These criminals gave new meaning to the word "infamous". Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most infamous individuals to have appeared on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, whether they’ve been captured or are now deceased.
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00:00A new report suggests the FBI believes Brown could be hiding among the Mormons.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most infamous individuals
00:10to have appeared on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list, whether they've been captured
00:14or are now deceased. And this is her situation. Here she's a victim rather than a perpetrator.
00:24Number 30. Glenn Stewart Godwin. Take a look at some of the sketches,
00:28and this is the last good photo of Godwin. In 1980, Glenn Stewart Godwin decided to rob
00:34a drug dealer with his roommate, but they ended up murdering him. To cover up the crime,
00:38they attempted to load the corpse with explosives. However, this plan failed and they were both
00:43apprehended. Godwin was sentenced to 26 years to life, but he managed to escape from prison
00:48and fled to Mexico. While there, he was arrested for dealing drugs, which alerted American
00:54authorities. But while they worked on his extradition, Godwin murdered a fellow inmate,
00:58further delaying the process and allowing him to escape again in 1991. Since then, he has evaded
01:04capture and is believed to be living under an alias in Latin America. Godwin was removed from
01:09the Most Wanted list in 2016. Number 29. Alejandro Castillo.
01:18Alejandro Castillo was just 18 years old when he was added to the 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list
01:27in October 2017. His inclusion was as a result of the murder of his ex-girlfriend and co-worker,
01:32Chukwan Sandy Lai Lee, in August 2016. At the time, Castillo owed Lee some money and asked
01:39to meet her at a convenience store to repay the loan. However, she was never seen again.
01:48After killing Lee, Castillo fled to Mexico with his accomplice and girlfriend, Amia Feaster,
01:57who was also their co-worker. While Feaster turned herself in two months later, Castillo
02:01has remained at large. In 2023, the FBI announced a reward of up to $250,000 for information leading
02:09to his arrest. Take a good look because it's been nearly a decade since these pictures were taken.
02:15The FBI hopes a bump in the reward to a quarter of a million dollars will lead to Castillo's
02:20capture. Number 28. Anthony Brancato. After honing his skills as an armed robber in Kansas City,
02:27Anthony Brancato moved to Los Angeles in 1946 when such skills were in high demand by the mob.
02:32He quickly became a freelance gunman, suspected of being involved in several gangland murders,
02:38including that of Bugsy Siegel. Brancato teamed up with fellow Kansas City criminal,
02:42Anthony Trombino, forming the notorious duo The Two Tonys. In 1951, Brancato and Trombino robbed
02:49the Flamingo Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas, resulting in Brancato appearing on the most
02:53wanted list for just two days before he surrendered. After their release from jail,
02:58LA mob boss Jack Dragna allegedly ordered their killings and both were shot dead in their car
03:03on August 6th, 1951. Number 27. Angela Davis. The FBI pursued Davis in connection to the Marin
03:11County Courthouse shooting and circulated her photographs across the country. Today,
03:15Angela Davis is a respected activist, academic, and author, but back in the 1970s, she was deemed
03:21a terrorist due to her affiliation with the Communist Party. This not only led to her
03:26temporary dismissal as an assistant professor at UCLA, but also landed her on the most wanted list
03:31in 1970. I was a political prisoner, falsely charged with murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy
03:39because of my politics, because of my membership in the Communist Party, because of my involvement
03:45in the Black Liberation Movement. The catalyst was an August 1970 incident in which weapons
03:51purchased by Davis were used in an attack on a courthouse in California, resulting in a judge's
03:56death. Although not involved in the attack, an arrest warrant was issued for Davis, prompting
04:01her to flee California and go into hiding for two months before she was arrested in New York.
04:05Davis was charged with aggravated kidnapping and murder, but was ultimately acquitted.
04:10When her trial began just days later, it drew worldwide attention. In court, Davis admitted
04:16to owning the guns used in the shooting, but argued that she had bought them for self-defense
04:21and they'd been taken without her knowledge. Number 26. Yasser Abdel Saeed. I'm erasing
04:27this tape. Oh, you can. Behind the camera is their father, Yasser Saeed. Do I read a tape
04:33when you're sleeping? Born in Egypt, Yasser Abdel Saeed moved to the U.S. in 1983 and later became
04:39a citizen. He had three children, including two daughters, Amina and Sarah, whom he reportedly
04:44assaulted both physically and sexually. Believing they had dishonored the family by refusing
04:49arranged marriages and dating non-Muslims, Saeed decided to kill his daughters. You hear her last
04:54breath. She was fighting till the very end. On January 1st, 2008, he took them for a ride in
05:00his taxi and fatally shot them. Saeed went on the run immediately after and managed to evade
05:06capture for 12 years. Although he was initially thought to have fled to Egypt, he was arrested
05:11in Texas in August 2020, along with his son and brother. Saeed was ultimately found guilty of
05:17capital murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Defendant came out and surrendered and lay prone
05:23on the ground and was handcuffed. Saeed showed little emotion Friday as jurors were shown clothing
05:29his girls were wearing when they were killed. 25. Willie Sutton
05:41On March 20th, 1950, just one week after its creation, the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives
05:47list added its 11th name, Willie Sutton. Sutton was a notorious bank robber who stole approximately
05:52$2 million throughout his long career. He was first sent to prison in 1931, but successfully
05:58escaped on three different occasions. After his third escape in 1947 from the Philadelphia
06:04County Prison, Sutton was placed on the most wanted list. He remained on the run until February 1952,
06:10when a clothing salesman recognized him on a subway and alerted the authorities.
06:14Sutton received a prison sentence of 30 to 120 years but was released in 1969 due to good behavior
06:22and poor health. Willie Sutton's countless attempted jailbreaks and three spectacular
06:27escapes have secured him a place in the history of weird crime and punishment.
06:3224. Donald Eugene Webb The FBI says Webb died sometime around
06:371999, that's 19 years after Adams was shot and killed. On December 4th, 1980, the town of
06:45Saxonburg, Pennsylvania was rocked by its first murder in over a century. Police chief Gregory
06:50Adams pulled over a man named Donald Eugene Webb in a routine traffic stop. When Adams asked to
06:55see his license, Webb attacked and shot him twice at close range. A nationwide manhunt for Webb was
07:11launched, and in 1981, he was placed on the most wanted list, where he remained for nearly 26 years
07:17before being removed in 2007 as authorities believed he had died. That presumption was
07:22confirmed in 2017 when investigators discovered that Webb's wife Lillian had harbored him in two
07:27of her homes until he passed away from a stroke in 1999. And so after 37 years, it's hoped that
07:34the identification of Webb's body and word of Chief Adams' heroics will give solace to his family
07:41and help the Saxonburg community move on. 23. Ruja Ignatova
07:47She would always have large parties. I went to her birthday party. It's a typical Ruja party.
07:52Everybody dressed to the nines, Ruja dripping in diamonds from head to toe. Ruja Ignatova became
07:58known as the crypto queen for her digital currency, OneCoin, which she founded in 2014.
08:04However, less than a decade later, she earned a new title, FBI's most wanted fugitive. OneCoin,
08:10it turns out, was nothing more than a pyramid scheme that swindled investors from around the
08:14world of $4 billion. In 2017, when it became clear that authorities were investigating her
08:35company, Ignatova vanished into thin air. She has since appeared on the most wanted lists of the
08:41FBI and Europol, with a $5 million reward offered for information leading to her arrest. Although
08:47still at large, rumors suggest that Ignatova may have been murdered in 2018 on the orders
08:52of a Bulgarian drug lord. 22. Andrew Kunanen
09:11Between April and July 1997, Andrew Kunanen went on a killing spree across four states,
09:22claiming the lives of five people. But he is mostly remembered for the murder of his final victim,
09:27renowned fashion designer Gianni Versace. On July 15, 1997, Kunanen fatally shot Versace
09:34at the entrance of his mansion in Miami Beach, Florida.
09:41By that time, he had already spent about one month on the 10 most wanted fugitives list,
09:48but managed to lay low. Just one week after Versace's murder, Kunanen turned the same
09:53weapon on himself and took his own life before he could be captured. To this day,
09:58no one knows the motives behind his deadly rampage.
10:1121. Robert William Fisher
10:22In June 2002, former U.S. Navy personnel and firefighter Robert William Fisher became the
10:28475th fugitive to appear on the 10 most wanted list. He was wanted for the alleged murder of
10:34his wife and two children at their home in Scottsdale, Arizona. Fisher, whose parents
10:38divorced when he was a teenager, reportedly had a troubled marriage on the brink of divorce.
10:56Before that could happen, he killed his family and fled, rigging their house to explode hours later,
11:02supposedly to destroy all evidence of the crime. Since then, Fisher's whereabouts have never been
11:07verified, despite hundreds of tips received by the FBI. In 2021, he was taken off the list,
11:13though he still remains a wanted fugitive.
11:27Almost a decade before 9-11, the World Trade Center was hit with a terrorist attack that
11:32claimed six lives and left more than a thousand injured. Ramzi Yousef, one of the brains behind
11:38the 1993 incident, fled the U.S. just hours later and was subsequently added to the FBI's list.
11:45During his period at large, Yousef masterminded what is now known as the Bojinka Plot,
11:50which included a plan to assassinate Pope John Paul II and attack 11 planes en route to the
11:55United States.
12:03Although detailed, the plan failed, and Yousef was later arrested after one of his former associates
12:10ratted him out. He was extradited to the U.S., where he is currently behind bars for life.
12:19The first woman to ever appear on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list,
12:23Aisman Shear and her boyfriend Gary Stephen Crist orchestrated the kidnapping of heiress
12:28Barbara Jane Mackle in 1968. The two criminals abducted Mackle from her hotel room and took her
12:34to a remote area, where they buried her in a ventilated box for more than three days.
12:39Luckily, Mackle was rescued in relatively good condition. Crist was apprehended just two days
12:45later. It would take the better part of three
12:57months for Aisman Shear to be caught, but after it finally happened, she spent four years in prison
13:03and was deported to her home country of Honduras.
13:10Before he was included on the FBI's Most Wanted list, Jason Derrick Brown was a seemingly
13:15successful businessperson with a taste for the expensive. In reality, he was deeply in debt
13:21and involved in various sketchy schemes. His apparent life of luxury came to an end in
13:26November of 2004, when he carried out a heist of an armored car outside a movie theater,
13:31killing the guard. Brown fled the scene and bounced around the U.S. before disappearing
13:40completely. His surfer-dude looks have led to supposed sightings of him all around the country,
13:46the majority of which have turned out to be false.
13:49In 2022, Brown was removed from the list, although he still remains at large.
14:05Nicknamed Atomic Dog, James Charles Copp was closely affiliated with anti-abortion militants,
14:11including the Christian Lambs of Christ. In 1998, he fatally shot physician Barnett
14:17Slepian in his own home. Dr. Slepian provided abortion services for several New York communities.
14:35After committing the murder, Copp fled the U.S., moving to Mexico and Ireland
14:40before landing in France in March of 2001. Two weeks later, he was arrested by French
14:46police and extradited to the U.S. He's serving a lifetime sentence without the possibility of
14:51parole. Police suspect that he was also responsible for the murder of several
14:56other doctors in the U.S. and Canada.
15:02Bank robber Leslie Isbin Rogi was the first ever criminal on the FBI list,
15:07apprehended thanks to the internet.
15:09He loved boats. He's probably around the water somewhere. He's probably got a bush bear in his hand.
15:16Rogi built his criminal career on bank robberies across the U.S., from Florida to Missouri. He was
15:22caught and convicted in 1984, but escaped the following year to commit even more robberies.
15:28If they really wanted to find him, all they would have to do is go into the areas where
15:31they think he is and probably run a special on bush bear and he'd come by.
15:37Rogi robbed over two dozen banks and made away with over $2 million.
15:53He remained on the run for several years before his picture on the FBI's website
15:58was recognized by someone in Guatemala, who alerted the local authorities.
16:03Rogi will remain locked up until 2034, when he will be 94 years old.
16:12Another anti-abortion militant, Eric Rudolph was behind the Centennial Olympic Park bombing
16:17during the 1996 Summer Olympics. He also bombed two abortion clinics and a lesbian bar.
16:27For five years, he hid in the Appalachian wilderness, but in 2003,
16:32he was arrested at a grocery store in North Carolina. He pleaded guilty to all charges,
16:37including murder, and revealed that he had hidden 250 pounds of dynamite in the forest.
16:43Unrepentant, he has written essays from prison promoting violence,
16:48published online by Christian terrorist organization Army of God.
16:52He didn't change a thing.
17:10The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a radical denomination
17:15of the Mormon Church that still preaches polygamy. When he took over as president of the church,
17:20Warren Jeffs married nearly all of his father's widows, and took strict control over who his
17:26followers married. His regime was fraught with allegations of assault, and he was responsible
17:31for arranging marriages between adult men and minors. After appearing on the FBI Most Wanted
17:42list for just four months, Jeffs was arrested at a traffic stop and tried for his crimes in Utah,
17:48Arizona, and Texas. He is currently serving a life sentence in Texas.
18:11In 2000, a drifter going by the name Carlos was working as a handyman in a neighborhood
18:16in Philadelphia. That summer, the body of a missing girl was found in the apartment
18:21building where Carlos lived, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Four years later,
18:26Alexis Flores was arrested for forgery in Arizona and jailed for 60 days,
18:31before he was deported back to his home country of Honduras. After his deportation,
18:36DNA samples taken from Flores in Arizona matched those from the murder case in Philadelphia,
18:42proving that Carlos was, in fact, Flores. He was added to the FBI's list soon after,
18:48and is currently believed to be hiding either in Honduras or somewhere in the U.S.
18:57The first drug trafficker to appear on the FBI's list, Juan Garcia Abrego gained notoriety as the
19:03ruthless leader of the Gulf Cartel. After taking over the reins of the cartel from his uncle,
19:08Garcia Abrego transformed it into one of the most expansive crime syndicates along the U.S.-Mexico
19:14border. He shipped not only drugs into the U.S., but also millions of dollars to be laundered.
19:20With such an infamous reputation, he was added to the FBI's list in 1995, and apprehended almost a
19:27year later on a ranch in Mexico. He was tried on 22 counts of money laundering and drug trafficking,
19:33and bagged himself 11 consecutive life sentences in the slammer.
19:39José Rodolfo Villareal Hernández
19:42Speaking of the Gulf Cartel, they feuded heavily with another Mexican syndicate called the Beltrán
19:48Leyba Cartel. As part of their ongoing rivalry, the Gulf Cartel arranged to have the father of
19:53José Rodolfo Villareal Hernández murdered. Villareal Hernández, who was a Beltrán Leyba boss,
20:00sought to enact his revenge, but not on any of his rival drug lords. Instead, he targeted Juan
20:07Jesús Guerrero Chapa, the Gulf Cartel's lawyer who represented their leader. In May 2013,
20:14Guerrero was tracked down to Southlake, Texas and assassinated by Villareal Hernández's men.
20:19Investigation by the authorities traced the murder plot back to Villareal Hernández,
20:24who was then added to the most wanted list. His name remained there until January 7,
20:282023 when he was arrested in Mexico.
20:31Number 10. Thomas James Holden
20:34Over the last 70 years, more than 500 names have graced the FBI's most wanted fugitives list.
20:40Thomas James Holden was the very first. A career criminal, Holden first appeared on the FBI's
20:46radar as one half of the notorious Holden Keating gang. Together with Francis Keating,
20:52he went on a robbery spree in the Midwest throughout the 1920s and 30s, targeting payroll
20:57deliveries, trains, and banks. Shortly after his second stint in prison, Holden shot his wife and
21:03her two brothers after a drunken night and fled the scene. The following year, he appeared as the
21:08first fugitive on the FBI's inaugural list. He was eventually captured and thrown right back in prison.
21:16Number 9. Victor Manuel Herrera
21:19With a record 32 years, Victor Manuel Herrera remains the fugitive with the longest amount
21:25of time spent on the most wanted list. While working as an armored car guard for Wells Fargo
21:30in 1983, Herrera and his accomplices pulled off a heist of $7 million from the company's depot.
21:36This became the biggest cash theft carried out on U.S. soil at the time. Herrera escaped to Mexico
21:43soon after the robbery and hasn't been seen since then. He was added to the FBI's list the following
21:48year and remained there until he was taken off in 2016. While many of his co-conspirators have
21:54since been apprehended, the whereabouts of Victor Manuel Herrera remain unsolved.
21:59Number 8. William Bradford Bishop Jr.
22:02Before the horrific events of March 1, 1976, William Bradford Bishop Jr. lived the American
22:09dream. The Yale alum and former diplomat was married to his high school sweetheart and was
22:14the father to three boys. After finding out he was passed over for a promotion on that fateful day,
22:23Bishop returned home and allegedly murdered his family as well as his mother.
22:28For decades, the feds have combed through lead after lead but have turned up nothing
22:33in their search for Bishop. From 2014 to 2018, Bishop was named as one of the 10 most wanted
22:48fugitives, but he was kicked off the list in favor of more dangerous people.
22:53Number 7. Leonard Peltier
22:55The criminal case of Leonard Peltier is one that has been heavily debated for decades.
23:02An activist and member of the American Indian movement, Peltier appeared on the most wanted
23:07list for his involvement in the killing of two FBI agents at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
23:12He was arrested just two months later in Canada and extradited back to the U.S.,
23:16where he was tried and convicted. Peltier's trial raised several questions concerning the
23:21evidence presented and the witness testimonies, some of which have since been recanted.
23:36Despite clemency appeals from several human rights groups and key political figures,
23:41Peltier's convictions, two life sentences and additional time for a 1979 prison escape,
23:47still stand.
23:48Number 6. Rafael Caro Quintero
23:51The whopping $20 million reward for information leading to the capture of Rafael Caro Quintero
23:57was at the time the largest offered for an FBI most wanted fugitive.
24:01One of the founders of the Guadalajara cartel,
24:04Caro Quintero went to prison in 1985 for his role in the murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena Salazar.
24:11He was released in 2013 after a state tribunal in Mexico ruled that he should have been tried
24:17for murder in a state, not federal, court.
24:29After outrage from the Obama administration, the Mexican government issued a new arrest
24:34warrant a few days later, but Caro Quintero was released on bail.
24:39He was, however, captured in Mexico on July 15th, 2022,
24:43in a covert mission that left 14 Mexican servicemembers dead in a helicopter crash.
24:49Number 5. Semyon Magilevich
24:57Arms trafficking, racketeering, money laundering, contract murders,
25:02these are just a few of the criminal charges leveled against Russian authorities.
25:09Semyon Magilevich.
25:21Described by the FBI as, quote,
25:23the most dangerous mobster in the world, Magilevich was placed on the most wanted list in 2009
25:29after scamming millions of dollars from investors of a Canadian company he oversaw.
25:39as the feds knew he had high-profile connections in Russia and was living freely in Moscow.
25:45Due to the lack of an extradition treaty between Russia and the US,
25:48Magilevich was taken off the list in 2015, but he is still being actively pursued by the FBI.
25:55Number 4. James Whitey Bulger
25:58One of the most notorious mob bosses ever to spring out of Boston,
26:02James Whitey Bulger was the leader of the Winter Hill Gang.
26:09Bulger had his hands in multiple criminal enterprises,
26:16such as racketeering, money laundering, extortion, and even murder,
26:20yet he worked as an FBI informant against other mobs.
26:23Facing impending prosecution, he fled Boston and remained in hiding for 16 years.
26:29During this period, he was added to the list and was at one time the second most wanted man
26:34in the US behind only Osama Bin Laden.
26:37After he was apprehended in 2011, Bulger was convicted of his many crimes
26:42and sentenced to life imprisonment.
26:44In 2018, he met his demise at the hands of other inmates.
26:49Number 3. Theodore Ted Bundy
26:52One of the most infamous serial killers of all time,
26:56Ted Bundy was responsible for the deaths of at least 30 women in the 1970s.
27:00He was arrested in 1975, but managed to escape from prison twice,
27:05killing even more women while he was on the run.
27:08Bundy used his charm and good looks to lure his victims in,
27:11before assaulting them and taking their lives.
27:14After his second escape from prison, his name was added to the FBI's list.
27:18He only spent five days on the list before he was arrested at a traffic stop.
27:22Following two highly publicized trials, Bundy was found guilty of three murders
27:27and was executed by electric chair in 1989.
27:35Number 2. James Earl Ray
27:38Already a convicted armed robber and fraudster,
27:41James Earl Ray gained notoriety for his 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
27:46Ray, who had escaped from prison the previous year,
27:49ran up north to Canada and laid low for a while.
27:58After a few months on the run, Ray was arrested in London
28:02and sent back to the U.S. to stand trial for his crime.
28:04There, he pleaded guilty to King's murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.
28:15Having appeared on the FBI's Most Wanted Fugitives in 1968,
28:19Ray's name resurfaced on the list in 1977 when he escaped from prison
28:24with six other inmates.
28:26He was recaptured three days later and died in prison at the age of 70.
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28:47Number 1. Osama Bin Laden
28:55As the founder of Al-Qaeda,
28:57Osama Bin Laden was responsible for masterminding several terrorist attacks.
29:01Although most infamous for the events of September 11, 2001,
29:05Bin Laden originally appeared on the FBI's list two years earlier.
29:09His inclusion was as a result of his involvement
29:11in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
29:16After the 9-11 attacks, Bin Laden became the most wanted man in the world,
29:20with the FBI placing a $25 million bounty on his head.
29:24Bin Laden managed to evade capture for more than a decade but met his end in May 2011
29:30when he was shot and killed by U.S. military forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
29:41Which of these fugitives do you think will be captured next? Let us know in the comments.
29:46Check out these other clips from WatchMojo
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