FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted Program Marks 65 Years

It started in 1950 when a reporter wanted to do a story on the nation's most wanted criminals. The overwhelming response led to the beginning of what has become known as the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted list. This Saturday, the program will celebrate its 65th anniversary.  

Since 1950, 504 fugitives have been on the Top 10 Most Wanted list and 473 have been apprehended, 156 of which were located as a direct result of citizen cooperation, according to Richard Frankel, special agent in charge of the FBI Newark Division.

"Of note, two of those individuals were actually identified when people taking a tour of FBI headquarters saw their pictures on the wall. That's a 93 percent success rate," he said.

While no one currently on the list is from New Jersey, there have been 13 criminals from the Garden State on the list over the past 65 years, including Joanne Chesimard.  Chesimard, who was convicted for the murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973, escaped from jail in 1979 while serving her sentence in Union Township. She fled to Cuba in the mid-1980s where she has been living ever since. She remains on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist List.

The involvement of the media and the public has been crucial to the program's success, according to Frankel.

"To date, 46 fugitives have been arrested as a result of newspaper and magazine publicity.  The shortest amount of time someone spent on the list was two hours. The longest was more than 30 years," he said.

The Top 10 list has evolved over the years, according to Frankel. In the 1950s, most of the fugitives who were on it were bank robbers and murder suspects. In the 1970s, there were many organized crime figures and murderers.

"Since the 1990s, you're seeing a lot more cyber criminals, child predators, white collar criminals and also those who we believe are international," Frankel said. "We know that the 10 Most Wanted list is looked at around the world and we believe that if there is more publicity about these criminals, we may be able to catch them."