Through Publicity Conclusion Project Pin Point Project Welcome Home America's Most Wanted Famous Cases: Thomas James Holden William Raymond Nesbit Isaie Beausoleil Clyde Edward Laws James Earl Ray Richard Lee Tingler, Jr. Ruth Eisemann-Schier Theodore Robert Bundy Eric Robert Rudolph Warren Jeffs Service Martyrs