Who was the first fugitive named to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s “Top Ten Most Wanted List”?

Thomas James Holden (1896 – 1953) and Francis Keating (1899 – 7/25/78) led a gang of criminals who robbed banks, mainly in the US Midwest, early in the 20th Century. An FBI official called Holden “a menace to every man, woman, and child” in the United States before the Bureau posted its first official “FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted List” in 1950, with Holden’s name at the top.

Before Holden and Keating focused on bank robbing, their most lucrative haul was $1,350,000 taken in a 1926 truck hijacking. They were captured, arrested, convicted on May 25, 1928, and sentenced to death.

They escaped from Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary on February 28, 1930, formed a new gang, and withdrew $70,000 at gunpoint from a William, Minnesota bank. Later, three of the gang members were found shot to death.

They robbed a Menomonie, Wisconsin bank of $1.3 Million in October, 1931 and took the son of the bank’s president hostage. Two gang members and the banker’s son were found murdered. With the infamous Karpis-Barker gang, the two robbed a bank in Fort Scott, Kansas in June, 1932. They were arrested in July and sent back to Leavenworth.

After serving nearly two decades in prison, they were released. Holden married a woman in November, 1947 but killed her and two of her brothers in June, 1949. His mug shot on the FBI List led to his arrest in 1951. He was sentenced to life in prison and died there. Keating retired to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he died of natural causes in 1978.