Ruth Eiseman Schier
The FBI's most wanted fugitive list originally started as a publicity stunt in the 1950's and has since hosted over 500 names in its 67-year history with most targets having been apprehended or killed as a direct result.
But some have never been caught, so who are these people? Why were they never found? Just who are the FBI's most wanted criminals of all time?
Leslie Isben Rogge
She was on the FBI's wanted list for less than a year. At 26, Ruth Eismann-Schier became the first woman considered dangerous enough to warrant a spot on the FBI's Most Wanted list after helping Gary Krist in the kidnapping of 20-year-old Barbara Mackle.
They successfully demanded $500,000 for her release and Mackle was rescued on December 20th, 1968, 83 hours after she had been buried alive. Krist was soon captured, but Eismann-Schier fled. She evaded authorities until March 5th when she applied for a nursing position in Oklahoma under the name Donna Sue Wills. A routine fingerprint check raised red flags, alerting the authorities.
Eric Rudolph
Thanks to technological advances, Leslie Rogge made it onto this list. He was a career bank robber who stole more than $2 Million from more than twenty-four different banks.
He was the first person apprehended thanks to the internet. A person in Guatemala saw Rogge's picture on the FBI's most wanted list and reported him to the authorities.
Alexis Flores
One woman was killed and at least one hundred people injured when a bomb exploded at the Olympic Park in Atlanta in 1996. This was the handy work of Eric Rudolph who later bombed two abortion clinics and a lesbian bar.
Rudolph was captured after five years on the FBI's most wanted list, had plead guilty to avoid the death sentence.
Yaser Abdel Said
He worked as a handyman in Philadelphia. He kidnapped a five-year-old girl, Iriana DeJesus when she was riding bikes with her friend. After her mother noticed that she hadn't come back, she went to authorities and started a massive search for her. Her body was found raped, strangled to death, and wrapped in trash bags in an empty apartment building where Flores was living.
Later, he was arrested in 2005 for shoplifting and was deported back to Honduras. In 2007, a positive DNA test came back linking Flores to Iriana's murder. The FBI now has a $100,000 reward for information that may lead to his capture.
Jason Derek Brown
He is wanted for the murder of his two daughters Amina and Sarah. He has been nicknamed 'The Honor Killer' as he believed the girls brought shame to his family. His wife described him as being abusive to her and his girls. It was also later found that he had sexually assaulted both of his daughters.
In 2007, he found out that his daughters had been dating, so in an angry fit of rage he started waving his gun around. The wife, daughters, and their boyfriends moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma to escape him but the girls moved back to finish their education before permanently moving to Oklahoma. He picked the girls up in his can on New Years Day, 2008 and shot them both multiple times. He is now believed to be hiding out in NYC as a cab driver.
Luis Macedo
He owned two businesses which he operated out of his home in Utah. He portrayed himself as a man of means despite being up to his ears in debt. In 2004, shortly after buying a pistol, he took a class to train with his firearm. This course required that he submit his fingerprints to authorities for preventative measures.
His instructor recalled that he was obnoxious. In November of the same year, Brown shot and killed a security guard who was transporting Fifty-Six Thousand dollars in cash. Brown's gun and fingerprints were traced back to him, but he's been on the run ever since.
Victor Manuel Gerena
Macedo made his way to the FBI's Most Wanted List following the murder of a teenage boy, Alex Arellano. As Alex was headed to a party with a group of friends, he was confronted by two men on bikes asking what gang he was in. He wouldn't give them an answer so they left, only to come back with bats in hand.
They demanded that Arellano throw up the crown, which is their hand gesture. He wouldn't obey their orders, so they started to beat him with a bat. He then escaped to a neighbors backyard where they caught up to him, and shot him in the head. Luis Macedo is still a fugitive to this day.
Donald Eugene Webb
While he is connected to a violent Puerto Rican separatist movement, he was actually put on the FBI's Most Wanted List for the robbery of $7 Million from a Wells Fargo armored car depot in West Hartford, Connecticut. He tied two guards up and injected them with a dose of aspirin and water, leaving them incapacitated.
He is believed to be living as a fugitive in Cuba, while the FBI is offering a $1 Million reward for information that could lead to his capture.
Glen Stewart Godwin
"Webb is wanted in connection with the murder of a Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, police chief in December 1980. Webb was removed from the “Top Ten” list because he no longer fit the stated criteria. He remains a fugitive." says the FBI.
However, last year, it was discovered that he had died of multiple strokes in 1999. His wife had buried him in the backyard and hadn't told anyone about it until the FBI tracked her down.
Charles Lee Heron
The FBI said, "In March of 1981, Godwin was convicted of murder and robbery, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He escaped from Folsom State Prison in California and fled to Mexico where he was arrested and convicted of trafficking in cocaine.
On September 26, 1991, Godwin escaped from Jalisco State Penitentiary shortly before his scheduled release to U.S. authorities. On May 19, 2016, Godwin was removed from the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List due to the fact that he no longer fit Top Ten criteria." He is now thought to be involved in the Latin-American Drug Trade under the alias Dennis Harold McWilliams.
Robert William Fisher
He lasted 18 years, 4 months, and nine days after shooting two police officers dead in the 1960's. He was eventually tracked down and arrested.
He pleads guilty to voluntary manslaughter after his arrest. He was then locked away until his death.
Frederick J. Tenuto
Robert Fisher murdered his wife and two children in Scottsdale, Arizona on April 10th 2001.
It was originally thought that he had been killed when his house went up in flames, but there were no traces of his body. He was placed on the FBI's Most Wanted List where he remains today.
Leo Joseph Koury
Tenuto was originally placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list on May 24th, 1950 for the assassination of Arnold Schuster. Arnold Schuster was the man who helped authorities identify Willie Sutton, a bank robber. Incidentally, Tenuto and Sutton had reportedly broken out of jail together in 1947.
It was also suspected that local Crime Boss, Albert Anastasia, ordered Tenuto to take out Schuster after he had given up his friend. On March 6th, 1964, Tenuto was removed from the list because Anastasia had him killed to cover his tracks.
Osama Bin Laden
Leo Joseph Koury was the owner of several Richmond gay bars who spend twelve years, one month, and twenty-seven days on the most wanted list for fraud and murder. In the 1970's things turned sour for Koury when he attempted to regain control of the bar he'd given to a relative.
Koury sent a hitman to fire a shotgun into a packed crowd of the venue known as the 'Malebox', killing one and injuring another. Koury was also accused of murdering a bouncer at another rival club and in 1979, the FBI added him to their most wanted list. Koury was only found by the bureau when he died from a brain hemorrhage in a San Diego hospital on June 16th, 1991.
As we all know, Bin Laden was traced by the U.S. and shot multiple times in the head when found in a raid on his compound in 2011. However, you may not know why he was on the FBI's most wanted list in the first place. Most would think the NYC Twin Towers was the reason, but in fact, that was just a sequel.
Bin Laden caught the FBI's attention back in 1998 after attacking U.S. embassies in Africa. He was placed on the most wanted list on June 7th, 1999. It was his death on May 2nd, 2011 that brought his eleven plus year run on the list to an end.