FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, 1950s
In the 1950s, the United States FBI began to maintain a public list of the people it regarded as the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. Following is a brief review of FBI people and events that place the 1950s decade in context, and then an historical list of individual fugitives whose names first appeared on the 10 Most Wanted list during the decade of the 1950s, under FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.
FBI headlines in decade of 1950s
[edit]In late 1949 the FBI helped publish an article about the "toughest guys" the Bureau was after, who remained fugitives from justice. The positive publicity from the story resulted in the birth of the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list on March 14, 1950.
Cases of espionage against the United States and its allies were some of the prevalent investigations by the Bureau during the 1950s. Eight Nazi agents who had planned sabotage operations against American targets were arrested. Organized crime networks and families in the United States also became targets, including those headed by Sam Giancana and John Gotti.
FBI "Most Wanted Fugitives" in the 1950s
[edit]As wanted fugitives were added, and then later removed, the FBI began to keep track of the sequence number in which each fugitive appeared on the list. Some individuals have even appeared twice, and often a sequence number was permanently assigned to an individual fugitive 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 fugitive's sequence number and date of entry on the FBI list appear below, whenever possible.
FBI Most Wanted Fugitives added during the 1950s
[edit]The most wanted fugitives listed in the decade of the 1950s include (in FBI list appearance sequence order):[1][2][3]
Year 1950
[edit]William Francis Sutton
[edit]March 20, 1950 #11
William Francis (Willie) Sutton
On February 18, 1952, Sutton was arrested without incident in New York after two years on the list.
Year 1951
[edit]George Arthur Heroux
[edit]December 19, 1951 #28
George Arthur Heroux
On July 25, 1952, Heroux, who was a bank robber with accomplice and fellow top Ten Fugitive, Gerhard Arthur Puff, was caught at Miami, Florida after seven months on the list.
Year 1952
[edit]Gerhard Arthur Puff
[edit]January 28, 1952 #30 - was added soon after his partner George Arthur Heroux, #28
Gerhard Arthur Puff
Puff, who was a bank robber with accomplice and fellow top Ten Fugitive, George Arthur Heroux, was caught after killing an FBI Agent in a gunbattle after six months on the list. He was executed two years later.
Year 1953
[edit]Year 1954
[edit]Year 1955
[edit]Year 1956
[edit]Year 1957
[edit]Year 1958
[edit]Year 1959
[edit]End of the decade
[edit]By the end of the decade, the following fugitives were remaining at large on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list:
| Name | Sequence number | Date of entry |
|---|---|---|
| Frederick J. Tenuto | #14 | 1950 |
| James Eddie Diggs | #36 | 1952 |
| David Daniel Keegan | #78 | 1954 |
| Eugene Francis Newman | #97 | 1956 |
| Angelo Luigi Pero | #107 | 1958 |
| Charles Everett Hughes | #364 | 1978 |
| Edwin Sanford Garrison | #112 | 1959 |
FBI directors in the 1950s
[edit]- J. Edgar Hoover (1935–1972)
References
[edit]- ^ 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.
- ^ "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives FAQ — FBI". www.fbi.gov. Retrieved 2024-12-20.