Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: The FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list marks its 65th anniversary this month.

The idea for the publicity program derived from a reporter who asked the FBI to identify the “toughest guys” the FBI was investigating at the time. The FBI gave the reporter information on 10 fugitives. The reporter’s article got so much national attention that late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover created the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives program. FBI Historian John Fox.

John Fox: After we started the program, we caught more than 20 of the first fugitives because of public tips.

Halpern: Since then, 504 fugitives have appeared on the list; 473 have been apprehended or located, with 156 of those tracked down because of help from citizens. Unit Chief John Kitzinger says as the nature of crime and FBI priorities evolved, so have the types of fugitives on the list.

Kitzinger: Now it includes organized criminals, terrorists, child predators, cyber criminals.

Halpern: I’m Mollie Halpern of the Bureau, with FBI, This Week.

Related information:

-News blog: Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List is Turning 65 Years Old
-Press release
-Current Top Ten list