The FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list originated during a card game between FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and a reporter who was curious about the most slyest of fugitives, the LA Times reports.
In 1949, Hoover gave the reporter a list of 10 names that would appear on the front page of the Washington Daily News, leading to the arrests of nine of the 10.
The fugitives were escapees, con men, accused murders and a bank robber, chosen from a list of 5,700 fugitives on the run, the LA Times reported.
A year later, the top 10 list was born and would later include Martin Luther King’s assassin, James Earl Ray; Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden; and serial killer Ted Bundy.
