10 Most Wanted FBI Criminals That Faced Justice
You can run but you can't hide. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the infamous members of the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list who faced justice through legal or mortal means.
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00:00 "He heard his name on the radio and he just called the FBI and said, 'Just come get me.'"
00:05 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most
00:09 infamous members of the FBI's Most Wanted list who faced justice through legal or mortal means.
00:14 "He was a criminal at age 13."
00:17 Leslie Isbin Rogi
00:21 The internet has given us some wonderful things like funny cat videos, sourdough bread recipes,
00:26 or if you're Leslie Isbin Rogi, a one-way ticket back to jail. The prolific American bank robber
00:32 is believed to have carefully executed roughly 30 bank robberies over a multi-decade crime spree.
00:38 "Since he escaped from federal custody in 1985,
00:41 Rogi has been charged with bank robberies in Arkansas and North Carolina."
00:45 He was finally arrested for one carried out in Key Largo, Florida in 1984,
00:49 but managed to escape after bribing one of the guards.
00:52 "But nothing that he said or did, he was very cool, calm, collective, I mean, just,
00:56 he wasn't afraid, you know."
00:58 He made it onto the FBI's Most Wanted list in 1990, and turned himself in six years later
01:04 during a nationwide manhunt in Guatemala. The manhunt had been triggered by a first-of-its-kind
01:09 event — someone had recognized Rogi's photo on the FBI website. He is currently incarcerated
01:15 and serving a 65-year prison sentence.
01:17 "His case marks the first time a criminal has been caught using the World Wide Web."
01:22 Eric Rudolph
01:23 They say one man's trash is another man's treasure.
01:27 Well, unless you're Eric Rudolph, then it's pretty much just trash better left untouched.
01:31 "Jeffrey Postel wasn't practicing any extraordinary police work.
01:35 He thought he'd simply caught someone trying to break in to this grocery store."
01:40 Rudolph served in the military before being discharged for marijuana use.
01:44 He planted a bomb in Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta during the 1996 Summer Olympics,
01:49 killing one person and injuring many others. The bombing led to the moniker "Olympic Park Bomber"
01:54 and landed him on the FBI's Most Wanted list in 1998.
01:58 "A fugitive with a million-dollar reward for his capture."
02:02 This wouldn't be his last crime, though. He was responsible for multiple additional bombings,
02:07 targeting abortion clinics and a gay bar, until he was captured in 2003 while rummaging through
02:12 a dumpster. He pleaded guilty and received four consecutive life sentences that he is still
02:18 serving in a Supermax prison. "He didn't change a thing."
02:20 "No. Except that his actions destroyed a lot of lives."
02:26 Warren Jeffs. This infamous religious cult leader was born in 1955 in Sacramento, California.
02:32 His father, Rulon, was president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of
02:36 Latter-day Saints, a Mormon sect known for practicing polygamy. Jeffs inherited that
02:41 leadership when his father passed away in 2002, along with most of his father's widows.
02:46 "He really kind of set himself up as God." He arranged marriages between his male
02:50 followers and minors, landing him on the FBI's Most Wanted list in 2006.
02:55 He didn't last long on the run, though, and was caught only a few months later during a routine
03:00 traffic stop. While initial efforts to convict him in Utah and Arizona were overturned, it was
03:05 Texas that handed him his final verdict - a 2011 life sentence for sexual assault.
03:10 "Jeffs walked out of the courthouse silent after being sentenced to life in prison."
03:15 Juan Garcia Abrego. "Until this week, very few people had ever heard of Juan Garcia Abrego.
03:21 But now he's on the FBI's Top Ten list." Before becoming the first drug trafficker on the FBI's
03:27 Most Wanted list in 1995, Juan Garcia Abrego dealt in stealing cars and trafficking drugs.
03:33 He then succeeded his uncle Juan Nepomuceno Guerra as head of the famed Gulf Cartel in Mexico.
03:38 Garcia Abrego revolutionized the way the cartel did business, expanding their smuggling operations
03:43 and forming an alliance with the Cali Cartel in Colombia. "Look closely. This man is the
03:48 ruthless leader of one of the most powerful criminal organizations in North America,
03:52 the Gulf Cartel." He spearheaded money laundering operations that likely hit eight figures,
03:58 and oversaw massive protection rackets for other cartels. Estimates from American business and
04:03 government sources in the mid-'90s put his net worth somewhere in the $10-15 billion range.
04:08 He was arrested for drug trafficking in 1996 and extradited to the United States,
04:13 where he is serving a life sentence. "It's encouraging that two governments are
04:17 seriously working together to stop the flow of drugs from Mexico to the U.S."
04:22 Thomas James Holden
04:24 Thomas James Holden started out doing payroll delivery robberies as a member of the Holden
04:28 Keating gang. The notorious gang would end up committing dozens of robberies over the next few
04:33 years, including a $135,000 U.S. mail truck heist. Holden was first arrested in 1928,
04:40 but channeling his inner Michael Schofield, broke out just two years later. He was eventually
04:45 re-arrested and remained in prison until his parole in 1947. Holden became the inaugural
04:51 member of the FBI's Most Wanted list in 1950 for the murder of his wife and brothers-in-law.
04:56 Described as, quote, "a menace to every man, woman, and child in America," he was captured
05:02 for the final time in 1951 thanks to a very vigilant newspaper reader. He died in prison
05:08 while serving a life sentence. James Charles Kopp
05:12 After the 1998 killing of physician Barnett Slepian, perpetrator James Charles Kopp led
05:17 authorities on a manhunt that crossed international borders. "We are outraged that somebody would have
05:22 the audacity and the just terrible gall to come in and do that to another human being."
05:29 Kopp's radical anti-abortion viewpoints motivated the murder, and earned him the label of "terrorist"
05:34 by some institutions. He sought refuge in Mexico, Ireland, and eventually France, evading capture
05:40 for years and becoming the 455th fugitive to be placed on the Most Wanted list. After his
05:46 apprehension by French authorities in 2001, Kopp was extradited to the U.S. to face trial and
05:51 eventual conviction. Though Kopp avoided the death penalty, Judge Michael D'Amico declared the act,
05:57 quote, "premeditated and immoral." He was given a 25 years to life sentence,
06:02 which he still serves in the Mendota Federal Correctional Institution.
06:06 James "Whitey" Bulger Most 14-year-olds are hanging out with
06:10 their friends, playing sports, or complaining about their parents. 14-year-old James "Whitey"
06:15 Bulger, meanwhile, was arrested and in juvie. "Then Bulger's life of crime truly began."
06:20 The Boston native had already developed a reputation as a fierce, loyal, and vicious
06:24 criminal — one that would only continue to grow as he took over the infamous Winter Hill Gang in
06:29 South Boston. "50-year-old Bulger quickly seizes control of the remaining Winter Hill Gang."
06:35 Bulger became an FBI informant in 1975, ratting out his criminal rivals. In exchange, his FBI
06:42 handler made sure his own crimes were ignored. Bulger went on the run in 1994 to avoid a RICO
06:48 case against him, and was added to the FBI Most Wanted list in 1999. He managed to evade capture
06:54 until 2011, and was killed in prison in 2018. "The notorious Boston crime boss,
07:00 James 'Whitey' Bulger, is dead."
07:03 Theodore "Ted" Bundy This infamous serial killer confessed
07:06 to taking the lives of over 30 women, many of them college students. "Bundy was seemingly unstoppable."
07:13 His crimes, known for their cruelty and viciousness, included the 1974 Pacific
07:18 Northwest killing spree and the 1978 Chi Omega sorority house break-in in Florida.
07:23 "In the early hours of January 14, 1978, just one week after arriving in Tallahassee,
07:30 Ted Bundy struck again." Bundy has been described as "sadistic," "cold-hearted," and "the definition
07:38 of heartless evil," and was known to revisit many of his crime scenes. His ability to evade law
07:43 enforcement struck fear into the hearts and minds of people across the country. Bundy was placed on
07:48 the FBI's Most Wanted list in 1978 and arrested shortly thereafter. He received three death
07:54 penalty sentences and was executed via the electric chair in January 1989. "Only when
08:01 facing almost certain execution, after 11 years on death row, did Bundy finally start to confess."
08:07 James Earl Ray "Dr. Martin Luther King, the apostle of nonviolence in the civil rights movement,
08:14 has been shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee." In April 1968, outside a motel in Memphis,
08:20 Tennessee, James Earl Ray assassinated activist and minister Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
08:26 He fled the scene, earning himself a spot on the FBI's Most Wanted list. Ray was eventually
08:31 apprehended while trying to board a flight in the UK and sentenced to 99 years in prison.
08:36 He escaped in 1977, landing him right back on the FBI's Most Wanted list for a second time.
08:42 He was recaptured three days later and another year tacked onto a sentence. While in prison,
08:48 he maintained his innocence and claimed to have been a victim of a grand conspiracy.
08:52 He pleaded for a new trial that was never granted and died of illness in 1998.
08:58 "He spent the rest of his life behind bars, yet always maintained his innocence."
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09:17 Osama Bin Laden
09:21 Many years before he was the worldwide face of terror, Osama Bin Laden was born to a wealthy
09:26 Saudi Arabian family in 1957. "He was the 17th of more than 50 children of a self-made billionaire."
09:33 For years, he used his wealth to support resistance fighters in the Afghan-Soviet
09:38 war before founding al-Qaeda in 1988. The group was responsible for numerous terror attacks,
09:43 including the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings that landed Bin Laden on the FBI's Most Wanted list.
09:49 Just a few years later, he shocked the world with the horrific events of 9/11,
09:53 claiming nearly 3,000 lives in the world's deadliest terrorist attack.
09:58 "Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror."
10:03 He then went into hiding, leading to a decade-long global manhunt that
10:07 finally ended in 2011 when he was killed by members of SEAL Team 6.
10:12 "The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama Bin Laden."
10:16 Which of these criminals do you think is the worst of the worst? Let us know in the comments below.
10:21 "There is already a full-time task force dedicated to prosecuting the drug kingpin."
10:26 [Outro]