Top Ten Most Wanted Criminals: A List With a History

The FBI top ten most wanted criminal list was first introduced March 14, 1950 after J. Edgar Hoover and William Kinsey Hutchinson had a discussion over a game of hearts. The two were discussing ways to promote the capture of the FBI's "toughest guys." The list itself has no particular ranking although most criminals on the list have been assigned a number. Most criminals are only removed from the list upon death or imprisonment and may also be removed if the charges against them have been dropped. In five cases, men have been removed because they were no longer a "particularly dangerous menace to society."

Donald Eugene Webb made the list May 4,1981 and is listed as criminal # 375. He is wanted in connection with a murder committed December 4, 1980, in which a police officer was killed. In Saxonburg, PA a police officer was shot at close range after being brutally beaten about the head and face with a sharp instrument.

Victor Manuel Gerena made the list May 14, 1984 and is listed as criminal # 386. He is wanted in connection with the armed robbery of $7 million from a security company in West Hartford, Connecticut. Victor allegedly took two security guards hostage. He then bound and gagged them and then injected with a paralytic agent.

Glen Stewart Godwin made the list December 7, 1996 and is listed as criminal # 447. He is being sought for his 1987 escape from Folsom State Prison in California where he was serving a sentence for murder. After his escape from Folsom he spent some time in a Mexican prison on drug charges but escaped there as well.

Osama Bin Laden made the list July 7, 1999 and is listed as criminal # 456. He is the leader of Al Qaeda is wanted in connection with the August 7, 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya that killed over 200 people. Osama and Al Qaeda are also responsible for the October 12, 2000 attack on the USS Cole, which killed 17 people. Although Osama was not publicly released on the list in October of 2001, he was placed there for his role in the embassy bombings and not for his roll in the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed over 3000 people.

James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger made the list August 19, 1999 and is listed as criminal # 458. He is wanted for his role in numerous (18) counts of murder committed from the early 1970's through the 1980's. These murders were committed in connection with ladership of the Boston Mob. As the leader of the Boston Mob he allegedly committed many crimes including extortion, drug deals and many other illegal activities in the Boston area.

Richard Steve Goldberg made the list June 14, 2002 and is listed as criminal # 474. He is wanted for allegedly engaging in sexual acts with several female children under the age of 10 in the Long Beach, CA area in 2001.

Robert William Fisher made the list June 29, 2002 and is listed as criminal # 475. He is wanted for allegedly killing his wife and two children and then blowing up the house they all lived in Scottsdale, Arizona, in April of 2001.

Diego Leon Montoya Sanchez made the list May 6, 2004 and is listed as # 478. He is being sought in connection with the manufacturing and distribution of tons of cocaine. He did this knowing and intending that it would be imported into the US. He is one of the principal leaders of a Colombian drug cartel, known to be one the most powerful and violent drug trafficking organizations in Colombia.

Jorge Alberto Lopez-Orozco made the list March 17, 2005 and is listed as criminal # 480. He is wanted in connection with the murders of a woman and her two young children in Elmore County, Idaho. The victims' charred remains were found on August 11, 2002 inside a burned-out vehicle.

John Ward Warren Parsons made the list September 30, 2006 and is listed as criminal #484. He was wanted for escaping from jail on July 29, 2006. When he escaped he was awaiting trial for the murder of a Chillicothe, Ohio police officer killed in 2005 during a pursuit on auto theft charges. Parsons was captured on October 19, 2006 outside of Chillicothe and has not yet been replaced on the FBI's list.

Donald Eugene Webb has spent the longest time on the list and has been featured since 1981. Billie Austin Bryant spent the shortest time on the list, a mere two hours. The list is commonly posted in public places and some criminals have even turned themselves in once they were put on the list. The list has a 94% success rate with 454 out of 484 criminals located. Seven women have been listed on the list.