FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, 1990s
The FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives during the 1990s is a list, maintained for a fifth decade, of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation.
FBI headlines in the 1990s
As a decade, the 1990s list stands out above others for its inclusion of a large number of highly notorious suspects, including several major terrorists, foreign and domestic. In 1993 and 1994, the FBI was scrutinized for its role in the Ruby Ridge and Waco incidents. In 1999, the most notorious suspect ever in American history, Osama bin Laden, was added to the list for the 1998 embassy attacks.
Although many 1990s terrorists have appeared on the top 10 list of fugitives, it was not until the aftermath of 9/11 in 2001 that the FBI began maintaining a separate list of Most Wanted Terrorists.
FBI 10 Most Wanted Fugitives to begin the 1990s
The FBI in the past has identified individuals by the sequence number in which each individual has appeared on the list. Some individuals have even appeared twice, and often a sequence number was permanently assigned to an individual suspect who was soon caught, captured, or simply removed, before his or her appearance could be published on the publicly released list. In those cases, the public would see only gaps in the number sequence reported by the FBI. For convenient reference, the wanted suspect's sequence number and date of entry on the FBI list appear below, whenever possible.
The following fugitives made up the top Ten list to begin the 1990s:
Name | Sequence Number | Date of Entry | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Leo Joseph Koury | #366 | 1979 | • Eluded the FBI for 12 years before dying of cerebral vascular hypertension on June 16, 1991.[1] |
Donald Eugene Webb | #375 | 1981 | • Removed from the list on March 31, 2007.[2] On July 14, 2017, remains found at the Dartmouth, Massachusetts home of Webb's wife were identified as belonging to Webb. Investigators stated that Webb had died in 1999.[3] |
Victor Manuel Gerena | #386 | 1984 | • Still at large in the theft of $7 million from a Connecticut securities firm, but removed from the list on December 15, 2016. |
Claude Daniel Marks | #411 | 1987 | • Surrendered December 6, 1994 with Donna Jean Willmott[1] |
Donna Jean Willmott | #412 | 1987 | • Surrendered December 6, 1994 with Claude Daniel Marks[1] |
Armando Garcia | #423 | 1989 | • Arrested January 18, 1994 after being featured on America's Most Wanted.[4] |
Melvin Edward Mays | #424 | 1989 | • Arrested March 9, 1995[5] |
Arthur Lee Washington Jr. | #427 | 1989 | • Removed from the list in December 2000 for no longer meeting the list criteria.[6] |
Wardell David Ford | #429 | 1989 | • Arrested September 17, 1990[7] |
One spot on the list of ten remained unfilled from a capture late in the year 1989. It was filled in the first month of the last year of the decade in 1990.
FBI Most Wanted Fugitives added during the 1990s
The list of the most wanted fugitives listed during the 1990s fluctuated throughout the decade with some fugitives making reappearances on the list. In 1992, there were no additions made by the FBI to the list, for the second time in its history. As before, spots on the list were occupied by fugitives who had been listed in prior years, and still remained at large. The list includes (in FBI list appearance sequence order):[8][9]
Name | Sequence Number | Date of Entry | Time Listed |
---|---|---|---|
Leslie Isben Rogge | #430 | January 24, 1990 | Six years |
Kenneth Robert Stanton | #431 | October 24, 1990 | Seven days |
Kenneth Robert Stanton was captured October 31, 1990 by FBI and York County Sheriff's Department.[11] Was featured on Unsolved Mysteries | |||
Patrick Michael Mitchell | #432 | November 23, 1990 | Four years |
Jon Preston Steele | #433 | August 9, 1991 | Never published |
Jon Preston Steele was arrested August 6, 1991 (before being published to the list) in Los Angeles. | |||
Robert Michael Allen | #434 | September 13, 1991 | One year, 3 months |
Robert Michael Allen was found dead on December 23, 1992 in the California desert by three hikers. | |||
Mir Qazi | #435 | February 9, 1993 | Four years |
Ramzi Ahmed Yousef | #436 | April 21, 1993 | Two years |
Joseph Martin Luther Gardner | #437 | May 25, 1994 | Five months |
Gary Ray Bowles | #438 | November 19, 1994 | Three days |
Gerald Keith Watkins | #439 | March 4, 1995 | Two months |
Gerald Keith Watkins has been imprisoned in U.S. since 1995. Arrested in Harlem on May 5, 1995. | |||
Juan García Ábrego | #440 | March 9, 1995 | Nine months |
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi | #441 | March 23, 1995 | Four years |
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan national imprisoned in Scotland, whose murder conviction was upheld by appeals court in March 2002. Sentenced to life in prison with possibility of parole after 20 years; convicted January 31, 2001; arrested in the Netherlands April 5, 1999. He was charged in part with "Conspiracy to Destroy a Civil Aircraft of the United States"; was wanted in the December 21, 1988 mass murder bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 259 passengers and crew members and 11 Lockerbie villagers, including nationals of the United States; Libyan intelligence agent, under cover as Chief of Airline Security for Libyan Arab Airlines. He was released on August 20, 2009 and allowed to return to Libya by the Scottish Government on compassionate grounds following doctors reporting on the August 10, 2009 that he had terminal prostate cancer and had less than three months to live,.[14][15] He died in Tripoli, Libya on May 20, 2012. | |||
Lamin Khalifah Fhimah | #442 | March 23, 1995 | Four years |
Lamin Khalifah Fhimah was acquitted in Scotland January 31, 2001. He was arrested in the Netherlands April 5, 1999; charged in part with "Conspiracy to Destroy a Civil Aircraft of the United States" and wanted in the December 21, 1988 mass murder bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland which killed 259 passengers and crew members and 11 Lockerbie villagers, including nationals of the United States. | |||
O'Neil Vassell | #443 | July 15, 1995 | One year |
O'Neil Vassell is a US prisoner arrested on October 16, 1996 in Brooklyn, New York. He was wanted on 3 first-degree murder counts from June and July 1993 murders of three individuals in the Bridgeport, Connecticut area. Vassell had a history of assaults and drug charges; was a known member of the "RATs" Jamaican drug posse, was a drug user and had been known to carry a 9mm semi-automatic handgun.[16] | |||
Rickey Allen Bright | #444 | December 15, 1995 | Three weeks |
Rickey Allen Bright is a US prisoner who was arrested on January 7, 1996 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was wanted in the kidnapping and rape of a 9-year-old Wilkes County, North Carolina girl in October 1995; paroled after 13 years in January 1995 from North Carolina prison; was turned down twice for parole; sentenced to 15-to-life in North Carolina prison in 1981; was wanted in kidnapping and attempted rape of a 7-year-old girl in Gastonia, North Carolina in 1979 | |||
Agustín Vásquez Mendoza | #445 | August 3, 1996 | Four years |
Thang Thanh Nguyen | #446 | August 3, 1996 | One year |
Thang Thanh Nguyen has been imprisoned in U.S. since 1998 after being extradited to Rochester, New York January 6, 1998 from Bangkok, Thailand He was turned over to the FBI and transported from Vietnam; was arrested December 22, 1997 in Bac Lieu, Vietnam. Nguyen was charged by FBI with unlawful flight July 14, 1992 following an arrest warrant for his indictment in Monroe County, New York July 9, 1992; for an in home-invasion robbery and murder of his former employer, a Vietnamese businessman in Irondequoit, New York January 26, 1992. | |||
Glen Stewart Godwin | #447 | December 7, 1996 | Still at large but removed from the list |
David Alex Alvarez | #448 | December 14, 1996 | Five months |
David Alex Alvarez is a Mexican prisoner who was arrested on May 20, 1997 in Tijuana, Mexico. He was wanted in murder of four people, including two young girls, and wounding of three other people, at Baldwin Park, California September 29, 1996. He was also wanted in a kidnapping in California, August 1996. He was paroled in 1994 after being sentenced to five years in 1992 following a conviction of battery and assault with a firearm in 1992.[18] | |||
Andrew Phillip Cunanan | #449 | June 12, 1997 | One month |
Paul Ragusa | #450 | September 6, 1997 | Four months |
Paul Ragusa has been imprisoned in the U.S. since 1998. He was arrested on January 30, 1998 in New York. He had cosmetic surgery in 1997 following an indictment on racketeering charges June 14, 1996. He was wanted in shooting of two security guards at a Chemical Bank branch in Maspeth, Queens, June 23, 1993; beating a burglar with a baseball bat on Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood, New York in 1990 (charges were dropped in the beating case); beating a stranger in a van in the face with a stick in Ridgewood, New York in March 1989. | |||
Ramón Eduardo Arellano-Félix | #451 | September 18, 1997 | Five years |
Ramón Eduardo Arellano-Félix was killed in a gun battle with police at Mazatlán February 10, 2002. He was wanted in ordering a hit which resulted in the mass murder of 19 people in Ensenada September 17, 1998; charged in a sealed indictment in United States District Court for the Southern District of California, with Conspiracy to Import Cocaine and Marijuana in drug trafficking; one of the leaders of the Arellano-Felix Organization (AFO), which is also known as the Tijuana Cartel. | |||
Tony Ray Amati | #452 | February 21, 1998 | Four days |
Tony Ray Amati has been imprisoned in the U.S. since 1998. He was arrested on February 25, 1998 in Marietta, Georgia; wanted on federal warrant for Unlawful Flight December 1997; wanted in Las Vegas for three handgun murders May–July 1996. | |||
Harry Joseph Bowman | #453 | March 14, 1998 | One year |
Eric Robert Rudolph | #454 | May 5, 1998 | Five years |
James Charles Kopp | #455 | June 7, 1999 | Two years |
Usama Bin Laden[23] Full name: Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن |
#456 | June 7, 1999 | 11 years, 10 months, 23 days |
Osama bin Laden[a] was the leader of al-Qaeda and was wanted in connection with the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States embassies, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. Bin Laden and al-Qaeda is alleged to be responsible for the October 12, 2000, attack on the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen. Although bin Laden later appeared on the first publicly released FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list on October 10, 2001, he was listed there for his alleged role in the 1998 embassy attack, and not for his alleged role in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Osama bin Laden was the subject of a $50 million[24] reward through the State Department's Rewards for Justice program.[a][25][26] Osama bin Laden was killed during Operation Neptune Spear[27] in Abbottābad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011.[28] | |||
Ángel Maturino Reséndiz | #457 | June 21, 1999 | Three weeks |
James J. Bulger | #458 | August 19, 1999 | 11 years, 10 months, 3 days |
Arrested June 22, 2011, in Santa Monica, California.[29][30] |
End of the decade
As the decade closed, the following were still at large as the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives:
Name | Sequence number | Date of entry |
---|---|---|
Donald Eugene Webb | #375 | May 4, 1981 |
Victor Manuel Gerena | #386 | May 14, 1984 |
Arthur Lee Washington Jr. | #427 | Oct 18, 1989 |
Agustín Vásquez Mendoza | #445 | Aug 3, 1996 |
Glen Stewart Godwin | #447 | Dec 7, 1996 |
Ramón Arellano Félix | #451 | Sep 18, 1997 |
Eric Robert Rudolph | #454 | May 5, 1998 |
James Charles Kopp | #455 | Jun 7, 1999 |
Usama Bin Laden[23] |
#456 | Jun 7, 1999 |
James J. Bulger | #458 | Aug 19, 1999 |
FBI directors in the 1990s
- William S. Sessions (1987–1993)
- Floyd I. Clarke (1993)
- Louis J. Freeh (1993–2001)
References
- Matera, Dary (2004). FBI's Ten Most Wanted: From James Earl Ray to Osama Bin Laden. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-052435-7.
- Maskaly, Michelle (2008-10-27). "Wanted: Donald Eugene Webb for the Murder of a Pennsylvania Police Chief". FOX News. Retrieved 2008-12-02.
- Victoria Warren, Remains found in Dartmouth yard are those of fugitive wanted for killing police chief, The Associated Press via WHDH News, July 14, 2017
- "FBI Top Ten Fugitive Arrested In Columbia". America's Most Wanted. Archived from the original on 2009-02-08. Retrieved 2008-12-02.
- Anderson, Sean; Stephen Sloan (2002). Historical Dictionary of Terrorism. Scarecrow Press. p. 440. ISBN 978-0-8108-4101-7.
- Agents Robert Haley, Thomas Larned, Michael Heimbach and Bradley Mendenhall (2002-01-11). "Ask the F.B.I: An addition to the "Ten Most Wanted" list". USA Today. Archived from the original on 2009-02-08. Retrieved 2008-12-02.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
- "FBI Top Tenner Busted Working Under Alias". America's Most Wanted. Archived from the original on 2009-02-08. Retrieved 2008-12-02.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (2000). FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives Program: 50th Anniversary 1950–2000. K&D Limited, Inc.
- "A Chronological Listing of the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" March 14, 1950 – January 1, 2000" (PDF). Federal Bureau of Investigation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2002-01-27. Retrieved 2009-03-02.
- "FBI Ten Most Wanted poster of Rogge". Archived from the original on October 22, 1996. Retrieved 2017-05-14.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
- "South Carolina, Suspect Extradited To Georgia". The Charlotte Observer. 1990-11-04.
- "Top U.S. Bank Robber Faces 50 Years". Contra Costa Times. 1995-08-28.
- Joseph Martin Luther Gardner #1136
- "Progress record" (PDF). Times Online. Retrieved 2010-01-27.
The clinical assessment, therefore, is that a 3 month prognosis is now a reasonable estimate for this patient.
- Sonne, Paul (January 13, 2010). "Lockerbie Release Is Defended". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
- "O'Neil Vassell". Archived from the original on 1996-10-22. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
- "Glen Stewart Godwin". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Archived from the original on 2008-10-04. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
- "David Alex Alvarez". Archived from the original on 1996-12-21. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
- "Harry Joseph Bowman". Archived from the original on 1998-12-05. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
- "Statement of Attorney General John Ashcroft Regarding The Arrest of Eric Robert Rudolph". Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2003-05-31. Archived from the original on 2008-07-09. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
- "James Charles Kopp". Archived from the original on 2000-03-04. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
- Vulliamy, Ed; Henry McDonald; Stuart Jeffries (1 April 2001). "Abortion death hunt muzzles 'Atomic Dog'". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 June 2010.
- Name as it appears on FBI Most wanted poster Archived 2016-03-05 at the Wayback Machine
- "Senate doubles Bin Laden reward". BBC News. 2007-07-13. Retrieved 2010-04-02.
- "Osama bin Laden's FBI Most Wanted Fugitive Alert". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Archived from the original on 2008-01-03. Retrieved 2006-07-10.
- "Rewards for Justice Wanted Terrorist Osama bin Laden". Rewards for Justice. Archived from the original on 2006-07-21. Retrieved 2006-07-10.
- "Operation Neptune Spear". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved May 17, 2011.
- Doug Luzader (May 2, 2011). "Bin Laden Killed after Firefight in Pakistan". Fox News. Archived from the original on May 5, 2011.
- "James J. Bulger". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved 23 June 2011.
- "Top Ten Fugitive James 'Whitey' Bulger Arrested". Federal Bureau of Investigation. 23 June 2011. Retrieved 23 June 2011.