A Merry Journey: The Best of the Worst From 60 Years of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List
Monday, March 15, 2010 at 10:50 am
As a special feature, today we take you on a merry journey that looks back on 60 years of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List. From the most likely to get a date in prison to the worst mullet, these were more innocent times -- when you didn't have to be an international terrorist to get your picture on a post office wall...
On Sunday, March 14, the FBI celebrated the Sixtieth Anniversary of its "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list.
And to be honest, "The List" could use a little positive publicity.
After all, the days of the feds chasing dashing bank robbers whose mugs were plastered on Post Office walls have given way to a sorry modern era where most of the Ten Most Wanted are nothing but scumbag international terrorists, drug-cartel creeps and sexual predators. What's more, most of these modern thugs can't even take a decent picture.
In an attempt to spruce up the List's image, the FBI itself has provided some friendly factoids.
For instance, did you know that no fewer than four families have had the honor of having not one, but two, family members placed on the list?
Or that six people, including Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassin, James Earl Ray, have appeared on the list twice?
Or that California boasts the higher number of criminals on the list (55) while Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota and Rhode Island share the distinction of never having had a native son make an appearance?
It's all true!
But those are only a few of the gems to be found in this veritable treasure trove of criminal history. We eyeballed all 494 mug shots, and found a few things the FBI missed:
Best Dillinger-Style Smirk
John Raleigh Cooke, Clarence Dye and John William Clouser
Cooke, Dye and Clouser all managed to make a little thing like getting busted by the FBI seem like a piece of cake, and in Clouser's case, the mirthful attitude was justified: After seven years on the list, the feds dropped the charges against him in 1972.
Ugliest Mug
Kennth Eugene Cindle
Incredibly, Cindle was arrested in Texas in 1961 while "hitchhiking across the country." Yes, somebody pulled over to offer this guy a ride. America was different back then, kids: People were dumber.
Most Likely to Get a Date in Prison:
Anthony Vincent Fede
Those full lips. That wavy hair. Could romance have been far behind when the cell door slammed? Luckily, Fede was already into role-playing: When busted in L.A. in 1961, he was carrying a toy pistol and a phony police badge.
More links from around the web!
Probation officer gives office BJ to boot-camp teen
