Top 10 FBI Cases

Notorious Criminals

The FBI has tracked down and arrested some of the most notorious criminals in history — from underworld gangsters to homegrown terrorists. See who we ranked in the FBI's Top 10 cases.

No. 01 - Lindbergh Kidnapping

On March 1, 1932, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., the 1-year-old son of world-famous aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was kidnapped from the family's home near Hopewell, N.J. The child's nurse, Betty Gow, made the initial discovery at about 10 p.m. During a search of the home, a ransom note was found, demanding $50,000 in exchange for the toddler.
When authorities arrived on the scene, they discovered that the kidnapper had used a ladder to gain entry to a window in the nursery. Footprints were found outside; however the perpetrator had managed not to leave a single fingerprint behind.
Five days later, a second letter was received via postal mail, in which the kidnapper increased the ransom amount to $70,000. Two days later, on March 8, 1932, the Lindbergh's attorney received a third ransom letter in the mail. The amount remained unchanged; however the kidnapper said that he would not deal with an intermediary appointed by the Lindbergh's. A fourth ransom note received the following day indicated that the kidnapper would allow Dr. John F. Condon, a retired New York City school principal, to act as a go-between. Negotiations then transpired via a local newspaper column.
On March 12, 1932, a taxi cab driver delivered a note to Condon, directing him to another note, hidden beneath a stone near a local subway station. Upon finding the note, Condon followed the step-by-step instructions contained within it, which directed him to Woodlawn Cemetery, where he met an unidentified man. Upon discussing payment of the ransom, Condon requested that the man provide him with proof that he had the child. Approximately four days later, Condon received another note, accompanied by an article of baby clothing. The Lindbergh's positively identified the article as belonging to their child.
For the next several weeks, the exchanges continued. Then, on April 1, 1932, the kidnapper announced he was ready to accept the ransom money. The following day, after meeting at a previously agreed-upon location, Condon turned over the ransom, which was made up of marked gold certificates. The kidnapper then gave Condon a note, which directed him to a boat at Martha's Vineyard where he would find the child. Following the exchange, all of the piers at the Vineyard were searched; however authorities were unable to locate the boat that the kidnapper had described.
The mystery continued until May 12, 1932, when the baby's body was found partially buried in the ground near the Lindbergh home. An autopsy revealed the child had been dead for approximately two months, having suffered from a fatal blow to the head.
On Oct. 19, 1933, the FBI officially took over the investigation. Over the course of the next year, they meticulously traced each of the gold certificates, which finally led them to a man named Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German carpenter who lived in Bronx, New York. Condon was able to identify Hauptmann as the kidnapper he met with, and authorities found further evidence when a search of his garage revealed roughly $13,000 worth of the marked gold certificates. In addition to this evidence, FBI handwriting experts also determined that Hauptmann had authored the ransom notes.
On Feb. 13, 1935, Hauptmann was found guilty of first-degree murder. For his crime he was sentenced to death, and on April 3, 1936, he was electrocuted.

No. 02 - Unabomber

Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski waged a mail-bomb crusade on progress and society from his tiny log cabin in the mountains of Montana. Once a brilliant academic with a promising future as a Berkeley professor, by the mid-1990s Kaczynski had become America's most wanted terrorist after his bombs killed three people and injured 23.
Prior to Kaczynski's identification and arrest, the FBI spent nearly two decades trying to track him down. At one time, over 150 full-time agents were assigned to the case. Ultimately, it was Ted himself who provided the clues needed to capture him.
In 1995, Ted sent a rambling 35,000-word essay to the media, in which he attempted to explain his motivations for the bombings.
"We therefore advocate a revolution against the industrial system," read one paragraph from the manifest. "This revolution may or may not make use of violence: it may be sudden or it may be a relatively gradual process spanning a few decades. We can't predict any of that. But we do outline in a very general way the measures that those who hate the industrial system should take in order to prepare the way for a revolution against that form of society. This is not to be a political revolution. Its object will be to overthrow not governments but the economic and technological basis of the present society."
Concerned he might strike again if the essay was not published; FBI Director Louis Freeh and Attorney General Janet Reno agreed to allow the Washington Post and New York Times to print the entire manifesto.
Upon reading the essay, David Kaczynski began to suspect that his brother could be the author behind it. He notified the FBI and in turn provided them with samples of other papers his brother had written, which were frighteningly similar to the manifesto. The evidence proved to be enough, and on April 3, 1996, the FBI acquired a search warrant for Ted Kaczynski's mountaintop hideaway. During the search of his cabin, they found bomb-making components and journals that detailed the Unabomber crimes.
Ted Kaczynski ultimately pled guilty to the bombings, for which he was sentenced to life in prison. He currently resides in an isolated cell in a Colorado supermax prison.

No. 03 - Oklahoma City bombing

On April 19, 1995, a bomb exploded in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, reducing the entire building to a pile of smoldering rubble. Nearly 300 other buildings were also damaged by the explosion. The bombing attack was one of the most horrific crimes in U.S. history, claiming 168 lives – including 19 children – and injuring more than 800. The FBI later described the incident as the "worst act of homegrown terrorism in the nation's history."
The FBI got their first break in the case when they located an axle from a rental truck that had been parked in front of the building. The truck was ultimately traced to Timothy McVeigh, who was already in custody. He had been arrested shortly after the blast for driving a vehicle without a license plate and for possessing a concealed weapon. Evidence found in McVeigh's possession connected him to the bombing and also implicated his friend, Terry Nichols.
According to court documents, McVeigh had manufactured the bomb using agricultural fertilizer, diesel fuel and other chemicals. McVeigh then transferred the bomb to the rental truck, which he parked in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. After igniting a timed fuse, McVeigh calmly walked away from the truck to his getaway car.
Authorities later connected McVeigh to a militia group that had a grudge against the government. McVeigh claimed that the bombing was revenge for "what the U.S. government did at Waco and Ruby Ridge."
Nichols was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for his role in the crime. McVeigh was not so lucky, and in June 2001, he was executed by lethal injection at the U.S. federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind.
 

No. 04 - Jonestown

 In November 1978, California congressman Leo Ryan flew to South America to investigate the Peoples Temple, a cult-like group that had been founded by religious fanatic Jim Jones. Ryan had heard that the religious commune was actually a slave camp, where over 900 people were beaten and forced to do Jones' bidding. The bulk of the followers were from San Francisco, thus prompting Ryan to get involved.

When Ryan arrived in Guyana he was accompanied by various government officials and a group of reporters. He was initially welcomed into the Jonestown settlement; however Jones became angry when several of his followers decided to leave with Ryan. Several days later, on Nov. 18, 1978, Ryan and a large group of defectors traveled to a local airport, where they prepared for departure. Unbeknownst to them, several armed men from the Jonestown camp had followed them there. The group of cultists quickly opened fire on the planes, killing congressman Ryan, photographer Greg Robinson, NBC reporter Don Harris and several others.
Meanwhile, back at the compound, Jones had assembled his followers – roughly 909 Temple members, including more than 200 children – and ordered them all to drink a fruit cocktail that was laced with cyanide. While each of his followers consumed the deadly drink, Jones himself took his own life with a handgun.
In the aftermath of the case, the FBI launched an investigation, during which they were able to identify survivors of the Peoples Temple. Among them was Temple loyalist Larry Layton, one of the men responsible for the shootings at the airfield. As a result of his involvement, Layton was extradited to the United States, where he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
 

No. 05 - D.B. Cooper Hijacking

On Nov. 24, 1971, a man who identified himself on travel documents as Dan Cooper boarded Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, in route from Portland, Ore., to Seattle, Wash.  Shortly after the flight took off, Cooper handed a female flight attendant a note that read "I have a bomb in my briefcase.  I will use it if necessary.  I want you to sit next to me.  You are being hijacked."
Cooper had in his possession a briefcase that contained numerous wires, dynamite-like sticks and a large battery. Cooper demanded $200,000, made up of all $20 bills with random serial numbers and four parachutes.  He then instructed the pilot to circle over Puget Sound.  Later that day, upon hearing confirmation from the pilot that his demands had been met, Cooper instructed him to land at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where he exchanged the passengers for the ransom.  Afterward Cooper ordered the pilot to fly the jet toward Reno, Nev.  Per his instructions, the plane was to fly at a speed of 170 knots and an altitude of less than 10,000 feet, some 15,000 feet below the plane's normal cruising altitude.
Once the plane was back in the air, Cooper ordered a stewardess who remained onboard to go into the cockpit.  Shortly thereafter, approximately 25 miles north of Portland, the pilot observed a warning light on his console that the jet's aft door had been opened.  The flight crew decided not to investigate whether Cooper had jumped, and the jet later landed in Reno, Nev., where their suspicions were confirmed.  While there was no doubt Cooper had jumped, his exact landing zone remained a mystery. Despite massive ground searches of Ariel, Wash., and the Lake Merwin Dam of the Lewis River, no trace of evidence was found and the case remained a mystery.
The first break in the case came in February 1980, when an 8-year-old boy who was picnicking with his family found $5,800 in decaying bills on the banks of the Columbia River.  Serial numbers on the bills later confirmed they were from Cooper's ransom money; however despite thorough searches of the area, no other evidence was found to suggest what happened to the remaining bills or Cooper himself.
Within the press release, the FBI provided a series of pictures and information on the case that had not previously been released.
"We originally thought Cooper was an experienced jumper, perhaps even a paratrooper," Special Agent Larry Carr said.  "We concluded after a few years this was simply not true.  No experienced parachutist would have jumped in the pitch-black night, in the rain, with a 200-mile-an-hour wind in his face, wearing loafers and a trench coat.  It was simply too risky.  He also missed that his reserve chute was only for training and had been sewn shut — something a skilled skydiver would have checked."
Carr does not think Cooper survived the jump and believes his body is somewhere in the foothills of Washington.
"Diving into the wilderness without a plan, without the right equipment, in such terrible conditions, he probably never even got his chute open," Carr said.
Nonetheless, it is one mystery he would like to solve, and he is hoping advancements in technology or renewed publicity in the case will jar someone's memory
"Maybe a hydrologist can use the latest technology to trace the $5,800 in ransom money found in 1980 to where Cooper landed upstream.  Or maybe someone just remembers that odd uncle."

No. 06 - Al Capone

Born in 1899, the infamous Capone ruled Chicago's underworld in the roaring 1920s. He is a legendary figure in the history of mobs and gangsters.
A renaissance man, Capone dabbled in bootleg liquor, gambling and prostitution, among other businesses. Though no proof confirms it, Capone is widely believed to have been responsible for the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of the Bugs Moran Gang in 1929, which led to the death of seven men.
The FBI began their investigation into Capone in March 1929, when he ignored a federal grand jury subpoena. Capone's attorneys were able to successfully argue that he was ill and unable to attend the hearing. As a result it was postponed; however in the interim FBI agents were able to confirm that Capone was not ill and had been traveling throughout Florida. As a result of the ruse, agents arrested Capone and he was charged with contempt of court, to which he was sentenced to six months in jail.
While Capone sat behind bars, the U.S. Treasury Department began to assemble a tax evasion case against him. Capone initially pled guilty; however he later changed his plea to not guilty. Nevertheless, Capone was convicted after trial and sentenced to 11 years in federal prison. He served portions of his sentence at a U.S. penitentiary in Atlanta and at Alcatraz.
On Nov. 16, 1939, Al Capone was finally released from prison. All totaled, he had served seven years, six months and 15 days behind bars. Upon his release, he retired to Florida, where he spent the rest of his days until his death in 1947.
 

No. 07 - Bonnie and Clyde

Clyde Chestnut Barrow was born in Telico, Texas, on March 24, 1909. The fifth of seven children born to Henry and Cumie Barrow, Clyde, along with most other children of the era, grew up in poverty. Even after his family managed to improve its circumstances, Clyde chose to ditch school and commit petty crimes.
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born in Rowena, Texas, on Oct. 1, 1910. The second of three children born to Charles and Emma Parker, Bonnie was also raised in poverty. However, unlike Clyde, she excelled in school and was an honor roll student.
Bonnie's and Clyde's paths first crossed in January 1930. Some sources claim they met at a local café, while others say it was at a mutual friend's house. Regardless of how they met, the two were immediately smitten with each other. Perhaps that is what led to their first crime, which occurred only weeks after they met.
Clyde's first major brush with the law occurred on Feb. 12, 1930, when he was arrested for a series of robberies, most of which occurred in McClennan and Waco counties. While Clyde was in jail awaiting trial, his cell mate, Frank Turner, convinced Bonnie to smuggle in a gun so that the pair could escape prison. Anxious to be reunited with her new love, Bonnie agreed, and the plan went off without a hitch.
Unfortunately for the lovebirds, their plan to reunite was thwarted by the manhunt that was launched following the jail break. Clyde and Turner absconded to Illinois, where they committed a series of robberies, before being recaptured and extradited back to Texas.
Clyde was paroled on Feb. 8, 1932. Despite having just earned his freedom, he was not yet ready to settle down. And, while courting Bonnie, he formed a gang and set out on a crime spree unlike any other in the pages of history.
It's impossible to know the number of robberies and market holdups in which Bonnie and Clyde participated. Often they were accused of committing crimes when they were actually hundreds of miles away at the time. Nonetheless, it is believed that Barrow's gang was responsible for committing some 13 homicides, nine of which involved officers of the law.
The end came for Bonnie and Clyde on May 23, 1934, when authorities received a tip that they were visiting friends in Acadia, La. An ambush was quickly staged, and when the couple drove down a desolate road, they were greeted with a hail of gunfire. A total of 167 steel-jacketed, high-velocity bullets ripped through the car. Roughly 50 of the shots fired struck the bodies of 23-year-old Bonnie and 24-year-old Clyde, both of whom were killed instantly.
In May 2009, the 75th anniversary of the couple's death, the FBI released nearly 1,000 pages of new material on its investigations of Bonnie and Clyde and their partners in crime. In a recent press release, the bureau said it made the documents available with the hope that they will lead to new understandings of law enforcement and crime during the "Year of the Gangster."

No. 08 - John Gotti

 Known as the "Dapper Don" for his stylish appearance and as the "Teflon Don" for his ability to let criminal charges slide right off him, John Gotti was America's most famous modern outlaw.

Gotti took over as the head of the Gambino crime family in New York City following the demise of boss Paul Castellano in 1985; Castellano was believed to have been killed by Gotti and his men.
As the head of the Gambino family, Gotti and his men battled other crime families for control of New York City and its suburbs throughout the 1970s and 1980s. A public figure who often got in scrapes with the law, Gotti bribed jurors and used police informants to stay one step ahead, thus earning his "Teflon" nickname; nevertheless, he served brief prison stints throughout his career for crimes, including hijacking, larceny and burglary.
For years Gotti was able to elude law enforcement, but he was finally brought down when the FBI and NYPD caught him on tape discussing various crimes, including murder. Arrested in 1990, Gotti was later convicted on multiple counts, ranging from murder to tax evasion.
In 1992, John Gotti was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He died of cancer in prison in June 2002, at the age of 61.
 

No. 09 - John Dillinger

John Herbert Dillinger was as lovable as he was ruthless, the kind of man who would make friends with people even as he robbed them of their life savings. He was also quite cunning: Dillinger once escaped from prison using a piece of wood that was shaped in the form of a gun.
Born in Indianapolis on June 22, 1903, Dillinger grew up in a middle-class household. His mother died when he was 3 years old, and his father later remarried. A grocer by trade, Dillinger's dad was known to be a strict disciplinarian who expected the most from his son. Despite this, Dillinger often rebelled and later dropped out of school. He held a few menial jobs throughout his teen years, but it was a later brush with the law that resulted in Dillinger enlisting in the Navy. His service there was short lived, and he eventually deserted his ship when it docked in Boston, Mass.
Dillinger did not stay out of trouble for long, and a robbery earned him a 10- to 20-year prison sentence. Released after serving nearly nine years, Dillinger emerged an educated criminal.
Beginning in the early 1930s, Dillinger set off on a crime spree like no other in recent history. He committed countless bank robberies and prison breaks that resulted in the deaths of at least 10 men. As a result of the multiple jurisdictions impacted, the FBI became actively involved in the case and a nationwide manhunt was launched.
Dillinger's downfall finally came in July 1934 when Anna "Sage" Cumpanas, an immigrant prostitute from Romania, tipped off police to his whereabouts in an attempt to avoid deportation. Later that night, Dillinger was killed in an FBI ambush outside the Biograph Theater. Sage was later sent back to Romania, despite her assistance in the matter.

No. 10 - Hollow Nickel Spy Case

On June 22, 1953, a newspaper delivery boy collecting his weekly payments at a Brooklyn apartment building was surprised to find a hollowed-out nickel among the change he had received from a customer. Equally puzzling was a tiny photograph of a series of numbers that he found hidden inside the coin.
News of the find made its way to local police, who reached out to the FBI for assistance. When agents examined the photo, they found that there were 10 columns of numbers. Suspecting the numbers were a coded message, agents send it off to a lab for further investigation. Unfortunately, they were unable to decode the message, and when they spoke to the woman who had given it to the paper boy, they found that she knew nothing of its origin.
The mystery continued until 1957, when Reino Hayhanen, a former Soviet State Security Service (aka KGB) spy contacted the U.S. embassy in Paris and requested help defecting from Russia. The FBI determined that  Hayhanen had operated as a Russian spy in the country since the fall of 1952. In exchange for help defecting, Hayhanen agreed to cooperate with agents in tracking down other active spies. It was during this time that agents discovered the spies would communicate using trick containers – hollowed-out pens, pencils and coins, which they would then place in inconspicuous places in the New York area. Hayhanen's revelation reminded agents of the coin found by the paperboy in 1953, and they immediately questioned him about it. As a result, they were finally able to uncover the code. When translated, it read in part:
"We congratulate you on safe arrival … We gave instructions to transmit to you three thousand dollars in local [currency]. Consult with us prior to investing it in any kind of business, advising the character of this business ... We Wish you success."
 In addition to helping the FBI break the code, Hayhanen was instrumental in helping the FBI identify several active spies in the U.S., including Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, a Russian spy who had been posing as a U.S. citizen. When authorities arrested Abel, they found in his possession a vast collection of modern espionage equipment.
In October 1957, Abel was tried and convicted in a New York federal courtroom. He was ultimately sentenced to a 30-year prison sentence. Nevertheless, he only served five years of that sentence, as he was later exchanged for Francis Gary Powers, an American pilot who was a prisoner of the Soviet Union.