ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI - FOX2now.com)—
Sunday was the 60th Anniversary of one of the most effective crime-fighting tools in history: the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted List. It all started with an inquisitive news reporter. For years, the list has been hugely successful in helping capture America's most dangerous criminals. It started out from a reporter just asking questions about who would be the toughest guys the FBI would like to capture. It worked so well, the publicity worked so well in capturing these people that director Hoover then instituted it shortly thereafter.From that time on, there have been almost 500 fugitives placed on the list. Ninety-four percent of them have been captured.
Four from the FBI's St. Louis office have made the list. All were captured within a month of making it in the 50s and 60s.
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassin, James Earl Ray, of Alton, is the most in-famous criminal from this area, to become one of the 10.
Back in the 50s a good number of the people on the list were on there for bank robberies, kidnappings and they were fleeing from state to state. Serial killers like Ted Bundy followed in the 70s and 80s.
The current era has seen the rise of terrorists like Atlanta Olympics and abortion clinic bomber, Eric Rudolph and Osama bin Laden.
The list has inspired television shows like America's Most Wanted and top 10 lists for state and local departments.
Things have come a long way from mug shots and finger prints at the post office. The top ten list relies more on things like TV coverage and the internet now. One hasn't changed - it still works.
The two criteria for being put on the list are that you're a menace to society and that you're dangerous. The second criteria is that the publicity of being on the list will lead to your capture.
For 60 years, it almost always has.
