Post by 912thamwuser on Apr 7, 2013 0:35:10 GMT -5
AMW Capture Roster, 5th Century
Yehia Elham Badawi, #400, Jnr 28, 1996
He robbed a Pennsylvania supermarket, then shot at 3 police officers, wounding 1 one of them before fleeing on a bicycle. He was busted in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he'd been hiding since the robbery.
Fred Leonard Hansen, #401, Jnr 29, 1996
After he was paroled from San Bernardo County, California, in 1992, he befriended several people in Fontana, then sexually assaulted 3 of their daughters nearby where he lived out of his truck. In July 1995, he raped an 8 year old girl in Florida, and America's Most Wanted started producing the case that October when central California authorities found out. He was profiled on 1-27-996 and busted in Nevada 2 days later.
Ronald Anthony Collington (RELEASED), #402, Jnr 30, 1996
In October 1983, a Florida Highway Patrol officer tried to stop him. During the confrontation, he got cornered in a residential neighborhood, shot and wounded the officer, and ran off. He was busted in New York and sentenced to 2 decades in prison, but gain time laws got him out in 2006 after 1 decade. Once released, he was deported to another country.
Lisa Dawn Harris, #403, Fbr 5, 1996
When she was 21 years old, she and a crowd of people high on drugs accused a man of raping one of their clique. In retaliation, one of them stabbed the man to death with a claw hammer. She was the youngest woman to be sentenced to life without parole (or "semicapital punishment") in the state of Missouri back in her day. Eventually, she and Marti A Greer broke out of prison. AMW tipsters took Greer down in early 1991 (#146), and 4.8 years later, Harris was busted in Wyoming.
Michael Angelo Jendrock, #404, Fbr 8, 1996
In August 1995, he and some fellow skinheads realized their car had blown a rod, and took note of a young black man who lived 3 doors away. He and an accomplice named Kenneth Jay Kent broke into that house and demanded the man, who had experience working with cars, steal a Pontiac Grand Am, in order to assuage Jendrock's bitterness over the black man living in a house Jendrock's brother had recently been evicted from over defaults on bills. Jendrock and several accomplices spent that night drinking, smoking crank, and partying at random houses, but by 6:00 the next morning, Jendrock and Kent realized the victim still hadn't delivered the car. They deceived their way into the man's house, tied him and his roommate up with duct tape, and stole all their personal belongings, then Jendrock shot the black man dead. Two other killers were caught quickly but Jendrock and Kent fled. Kent surrendered at a rural-western bar in Las Vegas in mid to late January as an empty capture, and Jendrock was busted at his grandfather's house in Hesperia, California, having grown mid-length black hair.
Kimberly Hellems and James Worrall, #405/#406, Fbr 29, 1996
A couple of serial department store thieves. Their hit count, amount of money stolen, and MO are unknown. An AMW tipster in a Sears in Kentucky recognized her by the eccentric mannerism with which Hellems put a stick of gum in her mouth, and busted the couple near the entrance to the store.
Catherine Suh, #407, Mrc 8, 1996
In October 1987, she killed her mother by stabbing her in the back. In late September 1993, she convinced her brother to kill her boyfriend in Chicago. She'd tried to disguise herself as a girl of grandeur in Hawaii, buying her next boyfriend an expensive-looking ring, and lived fairly comfortably until America's Most Wanted joined the hunt. As she buckled under pressure from AMW, she left her boyfriend and surrendered at an FBI station, barefooted with tattered clothing. She was sentenced to life in prison.
Sarajini Lalla LeVine, #408, Mrc 10, 1996
On Halloween 1991, shortly after raising insurance on her 12 year old daughter, she torched their house in San Antonio, Texas, killing the girl. In October 1995, she stole money from a church to raise bond, then fled. She was busted in Crystal Beach, Texas, where she'd been renting property from an elderly couple. She was sentenced to 4 decades in prison for the murder plus 1 decade on theft and license fraud charges, with the possibility of parole in 13 years. She lost her case in 2009, and is unlikely to get an early release from prison before her sentence expires in 2045.
Juan Sanchez, #409, Apl 11, 1996
Busted in Mexico. Details are uncertain, but a man by the name Juan Sanchez Arreola, arrested that same day in the town of Ojinaga, was wanted for correspondence with The Unabomber, most likely as a material witness, for new leads in the Ted Kaczynski manhunt, or to help prosecutors build a case against Kaczynski. Sanchez-Arreola was pronounced dead in August 1997.
Gordon "Woody" Mower Jr., #410, Apl 13, 1996
An 18 year old arson suspect out of Richfield, New York. Near the end of March 1996, he gunned down his parents, then fled with his 14 year old girlfriend. He was busted in Dallas, Texas and the girlfriend was recovered safely. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Michael Eugene Moore, #411, Apl 19, 1996
In July 1994, his wife split up with him, and in May 1995, she was preparing divorce proceedings. During that child custody battle, cops in Virginia say he stabbed his wife 33 times over their impending divorce, badly wounding her, as their daughter begged him to stop attacking her. He then fled with their daughter. By early 1996, a man in Miami had taken him in and given him a construction job. On April 8, a tip to America's Most Wanted barely missed him, but helped recover the then 5 year old girl, but it took another 11 days to bust him in California. Within the next 1/4 century, he was charged with an unrelated assault and battery out of Virginia, then he was wanted for questioning in an armed robbery where the perpetrator tied up a woman and stole her car. A license plate reader recognized another stolen car and led to his re-arrest in Florida. No relation to the documentarian Michael Moore.
Jerome Frierson-Bey (RELEASED), #412, Apl 28, 1996
Arrested in New Jersey for 9 bank robberies, 3 kidnappings, and 1 prison escape. Further details are unknown, but he most likely was sentenced to about a century and a half in prison, but it somehow got reduced to 2 decades, after which he got out in 2016.
Gordon Herbert Hales, #413, Apl 28, 1996
In 1980, he had sex with his own 9 year old daughter in Broward County, Florida. He was busted in the Dominican Republic and sentenced to life in prison.
Frederick R Hutzenlaub, #414, Apl 29, 1996
A former insurance adjuster known for conning women out of money. In January 1995, he robbed a Suffolk County, New York bank and shot a police officer, but the victim survived. He was busted in Nevada.
Jae Sik Chang, #415, May 3, 1996
In January 1995, he and several cohorts burglarized a successful businessman's house in New Jersey. They forced their way under the garage door and stabbed the man's wife to death in an altercation. After his AMW airing, he surrendered in Missoula, Montana.
Dennis L "Chubb" Miller, #416, May 5, 1996
Towards the middle of 1995, he held a gun to his wife's head. After she convinced a Pennsylvania court to parole him early, he sexually murdered her that November. He was busted in Florida and condemned to death.
Christopher Lawrence Jeburk, #417, Jne 27, 1996
A serial bank robber, 19 years old at the time of his introduction on AMW. From October 1995 until he was caught, he robbed 11 banks and escaped from 4 prisons. He was busted in Georgia and is now serving life without parole.
Kareem Harris, #418, May 14, 1996
He robbed a body shop in New Jersey and fired at 3 people, wounding 1 of them. He was busted in New York. Further details are unknown.
Gregory LaMar Blackmon, #419, May 15, 1996
A person of interest in a murder. In 1993, he was named a person of interest in a failed attempt at another murder. In winter 1996, he robbed a restaurant, but got tackled and restrained. After being taken to jail, he lied about the severity of his injuries to earn a doctor's visit. Then, he overpowered the guards, and tried to shoot one officer, but forgot to disengage the safety. He was busted 2 months later in Florida and sentenced to between 12 1/2 and 14 years in prison. In January 2009, he got out, but that August, he committed one last armed robbery, for which a fed-up court sentenced him to life in prison. Despite much confusion over him, he has no relation to vegan fundamentalist bomber James Ray Blackmon who didn't go on the run until March 1997.
Curtis Dupree and Kelton Nakail Birdow, #420/#421, May 16, 1996
A crew of robbers carried out several bungled heists that involved ripping ATM machines off their foundations, loading them into trucks and vans, and speeding off, with their plans constantly getting foiled when the machines fell out behind them. After they were caught on camera unloading one of the machines under a street light, cops linked the crew to the robberies via a license plate that also fell off the truck. Police quickly rounded up everyone else in the crew, but Dupree and Nakail-Birdow got away. They were busted in Texas, and Dupree told AMW the producers, tipsters, and cops were good at their jobs. Since then, these robbers have become a planetary laughingstock, shown on various TV shows from World's Dumbest Criminals to Maury Povich. In 1998, police linked Nakail to a February 1994 double murder of a shift manager and a cashier at a Jack-In-The-Box that netted him $800 in cash, for which he was sentenced to 4 decades to life. Nakail-Birdow will be eligible for parole in 2038.
Mary Anderson (RELEASED), #422, May 19, 1996
Wanted for a string of bank robberies out of Michigan and busted in New York. She was sentenced to about 6 1/4 years in prison and got out in August 2002.
Leslie Isben Rogge, #423, May 18, 1996
A serial bank robber, fraudster, and stolen property smuggler whose crime wave started in 1978. After one of his earlier arrests, he bribed a corrections officer to let him escape. After that, he started another series of bank robberies. In January of 1990, he was added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted. By the spring of 1996, he was living in Guatemala. A teenager went to the FBI's website, sent a tip to amw.com, and as the FBI was expecting him to show up, he surrendered in an embassy. It was the first time the internet brought down an FBI Ten Most Wanted fugitive. He was sentenced to between 38 and 65 years in prison, and will be eligible for parole in 2034, but he was born in 1940, so it's somewhat unlikely.
Anthony Frank McKinley, #424, May 27, 1996
He was sentenced to life in a Mississippi prison for killing a man in an argument, but later escaped a local jail. He was busted in Louisiana and returned to his life sentence.
John Flaggs (RELEASED), #425, May 30, 1996
He was wanted for abducting his 4 year old son from Sacramento, California following a bitter divorce. He was busted still hiding out in California, but didn't appear to get any prison time.
Wayne Alfred Day, #426, Jne 21, 1996
A gang alpha of Los Angeles' Grape Street Crips. He trafficked multiple kilos of cocaine imported from Mexico. He was busted in Nevada.
Stacey Ann Sapp, #427, Jly 26, 1996
When police in Georgia knew she was driving drunk, they tried to pull her over, but she swerved to avoid them and picked up speed until the pickup truck flipped over several times, mortally wounding her 18 year old passenger. She was sentenced to roughly 8 years in prison, before initially getting out in 2003. Since then, she's constantly been entrapped in legal trouble, mostly for shoplifting and driving without a valid license.
Roland Lavar "Ramadan" Campbell, #428, Jly 30, 1996
A member of New York's Forty Thieves armed robbery gang. Starting in June 1991, he robbed 7 banks and post offices on the gang's behalf, and that October, a task force took down most of the gang, but Campbell slipped away, likely the most dangerous of them. That December, after getting picked up on drug charges out of Maryland, he altered his appearance and disguised himself as a fellow inmate who was nearing release, in order to escape. He was busted in Costa Rica after 3 profiles on the show and sentenced to 155 years in prison.
Randy Eugene "Igor" Keyes (DECEASED), #429, Ags 5, 1996
A Montana drug dealer, who himself had been addicted to many drugs since a college football injury, from opioids to methamphetamines. In 1994, a rival dealer in Billings opened fire at him in a drive-by shooting, and Keyes gave chase with his truck. Keyes fired back, not knowing a woman was riding in his rival's car. She was killed, and 2 other people were wounded. He was busted in El Paso, Texas, had a Charismatic experience, joined a prison ministry program, and dedicated his life to becoming a minister. In exchange for testifying against his rival, he pled guilty to reckless endangerment, served 1.8 year in prison and 4 years on house arrest, then worked as a long-haul truck driver during his parole. He ministered to several people during his various stops, including the very same rival dealer who was serving time in Atlanta before his transfer to another prison. Everything went smoothly until 2005, when he was caught with a firearm and sent to federal prison for 4 years. Since 2009, he stayed out of any further trouble with the law, but died in a motorcycle wreck in October 2016.
Paul Anthony DeJongh (DECEASED), #430, Ags 23, 1996
Throughout 1995, he and several others rented an apartment in Knoxville, Tennessee. They spent a lot of time partying, including with a pool full of plastic spheres similar to those found in fast food ball pits. By the end of that year, something went wrong, and they were all evicted. In January 1996, DeJongh killed one of the men with 2 gunshots to the head and left the body in the apartment. He was busted at a home construction site in Georgia and sentenced to life in prison. By the end of the decade 201X, he was dead.
David Matthew Fitzpatrick, #431, Spt 10, 1996
The Unknown New Mexico Motel Tape Child Rapist. In 1992, this former stand-up comic drugged and sexually videotaped 2 preteen girls. After the then-unknown rapist checked out of a motel, he accidentally left the videotape behind, and a motel clerk found it, thus opening an unsolved case. About 4 years later, an AMW viewer identified Fitzpatrick as the suspect. A time share office he worked at in Mexico sacked him, so he fled to Puerto Vallarta, where he was apprehended.
Vincent Duane Martin, #432, Spt 17, 1996
A meth trafficker from the New Mexico prairie. He was notorious for brutally punishing his manufacturers via physical torture. In December 1995, cops stormed his trailer, confiscating some guns, vehicle ID change plates, weed, and 1/4 pound of meth. After making bail, he vowed to find out who set him up and retaliate. In January 1996, he and an accomplice kidnapped a woman from a party and shot her to death because he was falsely convinced she was the snitch. At first, no-one even knew the victim's last name... except her daughters, who knew something was amiss when she didn't show up for a critical family reunion. In June, buzzards led a farmer to her body. He was busted in New York.
Donzel Mignott (DECEASED), #433, Oct 24, 1996
He escaped from a Brooklyn prison during his trial on 2nd degree murder charges, after killing a man in an argument when a street craps dice game went sour. He was busted in Virginia. His fellow escapee, a convicted armed robber, was nabbed as an empty capture. Mignott was convicted of multiple charges, including the murder, and sentenced to 1/3 century to life. His earliest chance at parole would've been in circa 2029, but he died of natural causes in late May 2015.
Noble Cunningham (RELEASED), #434, Nvb 7, 1996
The only criminal in the capture roster sought for crimes against the environment. Starting in 1979, he'd illegally stored at least 280 tons of barium chromate on his farm in Ohio. It's a carcinogenic byproduct of the family business which sold machines that removed chrome from manufacturing plants' wastewater. The chemical was found in rusting, corroded metal barrels, following an empty promise he made to take it in for recycling. In September 1986, the county granted PetroGas digging rights to lay a natural gas pipeline which cut through Cunningham's property. That ended in Cunningham shooting and destroying county machinery with his shotgun in an attempt to keep sheriffs away from the sludge, which had made his neighbors' running water taste strange and even infected a young girl with lymph node cancer. In July 1988, the Ohio state EPA ordered Cunningham to clean it up, at a 100 Grand expense to the Cunningham family. By 1989, he'd discovered a gas log manufacturing company in Atlanta whose owner knew Cunningham's sister, but when the barium chromate's chemical properties didn't fit what Cunningham promised, the deal fell through. Noble asked for a 5 Grand check and a fake purchase order to prove to Noble's brother that his time in Georgia went to some good use. In 1989, while his family argued in court that barium chromate wasn't a toxic waste under EPA jurisdiction due to its possible subsequent industrial applications, he rented several tractor trailers to sneak the toxic waste into Atlanta, deceiving the drivers into thinking the cargo was legal. A relentless barrage of containers showed up at the gas log company over 3 weeks, but the owner knew something was off because the trucks never arrived during the mid-day, and the initial scheme unraveled. That June, Noble tricked a garbage truck driver into hastily moving the waste to the Atlanta city dump. However, the truck wasn't meant to carry that heavy of loads, and the tires went flat. The driver was soon fired, the toxic mess drove the gas log company bankrupt after less than a year, and taxpayers lost a whole Megadollar overall. Cunningham fled, but court rulings in Ohio and Georgia had the Cunningham family company convicted in October 1994. He was busted in Ohio, where he could've faced 2 decades, but was only sentenced to just over 4 years in a federal prison. He got out 2 days before December 2000.
Alan Eugene White, #435, Nvb 9, 1996
The lead story on the first broadcast of America Fights Back, and one of John Walsh's earliest Public Enemy #1s. In Salina, Kansas, in July 1996, he bludgeoned a 5 year old boy and his great grandmother to death, and sexually murdered the elderly woman's daughter. He was busted in Boston, Massachusetts 4 months after the massacre, watching a movie in a homeless shelter. He was spared the death penalty, but got a 14 decade sentence with no chance of parole.
Edwin Joseph Arendes (DECEASED), #436, Nvb 18, 1996
A formerly beloved elderly handyman. In August 1991, he raped a 5 year old girl in a Texas home where he'd worked. He was busted in Florida and sentenced to 4 decades in prison, but he died in April of 2007. His family didn't claim the body, so he was buried in the prison's designated cemetery.
Jeffrey K Sibley, #437, Nvb 23, 1996
A wannabe hitman. In July 1996, he lured a young man into a forest in Maine, then shot him execution style for reasons unknown. AMW tips led to Valley City, North Dakota, where he'd just checked into a hotel. He was seen sleeping like a baby, and was arrested very silently, especially for an aspiring hitman.
Joseph Matthew Mrozek, #438, Dcb 1, 1996
In July 1990, he was facing an impending breakup. After a night out on the town, he shot her to death while uttering the cliche phrase of jilted Casa Novas, "If I can't have her, no-one will!" His case got caught in a legal error, and a mistrial was declared. His new trial was scheduled for September 1993, but he'd fled. AMW busted him in Lakewood, Tennessee, where he'd just been hired at a restaurant. He was arrested while sleeping in bed with his latest girlfriend.
Ronald Mark Robb (RELEASED), #439, Dcb 13, 1996
A sideshow barker for a traveling carnival, known for a metal plate in his forehead which he frequently stuck magnets on as a trick. In June 1995, he and his coworker had too much to drink in New York. They raped and tortured a good samaritan, and tried to finish her off by tying her to a tree and leaving her to die from starvation and the elements. She survived the attack, and the partner-in-crime was arrested but Robb fled. Following AMW tips, cops in Toronto, Canada brought him from the funhouse to the big house. He was convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison, but towards the middle of 2014, he got out a few months early, after which he registered as a sex offender forever.
Asa King, #440, Dcb 18, 1996
In 1977, he was only 17 years old when he killed a man in New Jersey. In October 1995, he escaped from prison. In September 1996, he joined forces with his 16 year old cousin to rob a bank, then went on the run for the last time, vowing never to be taken alive. After his airing, AMW tipsters chased him out of Atlanta, but another tipster busted him outside a store in Detroit, Michigan. He went down spitting at the camera crew. If he wouldn't have escaped, he would've been eligible to get out in 2021, but it's highly unlikely it was ever granted.
Lloyd Earl Grass, #441, Jnr 5, 1997
In October 1992, he stabbed his wife to death in Missouri during a hallucination in which he saw a minion of Satan in her place. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He escaped a St. Louis mental hospital in August 1996. He fled to New York City and found work as a telemarketing sales agent. He was caught sound asleep at 200 Hours in the morning.
Nathaniel Crockharn, #442, Jnr 14, 1997
A serial New Orleans, Louisiana convenience store robber. He was convicted in 1982, escaped prison in 1983, and went on a burglary spree in Alabama a week later. At the time of his airing, he'd last been seen on Christmas of 1995. AMW tips led to his girlfriend's house in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he'd just returned to. He was caught hiding behind a refrigerator. It's believed he's now serving 115 years in prison.
Charles Zimmerman, #443, Jnr 14, 1997
A Philadelphia career criminal. In December 1996, he robbed a jewelry store. Despite one clerk complying with his demands, Zimmerman shot him, crippling the man for life. AMW led cops to Redding, California, where he'd been holed up in a Motel 99. Luckily, they apprehended him before any shots could be fired. His sentence was unknown, but there is an unconfirmed rumor he may have been beaten to death shortly before his projected release.
Alan Ray "Big Red" Crook, #444, Dcb 26, 1996
A 17 year old gang banger. In February 1992, his gang associates shot up a slumber party in San Antonio, Texas, killing 1 teenage girl and wounding 7 other people. He was sought for driving the getaway vehicle. He may have never left San Antonio, and surrendered there when he found out he was scheduled for an airing. He got 35 years for his role in the shooting.
Terry Pelletier (RELEASED), #445, Jnr 23, 1997
In April 1983, he got into an argument during a pool game in a Florida bar. During the late hours of that night, a shot rang out, the other man was dead, and the gunshot was easily traced back to Pelletier. By the time of his airing, he'd fled to a bordering country. After the airing, he booked a flight to Miami for the sole purpose of surrendering, even though he knew he faced death row. However, the District Attorney felt they had nothing on him, so they gave him a plea deal for 2 years of house arrest and 8 years probation, which he successfully completed.
Edwin Oswald "Black Ed" Smith, #446, Jnr 29, 1997
A crooked high school dropout, infamous throughout the neighborhood as willing to do anything to elevate his reputation in the Crips. In January 1984, he broke into a high school in South Central Los Angeles, looking for Bloods to fight, and got into a gang shootout where one Blood and an honor roll high school student, the latter of whom the Boston Red Sox were scouting and UCLA had just accepted, were killed. For almost a decade, Edwin and his associates made particularly strong threats to kill anyone's family who spoke up, and in April 1984, the case against him was dismissed, with no-one having bothered to tell the younger victim's mother about the court date. In January of 1993, a woman with a great track record of cracking cold cases was assigned to take over, reigniting the manhunt. In October 1993, Edwin, now a seasoned cocaine trafficker, was connected to a 3rd man's murder, and a witness finally came forward after a speech at a halfway house. In November 1994, the new detective built a new case against Edwin. Despite a fake ID and weight gain, he was busted in Lancaster, California without incident as he was driving a red Camaro. He got a life sentence, with the possibility of parole in 49 years at the soonest.
Joni Denise Nellems, #447, Fbr 10, 1997
In May 1995, she led 3 accomplices to an acquaintance's home in Peoria, Illinos, burglarized it, and beat the victim up, all because she felt like it. How much property might've been stolen is unknown. Police quickly rounded up the accomplices, but Nellems got away. After her airing, she was busted in Anderson, Indiana. She'd been rolling up clothing with the intent to run from the AMW tipsters. She served about 3 years in prison, but has been in and out of jail for crimes like retail theft, brought about by a serious drug problem.
Christopher Daniel "Tree" Burgess, #448, Fbr 16, 1997
On Christmas Eve 1996, he was put in charge of watching over a 1 1/2 year old girl in Sacramento, California. When she had a toilet training accident, he flew into a rage. He slammed her head through a wall, threw her down a flight of stairs, and pounded a huge dent into her head with a metal spoon, then calmly bathed and dressed her, then put her to bed where she stopped breathing and died. Sacramento law enforcement described it as breaking the record for most violent crime against a child they'd ever investigated. He was busted in West Chicago, Illinois, holed up in his grandfather's house, and was sentenced to 6 decades to life.
Brittany "Angel Eyes, Satan's Daughter" Marlowe Holberg, #449, Fbr 17, 1997
A topless dancer and crack addict. In Nvb. 1996, she disguised herself as a damsel in distress in order to ruse her way into an old Amarillo, Texas man's apartment. After trying to rob it, she stabbed and beat him with 10 different utensils and appliances, administering the finishing blow with a kitchen knife. The body was found with a lamp pole crammed more than 5 inches down his throat. In February of 1997, a tipster directed cops to an airport in Memphis, Tennessee where she was performing topless dances. They set up a purchase, lured her to a McDonald's not far away, and busted her. She's since been condemned to death.
Huriberto O'Neill Jr, #450, Fbr 19, 1997
A 16 year old punk. In November 1994, he killed a former gang banger turned college painting student in Hartford, Connecticut. He escaped prison in June 1995. By the time of his airing, he'd fallen in with a local gang in Chicago, Illinois. He was recognized by his frequent loitering.
Alex Lucero, #451, Fbr 27, 1997
A paroled murderer. After getting addicted to heroin and cocaine, he committed a spree of between 17 and 40 robberies in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was busted living on a horse farm in Adams County, Colorado.
Charles Edward Manley (DECEASED), #452, Mrc 10, 1997
A tall bully and moocher. In March 1995, he killed a school teacher with an execution style gunshot when she forced him to move out of her Las Vegas home. In January 1997, he skipped his preliminary hearing. He didn't last through the winter; After his daughter called her mother from a phone in a New Jersey motel, an AMW tipster busted him snoozing. He reached for his gun, but they took him down before he could grab it. In September 1997, he was soon convicted and condemned to death, but because of prosecutors abusing lawyer-and-client privilege, the conviction and sentence were overturned in June of 1999. He was convicted in a new trial, then in 2001, he died of Hepatitis C. In 2008, DNA linked him to an older unsolved murder from back in 1976, and it may take many more decades before detectives are sure how many other people he may have murdered.
Christian Rodriguez, #453, Mrc 7, 1997
The Unknown Lawrence Austin killer. Austin was the owner of a special one-of-a-kind movie theatre that specialized in silent movies and vintage film, with a mission of developing appreciation for such old-time fare. A man named James Leslie Van Sickle stood to inherit the theatre and its fortune from Lawrence Austin, but wanted to claim it early, so in January 1997, he hired a man named Christian Rodriguez to kill him. Van Sickle quickly went down for the murder, but wouldn't tell anyone who the hitman was. AMW tips identified Rodriguez as the killer, busting him in California.
Joel Orlando Benson (RELEASED), #454, Mrc 21, 1997
He was only 15 years old when he took part in a home invasion where his co-conspirators raped and robbed several women. He was identified serving time in Richmond, Virginia on newer charges. Due to his lesser role in the crimes and his young age at the time of the offences, he struck a plea deal with the District Attorney, confessed to the robbery charges, and served a few years in prison, most likely having gotten out in the early 00-Agents' decade.
Derald and Gerald Bernard Richardson, #455/#456, Mrc 22, 1997
The only pair of twins in AMW's capture roster. In September 1991, these Fort Worth, Texas drug enforcers robbed an old man who drove through their turf. They stomped on him and crushed his throat. The victim was terminally wounded and died in the winter of 1993. In February 1996, they managed to earn low bails, but fled after posting bond. AMW tips led cops to nearby Houston, where the manhunt ended after a car chase. Derald was caught in his common-law wife's apartment with another criminal in an unrelated case, and Gerald was caught without incident in his apartment.
Donald Brouillette, #457, Apl 7, 1997
A serial stalker, arsonist, and police impersonator. In February 1996, he broke into the backyard of his ex-girlfriend's home in Louisiana, then shot and killed her brother. He was busted staying in Houston, Texas' Midtown Lodge, sunbathing.
Eugene Ross, #458, Apl 9, 1997
A gang alpha. In December 1994, he led several of his underlings to bind, torture, and execute a man. Many hardened police officers described the scene as particularly shocking: The man had been shot several time, beaten and stabbed, torched, and a thumbnail was broken off. In September 1996, he escaped from a prison in Illinois. He was busted walking the streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Frank Whitman, #459, Apl 12, 1997
He was arrested for molesting his own granddaughter in Washington, but fled his sentencing in January 1996. He was busted in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he'd managed to establish a reputation as a kindly elderly neighbor.
Bobby Lee Gilkey, #460, Apl 17, 1997
In July 1990, he robbed a Safeway store in Arapaho County, Colorado, then led cops on a high-speed chase. When his truck blew a tire, he opened fire at 2 police officers, but missed. He was busted in Dallas, Texas and sentenced to 2 decades in prison. He was paroled some time in 2015, set to expire in April 2020.
Thomas Bimbo Jr., #461, Apl 22, 1997
He disguised himself as a utility worker, broke into several elderly people's homes, and robbed them. He was busted in New Jersey, then struck a plea deal with prosecutors where he returned 42 Grand in stolen money to his victims.
Curtis Allen Hemphill, #462, May 10, 1997
By the spring of 1997, he'd been named John Walsh's 10th most wanted fugitive still at large. Shortly before Halloween 1996, he kidnapped, tortured, and stabbed his ex-wife and a police officer she was dating in California, but luckily they survived. He was busted outside a bar in Ensenada, Mexico, where he'd been working as an exotic dancer. In 2012, he was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in a fellow inmate's death.
Aaron Edward Borrero and Elizabeth Hernandez (both RELEASED), #463/#464, May 16, 1997
Two suspects in unrelated failed-attempted murders who joined forces to go on the run. Borrero was originally sought for abducting and hogtying a man, then throwing him into the Yakima River after a drug deal fell through. His victim survived by grabbing onto a tree branch sticking out of the river bank. Elizabeth was sought for luring, shooting, and wounding her ex-husband under a Seattle highway overpass in March 1997, then abducting her young son. They were busted in an abandoned house in the town of Visala in Tulare County, California. Hernandez was pregnant, but her older son was recovered safely. Hernandez served 8 years in prison, getting out in circa 2005, and Borrero served 16 years, getting out in circa 2013. They ended their relationship cordially, have remained friends, and they even have social media accounts suggesting they've truly reformed.
Donald Sattler, #465, May 18, 1997
A high school dropout. In November 1990, he burglarized a Columbus, Ohio home, kidnapped a 4 year old girl, and stole their van. The intent was to extort a ransom, but he abandoned her in the middle of nowhere before he could carry it out. Luckily, she was recovered safely. He knocked on the door of someone who happened to see him on America's Most Wanted, and the house's owner sent the tip to law enforcement. Sattler had run and hid in a nearby ditch, where he was taken into custody.
Rosendo Gutierrez Rojero (RELEASED), #466, May 13, 1997
In 1987, he molested his 4 stepdaughters in Maryland. He got away with it until he molested the girls again in 1993. Some freight workers from Tennessee saw his airing on AMW, and led cops to Mexico where he was busted. Extradition took just under a week, and he served about a decade in prison.
David Alex "Spooky" Alvarez, #467, May 20, 1997
A former pesticide technician on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted. A month after kidnapping his ex-wife, he sought revenge on her and her family after their divorce. In September 1996, in Los Angeles, he and a few accomplices kidnapped 10 people, 4 of them children, and soon shot them up. 2 men and 2 preteen girls died, 3 hostages were wounded, and 3 escaped unharmed. He was busted eating Chinese food for lunch in Tijuana, Mexico, and claimed he was being falsely accused the next day. That November, a young woman who conspired in the murders was captured without AMW, and soon sent to lifer's row. Unfortunately, Mexico refused to extradite Alvarez, and only agreed to try him because 2 of the victims were Mexican nationals. He's serving 9 decades in prison, and in the summer of 1998, he was transferred to a more secure prison after killing a fellow inmate.
Edward Lawrence Myers (DECEASED), #468, May 22, 1997
A rarely-employed drunkard and wife beater. In 1974, he distracted his stepchildren by directing them to a candy store, then shot their mother dead. In September 1996, he kidnapped his girlfriend in Ohio and stabbed her repeatedly, threatening to kill her. She was grotesquely wounded and dropped into tall brush, but a stray dog licked her over and over again to help her trudge to safety. He was hiding out with a woman in Kenton, Ohio when AMW tips led cops there. She mistakenly said "Ed", confirming he was hiding in that house. When he was arrested, he fell sick with intense cardiac trouble. In November 1997, he died on the operating table before medical personnel could operate on his heart.
Bobby Wayne Jones (RELEASED), #469, Jne 7, 1997
A worker at Amy Rica DeChant's commercial cleaning company. For helping her clean up after her boyfriend's murder in the summer of 1996, he was charged as a material witness. He was busted there in Nevada, sentenced to 3 1/2 to 5 years in prison, and got out in 2001. His leads sped up the hunt for DeChant and got AMW tipsters ready to roll on her, but it would take another 7 1/2 months to bust her as Capture #500.
Nan Farwell (RELEASED), #470, Jne 11, 1997
A corrupt public servant turned micro-economic fraudster. America's Most Wanted speculated that she might've been bored with her 3-letter palindromic name and was seeking a cheap thrill. She was wanted for bad checks, forgery, and theft out of Spokane, Washington. Her M.O. was to exploit her position as a licensing worker to steal several other women's identities, open fraudulent bank accounts under their names, and write worthless checks. 80 Grand had been lost, and most of the money was spent on luxurious items like jewelry. One innocent woman was even fired from her job and thrown in jail because her name got linked to some of Farwell's crimes. In February 1991, she fled forgery and misappropriation charges. An AMW tipster said she'd just been caught hiding in Mexico illegally, and the Mexican government was expelling her, after which she was busted in San Diego, California, near the US/Mexico border. After cheating that one victim out of her very freedom, courts had the audacity to give her a slap to the wrist and just under 5 years in prison.
James Allen Reed (RELEASED), #471, Jne 23, 1997
Over about a decade, he'd assaulted and wounded 7 police officers in feeble attempts to kill them. In July 1996, he got more violent, bludgeoning and wounding an officer in Kansas with a wooden club, causing bone fractures. He was foolish enough to ask for his old construction job back in Breckenridge, Colorado. An AMW tipster saw through his plea and busted him. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison, and got out in 2009.
Jamie Jarold McMahan (DECEASED) and Christopher Michael Kauffman, #472/#473, Jne 30, 1997
Partners in crime who shared the title of John Walsh's Public Enemy #1 for the last week of June 1997. Towards the middle of that month, the two committed a drug-fueled crime spree. They shot 2 women to death in Mahaska County, Iowa, stole the younger victim's car, and robbed a bank at gunpoint. They were busted in Florida and sentenced to 5 life terms. In mid-November 2017, McMahan hanged himself in his cell at Florence ADX SuperMax in Colorado.
Kenneth D'Cunha, #474, Jnr 28, 1997
A disgraced orthodontist. He was expelled from the orthodontics trade for his role in a huge child pornography network. Some of his worst crimes are drugging at least 3 young boys with narcotics and sodomizing them. At the end of January 1997, he was arrested in New Zealand. Thanks to information supplied by an AMW viewer, they secured an extradition warrant and flew him back to New York to face justice over 5 months later.
Bryan Richard Roser (DECEASED), #475, Jly 16, 1997
A serial sex offender. In 1985, he molested his own son and raped a 9 year old girl in Pennsylvania. It's likely he abducted and sexually murdered another 9 year old girl. In July 1997, a few days after his airing on America's Most Wanted, a tipster found his body at a campsite in North Carolina. He had hanged himself.
Tony Ross (DECEASED), #476, Jly 19, 1997
A member of a transient train crashing robbery gang. He was once believed to have slashed 2 men's throats. In October 1995, one of the bodies was found on a grain farm in Saginaw, Texas. When AMW picked up the case, they knew him as John Stanley "Dogman Tony" Boris. An AMW tipster knew his other name, Tony Ross, and busted him in La Crosse, Wisconsin, very shortly after his release from jail on other charges. The star witness got hit by a train before they could bring Ross to trial, then the case against him collapsed, and the charges were dropped. In spring 2012, he passed away.
Paul Wesley Taylor, #477, Jly 21, 1997
The Unknown Dean Phillips killer. On Christmas 1990, a laundromat in Texas was robbed, $30 in quarters were stolen, and a man born in circa 1908 had been fatally beaten and left in the building. After AMW aired the case, a tipster told a Utah corrections department that a man named Paul Wesley Taylor, imprisoned there on escape charges, killed Dean Phillips. A fingerprint test confirmed it.
John Steven Huggins, #478, Jly 8, 1997
The Unknown Carla Larson killer. In June 1997, a woman had been abducted from a Florida supermarket, and the body was quickly found. She had been strangled, and her jewelry had been stolen. Right after the murder, a DisneyWorld tourist named John Steven Huggins returned home with his wife, and started acting strangely. The wife knew it was no coincidence that the murder happened while the couple was at DisneyWorld and sent in the tip. Cops busted him in Maryland. Today he sits on Florida's death row.
Hector Christian, #480, Ags 5, 1997
He was sought for molesting and abducting his 2 daughters and step-daughter in Las Vegas, Nevada. He abducted 2 of the girls, taking them on the run with him while abandoning his other daughter. He was busted in Harden County, Montana, and the victims were taken into protective custody.
Patrick Floyd Wilson, #481, Ags 31, 1997
An illegal Jamaican immigrant. In late August 1996, a woman paid him 3 Grand to shoot another woman dead in Virginia. He was busted in a Takoma, Maryland apartment, where he'd been hiding out with his brother, a fugitive sought in an unrelated case.
Dereck Owens, #482, Spt 7, 1997
In the California town of Lompoc, he and several others robbed a bank. A man with crutches and a woman walked into the bank in the middle of the heist, and one of the robbers shot the man in the leg. The woman tried to run away, but another robber chased her into the parking lot and shot her to death. All of the robbers were quickly caught but Owens and partner in crime Shauncy LaMont "Jungle Blood" Bowen got away. After the AMW airing, Owens surrendered right there in California, telling officers AMW did a great job in capturing him, and Shauncy was soon nabbed as an empty capture.
Juan Jesus Fleitas, #483, Ags 3, 1997
In 1985, he killed a college student during a robbery with a gunshot to the face. In January 1995, he and 5 other inmates burrowed out of a Florida prison. Police quickly rounded up the other prison breakers, but Fleitas made a solid getaway. AMW tips led law enforcement to Merida, Mexico, where he'd gotten in an argument with 2 others in a backyard, where he was busted and returned to lifer's row.
Jack Volgares and Mona Gamble Volgares, #484/#485, Spt 20, 1997
Jack was an avid motorcyclist until 1990 when he lost a leg in a wreck, and suspected child molester named John Walsh's Public Enemy #1 in the summer of 1997. Mona was a recovering alcoholic who had her first child in 1985 at roughly 16 years old. In August of 1989, she gave birth to her second child, Seleana Marie Gamble, who promptly got taken out of her custody by social services in Florida due to roach infestations and an absence of food in her home. In the early 1990s, Jack and Mona got married, and in 1993, she completed a course in better parenting, but it was all a front, as the father suspected Mona of taking Seleana to a bar before she was in kindergarten. Jack, Mona, and Seleana moved to Ironton, Ohio, near the state border to Kentucky, in 1995. Mona was training for a certification in dietary specialty in June 1997 when Jack fatally wounded Seleana by throwing her into a wall and buried her body in a trash can in his brother's backyard with her dog's corpse. Mona abruptly quit her training in mid August, raising suspicion by the health center's administration that Jack wanted Mona out of work forever. Mona concocted a crazy story about the cost of driving Seleana to an airport in Columbus, and told people who asked that Seleana was visiting the biological father in Florida. This enabled them to flee justice, but the father didn't buy it because Seleana never arrived at the airport when he anticipated. That August, they fled the home with her other 3 children and abandoned a van at a gas station a few blocks down from the crime scene. 29 minutes after their airing, AMW tips busted them in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where they'd been working together on a roofing job. The remaining children were recovered safely. Jack was later sentenced to 37 years in prison with a projected release date in 2034 at the soonest, and Mona got 1/4 century. In the winter of 2019, she petitioned for an earlier release, claiming she'd been in an abusive relationship which cut into her judgment and prevented her from protecting her children, but a judge voted NO, knowing she was willing to throw her children under the bus to keep a man in her life. Today, it holds the record for fastest capture after an on-air profile. In the winter of 2022, Mona got out on parole.
Timothy Aoktorral White (RELEASED), #486, Spt 28, 1997
A criminal dunce. In October 1995, he was trying to collect on life insurance in Charlotte, North Carolina. Around Halloween, he drugged his wife, suffocated her with a pillow, and blew up the part of their house where her body had been left. He fled the city that December. He was busted in Georgia and sentenced to 21 years in prison, but in December 2015, he got out after serving 18 years.
William Edward Coday (DECEASED), #487, Oct 15, 1997
In 1978, he beat a college classmate to death in Hamburg, Germany. In July 1997, he fatally beat and stabbed his ex-girlfriend in the States after a bad breakup. He was busted in New York City and condemned to death, but several years before the executioner could give him the lethal injection, he mortally slashed his wrists at the end of April 2008.
Lorris Terriell Robinson, #488, Oct 22, 1997
A South Central Los Angeles Bloods gang banger named John Walsh's Public Enemy #1 in late September 1997. In late 1995, he shot 2 men to death. One victim was killed in a hotel room robbery, and both victims were the fathers of many children. He was busted in California.
James Brian Gordon, #489, Oct 29, 1997
He'd been sought since circa 1985 for raping 3 young boys, and was busted in Louisiana almost instantly after his airing. Further details are unknown.
Bobby O'Neal Negri Jr and Michael Brandon Lutz (both RELEASED), #490/#491, Oct 31, 1997
Negri was a Loomis armored car driver sought for a larceny plot. In Oklahoma, the two made off with 2 Megadollars and 600 Grand. They were busted in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and served 5 to 16 years.
Robert Milton Whitley, #492, Nvb 5, 1997
A cattle thief wanted out of 4 counties across America. Some men from his hometown spotted him in New Mexico and busted him there.
Allen Booten (DECEASED), #493, Nvb 5, 1997
The Unknown Jason Crawford killer. Crawford was driving on a highway when an unknown assailant intentionally ran him and his friend off the road. The car crashed into a tree, killing Crawford and wounding his passenger. The late victim's mother called up one of the crew members behind the reenactment to thank him for paving their way towards justice. Tips to AMW associated the assailing car with Allen Booten, and led cops to Texas, where he fatally shot himself in the head before the cops could cuff him.
Kenneth Paul Putnam, #494, Nvb 13, 1997
The Houdini of Georgia Inmates. After a series of bank robberies from 1979 to 1984, he became a serial prison escapee. In one incident, he fled through a manhole cover. He was busted running a carnival booth in Texas. He told a cop to loosen his painful handcuffs, but the cop knew better.
Michael Dongarra, #495, Nvb 20, 1997
A convicted Medicaid fraudster. From 1993 to December 1995, he stole church artifacts in California and Arizona, then used the stolen property to pull insurance scams. He was indicted in November 1996, and courts offered him a chance to accept a plea deal that would've gotten him locked away for only 1/2 decade, but he ran off. He was busted in Hingham, Massachusetts, living with 12 monks in an abbey monastery, and the courts in Arizona revoked his plea deal and sentenced him to 21 years in prison. After serving 18 1/4 years, he was paroled in February 2016, with a full release several days before June 2019.
Dean Robbins (DECEASED), #496, Dcb 15, 1997
A convicted felon. 2 days after Thanksgiving 1997, he went on a crime spree in Indiana, carjacked 3 people, held them hostage, and rammed a police car. AMW tips led Phoenix, Arizona police to a bar where he reached for his gun, and the cop shot him dead.
David Mitchell, #497, Jnr 9, 1998
A construction worker turned serial Minnesota bank robber whose MO was to dispose of his disguise and grab a bite to eat at a restaurant near the bank after robbing it. He claims he didn't really need the money, and wanted to see whether he could pull off a heist, and soon got addicted to the cheap thrill. Eventually, he saved up more money than he could store, then hoarded the remaining money in a forest behind his house. In Cleveland, Ohio, an armored car driver was shot and wounded. He was busted in Georgia, and was acquitted of the attempted murder because he proved he'd already been in Atlanta by then. Over the years, he gave several jailhouse interviews. In one of them, he told them that the armored car shooting was what drove America's Most Wanted to pursue him, and he didn't even do it, and he claimed he'd long since spent all the money. In mid November 2002, AMW aired the case one last time with another interview, he changed his story to say the money was still hoarded away somewhere, and cops tried to coax the whereabouts of the money vault. AMW told viewers to call in information on the money vault, and at the time the FBI was offering reward money of their own as an incentive.
Patrick Garrett Heaps, #498, Jnr 11, 1998
After robbing at least 2 banks in Utah, he kidnapped a crime partner and led cops on a high-speed chase. In November 1997, he escaped a minimum security prison. He was busted in nearby Midvale, Utah, emerging from his brother's home with a gun.
Jason Edwards, #499, Jnr 24, 1998
A 19 year old boy at the time of his crimes. After putting a car into high-speed and running down his brother in Louisiana, he was arrested for 2nd-degree murder, but escaped from jail on Christmas 1997. He was busted in Texas.
Yehia Elham Badawi, #400, Jnr 28, 1996
He robbed a Pennsylvania supermarket, then shot at 3 police officers, wounding 1 one of them before fleeing on a bicycle. He was busted in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he'd been hiding since the robbery.
Fred Leonard Hansen, #401, Jnr 29, 1996
After he was paroled from San Bernardo County, California, in 1992, he befriended several people in Fontana, then sexually assaulted 3 of their daughters nearby where he lived out of his truck. In July 1995, he raped an 8 year old girl in Florida, and America's Most Wanted started producing the case that October when central California authorities found out. He was profiled on 1-27-996 and busted in Nevada 2 days later.
Ronald Anthony Collington (RELEASED), #402, Jnr 30, 1996
In October 1983, a Florida Highway Patrol officer tried to stop him. During the confrontation, he got cornered in a residential neighborhood, shot and wounded the officer, and ran off. He was busted in New York and sentenced to 2 decades in prison, but gain time laws got him out in 2006 after 1 decade. Once released, he was deported to another country.
Lisa Dawn Harris, #403, Fbr 5, 1996
When she was 21 years old, she and a crowd of people high on drugs accused a man of raping one of their clique. In retaliation, one of them stabbed the man to death with a claw hammer. She was the youngest woman to be sentenced to life without parole (or "semicapital punishment") in the state of Missouri back in her day. Eventually, she and Marti A Greer broke out of prison. AMW tipsters took Greer down in early 1991 (#146), and 4.8 years later, Harris was busted in Wyoming.
Michael Angelo Jendrock, #404, Fbr 8, 1996
In August 1995, he and some fellow skinheads realized their car had blown a rod, and took note of a young black man who lived 3 doors away. He and an accomplice named Kenneth Jay Kent broke into that house and demanded the man, who had experience working with cars, steal a Pontiac Grand Am, in order to assuage Jendrock's bitterness over the black man living in a house Jendrock's brother had recently been evicted from over defaults on bills. Jendrock and several accomplices spent that night drinking, smoking crank, and partying at random houses, but by 6:00 the next morning, Jendrock and Kent realized the victim still hadn't delivered the car. They deceived their way into the man's house, tied him and his roommate up with duct tape, and stole all their personal belongings, then Jendrock shot the black man dead. Two other killers were caught quickly but Jendrock and Kent fled. Kent surrendered at a rural-western bar in Las Vegas in mid to late January as an empty capture, and Jendrock was busted at his grandfather's house in Hesperia, California, having grown mid-length black hair.
Kimberly Hellems and James Worrall, #405/#406, Fbr 29, 1996
A couple of serial department store thieves. Their hit count, amount of money stolen, and MO are unknown. An AMW tipster in a Sears in Kentucky recognized her by the eccentric mannerism with which Hellems put a stick of gum in her mouth, and busted the couple near the entrance to the store.
Catherine Suh, #407, Mrc 8, 1996
In October 1987, she killed her mother by stabbing her in the back. In late September 1993, she convinced her brother to kill her boyfriend in Chicago. She'd tried to disguise herself as a girl of grandeur in Hawaii, buying her next boyfriend an expensive-looking ring, and lived fairly comfortably until America's Most Wanted joined the hunt. As she buckled under pressure from AMW, she left her boyfriend and surrendered at an FBI station, barefooted with tattered clothing. She was sentenced to life in prison.
Sarajini Lalla LeVine, #408, Mrc 10, 1996
On Halloween 1991, shortly after raising insurance on her 12 year old daughter, she torched their house in San Antonio, Texas, killing the girl. In October 1995, she stole money from a church to raise bond, then fled. She was busted in Crystal Beach, Texas, where she'd been renting property from an elderly couple. She was sentenced to 4 decades in prison for the murder plus 1 decade on theft and license fraud charges, with the possibility of parole in 13 years. She lost her case in 2009, and is unlikely to get an early release from prison before her sentence expires in 2045.
Juan Sanchez, #409, Apl 11, 1996
Busted in Mexico. Details are uncertain, but a man by the name Juan Sanchez Arreola, arrested that same day in the town of Ojinaga, was wanted for correspondence with The Unabomber, most likely as a material witness, for new leads in the Ted Kaczynski manhunt, or to help prosecutors build a case against Kaczynski. Sanchez-Arreola was pronounced dead in August 1997.
Gordon "Woody" Mower Jr., #410, Apl 13, 1996
An 18 year old arson suspect out of Richfield, New York. Near the end of March 1996, he gunned down his parents, then fled with his 14 year old girlfriend. He was busted in Dallas, Texas and the girlfriend was recovered safely. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Michael Eugene Moore, #411, Apl 19, 1996
In July 1994, his wife split up with him, and in May 1995, she was preparing divorce proceedings. During that child custody battle, cops in Virginia say he stabbed his wife 33 times over their impending divorce, badly wounding her, as their daughter begged him to stop attacking her. He then fled with their daughter. By early 1996, a man in Miami had taken him in and given him a construction job. On April 8, a tip to America's Most Wanted barely missed him, but helped recover the then 5 year old girl, but it took another 11 days to bust him in California. Within the next 1/4 century, he was charged with an unrelated assault and battery out of Virginia, then he was wanted for questioning in an armed robbery where the perpetrator tied up a woman and stole her car. A license plate reader recognized another stolen car and led to his re-arrest in Florida. No relation to the documentarian Michael Moore.
Jerome Frierson-Bey (RELEASED), #412, Apl 28, 1996
Arrested in New Jersey for 9 bank robberies, 3 kidnappings, and 1 prison escape. Further details are unknown, but he most likely was sentenced to about a century and a half in prison, but it somehow got reduced to 2 decades, after which he got out in 2016.
Gordon Herbert Hales, #413, Apl 28, 1996
In 1980, he had sex with his own 9 year old daughter in Broward County, Florida. He was busted in the Dominican Republic and sentenced to life in prison.
Frederick R Hutzenlaub, #414, Apl 29, 1996
A former insurance adjuster known for conning women out of money. In January 1995, he robbed a Suffolk County, New York bank and shot a police officer, but the victim survived. He was busted in Nevada.
Jae Sik Chang, #415, May 3, 1996
In January 1995, he and several cohorts burglarized a successful businessman's house in New Jersey. They forced their way under the garage door and stabbed the man's wife to death in an altercation. After his AMW airing, he surrendered in Missoula, Montana.
Dennis L "Chubb" Miller, #416, May 5, 1996
Towards the middle of 1995, he held a gun to his wife's head. After she convinced a Pennsylvania court to parole him early, he sexually murdered her that November. He was busted in Florida and condemned to death.
Christopher Lawrence Jeburk, #417, Jne 27, 1996
A serial bank robber, 19 years old at the time of his introduction on AMW. From October 1995 until he was caught, he robbed 11 banks and escaped from 4 prisons. He was busted in Georgia and is now serving life without parole.
Kareem Harris, #418, May 14, 1996
He robbed a body shop in New Jersey and fired at 3 people, wounding 1 of them. He was busted in New York. Further details are unknown.
Gregory LaMar Blackmon, #419, May 15, 1996
A person of interest in a murder. In 1993, he was named a person of interest in a failed attempt at another murder. In winter 1996, he robbed a restaurant, but got tackled and restrained. After being taken to jail, he lied about the severity of his injuries to earn a doctor's visit. Then, he overpowered the guards, and tried to shoot one officer, but forgot to disengage the safety. He was busted 2 months later in Florida and sentenced to between 12 1/2 and 14 years in prison. In January 2009, he got out, but that August, he committed one last armed robbery, for which a fed-up court sentenced him to life in prison. Despite much confusion over him, he has no relation to vegan fundamentalist bomber James Ray Blackmon who didn't go on the run until March 1997.
Curtis Dupree and Kelton Nakail Birdow, #420/#421, May 16, 1996
A crew of robbers carried out several bungled heists that involved ripping ATM machines off their foundations, loading them into trucks and vans, and speeding off, with their plans constantly getting foiled when the machines fell out behind them. After they were caught on camera unloading one of the machines under a street light, cops linked the crew to the robberies via a license plate that also fell off the truck. Police quickly rounded up everyone else in the crew, but Dupree and Nakail-Birdow got away. They were busted in Texas, and Dupree told AMW the producers, tipsters, and cops were good at their jobs. Since then, these robbers have become a planetary laughingstock, shown on various TV shows from World's Dumbest Criminals to Maury Povich. In 1998, police linked Nakail to a February 1994 double murder of a shift manager and a cashier at a Jack-In-The-Box that netted him $800 in cash, for which he was sentenced to 4 decades to life. Nakail-Birdow will be eligible for parole in 2038.
Mary Anderson (RELEASED), #422, May 19, 1996
Wanted for a string of bank robberies out of Michigan and busted in New York. She was sentenced to about 6 1/4 years in prison and got out in August 2002.
Leslie Isben Rogge, #423, May 18, 1996
A serial bank robber, fraudster, and stolen property smuggler whose crime wave started in 1978. After one of his earlier arrests, he bribed a corrections officer to let him escape. After that, he started another series of bank robberies. In January of 1990, he was added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted. By the spring of 1996, he was living in Guatemala. A teenager went to the FBI's website, sent a tip to amw.com, and as the FBI was expecting him to show up, he surrendered in an embassy. It was the first time the internet brought down an FBI Ten Most Wanted fugitive. He was sentenced to between 38 and 65 years in prison, and will be eligible for parole in 2034, but he was born in 1940, so it's somewhat unlikely.
Anthony Frank McKinley, #424, May 27, 1996
He was sentenced to life in a Mississippi prison for killing a man in an argument, but later escaped a local jail. He was busted in Louisiana and returned to his life sentence.
John Flaggs (RELEASED), #425, May 30, 1996
He was wanted for abducting his 4 year old son from Sacramento, California following a bitter divorce. He was busted still hiding out in California, but didn't appear to get any prison time.
Wayne Alfred Day, #426, Jne 21, 1996
A gang alpha of Los Angeles' Grape Street Crips. He trafficked multiple kilos of cocaine imported from Mexico. He was busted in Nevada.
Stacey Ann Sapp, #427, Jly 26, 1996
When police in Georgia knew she was driving drunk, they tried to pull her over, but she swerved to avoid them and picked up speed until the pickup truck flipped over several times, mortally wounding her 18 year old passenger. She was sentenced to roughly 8 years in prison, before initially getting out in 2003. Since then, she's constantly been entrapped in legal trouble, mostly for shoplifting and driving without a valid license.
Roland Lavar "Ramadan" Campbell, #428, Jly 30, 1996
A member of New York's Forty Thieves armed robbery gang. Starting in June 1991, he robbed 7 banks and post offices on the gang's behalf, and that October, a task force took down most of the gang, but Campbell slipped away, likely the most dangerous of them. That December, after getting picked up on drug charges out of Maryland, he altered his appearance and disguised himself as a fellow inmate who was nearing release, in order to escape. He was busted in Costa Rica after 3 profiles on the show and sentenced to 155 years in prison.
Randy Eugene "Igor" Keyes (DECEASED), #429, Ags 5, 1996
A Montana drug dealer, who himself had been addicted to many drugs since a college football injury, from opioids to methamphetamines. In 1994, a rival dealer in Billings opened fire at him in a drive-by shooting, and Keyes gave chase with his truck. Keyes fired back, not knowing a woman was riding in his rival's car. She was killed, and 2 other people were wounded. He was busted in El Paso, Texas, had a Charismatic experience, joined a prison ministry program, and dedicated his life to becoming a minister. In exchange for testifying against his rival, he pled guilty to reckless endangerment, served 1.8 year in prison and 4 years on house arrest, then worked as a long-haul truck driver during his parole. He ministered to several people during his various stops, including the very same rival dealer who was serving time in Atlanta before his transfer to another prison. Everything went smoothly until 2005, when he was caught with a firearm and sent to federal prison for 4 years. Since 2009, he stayed out of any further trouble with the law, but died in a motorcycle wreck in October 2016.
Paul Anthony DeJongh (DECEASED), #430, Ags 23, 1996
Throughout 1995, he and several others rented an apartment in Knoxville, Tennessee. They spent a lot of time partying, including with a pool full of plastic spheres similar to those found in fast food ball pits. By the end of that year, something went wrong, and they were all evicted. In January 1996, DeJongh killed one of the men with 2 gunshots to the head and left the body in the apartment. He was busted at a home construction site in Georgia and sentenced to life in prison. By the end of the decade 201X, he was dead.
David Matthew Fitzpatrick, #431, Spt 10, 1996
The Unknown New Mexico Motel Tape Child Rapist. In 1992, this former stand-up comic drugged and sexually videotaped 2 preteen girls. After the then-unknown rapist checked out of a motel, he accidentally left the videotape behind, and a motel clerk found it, thus opening an unsolved case. About 4 years later, an AMW viewer identified Fitzpatrick as the suspect. A time share office he worked at in Mexico sacked him, so he fled to Puerto Vallarta, where he was apprehended.
Vincent Duane Martin, #432, Spt 17, 1996
A meth trafficker from the New Mexico prairie. He was notorious for brutally punishing his manufacturers via physical torture. In December 1995, cops stormed his trailer, confiscating some guns, vehicle ID change plates, weed, and 1/4 pound of meth. After making bail, he vowed to find out who set him up and retaliate. In January 1996, he and an accomplice kidnapped a woman from a party and shot her to death because he was falsely convinced she was the snitch. At first, no-one even knew the victim's last name... except her daughters, who knew something was amiss when she didn't show up for a critical family reunion. In June, buzzards led a farmer to her body. He was busted in New York.
Donzel Mignott (DECEASED), #433, Oct 24, 1996
He escaped from a Brooklyn prison during his trial on 2nd degree murder charges, after killing a man in an argument when a street craps dice game went sour. He was busted in Virginia. His fellow escapee, a convicted armed robber, was nabbed as an empty capture. Mignott was convicted of multiple charges, including the murder, and sentenced to 1/3 century to life. His earliest chance at parole would've been in circa 2029, but he died of natural causes in late May 2015.
Noble Cunningham (RELEASED), #434, Nvb 7, 1996
The only criminal in the capture roster sought for crimes against the environment. Starting in 1979, he'd illegally stored at least 280 tons of barium chromate on his farm in Ohio. It's a carcinogenic byproduct of the family business which sold machines that removed chrome from manufacturing plants' wastewater. The chemical was found in rusting, corroded metal barrels, following an empty promise he made to take it in for recycling. In September 1986, the county granted PetroGas digging rights to lay a natural gas pipeline which cut through Cunningham's property. That ended in Cunningham shooting and destroying county machinery with his shotgun in an attempt to keep sheriffs away from the sludge, which had made his neighbors' running water taste strange and even infected a young girl with lymph node cancer. In July 1988, the Ohio state EPA ordered Cunningham to clean it up, at a 100 Grand expense to the Cunningham family. By 1989, he'd discovered a gas log manufacturing company in Atlanta whose owner knew Cunningham's sister, but when the barium chromate's chemical properties didn't fit what Cunningham promised, the deal fell through. Noble asked for a 5 Grand check and a fake purchase order to prove to Noble's brother that his time in Georgia went to some good use. In 1989, while his family argued in court that barium chromate wasn't a toxic waste under EPA jurisdiction due to its possible subsequent industrial applications, he rented several tractor trailers to sneak the toxic waste into Atlanta, deceiving the drivers into thinking the cargo was legal. A relentless barrage of containers showed up at the gas log company over 3 weeks, but the owner knew something was off because the trucks never arrived during the mid-day, and the initial scheme unraveled. That June, Noble tricked a garbage truck driver into hastily moving the waste to the Atlanta city dump. However, the truck wasn't meant to carry that heavy of loads, and the tires went flat. The driver was soon fired, the toxic mess drove the gas log company bankrupt after less than a year, and taxpayers lost a whole Megadollar overall. Cunningham fled, but court rulings in Ohio and Georgia had the Cunningham family company convicted in October 1994. He was busted in Ohio, where he could've faced 2 decades, but was only sentenced to just over 4 years in a federal prison. He got out 2 days before December 2000.
Alan Eugene White, #435, Nvb 9, 1996
The lead story on the first broadcast of America Fights Back, and one of John Walsh's earliest Public Enemy #1s. In Salina, Kansas, in July 1996, he bludgeoned a 5 year old boy and his great grandmother to death, and sexually murdered the elderly woman's daughter. He was busted in Boston, Massachusetts 4 months after the massacre, watching a movie in a homeless shelter. He was spared the death penalty, but got a 14 decade sentence with no chance of parole.
Edwin Joseph Arendes (DECEASED), #436, Nvb 18, 1996
A formerly beloved elderly handyman. In August 1991, he raped a 5 year old girl in a Texas home where he'd worked. He was busted in Florida and sentenced to 4 decades in prison, but he died in April of 2007. His family didn't claim the body, so he was buried in the prison's designated cemetery.
Jeffrey K Sibley, #437, Nvb 23, 1996
A wannabe hitman. In July 1996, he lured a young man into a forest in Maine, then shot him execution style for reasons unknown. AMW tips led to Valley City, North Dakota, where he'd just checked into a hotel. He was seen sleeping like a baby, and was arrested very silently, especially for an aspiring hitman.
Joseph Matthew Mrozek, #438, Dcb 1, 1996
In July 1990, he was facing an impending breakup. After a night out on the town, he shot her to death while uttering the cliche phrase of jilted Casa Novas, "If I can't have her, no-one will!" His case got caught in a legal error, and a mistrial was declared. His new trial was scheduled for September 1993, but he'd fled. AMW busted him in Lakewood, Tennessee, where he'd just been hired at a restaurant. He was arrested while sleeping in bed with his latest girlfriend.
Ronald Mark Robb (RELEASED), #439, Dcb 13, 1996
A sideshow barker for a traveling carnival, known for a metal plate in his forehead which he frequently stuck magnets on as a trick. In June 1995, he and his coworker had too much to drink in New York. They raped and tortured a good samaritan, and tried to finish her off by tying her to a tree and leaving her to die from starvation and the elements. She survived the attack, and the partner-in-crime was arrested but Robb fled. Following AMW tips, cops in Toronto, Canada brought him from the funhouse to the big house. He was convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison, but towards the middle of 2014, he got out a few months early, after which he registered as a sex offender forever.
Asa King, #440, Dcb 18, 1996
In 1977, he was only 17 years old when he killed a man in New Jersey. In October 1995, he escaped from prison. In September 1996, he joined forces with his 16 year old cousin to rob a bank, then went on the run for the last time, vowing never to be taken alive. After his airing, AMW tipsters chased him out of Atlanta, but another tipster busted him outside a store in Detroit, Michigan. He went down spitting at the camera crew. If he wouldn't have escaped, he would've been eligible to get out in 2021, but it's highly unlikely it was ever granted.
Lloyd Earl Grass, #441, Jnr 5, 1997
In October 1992, he stabbed his wife to death in Missouri during a hallucination in which he saw a minion of Satan in her place. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He escaped a St. Louis mental hospital in August 1996. He fled to New York City and found work as a telemarketing sales agent. He was caught sound asleep at 200 Hours in the morning.
Nathaniel Crockharn, #442, Jnr 14, 1997
A serial New Orleans, Louisiana convenience store robber. He was convicted in 1982, escaped prison in 1983, and went on a burglary spree in Alabama a week later. At the time of his airing, he'd last been seen on Christmas of 1995. AMW tips led to his girlfriend's house in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he'd just returned to. He was caught hiding behind a refrigerator. It's believed he's now serving 115 years in prison.
Charles Zimmerman, #443, Jnr 14, 1997
A Philadelphia career criminal. In December 1996, he robbed a jewelry store. Despite one clerk complying with his demands, Zimmerman shot him, crippling the man for life. AMW led cops to Redding, California, where he'd been holed up in a Motel 99. Luckily, they apprehended him before any shots could be fired. His sentence was unknown, but there is an unconfirmed rumor he may have been beaten to death shortly before his projected release.
Alan Ray "Big Red" Crook, #444, Dcb 26, 1996
A 17 year old gang banger. In February 1992, his gang associates shot up a slumber party in San Antonio, Texas, killing 1 teenage girl and wounding 7 other people. He was sought for driving the getaway vehicle. He may have never left San Antonio, and surrendered there when he found out he was scheduled for an airing. He got 35 years for his role in the shooting.
Terry Pelletier (RELEASED), #445, Jnr 23, 1997
In April 1983, he got into an argument during a pool game in a Florida bar. During the late hours of that night, a shot rang out, the other man was dead, and the gunshot was easily traced back to Pelletier. By the time of his airing, he'd fled to a bordering country. After the airing, he booked a flight to Miami for the sole purpose of surrendering, even though he knew he faced death row. However, the District Attorney felt they had nothing on him, so they gave him a plea deal for 2 years of house arrest and 8 years probation, which he successfully completed.
Edwin Oswald "Black Ed" Smith, #446, Jnr 29, 1997
A crooked high school dropout, infamous throughout the neighborhood as willing to do anything to elevate his reputation in the Crips. In January 1984, he broke into a high school in South Central Los Angeles, looking for Bloods to fight, and got into a gang shootout where one Blood and an honor roll high school student, the latter of whom the Boston Red Sox were scouting and UCLA had just accepted, were killed. For almost a decade, Edwin and his associates made particularly strong threats to kill anyone's family who spoke up, and in April 1984, the case against him was dismissed, with no-one having bothered to tell the younger victim's mother about the court date. In January of 1993, a woman with a great track record of cracking cold cases was assigned to take over, reigniting the manhunt. In October 1993, Edwin, now a seasoned cocaine trafficker, was connected to a 3rd man's murder, and a witness finally came forward after a speech at a halfway house. In November 1994, the new detective built a new case against Edwin. Despite a fake ID and weight gain, he was busted in Lancaster, California without incident as he was driving a red Camaro. He got a life sentence, with the possibility of parole in 49 years at the soonest.
Joni Denise Nellems, #447, Fbr 10, 1997
In May 1995, she led 3 accomplices to an acquaintance's home in Peoria, Illinos, burglarized it, and beat the victim up, all because she felt like it. How much property might've been stolen is unknown. Police quickly rounded up the accomplices, but Nellems got away. After her airing, she was busted in Anderson, Indiana. She'd been rolling up clothing with the intent to run from the AMW tipsters. She served about 3 years in prison, but has been in and out of jail for crimes like retail theft, brought about by a serious drug problem.
Christopher Daniel "Tree" Burgess, #448, Fbr 16, 1997
On Christmas Eve 1996, he was put in charge of watching over a 1 1/2 year old girl in Sacramento, California. When she had a toilet training accident, he flew into a rage. He slammed her head through a wall, threw her down a flight of stairs, and pounded a huge dent into her head with a metal spoon, then calmly bathed and dressed her, then put her to bed where she stopped breathing and died. Sacramento law enforcement described it as breaking the record for most violent crime against a child they'd ever investigated. He was busted in West Chicago, Illinois, holed up in his grandfather's house, and was sentenced to 6 decades to life.
Brittany "Angel Eyes, Satan's Daughter" Marlowe Holberg, #449, Fbr 17, 1997
A topless dancer and crack addict. In Nvb. 1996, she disguised herself as a damsel in distress in order to ruse her way into an old Amarillo, Texas man's apartment. After trying to rob it, she stabbed and beat him with 10 different utensils and appliances, administering the finishing blow with a kitchen knife. The body was found with a lamp pole crammed more than 5 inches down his throat. In February of 1997, a tipster directed cops to an airport in Memphis, Tennessee where she was performing topless dances. They set up a purchase, lured her to a McDonald's not far away, and busted her. She's since been condemned to death.
Huriberto O'Neill Jr, #450, Fbr 19, 1997
A 16 year old punk. In November 1994, he killed a former gang banger turned college painting student in Hartford, Connecticut. He escaped prison in June 1995. By the time of his airing, he'd fallen in with a local gang in Chicago, Illinois. He was recognized by his frequent loitering.
Alex Lucero, #451, Fbr 27, 1997
A paroled murderer. After getting addicted to heroin and cocaine, he committed a spree of between 17 and 40 robberies in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was busted living on a horse farm in Adams County, Colorado.
Charles Edward Manley (DECEASED), #452, Mrc 10, 1997
A tall bully and moocher. In March 1995, he killed a school teacher with an execution style gunshot when she forced him to move out of her Las Vegas home. In January 1997, he skipped his preliminary hearing. He didn't last through the winter; After his daughter called her mother from a phone in a New Jersey motel, an AMW tipster busted him snoozing. He reached for his gun, but they took him down before he could grab it. In September 1997, he was soon convicted and condemned to death, but because of prosecutors abusing lawyer-and-client privilege, the conviction and sentence were overturned in June of 1999. He was convicted in a new trial, then in 2001, he died of Hepatitis C. In 2008, DNA linked him to an older unsolved murder from back in 1976, and it may take many more decades before detectives are sure how many other people he may have murdered.
Christian Rodriguez, #453, Mrc 7, 1997
The Unknown Lawrence Austin killer. Austin was the owner of a special one-of-a-kind movie theatre that specialized in silent movies and vintage film, with a mission of developing appreciation for such old-time fare. A man named James Leslie Van Sickle stood to inherit the theatre and its fortune from Lawrence Austin, but wanted to claim it early, so in January 1997, he hired a man named Christian Rodriguez to kill him. Van Sickle quickly went down for the murder, but wouldn't tell anyone who the hitman was. AMW tips identified Rodriguez as the killer, busting him in California.
Joel Orlando Benson (RELEASED), #454, Mrc 21, 1997
He was only 15 years old when he took part in a home invasion where his co-conspirators raped and robbed several women. He was identified serving time in Richmond, Virginia on newer charges. Due to his lesser role in the crimes and his young age at the time of the offences, he struck a plea deal with the District Attorney, confessed to the robbery charges, and served a few years in prison, most likely having gotten out in the early 00-Agents' decade.
Derald and Gerald Bernard Richardson, #455/#456, Mrc 22, 1997
The only pair of twins in AMW's capture roster. In September 1991, these Fort Worth, Texas drug enforcers robbed an old man who drove through their turf. They stomped on him and crushed his throat. The victim was terminally wounded and died in the winter of 1993. In February 1996, they managed to earn low bails, but fled after posting bond. AMW tips led cops to nearby Houston, where the manhunt ended after a car chase. Derald was caught in his common-law wife's apartment with another criminal in an unrelated case, and Gerald was caught without incident in his apartment.
Donald Brouillette, #457, Apl 7, 1997
A serial stalker, arsonist, and police impersonator. In February 1996, he broke into the backyard of his ex-girlfriend's home in Louisiana, then shot and killed her brother. He was busted staying in Houston, Texas' Midtown Lodge, sunbathing.
Eugene Ross, #458, Apl 9, 1997
A gang alpha. In December 1994, he led several of his underlings to bind, torture, and execute a man. Many hardened police officers described the scene as particularly shocking: The man had been shot several time, beaten and stabbed, torched, and a thumbnail was broken off. In September 1996, he escaped from a prison in Illinois. He was busted walking the streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Frank Whitman, #459, Apl 12, 1997
He was arrested for molesting his own granddaughter in Washington, but fled his sentencing in January 1996. He was busted in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he'd managed to establish a reputation as a kindly elderly neighbor.
Bobby Lee Gilkey, #460, Apl 17, 1997
In July 1990, he robbed a Safeway store in Arapaho County, Colorado, then led cops on a high-speed chase. When his truck blew a tire, he opened fire at 2 police officers, but missed. He was busted in Dallas, Texas and sentenced to 2 decades in prison. He was paroled some time in 2015, set to expire in April 2020.
Thomas Bimbo Jr., #461, Apl 22, 1997
He disguised himself as a utility worker, broke into several elderly people's homes, and robbed them. He was busted in New Jersey, then struck a plea deal with prosecutors where he returned 42 Grand in stolen money to his victims.
Curtis Allen Hemphill, #462, May 10, 1997
By the spring of 1997, he'd been named John Walsh's 10th most wanted fugitive still at large. Shortly before Halloween 1996, he kidnapped, tortured, and stabbed his ex-wife and a police officer she was dating in California, but luckily they survived. He was busted outside a bar in Ensenada, Mexico, where he'd been working as an exotic dancer. In 2012, he was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in a fellow inmate's death.
Aaron Edward Borrero and Elizabeth Hernandez (both RELEASED), #463/#464, May 16, 1997
Two suspects in unrelated failed-attempted murders who joined forces to go on the run. Borrero was originally sought for abducting and hogtying a man, then throwing him into the Yakima River after a drug deal fell through. His victim survived by grabbing onto a tree branch sticking out of the river bank. Elizabeth was sought for luring, shooting, and wounding her ex-husband under a Seattle highway overpass in March 1997, then abducting her young son. They were busted in an abandoned house in the town of Visala in Tulare County, California. Hernandez was pregnant, but her older son was recovered safely. Hernandez served 8 years in prison, getting out in circa 2005, and Borrero served 16 years, getting out in circa 2013. They ended their relationship cordially, have remained friends, and they even have social media accounts suggesting they've truly reformed.
Donald Sattler, #465, May 18, 1997
A high school dropout. In November 1990, he burglarized a Columbus, Ohio home, kidnapped a 4 year old girl, and stole their van. The intent was to extort a ransom, but he abandoned her in the middle of nowhere before he could carry it out. Luckily, she was recovered safely. He knocked on the door of someone who happened to see him on America's Most Wanted, and the house's owner sent the tip to law enforcement. Sattler had run and hid in a nearby ditch, where he was taken into custody.
Rosendo Gutierrez Rojero (RELEASED), #466, May 13, 1997
In 1987, he molested his 4 stepdaughters in Maryland. He got away with it until he molested the girls again in 1993. Some freight workers from Tennessee saw his airing on AMW, and led cops to Mexico where he was busted. Extradition took just under a week, and he served about a decade in prison.
David Alex "Spooky" Alvarez, #467, May 20, 1997
A former pesticide technician on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted. A month after kidnapping his ex-wife, he sought revenge on her and her family after their divorce. In September 1996, in Los Angeles, he and a few accomplices kidnapped 10 people, 4 of them children, and soon shot them up. 2 men and 2 preteen girls died, 3 hostages were wounded, and 3 escaped unharmed. He was busted eating Chinese food for lunch in Tijuana, Mexico, and claimed he was being falsely accused the next day. That November, a young woman who conspired in the murders was captured without AMW, and soon sent to lifer's row. Unfortunately, Mexico refused to extradite Alvarez, and only agreed to try him because 2 of the victims were Mexican nationals. He's serving 9 decades in prison, and in the summer of 1998, he was transferred to a more secure prison after killing a fellow inmate.
Edward Lawrence Myers (DECEASED), #468, May 22, 1997
A rarely-employed drunkard and wife beater. In 1974, he distracted his stepchildren by directing them to a candy store, then shot their mother dead. In September 1996, he kidnapped his girlfriend in Ohio and stabbed her repeatedly, threatening to kill her. She was grotesquely wounded and dropped into tall brush, but a stray dog licked her over and over again to help her trudge to safety. He was hiding out with a woman in Kenton, Ohio when AMW tips led cops there. She mistakenly said "Ed", confirming he was hiding in that house. When he was arrested, he fell sick with intense cardiac trouble. In November 1997, he died on the operating table before medical personnel could operate on his heart.
Bobby Wayne Jones (RELEASED), #469, Jne 7, 1997
A worker at Amy Rica DeChant's commercial cleaning company. For helping her clean up after her boyfriend's murder in the summer of 1996, he was charged as a material witness. He was busted there in Nevada, sentenced to 3 1/2 to 5 years in prison, and got out in 2001. His leads sped up the hunt for DeChant and got AMW tipsters ready to roll on her, but it would take another 7 1/2 months to bust her as Capture #500.
Nan Farwell (RELEASED), #470, Jne 11, 1997
A corrupt public servant turned micro-economic fraudster. America's Most Wanted speculated that she might've been bored with her 3-letter palindromic name and was seeking a cheap thrill. She was wanted for bad checks, forgery, and theft out of Spokane, Washington. Her M.O. was to exploit her position as a licensing worker to steal several other women's identities, open fraudulent bank accounts under their names, and write worthless checks. 80 Grand had been lost, and most of the money was spent on luxurious items like jewelry. One innocent woman was even fired from her job and thrown in jail because her name got linked to some of Farwell's crimes. In February 1991, she fled forgery and misappropriation charges. An AMW tipster said she'd just been caught hiding in Mexico illegally, and the Mexican government was expelling her, after which she was busted in San Diego, California, near the US/Mexico border. After cheating that one victim out of her very freedom, courts had the audacity to give her a slap to the wrist and just under 5 years in prison.
James Allen Reed (RELEASED), #471, Jne 23, 1997
Over about a decade, he'd assaulted and wounded 7 police officers in feeble attempts to kill them. In July 1996, he got more violent, bludgeoning and wounding an officer in Kansas with a wooden club, causing bone fractures. He was foolish enough to ask for his old construction job back in Breckenridge, Colorado. An AMW tipster saw through his plea and busted him. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison, and got out in 2009.
Jamie Jarold McMahan (DECEASED) and Christopher Michael Kauffman, #472/#473, Jne 30, 1997
Partners in crime who shared the title of John Walsh's Public Enemy #1 for the last week of June 1997. Towards the middle of that month, the two committed a drug-fueled crime spree. They shot 2 women to death in Mahaska County, Iowa, stole the younger victim's car, and robbed a bank at gunpoint. They were busted in Florida and sentenced to 5 life terms. In mid-November 2017, McMahan hanged himself in his cell at Florence ADX SuperMax in Colorado.
Kenneth D'Cunha, #474, Jnr 28, 1997
A disgraced orthodontist. He was expelled from the orthodontics trade for his role in a huge child pornography network. Some of his worst crimes are drugging at least 3 young boys with narcotics and sodomizing them. At the end of January 1997, he was arrested in New Zealand. Thanks to information supplied by an AMW viewer, they secured an extradition warrant and flew him back to New York to face justice over 5 months later.
Bryan Richard Roser (DECEASED), #475, Jly 16, 1997
A serial sex offender. In 1985, he molested his own son and raped a 9 year old girl in Pennsylvania. It's likely he abducted and sexually murdered another 9 year old girl. In July 1997, a few days after his airing on America's Most Wanted, a tipster found his body at a campsite in North Carolina. He had hanged himself.
Tony Ross (DECEASED), #476, Jly 19, 1997
A member of a transient train crashing robbery gang. He was once believed to have slashed 2 men's throats. In October 1995, one of the bodies was found on a grain farm in Saginaw, Texas. When AMW picked up the case, they knew him as John Stanley "Dogman Tony" Boris. An AMW tipster knew his other name, Tony Ross, and busted him in La Crosse, Wisconsin, very shortly after his release from jail on other charges. The star witness got hit by a train before they could bring Ross to trial, then the case against him collapsed, and the charges were dropped. In spring 2012, he passed away.
Paul Wesley Taylor, #477, Jly 21, 1997
The Unknown Dean Phillips killer. On Christmas 1990, a laundromat in Texas was robbed, $30 in quarters were stolen, and a man born in circa 1908 had been fatally beaten and left in the building. After AMW aired the case, a tipster told a Utah corrections department that a man named Paul Wesley Taylor, imprisoned there on escape charges, killed Dean Phillips. A fingerprint test confirmed it.
John Steven Huggins, #478, Jly 8, 1997
The Unknown Carla Larson killer. In June 1997, a woman had been abducted from a Florida supermarket, and the body was quickly found. She had been strangled, and her jewelry had been stolen. Right after the murder, a DisneyWorld tourist named John Steven Huggins returned home with his wife, and started acting strangely. The wife knew it was no coincidence that the murder happened while the couple was at DisneyWorld and sent in the tip. Cops busted him in Maryland. Today he sits on Florida's death row.
Hector Christian, #480, Ags 5, 1997
He was sought for molesting and abducting his 2 daughters and step-daughter in Las Vegas, Nevada. He abducted 2 of the girls, taking them on the run with him while abandoning his other daughter. He was busted in Harden County, Montana, and the victims were taken into protective custody.
Patrick Floyd Wilson, #481, Ags 31, 1997
An illegal Jamaican immigrant. In late August 1996, a woman paid him 3 Grand to shoot another woman dead in Virginia. He was busted in a Takoma, Maryland apartment, where he'd been hiding out with his brother, a fugitive sought in an unrelated case.
Dereck Owens, #482, Spt 7, 1997
In the California town of Lompoc, he and several others robbed a bank. A man with crutches and a woman walked into the bank in the middle of the heist, and one of the robbers shot the man in the leg. The woman tried to run away, but another robber chased her into the parking lot and shot her to death. All of the robbers were quickly caught but Owens and partner in crime Shauncy LaMont "Jungle Blood" Bowen got away. After the AMW airing, Owens surrendered right there in California, telling officers AMW did a great job in capturing him, and Shauncy was soon nabbed as an empty capture.
Juan Jesus Fleitas, #483, Ags 3, 1997
In 1985, he killed a college student during a robbery with a gunshot to the face. In January 1995, he and 5 other inmates burrowed out of a Florida prison. Police quickly rounded up the other prison breakers, but Fleitas made a solid getaway. AMW tips led law enforcement to Merida, Mexico, where he'd gotten in an argument with 2 others in a backyard, where he was busted and returned to lifer's row.
Jack Volgares and Mona Gamble Volgares, #484/#485, Spt 20, 1997
Jack was an avid motorcyclist until 1990 when he lost a leg in a wreck, and suspected child molester named John Walsh's Public Enemy #1 in the summer of 1997. Mona was a recovering alcoholic who had her first child in 1985 at roughly 16 years old. In August of 1989, she gave birth to her second child, Seleana Marie Gamble, who promptly got taken out of her custody by social services in Florida due to roach infestations and an absence of food in her home. In the early 1990s, Jack and Mona got married, and in 1993, she completed a course in better parenting, but it was all a front, as the father suspected Mona of taking Seleana to a bar before she was in kindergarten. Jack, Mona, and Seleana moved to Ironton, Ohio, near the state border to Kentucky, in 1995. Mona was training for a certification in dietary specialty in June 1997 when Jack fatally wounded Seleana by throwing her into a wall and buried her body in a trash can in his brother's backyard with her dog's corpse. Mona abruptly quit her training in mid August, raising suspicion by the health center's administration that Jack wanted Mona out of work forever. Mona concocted a crazy story about the cost of driving Seleana to an airport in Columbus, and told people who asked that Seleana was visiting the biological father in Florida. This enabled them to flee justice, but the father didn't buy it because Seleana never arrived at the airport when he anticipated. That August, they fled the home with her other 3 children and abandoned a van at a gas station a few blocks down from the crime scene. 29 minutes after their airing, AMW tips busted them in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where they'd been working together on a roofing job. The remaining children were recovered safely. Jack was later sentenced to 37 years in prison with a projected release date in 2034 at the soonest, and Mona got 1/4 century. In the winter of 2019, she petitioned for an earlier release, claiming she'd been in an abusive relationship which cut into her judgment and prevented her from protecting her children, but a judge voted NO, knowing she was willing to throw her children under the bus to keep a man in her life. Today, it holds the record for fastest capture after an on-air profile. In the winter of 2022, Mona got out on parole.
Timothy Aoktorral White (RELEASED), #486, Spt 28, 1997
A criminal dunce. In October 1995, he was trying to collect on life insurance in Charlotte, North Carolina. Around Halloween, he drugged his wife, suffocated her with a pillow, and blew up the part of their house where her body had been left. He fled the city that December. He was busted in Georgia and sentenced to 21 years in prison, but in December 2015, he got out after serving 18 years.
William Edward Coday (DECEASED), #487, Oct 15, 1997
In 1978, he beat a college classmate to death in Hamburg, Germany. In July 1997, he fatally beat and stabbed his ex-girlfriend in the States after a bad breakup. He was busted in New York City and condemned to death, but several years before the executioner could give him the lethal injection, he mortally slashed his wrists at the end of April 2008.
Lorris Terriell Robinson, #488, Oct 22, 1997
A South Central Los Angeles Bloods gang banger named John Walsh's Public Enemy #1 in late September 1997. In late 1995, he shot 2 men to death. One victim was killed in a hotel room robbery, and both victims were the fathers of many children. He was busted in California.
James Brian Gordon, #489, Oct 29, 1997
He'd been sought since circa 1985 for raping 3 young boys, and was busted in Louisiana almost instantly after his airing. Further details are unknown.
Bobby O'Neal Negri Jr and Michael Brandon Lutz (both RELEASED), #490/#491, Oct 31, 1997
Negri was a Loomis armored car driver sought for a larceny plot. In Oklahoma, the two made off with 2 Megadollars and 600 Grand. They were busted in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and served 5 to 16 years.
Robert Milton Whitley, #492, Nvb 5, 1997
A cattle thief wanted out of 4 counties across America. Some men from his hometown spotted him in New Mexico and busted him there.
Allen Booten (DECEASED), #493, Nvb 5, 1997
The Unknown Jason Crawford killer. Crawford was driving on a highway when an unknown assailant intentionally ran him and his friend off the road. The car crashed into a tree, killing Crawford and wounding his passenger. The late victim's mother called up one of the crew members behind the reenactment to thank him for paving their way towards justice. Tips to AMW associated the assailing car with Allen Booten, and led cops to Texas, where he fatally shot himself in the head before the cops could cuff him.
Kenneth Paul Putnam, #494, Nvb 13, 1997
The Houdini of Georgia Inmates. After a series of bank robberies from 1979 to 1984, he became a serial prison escapee. In one incident, he fled through a manhole cover. He was busted running a carnival booth in Texas. He told a cop to loosen his painful handcuffs, but the cop knew better.
Michael Dongarra, #495, Nvb 20, 1997
A convicted Medicaid fraudster. From 1993 to December 1995, he stole church artifacts in California and Arizona, then used the stolen property to pull insurance scams. He was indicted in November 1996, and courts offered him a chance to accept a plea deal that would've gotten him locked away for only 1/2 decade, but he ran off. He was busted in Hingham, Massachusetts, living with 12 monks in an abbey monastery, and the courts in Arizona revoked his plea deal and sentenced him to 21 years in prison. After serving 18 1/4 years, he was paroled in February 2016, with a full release several days before June 2019.
Dean Robbins (DECEASED), #496, Dcb 15, 1997
A convicted felon. 2 days after Thanksgiving 1997, he went on a crime spree in Indiana, carjacked 3 people, held them hostage, and rammed a police car. AMW tips led Phoenix, Arizona police to a bar where he reached for his gun, and the cop shot him dead.
David Mitchell, #497, Jnr 9, 1998
A construction worker turned serial Minnesota bank robber whose MO was to dispose of his disguise and grab a bite to eat at a restaurant near the bank after robbing it. He claims he didn't really need the money, and wanted to see whether he could pull off a heist, and soon got addicted to the cheap thrill. Eventually, he saved up more money than he could store, then hoarded the remaining money in a forest behind his house. In Cleveland, Ohio, an armored car driver was shot and wounded. He was busted in Georgia, and was acquitted of the attempted murder because he proved he'd already been in Atlanta by then. Over the years, he gave several jailhouse interviews. In one of them, he told them that the armored car shooting was what drove America's Most Wanted to pursue him, and he didn't even do it, and he claimed he'd long since spent all the money. In mid November 2002, AMW aired the case one last time with another interview, he changed his story to say the money was still hoarded away somewhere, and cops tried to coax the whereabouts of the money vault. AMW told viewers to call in information on the money vault, and at the time the FBI was offering reward money of their own as an incentive.
Patrick Garrett Heaps, #498, Jnr 11, 1998
After robbing at least 2 banks in Utah, he kidnapped a crime partner and led cops on a high-speed chase. In November 1997, he escaped a minimum security prison. He was busted in nearby Midvale, Utah, emerging from his brother's home with a gun.
Jason Edwards, #499, Jnr 24, 1998
A 19 year old boy at the time of his crimes. After putting a car into high-speed and running down his brother in Louisiana, he was arrested for 2nd-degree murder, but escaped from jail on Christmas 1997. He was busted in Texas.