March 16, 2010

FBI Top Ten Anniversary


Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list.

The year was 1949, and a reporter came to the FBI with a novel question: who were the “toughest guys” we were after? We responded with photos of 10 fugitives, which were published on the front page of The Washington Daily News. Although we didn’t know it at the time, a crime-fighting institution was born.

The “Top Ten” list immediately caught the public’s attention, and several of the fugitives were captured as a result of the media exposure. The following year—on March 14, 1950—we formally established our Ten Most Wanted Fugitives program, relying on the support of the public to help us capture the worst of the worst.

The mugshot archive.

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  1. The Celebrity Year In Review on March 16th, 2010 at 2:17 pm

    [...] FBI Top Ten Anniversary : clusterflock [...]

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