FBI Files

They Bombed a Newspaper and Robbed a Bank. Then They Did It Again.

In 1996, a cell of domestic terrorists bombed a Spokane newspaper and a Planned Parenthood clinic, robbing the same bank minutes after each attack. The FBI traced the bom

Two Customs Inspectors, One Family, One Border Crossing: The 1984 Kidnapping of Richard Latham

On a Friday afternoon in January 1984, U.S. Customs Inspector Richard Latham looked under the back seat of a car at the Del Rio port of entry and found a bag of stolen je

A British Major Stopped for Gas. Two Escaped Convicts Needed His Car.

A British Army major stops for gas in New Mexico and vanishes. His rental car is found submerged in an Indiana lake. The FBI has two escaped Alabama convicts, a passport,

A Murder, a Wire, a Zurich Hotel Room: How the FBI Took Down the Chippendales Founder

In a hotel room in Zurich, a businessman asked an old associate whether the FBI had ever mentioned "the D," a code word for a murder. The associate was wearing a wire. S

A Bomb in the Statue of Liberty. The FBI Had to Dismantle a Network.

In 1980, a bomb exploded inside the museum at the base of the Statue of Liberty. Five groups claimed responsibility. The FBI traced it to a Croatian nationalist network c

She Won $5,000 at Blackjack. A Maroon Beretta Was Waiting in the Driveway.

A 25-year-old mother wins $5,000 at a Mississippi casino and is abducted from a Memphis driveway hours later. The FBI finds a single wool fiber in a maroon Beretta, a cas

They Slept in a Culvert. The Manhunt Ended Where the Road Ran Out.

A nationwide manhunt for two killers ends in a concrete culvert near Santa Fe, New Mexico, in September 1994. Lewis Gilbert and Eric Elliott had left a trail of stolen ca

He Lost His Hands, Escaped, and Fled.The Bomb-Maker Who Vanished to Cuba.

Four men having lunch at a historic Manhattan tavern in 1975 are killed by a bomb planted by the FALN, a Puerto Rican nationalist group. The FBI identifies the chief bomb

100 Officers, 3 Days, One Wyoming Rancher: How the Charles Moses Manhunt Ended

For three days in February 2000, more than 100 officers, airplanes, and military helicopters searched the frozen plains of western Nebraska. Schools closed. A farmer was

Real Cops, a Fake Raid, 3 Drownings: How the Miami River Cops Were Caught

In July 1985, three men drowned in the Miami River during what looked like a drug deal gone wrong. Then a night watchman said the men who stormed the boat yard were polic

The Lawyer Who Taught Police About Money Laundering, Then Ordered His Wife's Murder

He taught police officers how to catch money launderers. A federal jury concluded he was laundering drug money himself, and that when his wife threatened to expose him, h

They Slept in a Culvert. The Manhunt Ended Where the Road Ran Out.

A nationwide manhunt for two killers ends in a concrete culvert near Santa Fe, New Mexico, in September 1994. Lewis Gilbert and Eric Elliott had left a trail of stolen ca

He Was Making a Night Deposit. Three Strangers Needed Him Dead.

In 1988, a 28-year-old record store manager was shot to death in his van outside an Ohio bank. The cash was still in the vehicle. Robbery was not the motive. The FBI woul

The FBI Bugged a Doctor’s Office. It Recorded a Mob War.

In 1990s Philadelphia, two factions of the mob went to war over control of the city’s underworld. The FBI’s weapon was not a wiretap on a phone—it was a microphone hidden

He Joined the Search for a Missing Church Bookkeeper. He Had Killed Her.

A 65-year-old church bookkeeper vanishes from her Tennessee farm in 1992. Her husband is lured away by a fake property buyer. A ransom caller demands $100,000, then disap

No Body. No Weapon. No Crime Scene. One Computer File.

A Marine captain vanishes from Quantico in 1989. No body. No weapon. No crime scene. Then investigators find a computer file titled “murder” on her estranged husband’s de

He Killed Three Coffee Shop Workers and Walked Out Without the Money

It was the Sunday night at the end of the July 4th weekend in 1997. After closing time, a gunman walked into a Starbucks coffee shop near Georgetown in Washington, D.C.,

Women Called Him Charming. Four Were Found Dead in Six Weeks

On September 29th, 1995, firefighters in Van Nuys, California, found a burning pickup truck with the body of a mother of three inside. Six weeks later, after a trail of d

He Called Himself the Teen's Guardian. Then He Took Him Hunting.

On opening day of deer season in 1983, 18-year-old David Wilkey was shot to death in the woods of Bedford County, Virginia. Local authorities called it a hunting accident

The Acupuncturist the FBI Hunted for 4 Years After the Brink's Murders

On October 20th, 1981, armed men ambushed a Brink's armored truck outside a New York mall, stealing $1.6 million and killing a guard. Within the hour, two police officers