TOP 10 NOTORIOUS FBI CASES: FROM THE ASSASSINATION OF JFK TO THE DISAPPEARANCE OF D.B. COOPER
Throughout the last century, the FBI has become synonymous with high-profile investigations conducted in the United States. The organization evolved at a time when the scale of crimes in the United States was growing exponentially. Led by J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI solved some of the most complex crimes of the 20th century, and here are some of the most high-profile probes that it has handled.
1. Osage County Murders
A time that was supposed to be the dawn of a new beginning for the Native American Osage tribe, following the discovery of oil on their land, turned out to be their worst nightmare. The Osage Allotment Act of 1906, clearly stated that subsurface minerals within the Osage Nation Reservation were tribally owned, as per The Osage Nation. They were to be held in trust by the U.S. government but the royalties from the sale of minerals were to be distributed equally to the allottee of the land due to the provision laid out by the act. After the allottee died, the share known as headright was then passed down to their next of kin, who could be a non-Osage member. This detail led to the deaths of several Osage headright holders between 1920 and 1925. To resolve these mysterious deaths, the FBI used undercover informants to uncover a murderous plot involving white Oklahoma residents who had married into Osage families to become next of kin. Agent Tom White, a former Texas Ranger led the investigation and entrapped the attackers led by Hale, dubbed the "King of Osage Hills", and orchestrated the killings to acquire the headright money. The case was the basis for the book Killers of the Flower Moon, which was later adapted to the screen by Martin Scorsese.
2. Medgar Evers' Assasination
The killing of Civil Rights Activist Medgar Evers was a significant event in American history that led to a much-talked-about probe by the FBI. It didn't take long for the organization to track down white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith as a person of interest since he had dropped the murder weapon. They used the evidence to arrest him and presented it before the court, but two all-white juries rejected it along with testimonies presented by the FBI. Both of them came back with no verdict, and the prosecution decided to wait for more evidence before making their third appeal to prevent acquittal, as per MEC. The case remained in limbo for three decades before local prosecutors approached the FBI for help in the '90s. The agency managed to locate key witnesses after all that time, and secured a conviction that led to Beckwith's imprisonment for life in 1994.
3. Abduction of Patty Hearst
Socialite Patty Hearst was abducted in 1974 by a radical outfit who called themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army. FBI found out that the objective behind the kidnapping was to gain publicity for their political goals and soon after the kidnapping, the group began to make several demands from Hearst's uber-rich family, which included donation of food worth millions. FBI themselves got involved in this donation drive to lure the criminals, while the SLA had plans to make Hearst their poster girl. She was brainwashed into joining their cause and was later spotted pulling off a bank robbery with the group. FBI launched one of the most massive searches in its history to bring Hearst back and to counter the propaganda. Things got harder as SLA threatened many informers into silence and used an organized network of safe houses. The FBI was finally able to reach the center of their network on May 16 when authorities followed two SLA operatives to their safe house. The next day the LA police ambushed the group in the safehouse and a shootout ensued, which led to the death of 6 prominent members of the group. They captured Hearst along with other members and charged her with bank robbery among other crimes.
4. Mystery of the Unabomber
The notorious Unabomber, later identified as Theodore Kaczynski, had terrorized the country for two decades by creating untraceable bombs and distributing them through the US postal system, as per the FBI. He first attracted attention by using a primitive homemade bomb to cause an explosion within the confines of a Chicago university. In the next 17 years, various bombs were sent by post or hand-delivered by Kaczynski in various locations across the country. The FBI first made connections between these devices when they noted design similarities between a bomb that exploded in the cargo bay of an American Airlines flight and another one that was sent to the president of United Airlines, according to a report published by History. The agency, unable to trace the perpetrator, became more aghast when Unabomber sent them an essay accepting his role in the bombings and explaining his hatred for modern society. FBI decided to use this letter against him and published it in a leading newspaper, following which Kaczynski's brother David, contacted the authorities and informed them about his brother Ted who had a similar style of writing and line of thinking. The FBI sprung to action, and captured Unabomber at a remote shack in Montana, after which he pled guilty to his charges and died in prison.
5. Oklahoma City Bombings
Oklahoma City Bombings to this date remain the worst act of domestic terrorism to happen in America, and US Army veteran Timothy McVeigh was identified as the main perpetrator in the bombings by the FBI. He made a powerful explosive with ingredients like agricultural fertilizer, diesel fuel, and other chemicals. On April 19, 1995, he rigged a rented Ryder truck with his bomb and parked it in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. After coming out of the car he ignited one fuse and then another. At precisely 9:02 a.m., the bomb exploded killing 168 people of which 19 were children, while several others were injured and almost 300 buildings in the area were damaged. FBI only took a day to locate the rear axle of the Ryder truck which showed the vehicle identification number, which led them to a body shop in Junction City, Kansas. The employees gave them a sketch and identified the man who rented the vehicle as Tim McVeigh. Just as they were about to ask for help to locate McVeigh from other agencies, the FBI found out he was already arrested by an Oklahoma State Trooper for a missing license plate, and a concealed weapon. FBI conducted 28,000 interviews and reviewed a billion tips to apprehend McVeigh, who was ultimately found guilty and sentenced to death.
6. The Disappearance of D.B. Cooper
Despite its stellar record, the FBI has been unable to solve the mystery of D.B. Cooper, a man who appeared out of thin air on November 24, 1971, bought a one-way ticket on Flight 305 under the name Cooper, and pulled off a mind-boggling heist. After the flight had taken off, he calmly informed the stewardess with a note that he had a bomb in his briefcase. He instructed her to sit with him and showed her a mass of wires and red-colored sticks resembling a bomb. Fearing for her life, the stewardess wrote what the man told her in a note and passed it to the captain. In the note, he demanded four parachutes and $200,000 in twenty-dollar bills. The authorities were informed and the ransom was arranged, which the hijacker exchanged for the passengers when the flight landed in Seattle. He then instructed the crew to fly the plane to Mexico City, and suddenly jumped off the flight with a parachute and the money. To this date, no one knows who Cooper was and where he landed, despite the FBI's extensive investigation with 800 suspects. It's possible that he died since landing with the help of parachutes from such a height requires a lot of training, but nothing can be said for sure.
7. The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
Speaking of mysteries, President John F. Kennedy’s assassination remains one of the cases that changed the course of history and left everyone with a lot of questions. An American President being killed in his own country was a serious cause for concern and all eyes were on the FBI. Agents immediately reached the scene after being informed of the assassination in the Dealey Plaza to collect evidence and to interview witnesses. The team conducted 25,000 interviews and ran down tens of thousands of investigative leads, all of which led to the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald who was identified as the sole shooter. The Warren Commission agreed with the Agency's findings and Oswald was arrested, only to be shot dead by nightclub owner Jack Ruby two days later.
8. Rosenberg Espionage Case
During the height of the Cold War Americans and people across the globe were anxious about the impact of a long-drawn silent battle between two superpowers. At such a sensitive time a set of secret messages from the USSR sent the entire country into a frenzy, as they pointed towards a spy network in the USA, that was sending confidential information back to the USSR. FBI soon got to work and its investigation led the agency to a nondescript engineer named Julius Rosenberg in New York through Los Alamos scientist Klaus Fuchs. His wife Ethel and brother-in-law were also arrested on the charge of espionage, although the Rosenbergs never confessed to the charges against them, even as they were executed in 1953. Documents revealed after the fall of the Soviet Union confirmed their guilt as per Eisenhower Library.
9. Tracking Down Bonnie & Clyde
Notorious couple Bonnie & Clyde are well-known figures in the American crime lore and remained a thorn in the FBI's side for a long time. As part of one of the first high-profile probes handled by the agency, it collaborated with local officials to capture the criminal duo high on adrenaline. Bonnie Parler and Clyde Barrow first attracted attention after a series of car thefts, but further investigation found that they had also committed murder across the country. Agents in eight cities collaborated and exchanged tips with each other to arrest the pair, and they were finally ambushed and killed in a remote corner of Louisiana in 1934.
10. Lindbergh Kidnapping
In 1932, the toddler Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr, son of famous aviator Charles Lindbergh turned up dead near his own home. He had been kidnapped months back and his abductors had demanded a ransom of $50,000. But even after the amount had been paid, the kidnappers didn't follow through and instead killed the child. President Herbert Hoover handed the investigation to the FBI after the discovery of the decomposing corpse shook the nation. With no evidence on the site except some muddy footprints and a broken ladder, the agency started surveillance for notes with serial numbers that were given as ransom. After a year the kidnapper fell in their trap and was identified as a German immigrant carpenter named Bruno Hauptmann. He used the notes to buy gas at a service station and was arrested, following which more notes with the concerned serial numbers were found in his garage. He was convicted and executed after the FBI presented proof that his writing matched that of the ransom note.