FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List
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One of the mosticonic lists in U.S. history started with a phone call from a reporter.
In 1949 William Kinsey Hutchinson, the editor in chief of the International News Service, askedFBI DirectorJ. Edgar Hoover who the “worst of the worst” U.S. fugitives were. The names Hoover provided yielded a story that garnered national attention and drew leads on the whereabouts of the people named. A year later Hoover officially introduced theFBI’s Ten Most Wanted list.
The creation—and evolution—of the list
- There’s no number one: The list is not ranked, so there is no one person who is the “most wanted.”
- 535: The number offugitives who have appeared on the list, as of 2025, according to the FBI.
- 11: The number of women who have been on the list, as of 2025, according to the FBI.
- 32 years: Longest time someone has spent on the list. Suspected bank robber Victor Manuel Gerena was added to the list in May 1984 and taken off it in December 2016.
- 2 hours: Shortest time someone has spent on the list. Bank robber and murderer Billie Austin Bryant was arrested in Washington, D.C., on January 8, 1969. He had been added to the list two hours before his arrest.
The first person on the list when itdebuted on March 14, 1950, was accused murderer Thomas James Holden. He was arrested the next year when he was recognized from a photograph that had appeared in a newspaper and later convicted of three murders. That highlights the power the list has had over the decades: its ability to leverage the public to “crowdsource” law enforcement. “At its core, the Top Ten list is a publicity resource,” Supervisory Special Agent Amie Stemen, who manages the list, said on its 75th anniversary in 2025.
The list has changed over the years, mirroring crime trends in theUnited States. At its debut in the 1950s, the list featured bank robbers and burglars fleeing across state lines. With the civil unrest of the 1960s and early ’70s, the list became more political, and people such as activistAngela Davis landed on it. Davis, a member of theBlack Panther Party, was wanted in connection with an attempt to free three prisoners that resulted in four deaths. She was ultimately acquitted of all charges. The 1970s and ’80s saw a shift in focus to drug crimes andserial killers, which put the list at the center of some of the country’s most sensational crimes. In the 21st century the focus has been on global crime, includingterrorism, drug trafficking, andcybercrimes.
Some of the list’s most famous members
Deciding who makes the list starts with FBI field offices, which offer nominations. In reviewing the names submitted, the FBI has twocriteria that must be met in order for someone to make the list:
- Is someone particularly violent and a menace to society?
- Is there a reasonable expectation that publicity will lead to the person’s arrest?
Additionally, a suspect’s name must be known, photographs available, and warrants issued for their arrest in order to be added to the list. That explains why some particularlynotorious criminals never made the list, including theUnabomber and theBeltway snipers.
Over the years, some of those on the list have become household names, including:
•Osama bin Laden: The mastermind behind theSeptember 11 terrorist attacks, bin Laden was on the list long before 9/11. He actually landed on the list in 1999 because of his suspected role in the August 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies inTanzania andKenya. Bin Laden was removed from the list when he waskilled in a U.S. raid in 2011.
•Whitey Bulger: The notorious leader of a Bostonorganized crime family, the Winter Hill Gang, Bulger also served as an FBI informant. Responsible for murders and gun- and drug-running in Massachusetts, Bulger escaped arrest for years, often with the help of the FBI. When the nature of the corruption became known, Bulger landed on the Most Wanted list in 1999. When he was arrested in connection with 19 murders in 2011, he came off the list.
•Ted Bundy: One of the most famous serial killers of the 20th century, Bundy appeared on the list for less than a week in February 1978, in the wake of the brutal murders of two college students atFlorida State University. Those deaths would be among the more than two dozen that would ultimately be linked to Bundy. He was captured when he was stopped for speeding by an officer who had no idea that he was arresting the man responsible fora string of murders and assaults that spanned years and had been committed across the country.
•Eric Rudolph: Wanted in connection with the bombing at the 1996 Olympics as well as three other locations, Rudolph was on the list for five years. For much of that time, he was hiding out in rural westernNorth Carolina. When he was arrested, he was rummaging for food, and the officer whoapprehended him had no idea he had arrested one of the country’s most sought-after fugitives.
•James Earl Ray: The convicted killer ofMartin Luther King, Jr., Ray appeared on the list twice. The first time was after King’s April 1968 assassination; Ray was arrested in England in June 1968. His second appearance on the list came in June 1977, when Ray escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Tennessee. He was recaptured after a little more than two days on the loose.