In 1968, the United States FBI, under Director J. Edgar Hoover, continued for a nineteenth year to maintain a public list of the people it regarded as the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.
The FBI began the year 1968 with almost a clean slate for the top Ten list, as only one Top Tenner Fugitive on the list was a true multi-year long-timer still at large. The remaining nine fugitives on the list were all from the prior year:
1965 #203 (three years), John William Clouser remained still at large
1967 #243 (one year), Monroe Hickson declared deceased by January 30, 1968
1967 #246 (one year), Gordon Dale Ervin remained still at large
1967 #250 (one year), Carmen Raymond Gagliardi arrested December 23, 1968
1967 #256 (five months), Jerry Ray James arrested January 24, 1968
1967 #257 (four months), Richard Paul Anderson arrested January 19, 1968
1967 #258 (four months), Henry Theodore Young arrested January 9, 1968
1967 #259 (five months), Donald Eugene Sparks arrested January 24, 1968
1967 #260 (one month), Zelma Lavone King arrested January 30, 1968
1967 #261 (three months), Jerry Reece Peacock arrested March 5, 1968
Even then, the FBI managed to clear most of this list through arrests very early in the year, and so by year end, the FBI had amazingly listed an additional thirty-two new Fugitives in 1968, by far surpassing the long-standing previous record of twenty-four additions from 1953. The huge number of new listings in 1968 capped a decade-long streak of double-digit additions to the list, and really ended the era of frequent listings and quick captures by the FBI.
1968 also brought the first woman to the list, Ruth Eisemann-Schier, at the end of the year. 1968 also saw the second and third "Special Additions," to the list (temporarily bringing the total wanted Fugitive count to eleven). One was Schier's partner, Gary Steven Krist, and the other was James Earl Ray, the infamous fugitive assassin of Martin Luther King Jr.
1968 fugitives
The Ten Most Wanted Fugitives listed by the FBI in 1968 include (in FBI list appearance sequence order):
Ronald Eugene Storck
January 19, 1968 #262
One month on the list
Ronald Eugene Storck – U.S. prisoner arrested February 29, 1968, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Robert Leon McCain
January 31, 1968 #263
Three weeks on the list
Robert Leon McCain – U.S. prisoner arrested February 23, 1968, in Gulfport, Florida, by local police. A police sergeant who had recently finished a training course at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia recognized McCain from the "Top Ten" flyers displayed there.
William Garrin Allen II
February 9, 1968 #264
One month on the list
William Garrin Allen II – U.S. prisoner arrested March 23, 1968, in Brooklyn, New York.
Charles Lee Herron
February 9, 1968 #265
Eighteen years on the list; by 1982, he had surpassed the previous record of fourteen years set back in 1964 Charles Lee Herron – U.S. prisoner arrested June 18, 1986, in Jacksonville, Florida.
Leonard Daniel Spears
February 13, 1968 #266
Two weeks on the list
Leonard Daniel Spears – U.S. prisoner arrested March 2, 1968, in Tampa, Florida.
William Howard Bornman
February 13, 1968 #267
One day on the list
William Howard Bornman – U.S. prisoner arrested February 13, 1968, in Covington, Kentucky.
John Conway Patterson
February 26, 1968 #268
Three weeks on the list
John Conway Patterson – U.S. prisoner arrested March 17, 1968, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by local police and his identity confirmed by fingerprints.
Troy Denver Martin
March 9, 1968 #269
One week on the list
Troy Denver Martin – U.S. prisoner arrested March 19, 1968, in Seattle, Washington, after an employment agency manager recognized him from his Identification Order.
George Benjamin Williams
March 18, 1968 #270
Two months on the list
George Benjamin Williams – found murdered May 26, 1968, his skeletal remains found by prospectors near a mine in Nevada, with three bullet holes in his skull. Williams had been dead for six months.
Michael John Sanders
March 21, 1968 #271
Two weeks on the list
Michael John Sanders – U.S. prisoner arrested April 8, 1968, in New York City.
Howard Callens Johnson
March 21, 1968 #272
One month on the list
Howard Callens Johnson – U.S. prisoner arrested April 24, 1968, in Louisville, Kentucky, after a citizen recognized him from a wanted poster.