FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives by year, 1950
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In 1950, the United States FBI, under Director J. Edgar Hoover, began to maintain a public list of the people it regarded as the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.
The concept of the list began in late 1949, when the FBI helped publish an article about the "toughest guys" the Bureau was after, who remained fugitives from justice. The Washington Daily News article was titled, "FBI's Most Wanted Fugitives Named," and appeared on February 7, 1949. The positive publicity from the story resulted in the birth of the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list on March 14, 1950.
Starting in 1950, the top ten fugitives were entered into a handwritten log book. The Fugitive Publicity employees of the FBI used the log book to record and track the "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" by this method until 1991.
1950 Fugitives
The Ten Most Wanted Fugitives listed by the FBI in 1950 include (in FBI list appearance sequence order):[1]
Name | Sequence Number | Date of Entry | Time Listed |
---|---|---|---|
Thomas James Holden | #1 | March 14, 1950 | One year |
![]() Past record: was convicted of robbing a mail train in the late 1920s; escaped from Leavenworth in 1930. Was alleged to be one of the "outside" crew in a sensational armed break of other prisoners from Leavenworth in December, 1931; after escape, was caught by Special Agents and local police officers on a golf course at Kansas City, Missouri, July 7, 1932; was released from Leavenworth Prison November 28, 1947. | |||
Morley Vernon King | #2 | March 15, 1950 | Two years |
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William Nesbit | #3 | March 16, 1950 | Three days, after missing for four years |
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Henry Randolph Mitchell | #4 | March 17, 1950 | Eight years |
Henry Randolph Mitchell- PROCESS DISMISSED July 18, 1958 after the Federal District Court at Jacksonville dropped the bank robbery charge because too much time passed; had robbed a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation bank in Williston, Florida January 21, 1948 shortly after being released from Florida State Penitentiary. His criminal career dated back to 1924 and he had been previously convicted in the states of Kentucky, Georgia, New York and Florida for crimes including grand larceny, violation of narcotics laws, breaking and entering, and forgery. With the dropping of the bank robbery charge, Mitchell became the first FBI Most Wanted Fugitive to escape both arrest and the Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitive list.[3] | |||
Omar August Pinson | #5 | March 18, 1950 | Five months |
![]() Past record: had been sentenced January 1936 to 18 months in the Eldora, Iowa State Reformatory on a charge of armed robbery. Sentenced in 1941 to the Missouri State Penitentiary for automobile tampering; sentenced in 1944 to the Washington State Prison, Walla Walla, Washington for Burglary-released in 1945. | |||
Lee Emory Downs | #6 | March 20, 1950 | One month |
Lee Emory Downs - U.S. prisoner was returned to prison for burglary attempt of Colombian consulate in San Francisco, after his parole in 1968; was arrested April 7, 1950 with weapons, dynamite and fuses at a Daytona Beach, Florida trailer park; was charged August 3, 1948 with unlawful flight; had robbed a telephone company office in San Jose, California, June 3, 1948; an expert safecracker and skilled holdup man in three Pacific Coast states. | |||
Orba Elmer Jackson | #7 | March 21, 1950 | Two days |
![]() Past Record: sentenced to six years at Missouri State Penitentiary at Jefferson City, Missouri in 1924 on a charge of grand larceny of an automobile in Joplin, Missouri; released from prison 1928; Sentenced again in 1928 for car theft for three years at United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth Kansas; beat a man and robbed a store also serving as a United States Post Office near Poplar Bluff, Missouri; had been convicted April 8, 1936 and returned to United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth; Kansas | |||
Glen Roy Wright | #8 | March 22, 1950 | Nine months |
Glen Roy Wright - deceased in prison May 7, 1954. He was a U.S. prisoner arrested December 13, 1950 at Salina, Kansas; charged with unlawful flight February 8, 1949; escaped from prison September 14, 1948; was serving a life sentence in 1934 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester, Oklahoma for armed robbery; was wounded in a gun battle with police officers in Arkansas; was shot during gunbattle with police during his apprehension in Kansas; was a former associate of the Karpis-Barker Gang of the 1930s. | |||
Henry Harland Shelton | #9 | March 23, 1950 | Three months |
Henry Harland Shelton - U.S. prisoner serving a sentence of forty-five years for kidnapping and five years concurrently for car theft; pleaded guilty August 21, 1950; was wounded during gunfight with Special Agents while being arrested June 23, 1950; indicted October 14, 1949; was wanted for kidnapping and car theft on September 17, 1949 in Amasa, Michigan, extending over a couple days from Michigan, to Illinois and into Wisconsin, then back to Illinois and Indiana; had escaped September 5, 1949 from the Michigan House of Correction and Branch Prison. | |||
Morris Guralnick | #10 | March 24, 1950 | Nine months |
Morris Guralnick - U.S. prisoner was arrested December 15, 1950 at a Madison, Wisconsin clothing store; was charged July 22, 1948 with unlawful flight from New York; assaulted guards and escaped July 11, 1948 from Ulster County Jail at Kingston, New York; had stabbed his former girlfriend in April 1948, and bit off the finger of an arresting officer. | |||
Willie Sutton | #11 | March 20, 1950 | Two years |
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Stephen William Davenport | #12 | April 4, 1950 | One month |
Stephen William Davenport - U.S. prisoner arrested May 5, 1950 in Las Vegas, Nevada by local police. | |||
Henry Clay Tollett | #13 | April 11, 1950 | One year |
Henry Clay Tollett - deceased, fatally wounded June 4, 1951 by a California Highway Patrol officer during the attempt to apprehend him in a stolen car in Redding, California. | |||
Frederick J. Tenuto | #14 | May 24, 1950 | Fourteen years |
Frederick J. Tenuto - PROCESS DISMISSED March 9, 1964 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by a U.S. District judge, after it was alleged by Joe Valachi that Tenuto was killed. | |||
Thomas Kling | #15 | July 17, 1950 | Two years |
Thomas Kling - U.S. prisoner arrested February 20, 1952 in New York by local police. | |||
Meyer Dembin | #16 | September 5, 1950 | One year |
Meyer Dembin - U.S. prisoner surrendered November 26, 1951 to the U. S. Attorney in New York City. | |||
By the end of the year, only three of the original Ten Fugitives still remained on the FBI list.
Later entries
- FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, 2020s
- FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, 2010s
- FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, 2000s
- FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, 1990s
- FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, 1980s
- FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, 1970s
- FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, 1960s
- FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, 1950s
References
- ^ "FBI ā Chronological List". Fbi.gov. Archived from the original on 2011-10-31. Retrieved 2013-06-08.
- ^ Denson, Bryan (March 13, 2010). "Oregon has starring role as FBI's Most Wanted list turns 60". The Oregonian. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
- ^ Dary Matera, FBI's Ten Most Wanted, (New York: HarperCollins, 2003), pg. 27.
External links
- Current FBI top ten most wanted fugitives at FBI site
- FBI pdf source document listing all Ten Most Wanted year by year (removed by FBI)