Bank robbery is the criminal act of stealing from a bank, specifically while bank employees and customers are subjected to force, violence, or a threat of violence. This refers to robbery of a bank branch or teller, as opposed to other bank-owned property, such as a train, armored car, or (historically) stagecoach. It is a federal crime in the United States.
The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives is a most wanted list maintained by the United States's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, and William Kinsey Hutchinson, International News Service editor-in-chief, who were discussing ways to promote capture of the FBI's "toughest guys". This discussion turned into a published article, which received so much positive publicity that on March 14, 1950, the FBI officially announced the list to increase law enforcement's ability to capture dangerous fugitives. The first person added to the list was Thomas J. Holden, a robber and member of the Holden–Keating Gang on the day of the list's inception.
William Francis Sutton Jr. was an American bank robber. During his forty-year robbery career he stole an estimated $2 million, and he eventually spent more than half of his adult life in prison and escaped three times. For his talent at executing robberies in disguises, he gained two nicknames, "Willie the Actor" and "Slick Willie". Sutton is also known as the namesake of the so-called Sutton's law, although he denied originating it.
Clayton Lee Waagner is an American convicted bank robber and anti-abortion terrorist. He was born Roger Waagner in North Dakota. He was an escaped fugitive during the spring, summer and fall of 2001 and was the FBI's 467th fugitive to be placed on the Ten Most Wanted list for carjackings, firearms violations, and bank robbery on September 21, 2001. He was placed on the United States Marshals Service Top 15 Fugitives list for sending more than 280 letters that claimed to contain anthrax, which he mailed to Planned Parenthood with return addresses of the Marshals Service and the Secret Service beginning in October 2001. He is currently in prison.
In 1951, the United States FBI, under Director J. Edgar Hoover, continued for a second year to maintain a public list of the people it regarded as the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.
In 1952, the United States FBI, under Director J. Edgar Hoover, continued for a third year to maintain a public list of the people it regarded as the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.
In 1969, the United States FBI, under Director J. Edgar Hoover, continued for a twentieth year to maintain a public list of the people it regarded as the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.
Earl Edwin Austin was an American criminal and bank robber who had been listed on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list during the 1970s.
Jerry Lynn Young was an American criminal and bank robber, appearing on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list in 1967.
John Parsons is a criminal from Chillicothe, Ohio. He escaped from prison and was caught on October 19, 2006. He was wanted for an unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, escape, aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, weapons under disability, tampering with evidence and grand theft.
Gilbert James Everett was a Kansas bank robber whose crime spree in the Southeastern United States during the early 1980s resulted in him being listed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list for over four years.
Morris Lynn Johnson is a Kentucky-born criminal, whose crimes include armed robbery, escape and rescue, bank robbery, and assaulting a police officer. He was briefly listed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list in 1976.
Albert Frederick Nussbaum was a notorious 1960s-era bank robber and FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive. Nussbaum was born in Buffalo, New York. In the late 1950s, Nussbaum was arrested for possessing a Thompson Submachine gun and transporting unregistered weapons across state lines.
Nicholas George Montos was an American criminal, associate of the Chicago Outfit and a fugitive. Montos was the first person to be placed twice on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. At his death in 2008 aged 92, Montos was the oldest inmate in the state of Massachusetts.
Johnny Madison "The Shootist" Williams Jr. is one of the most successful bank robbers in American history. After his arrest on July 9, 1994, Williams confessed to 56 bank robberies across the states of California, Texas, and Washington state over an eight-year period, beginning in 1986, usually with the help of his wife, Carolyn, usually known as Carol. He kept a meticulous record of his heists, reporting his career total as $879,357.
Patrick Michael "Paddy" Mitchell of Ottawa, Ontario, was leader of the notorious "Stopwatch Gang" of bank robbers. Mitchell was on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's most wanted list for the Stopwatch Gang's bank robberies across the United States.
The Holden–Keating Gang was a bank robbing team, led by Thomas James Holden and Francis Lawrence Keating, which was active in the Midwestern United States from 1926 to 1932. Holden was described by a spokesman for the FBI as "a menace to every man, woman, and child in America" and was the first fugitive to be officially listed on the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted List in 1950.
John Allen Kendrick was an American criminal, escape artist, bank robber and member of the Tri-State Gang whose career spanned four decades. He was listed on the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted in late 1955, and was apprehended by the FBI that same year.
Frederick Grant Dunn (1905–1959) was an American criminal, burglar and bank robber whose career spanned over four decades from 1919 until his mysterious death in 1959. He led a small gang during the 1940s and 1950s, Dunn becoming referred to by the press as "the modern John Dillinger", and whose activities eventually resulted in his being listed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted in 1958.
Fred William Bowerman was an American bank robber and Depression-era outlaw.
