Wanted list works for F.B.I.

Press, 3 September 1986, Page 41

Wanted list works for F.B.I.

NZPA-AP Miami Twice recently, F. 8.1. agents went to their office bulletin boards and triumphantly slapped plastic stickers with the red letters “Captured" over photos of fugitives on their lists ot the 10 most wanted criminals in the United States. The list, begun in 1950, is the stuff of legend, and has become a fixture of crime shows and novels. It also reputedly has made life on the run so difficult for some criminals that they have turned themselves in.

Four hundred suspects have had their names and photographs emblasoned on the list which is plastered throughout the United States in police stations, post offices and other Government buildings. Of the 400, 375 have been caught and authorities attribute 111 of those arrests directly to the list. Most satisfying to the F. 8.1. was the recent capture in Jacksonville, 1050 km north of Miami,

of the man with the F.8.1.’s “most wanted” longevity record.

He was Charles Lee Herron who had been sought since 1968 on charges of killing two Tennessee policemen.

Herron’s record time at large is unusual in an era when computer networks, advanced communications and improved fingerprinting techniques have made life on the run increasingly difficult. Another former fugitive, Billy Ray Waldon, had been on the list only 30 days when caught after a minor traffic violation in San Diego. “With all the computers and paperwork today, it’s almost impossible to be a fugitive in this country,” grumbled Robert Lewis, who escaped Florida’s death row in 1978 only to be captured by the F. 8.1. in South Carolina two weeks later.

Lewis, whose death sentence was later reduced to life in prison, said in a recent interview at Flor-

Ida State prison that he had been making arrangements to flee to South America when he was captured. Computer crime-fight-ing networks developed in recent years allow a State trooper pulling over a speeding driver to learn within minutes whether the driver has any local outstanding traffic tickets, or is wanted on felony charges in a State on the opposite coast “Of course, the computers are a big help, because they provide instantaneous information concerning auto tags and driver’s licenses” and other information, said Daniel Horgan, the chief United States marshal for southern Florida.

Computerised fingerprinting can make the discovery of a single print enough to identify a fugitive.

But an important early innovation was simply making the list. Of the 25 people on the list who never were ap-

prehended, eight are still at large, charges were dropped against 13 and names of four were removed “because they no longer fit the criteria of being a menace to society or we don’t think the publicity would help,” said Kathy Bradford, an F. 8.1. spokeswoman in Washington. With Herron’s capture, the F. 8.1. list’s most veteran member is Leo Koury, wanted on murder charges since April 20, 1979.

The average stay on the F. 8.1. list before apprehension has been 157 days, the F. 8.1. says.

But veteran law enforcement officials caution that it is not impossible to be a fugitive. “I don’t want to give a course on how to be a successful fugitive, but if you are willing to totally remove yourself from past life contacts, friends, and relatives, this is a big country,” said Arthur Nehrbass, a long-time F.B.L agent who now

heads a police organised crime bureau. He said technology had not completely replaced old-fashioned, exhaustive investigation. “Ultimately in many cases, it’s going to be knocking on. doors and talking to people,” he said. ’ Herron, for example, was captured after William Garrin Allen, convicted in the same Tennessee police slayings but an escapee from prison since 1974, tried to use false identification to obtain a Florida driver’s licence. Troopers who went to the address Allen gave talked to a man there. After Allen had been identified by his fingerprints, the troopers looked at photos of his possible confederates and realised the man they had talked to was Herron. The officers went back to the house, and Herron surrendered peacefully early the next day.