When phratry Isaac M. Singer Tim O’Brien wrote a ballad about a poor man from Tennessee who stole grammatical construction equipment , slipped out of handcuffs while outside a Waffle House in Georgia and steal nation balladeer Crystal Gayle ’s tour bus topology in an attack to reach his die mother , it was n’t a work of fiction . The birdsong chronicle the life of Christopher Daniel Gay , called " Little Houdini " bypolice , who in reality attempted these crimes in 2009 . ( Police tracked him to Florida and cop him ) [ author : Jonsson ] .
Crime sprees and their result manhunts are often stranger than fable . It ’s no wonder so many televised crime drama are base on real - life consequence . Whether it ’s a modern murder mystery or a historical homicide , if you take a closer look at some of the reality ’s most compelling true - spirit crimes , you ’ll incur one of import component : the massive manhunt .
These organizedsearcheshave turned up plenty of drama all their own , either because of disbursement , duration or sheer scale . We ’ve compile some of chronicle ’s great manhunts , some of which are freshly imprint on our corporate conscious and others that will surely reverberate a bell .
10: Boston Marathon Bombers
On April 15 , 2013 , two bombs house in kitchenpressure cookersdetonated near the finish line of theBoston Marathon . At least three people were killed and more than 200 injured by the blasts . Just days later , the entire urban center of Boston and its surrounding areas came to a screeching halt as one of the U.S. ’s largest manhunts get underway .
The FBI released exposure of two suspects believed to be responsible for for the Boston Marathon bombing . The suspects shot and killed an MIT campus police officer , carjack an SUV and convulse homemade explosive at law enforcement officials who pursue them .
While one suspect , Tamerlan Tsarnaev , was shot and killed by police , the other – his brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev – slip one’s mind into the darkness of a residential neighborhood . The ensuing manhunt include dozens of law enforcement officers from internal , state and local agencies , as well as chopper hover overhead . Residents of Boston and surrounding suburban area were govern to " shelter in place . " Officials stopped public transportation systems , instituted a " no fly zone " over the urban center , closed university and school , and shuttered country businesses – an unprecedented shutdown of a major U.S. metropolis .
The manhunt continued until Tsarnaev was captured and admit into hands on April 19 . Although estimation are still coming in , the manhunt is have a bun in the oven to have be more than $ 1 billion , which may make it the most expensive one to date in U. S. story [ sources : Brooks , CBS News , Minch ] .
9: Osama bin Laden
The manhunt for the loss leader of the hawkish Islamist organization al - Qaida , Osama bin Laden , took so long , made so piffling progress and included so few clew that for a clock time he was simply presume bushed [ germ : Encyclopaedia Britannica ] .
The hunting for bin Laden start in 1998 after coincidental bombings at U.S. embassy in Africa killed hundreds of people . Although al - Qaida was believed to be responsible for the attacks , bin Laden ’s whereabouts remained a enigma . After the World Trade Center fire in 2001 , also believe to be the work of al - Qaida , the manhunt intensified .
In 2011 , the CIA get a line young information about bin Laden ’s whereabouts . Twenty - threeNavy SEALSfrom Team 6 were mobilized in two MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters to beguile bin Laden , who was hiding in a chemical compound in the city of Abbotabad , about 120 miles ( 193 kilometers ) from the Pakistan border .
After dark fell on May 1 , 2011 , SEAL Team 6 boarded the aircraft , which had been outfitted with radar - void covering fire and modified to suffocate racket and heat , and fly into Pakistani air space and then to bin Laden ’s chemical compound .
The next 25 minute were a tangible nail - biter . The sealskin introduce bin Laden ’s business firm with an unfamiliar floor plan , meet wives , children and expected booby trap or enemy fervidness . When they reached the third floor , they discovered bin Laden . A Navy sealskin dash him in the chest of drawers and radioed " Geronimo , E.K.I.A. " for " foe killed in action . " At the White House , President Obama repeat , " We mother him " [ sources : Schmidle , White ] .
8: Ted Kaczynski
The 18 - year manhunt for Ted Kaczynski was one of the protracted in U.S. history , one that begin in 1978 when Kaczynski , known as the " Unabomber , " mailed the first of 16 dud to U.S. destinations . The homemadeexplosiveshe mailed until 1995 murdered three multitude and wounded 23 more , prompt the FBI to volunteer a $ 1 million reward and prepare a psychological profile that was receive ( after the fact ) to be stunningly accurate .
Unfortunately , Kaczynski was an expert at dodge seizure . He maintained a low visibility at an obscure log cabin in Montana , emerging only to fire off the occasional pronunciamento to the media . It was one of these wordy announcement that finally led police to his doorstep .
In 1995 , Kaczynski ’s chum happened to study the anonymous letters print in The New York Times and the Washington Post , recognized his sibling ’s style of authorship and alerted the authorities . After Kaczynski ’s April 3 , 1996 , check , he was convicted of his crimes and continues to dish a life sentence without the possibility of parole [ source : White ] .
7: Adam Yahiye Gadahn
Adam Yahiye Gadahn was hold in 1978 to California goat granger and homeschooled until long time 17 . And then things got a little weird .
Gadahn converted toIslam , join a California mosque , punched its loss leader and moved to Pakistan , where he became a war-ridden Islamist . After the terrorist attacks in New York and Pennsylvania on Sept. 11 , 2001 , Gadahn stepped onward as al - Qaida ’s unofficial spokesman and was videotape threatening more attacks against the U.S.
In 2006 , on the 5th anniversary of 9/11 , he released a video in documentation of the onslaught , and one month later was charged in U.S. courts with treason . The State Department continues to hunt for Gadahn , believed to be hiding overseas , and is offering a $ 1 million reinforcement for information leading to his arrest [ germ : CNN ] .
6: John Wilkes Booth
Although PresidentAbraham Lincolnwas shot and kill by John Wilkes Booth in 1865 , the details of Booth ’s capture persist shrouded in mystery .
After Booth , a handsome histrion , assassinate Lincoln in a crowded theater , he became the object of a 12 - day , multistate manhunt cross from Washington , D.C. , to Maryland . take flight from federal troops – and a $ 100,000 reward for his capture – Booth spent five Night hiding in the Maryland woods and eventually crossed the Potomac River , where he seek asylum in a b in rural Virginia . All while nursing a broken ramification because of an ill - timed theatrical jump after firing at Lincoln .
Booth was eventually discovered hiding in the barn , but refuse to deliver even when the b was set on fire . By some business relationship , he was tear and immediately died . By others , he endure a bullet wound to the cervix and languished for days . Or he died of unspeakable burns . One way of life or another , Booth died in 1865 . Or did he ?
Despite anautopsythought to affirm his identicalness , some consider Booth escaped and be under an assumed name in venue ranging from Granbury , Texas , to Enid , Okla. , until he decease of natural campaign in the 1900s [ sources : Biography , White ] .
5: 38 IRA Members
A September 1983 prison house falling out by member of the Irish Republican Army resulted in the largest manhunt in Northern Ireland ’s history , involving nearly 10,000 soldier and constabulary police officer .
Northern Ireland ’s Maze Prison was the country ’s maximum security adeptness and think to be ineluctable – until the day prisoner held guards hostage with smuggle guns , traded prison house jumpsuits for the guards ' uniforms and staged a coup d’etat in the main gatehouse . In the ensuing topsy-turvydom , 38prisonersscaled an proscribed fence and escaped , leaving behind 19 hurt and one utter .
Although 19 escapees were captured within a few daytime , a manhunt for the residuum went on for another decade . Several escaped prisoners were eventually kill or captured , and half - a - twelve were discovered in Ireland and the U.S. As of 2013 , however , two escapees stay at large [ source : Crime Library ] .
4: Christopher Dorner
In February 2013 , Christopher Dorner venture on a personal vendetta against law enforcement . A former Los Angeles police police officer , Navy officer and expert marksman , Dorner had been elicit after falsely accusing a fellow police policeman of kick an arrestee .
Unsuccessful appeals and burgeoning frustration may have prompted Dorner to turn to societal media , where in February 2013 he post elaborated accusations against the police section and members of the media – and then croak on a shooting spree . Dorner snitch a series of attack on constabulary ship’s officer and their sept , drink down four people and wounding three others . The ensuing manhunt spread across California and into Mexico , go nearly two calendar week and became one of the largest searches for a fugitive in LAPD history .
Dorner taunted police force that they would n’t be able to find him as he knew all their technique . But they eventually cornered him in an isolated mountain cabin , where despite tear gas and a fervour that caused ammo to set off , he died of a self - inflictedgunshotwound [ source : Carlsbad Current - Argus , Ford , Tomlinson ] .
3: Moammar Gadhafi
In 2011 , rebel leaders successfully toppled the Libyan government , sending potentate Moammar Gadhafi into hiding in his hometown of Sirte . For two months , the fugitive former leader went off the grid , skirting public sighting in Sirte – Libya ’s last outstation sympathetic to the fallen government – as he evaded the interim politics ’s army .
For 42 years , Gadhafi had ruledLibyaand had a reputation for brutality against his own citizen . extremity of the Libyan army were impeach of using civilian as human shields and using schools as arm caches .
In a manhunt aided by many of the Libyan multitude , Gadhafi was throw out from his hiding place in a drainage ditch on Oct. 20 , 2011 . greyback work over him , stabbed him in the backside with a bayonet and then shot him in the heading . Gadhafi ’s decease launched a global media hysteria – especially since some of his capture was caught on TV – and ended one of the universe ’s most infamous manhunts [ sources : Melnick , McElroy ] .
2: Ned Kelly
In twinkle of the United States ' 21st - century financial woes , the musical theme of a folk hero robbing banks and burning mortgage contracts take on a whole new position . This particular Robin Hood , however , lived and plume in the late 1800s – long before any forward-looking pecuniary maladies .
Ned Kelly was anAustralianoutlaw who study up the fight of poor colonists straining under the confines of British rule . After being accused of killing three policemen , Kelly and three compatriots take to the Australian bush . The mathematical group successfully obliterate from authorities for quite some prison term , emerging only to rob a couple of banks and light their fellow citizens ' mortgage report .
Perhaps the most notorious footnote about Kelly , however , concerns his capture . Upon realizing the police had surrounded his tree - lined hideaway , Kelly lumbered out to recognize them – clad in a mammoth suit of homemadearmor . The police were shocked to see bullets deflect off his sword - plate dresser , but soon give away Kelly ’s Achilles ' heel : his unprotected legs .
Although the homemade suit of armour covered his chest and head , Kelly had left his legs uncovered . Soon he was charge , immobilise and enamour – only to be flow on Nov. 11 , 1880 . His last Logos were , " Such is life " [ rootage : White ] .
1: James Earl Ray
When civil rights leaderMartin Luther King Jr.was shot and kill in Memphis , Tenn. , on April 4 , 1968 , it spark a two - month manhunt that traverse several nation .
James Earl Ray , a small - time criminal who had escaped from a Missouri prison house one yr in the first place , was the bailiwick of the manhunt . Ray come under hunch after police detective relate him to a hotel reservation made under the false name Eric Starvo Galt . They began track Ray and questioning his friends and associates , revealing Ray ’s multistate trek and potential design to head out of the country . A search of 175,000 recommendation turned up one under the name George Ramon Sneyd that looked suspiciously like Ray . Ray , baffle as " Sneyd , " was tracked to Canada , Portugal and the United Kingdom . He was arrested on June 8 , 1969 , at Heathrow Airport in London .
After confirming his identity , Ray was extradited to the U.S. where he confessed to King ’s execution . A big money line up at the law-breaking scene included a rifle with Ray ’s fingerprints on it . Ray entered a plea and was condemn to 99 years for King ’s assassination . Three day later , Ray recanted , tell he was part of a conspiracy . By 1997 , the King family correspond that Ray did not act alone and offered their support for a new trial . While awaiting this trial , Ray died in 1998 at years 70 [ source : CBS , CNN , Gribben ] .
Lots More Information
Researching some of the worldly concern ’s largest manhunts – and criminal acts – declare oneself an interesting glimpse into history . I was in particular intrigue with Ned Kelly and the mental images his homemade causa of armor entreat . What I did n’t expect , though , was to discover rumors thatJohn Charles Wilkes Boothlived out his days as a citizen in Oklahoma or Texas . Although there ’s no proof that it ’s true , it ’s interesting to think about a fugitive ’s ability to assume another identity – an act that would certainly have been prosperous in the days before photographic camera phones and societal media . If Booth attempted the same today , surely # boothsighting would cut on Twitter .
