The FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives during the 1970s is a list, maintained for a third decade, of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation.
As a decade, the 1970s are marked by the passing of the Hoover era. J. Edgar Hoover had formed and defined the Bureau for nearly a half century. He was succeeded by a long list of short-term directors throughout the Nixon – Ford – Carter era who could not match Hoover's larger persona. Eventually, Director William H. Webster brought stability to Bureau, during the President Reagan era.
On the 1970s top 10 list, perhaps the most notable is the 2nd appearance of James Earl Ray, in 1977. Additionally, in 1971 the list was completely filled with long-time fugitives, who persistently evaded capture, leading to the very first year in which the FBI found it impractical to add any new fugitives to the top ten list. In 1970, the FBI had packed the list with an extraordinary number of "Special Additions" of whom most evaded capture. Consequently, the 1971 list opened with a total of sixteen wanted fugitives at large, nearly twice as many as would typically appear on the list at any other given time. By the end of the year 1971, three of the listed wanted fugitives had been captured, bringing the opening 1972 list down to a still extraordinarily large number of thirteen fugitives. Due to further removals from the list in 1972, the FBI found justification to finally list a single new Fugitive late that year.
The FBI in the past has identified individuals by the sequence number in which each individual has appeared on the list. Some individuals have even appeared twice, and often a sequence number was permanently assigned to an individual suspect 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 suspect's sequence number and date of entry on the FBI list appear below, whenever possible.
As the decade began, the following fugitives were the FBI's Ten Most Wanted:
Name | Sequence Number | Date of Entry | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
John William Clouser | #203 | 1965 | •Dropped from the list August 1, 1972, later surrendered to authorities on August 21, 1974 |
Charles Lee Herron | #265 | 1968 | •Arrested in June 1986 |
Taylor Morris Teaford | #279 | 1968 | •Dropped from the list May 24, 1972 |
Byron James Rice | #282 | 1968 | •Apprehended October 2, 1972 |
Warren David Reddock | #298 | 1969 | •Arrested April 14, 1971 |
Cameron David Bishop | #300 | 1969 | •Arrested in Rhode Island March 12, 1975 |
Marie Dean Arrington | #301 | 1969 | •Arrested in New Orleans, December 22, 1971. Sentenced to life in prison without parole •Arrington was the second woman to appear on the list since the list began. [1] |
Benjamin Hoskins Paddock | #302 | 1969 | •Bank robber, appeared on the list after escaping prison. Dropped from the list on May 5, 1977, captured in 1978. He was the father of the Las Vegas shooter, Stephen Paddock. |
Joseph Lloyd Thomas | #304 | 1969 | •Arrested March 8, 1970 |
The tenth space had just opened up at the end of the year 1969, but was promptly filled by a new individual on the list in the first week of 1970.
The most wanted fugitives listed in the decade of the 1970s include (in FBI list appearance sequence order): [2] [3] [4]
Name | Sequence Number | Date of Entry | Time Listed |
---|---|---|---|
James John Byrnes | #305 | January 6, 1970 | Three months |
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Edmund James Devlin | #306 | March 6, 1970 | Five months |
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Lawrence Robert Plamondon | #307 | May 5, 1970 | Two months |
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Hubert Geroid Brown | #308 | May 6, 1970 | One year |
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Angela Yvonne Davis | #309 | August 18, 1970 | Two months |
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Dwight Alan Armstrong | #310 | September 4, 1970 | Six years |
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Karleton Lewis Armstrong | #311 | September 4, 1970 | Two years |
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David Sylvan Fine | #312 | September 4, 1970 | Six years |
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Leo Frederick Burt | #313 | September 4, 1970 | Six years |
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Bernardine Rae Dohrn | #314 | October 14, 1970 | Three years |
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Katherine Ann Power | #315 | October 17, 1970 | Fourteen years |
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Susan Edith Saxe | #316 | October 17, 1970 | Five years |
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No one was added to the list in 1971.
Name | Sequence Number | Date of Entry | Time Listed |
---|---|---|---|
Mace Brown | #317 | October 20, 1972 | Six months |
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Name | Sequence Number | Date of Entry | Time Listed |
---|---|---|---|
Herman Bell | #318 | May 9, 1973 | Four months |
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Twymon Ford Myers | #319 | September 28, 1973 | Two months |
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Ronald Harvey | #320 | December 7, 1973 | Three months |
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Samuel Richard Christian | #321 | December 7, 1973 | Five days |
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Name | Sequence Number | Date of Entry | Time Listed |
---|---|---|---|
Rudolph Alonza Turner | #322 | January 10, 1974 | Nine months |
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Larry Gene Cole | #323 | April 2, 1974 | One day |
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James Ellsworth Jones | #324 | April 2, 1974 | Two months |
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Lendell Hunter | #325 | June 27, 1974 | One month |
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John Edward Copeland | #326 | August 15, 1974 | One year |
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Melvin Dale Walker | #327 | October 16, 1974 | Three weeks |
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Thomas Otis Knight | #328 | December 12, 1974 | Two weeks |
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Name | Sequence Number | Date of Entry | Time Listed |
---|---|---|---|
Billy Dean Anderson | #329 | January 21, 1975 | Four years |
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Robert Gerald Davis | #330 | April 4, 1975 | Two years |
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Richard Dean Holtan | #331 | April 18, 1975 | Three months |
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Richard Bernard Lindhorst Jr. | #332 | August 4, 1975 | Three days |
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William Lewis Herron Jr. | #333 | August 15, 1975 | Two months |
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James Winston Smallwood | #334 | August 29, 1975 | Four months |
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Leonard Peltier | #335 | December 22, 1975 | Two months |
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Name | Sequence Number | Date of Entry | Time Listed |
---|---|---|---|
Patrick James Huston | #336 | March 3, 1976 | One year |
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Thomas Edward Bethea | #337 | March 5, 1976 | Two months |
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Anthony Michael Juliano | #338 | March 15, 1976 | One week |
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Joseph Maurice McDonald | #339 | April 1, 1976 | Six years |
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James Ray Renton | #340 | April 7, 1976 | One year |
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Nathaniel Doyle Jr. | #341 | April 29, 1976 | Three months |
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Morris Lynn Johnson | #342 | May 25, 1976 | One month |
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Richard Joseph Picariello | #343 | July 29, 1976 | Three months |
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Edward Patrick Gullion | #344 | August 13, 1976 | Two months |
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Gerhardt Julius Schwartz | #345 | November 18, 1976 | Four days |
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Francis John Martin | #346 | December 17, 1976 | Two months |
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Name | Sequence Number | Date of Entry | Time Listed |
---|---|---|---|
Benjamin George Pavan | #347 | January 12, 1977 | One month |
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Larry Gene Campbell | #348 | March 18, 1977 | Six months |
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Roy Ellsworth Smith | #349 | March 18, 1977 | Three months |
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Raymond Luc Levasseur | #350 | May 5, 1977 | Seven years |
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James Earl Ray | #351 | June 11, 1977 | Two days |
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Willie Foster Sellers | #352 | June 14, 1977 | Two years |
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Larry Smith | #353 | July 15, 1977 | One month |
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Ralph Robert Cozzolino | #354 | October 19, 1977 | Three months |
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Millard Oscar Hubbard | #355 | October 19, 1977 | Two days |
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Carlos Alberto Torres | #356 | October 19, 1977 | Three years |
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Enrique Estrada | #357 | December 5, 1977 | Three days |
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Name | Sequence Number | Date of Entry | Time Listed |
---|---|---|---|
William David Smith | #358 | February 10, 1978 | Eight months |
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Gary Ronald Warren | #359 | February 10, 1978 | Three months |
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Theodore Robert Bundy | #360 | February 10, 1978 | Four days |
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Andrew Evan Gipson | #361 | March 27, 1978 | Two months |
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Anthony Dominic Liberatore | #362 | May 24, 1978 | One year |
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Michael George Thevis | #363 | July 10, 1978 | Four months |
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Charles Everett Hughes | #364 | November 19, 1978 | Three years |
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Ronald Lee Lyons | #365 | December 17, 1978 | Nine months |
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Name | Sequence Number | Date of Entry | Time Listed |
---|---|---|---|
Leo Joseph Koury | #366 | April 20, 1979 | Twelve years |
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John William Sherman | #367 | August 3, 1979 | Two years |
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Melvin Bay Guyon | #368 | August 9, 1979 | One week |
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George Alvin Bruton | #369 | September 28, 1979 | Three months |
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Earl Edwin Austin | #370 | October 12, 1979 | Five months |
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Vincent James Russo | #371 | December 24, 1979 | Six years |
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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 |
---|---|---|
Charles Lee Herron | #265 | 1968 |
Katherine Ann Power | #315 | 1970 |
Joseph Maurice McDonald | #339 | 1976 |
Raymond Luc Levasseur | #350 | 1977 |
Carlos Alberto Torres | #356 | 1977 |
Charles Everett Hughes | #364 | 1978 |
Leo Joseph Koury | #366 | 1979 |
John William Sherman | #367 | 1979 |
Earl Edwin Austin | #370 | 1979 |
Vincent James Russo | #371 | 1979 |
*Acting director
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