As a decade, the 1990s list stands out above others for its inclusion of a large number of highly notorious suspects, including several major terrorists, foreign and domestic. In 1993 and 1994, the FBI was scrutinized for its role in the Ruby Ridge and Waco incidents. In 1999, the most notorious suspect ever in American history, Osama bin Laden, was added to the list for the 1998 embassy attacks.
Although many 1990s terrorists have appeared on the top 10 list of fugitives, it was not until the aftermath of 9/11 in 2001 that the FBI began maintaining a separate list of Most Wanted Terrorists.
FBI 10 Most Wanted Fugitives to begin the 1990s
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.
The following fugitives made up the top Ten list to begin the 1990s:
• Removed from the list on March 31, 2007.[2] On July 14, 2017, remains found at the Dartmouth, Massachusetts home of Webb's wife were identified as belonging to Webb. Investigators stated that Webb had died in 1999.[3]
• Removed from the list in December 2000 for no longer meeting the list criteria. He is currently still at large, though has been presumed to be deceased.[6]
One spot on the list of ten remained unfilled from a capture late in the year 1989. It was filled in the first month of the last year of the decade in 1990.
FBI Most Wanted Fugitives added during the 1990s
The list of the most wanted fugitives listed during the 1990s fluctuated throughout the decade with some fugitives making reappearances on the list. In 1992, there were no additions made by the FBI to the list, for the second time in its history. As before, spots on the list were occupied by fugitives who had been listed in prior years, and still remained at large. The list includes (in FBI list appearance sequence order):[8][9]
Kenneth Robert Stanton was being hunted for molesting 11 underage girls after he went to their homes, gained their trust by pretending to be a police officer and showing a fake badge.[12] He was captured October 31, 1990 by FBI and York County Sheriff's Department.[13] He was featured on Unsolved Mysteries where over 150 viewers called in tips which lead to his arrest.[14]
Patrick Michael Mitchell was leader of the "Stopwatch Gang", that robbed multiple banks across Canada and the United States.[15] He was captured February 22, 1994 in Southaven, Mississippi and was imprisoned in the U.S. from 1994 until his death from cancer in 2007. He robbed the Deposit Guaranty Bank, Mississippi in February 1994.[16]
Jon Preston Settle
#433
August 9, 1991
Never published
Jon Preston Settle was wanted for his involvement in the murders of Andre Armstrong, James Brown, Lorretha Anderson, and her daughter, Chemise English, who was 2-years-old, at a crack house. Anderson’s 18-month-old son, Carlos English, was wounded in the attack but survived. He was one of twelve who planned the murders which came about due to a disagreement over distribution of cocaine in Pacoima.[17] The men were locked in metal cages and shot while Anderson, her son, and daughter were in a nearby car when one of his accomplices shot them.[18][19] He was arrested August 6, 1991 (before being published to the list) in Los Angeles.
Robert Michael Allen
#434
September 13, 1991
One year, 3 months
Robert Michael Allen was wanted for stalking and shooting his former employer, movie producer Roland Emr and his son at a Culver City intersection in 1991. When the police went to notify Emr's farther, they found him dead as well in a closet.[20] The motive was believed to be that Allen was cheated out of a producing deal with Emr.[21] He was found dead on December 23, 1992 in the California desert by three hikers alongside the bones of his girlfriend, Susan Lynn Calkins, who police believe he also killed.[22]
Mir Qazi, known by the FBI under the name Mir Aimal Kansi, was executed on November 14, 2002 by lethal injection in a Virginia state prison. Qazi was a fugitive in Afghanistan and Pakistan before being arrested after he was turned in by an informant, at his hotel in Dera Ghazi Khan, central Pakistan on June 17, 1997. He was wanted in the murder case of two CIA employees outside CIA headquarters at Langley, Virginia on January 25, 1993, during which three others were also shot and injured in their cars at the intersection.
Ramzi Ahmed Yousef is imprisoned at the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. He was convicted on November 12, 1997; sentenced to life January 8, 1998 of planning and execution of the 1993 WTC bombing in Manhattan, the mastermind behind the bombing. He was arrested in Pakistan February 7, 1995. Yousef had fled Manila, Philippines after the foiled Bojinka plot February 6, 1995 to bomb 11 U.S. airliners. He is the nephew of captured 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Also known as Abdul Mahmud Abdul Karim Basit
Joseph Martin Luther Gardner was wanted for kidnapping, raping, and killing 25-year-old Melissa McLauchlin alongside two other accomplices.[23] He was arrested on October 19, 1994 in Philadelphia. He remained incarcerated until he was executed in South Carolina, on December 5, 2008.[24]
Gary Ray Bowles was arrested on November 22, 1994 in Jacksonville Beach, Florida as a suspect in multiple murders. Bowles had been a drifter in and out of prison since 1981, and was arrested in Atlanta in August 1986. He was executed for his crimes on August 22, 2019, at Florida State Prison.
Gerald Keith Watkins
#439
March 4, 1995
Two months
Gerald Keith Watkins was wanted for killing his girlfriend, Beth Ann Anderson, her 9-year-old son, Kevin Kelley, and the couple's two week old daughter, Melanie Watkins. He has been imprisoned in U.S. since his arrest in Harlem on May 5, 1995.[25]
Juan García Ábrego has been imprisoned in U.S. since 1996. Currently imprisoned at Hazelton USP in West Virginia. Sentenced to 11 life terms on January 31, 1997; Convicted in Houston United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas October 16, 1996 of 22 counts of drug trafficking charges; Expelled to US by Mexico January 15, 1996; Arrested January 14, 1996 in Monterrey, Mexico; Indictment amended in 1996; Wanted on multiple murder charges in Mexico by 1995; Warrant issued and indicted September 1993 in Houston; Indicted in Dallas, Texas federal United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas in 1990. Wanted in US on drug conspiracy charges since 1986. He was the founder and drug boss of the Gulf Cartel, a drug trafficking organization in Mexico, before in arrest.
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan national imprisoned in Scotland, whose murder conviction was upheld by appeals court in March 2002. Sentenced to life in prison with possibility of parole after 20 years; convicted January 31, 2001; arrested in the Netherlands April 5, 1999. He was charged in part with "Conspiracy to Destroy a Civil Aircraft of the United States"; was wanted in the December 21, 1988 mass murder bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 259 passengers and crew members and 11 Lockerbie villagers, including nationals of the United States; Libyan intelligence agent, under cover as Chief of Airline Security for Libyan Arab Airlines. He was released on August 20, 2009 and allowed to return to Libya by the Scottish Government on compassionate grounds following doctors reporting on the August 10, 2009 that he had terminal prostate cancer and had less than three months to live.[26][27] He died in Tripoli, Libya on May 20, 2012.
Lamin Khalifah Fhimah was acquitted in Scotland January 31, 2001. He was arrested in the Netherlands April 5, 1999; charged in part with "Conspiracy to Destroy a Civil Aircraft of the United States" and wanted in the December 21, 1988 mass murder bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland which killed 259 passengers and crew members and 11 Lockerbie villagers, including nationals of the United States.
O'Neil Vassell is a US prisoner arrested on October 16, 1996 in Brooklyn, New York. He was wanted on 3 first-degree murder counts from June and July 1993 murders of three individuals in the Bridgeport, Connecticut area. Vassell had a history of assaults and drug charges; was a known member of the "RATs" Jamaican drug posse, was a drug user and had been known to carry a 9mm semi-automatic handgun.[28]
Rickey Allen Bright
#444
December 15, 1995
Three weeks
Rickey Allen Bright is a US prisoner who was arrested on January 7, 1996 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was wanted in the kidnapping and rape of a 9-year-old Wilkes County, North Carolina girl in October 1995; paroled after 13 years in January 1995 from North Carolina prison; was turned down twice for parole; sentenced to 15-to-life in North Carolina prison in 1981; was wanted in kidnapping and attempted rape of a 7-year-old girl in Gastonia, North Carolina in 1979
Agustín Vásquez Mendoza has been imprisoned since 2000 in Maricopa County, Arizona. He was arrested in Mexico July 9, 2000 for unlawful flight after being indicted in Phoenix, Arizona July 11, 1994 in murder of an undercover DEA special agent in Glendale, Arizona on June 30, 1994, during an undercover drug transaction, kidnapping, attempted armed robbery and assault in a drug conspiracy
Thang Thanh Nguyen has been imprisoned in U.S. since 1998 after being extradited to Rochester, New York January 6, 1998 from Bangkok, Thailand He was turned over to the FBI and transported from Vietnam; was arrested December 22, 1997 in Bac Lieu, Vietnam. Nguyen was charged by FBI with unlawful flight July 14, 1992 following an arrest warrant for his indictment in Monroe County, New York July 9, 1992; for an in home-invasion robbery and murder of his former employer, a Vietnamese businessman in Irondequoit, New York January 26, 1992.
Glen Stewart Godwin is being sought for his 1987 escape from Folsom State Prison in California, where he was serving a lengthy sentence for murder. Later he escaped from Mexican prison September 1991; murdered an inmate in Mexican prison April 1991; sentenced to prison in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1987. He was convicted for drug trafficking in Mexico in 1987; arrested for drug trafficking in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in 1987; escaped from Folsom prison June 30, 1987 through a storm drain.[29] As of May 19, 2016 he was no longer on the list.
David Alex Alvarez
#448
December 14, 1996
Five months
David Alex Alvarez is a Mexican prisoner who was arrested on May 20, 1997 in Tijuana, Mexico. He was wanted in murder of four people, including two young girls, and wounding of three other people, at Baldwin Park, California September 29, 1996. He was also wanted in a kidnapping in California, August 1996. He was paroled in 1994 after being sentenced to five years in 1992 following a conviction of battery and assault with a firearm in 1992.[30]
Andrew Phillip Cunanan committed suicide in a German millionaire's houseboat on Indian Creek Canal in Miami Beach, Florida July 23, 1997. He was wanted in shooting murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace outside his Miami Beach house July 15, 1997. Arrived in Miami Beach on May 10, 1997; wanted in shooting murder of Finn's Point Cemetery worker in Pennsville, New Jersey May 9, 1997; wanted in torture and stabbing murder of Chicago, Illinois real-estate developer Lee Miglin at his home May 3, 1997; wanted in shooting murder of another partner near Duluth, Minnesota around April 29, 1997; wanted in bludgeoning murder of partner in Minneapolis, Minnesota April 27, 1997.
Paul Ragusa
#450
September 6, 1997
Four months
Paul Ragusa has been imprisoned in the U.S. since 1998. He was arrested on January 30, 1998 in New York. He had cosmetic surgery in 1997 following an indictment on racketeering charges June 14, 1996. He was wanted in shooting of two security guards at a Chemical Bank branch in Maspeth, Queens, June 23, 1993; beating a burglar with a baseball bat on Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood, New York in 1990 (charges were dropped in the beating case); beating a stranger in a van in the face with a stick in Ridgewood, New York in March 1989.
Tony Ray Amati has been imprisoned in the U.S. since 1998. He was arrested on February 25, 1998 in Marietta, Georgia; wanted on federal warrant for Unlawful Flight December 1997; wanted in Las Vegas for three handgun murders May–August 1996.
Harry Joseph "Taco" Bowman was imprisoned in the U.S. from 1999, after being arrested June 7, 1999 in Sterling Heights, Michigan, until his death in 2019.[31] Indicted in Tampa in August 1997 for three murders; wanted in murder of an Outlaws member in Indiana in 1995; indicted for having ordered bombings of rival clubhouses in Orlando and in Cook County, Illinois in 1994; wanted in the murder of rival club member in Edgewater, Florida in 1991; wanted in the murder of an Outlaws member in Ormond Beach, Florida in 1982; former international president of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club in more than 30 cities in the United States and some 20 chapters in at least four other countries.[32]
Eric Robert Rudolph, a U.S. prisoner, was arrested in Murphy, North Carolina, May 31, 2003. He was charged on October 14, 1998 in a series of southeastern US bombings. Before being arrested, his last known contact was with a Mr. Nordman, and stole his pickup and supplies, 1998; his pickup was found abandoned at Murphy, North Carolina February 8, 1998; wanted in a bombing murder and maiming at a Birmingham abortion clinic January 29, 1998; wanted in a double bombing at a nightclub in Atlanta February 21, 1997; wanted in bombing at Atlanta family planning clinic January 29, 1997; wanted in a double bombing at office building in north Atlanta on January 16, 1997; wanted in a bombing murder at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, July 27, 1996.[33]
James Charles Kopp,[34] a U.S. prisoner, was arrested in Dinan, Brittany, France, March 30, 2001. He was wanted for the murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian at his home in Amherst, New York, October 23, 1998 and for non-fatal shootings of three doctors in Canada in 1994, 1995 and 1997.[35] Kopp was indicted in federal court in October 2000 for use of deadly force and indicted in NY state in June 1999 for second-degree murder; his 1987 Chevrolet Cavalier was found abandoned at Newark International Airport December 18, 1998 after he initially disappeared on November 3, 1998.
Usama Bin Laden[36] Full name: Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن
James J. Bulger was wanted for his role in 19 murders committed from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s in connection with his leadership of an Irish organized crime group that allegedly controlled extortion, drug deals, and other illegal activities in the Boston, Massachusetts area. He had a violent temper and was known to carry a knife at all times.
^"Progress record"(PDF). Times Online. Archived from the original(PDF) on February 21, 2011. Retrieved January 27, 2010. The clinical assessment, therefore, is that a 3 month prognosis is now a reasonable estimate for this patient.