Since 1950, over 500 criminals have earned the dubious distinction of being named to
the FBI's top ten most wanted list, but only ten of them have been women.
What did these women do that was terrible enough to make them some of our nation's most
feared fugitives from justice?
Here's a look at the only women on the FBI's most wanted list.
Ruth Eisemann-Schier
In December of 1968, almost two full decades after the FBI's Most Wanted list's creation,
Ruth Eisemann-Schier became the first woman to appear on it.
The crime?
She and her boyfriend, Gary Stephen Krist, kidnapped a young woman named Barbara Mackle
and buried her alive after demanding a half million-dollar ransom.
Hard to believe, but the story actually had a happy ending.
Well — as happy an ending as a story like this can have.
Eisemann-Schier and Krist kept Mackle alive inside her coffin via a breathing tube and
she was safely rescued after several days below the earth.
Eisemann-Schier spent three months on the lam before being caught and sent to jail.
After serving four years in prison, she was deported to her native Honduras.
Marie Dean Arrington
In 1968, upset at public defender Bob Pierce for failing to win a case and keep her sons
out of jail, Marie Dean Arrington went to his office with the intent to kill him.
Pierce wasn't there, but his secretary, June Ritter, was.
That was close enough for Arrington, who kidnapped Ritter, shot her multiple times, and ran her
over with her own car.
After being arrested, Arrington managed to escape from prison and, in 1969, landed on
the Most Wanted list.
It wasn't until December of 1971 that she was finally caught, and she eventually died
in prison.
Susan Saxe and Katherine Power
This unlikely pair landed on the Most Wanted list together in 1970, after participating
in a bank robbery in Massachusetts that left a police officer dead.
Roommates at Brandeis University, Susan Saxe and Katherine Power were sucked into a harebrained
scheme to steal money in order to buy guns for the Black Panthers.
Instead, the job went bad and both went on the run.
Saxe remained at large for five years before being caught and sent to prison.
Power, on the other hand, completely evaded authorities until 1993, when, suffering from
a guilty conscience, she finally turned herself in.
She pled guilty to armed robbery and manslaughter, and served six years in prison before being
released.
Donna Jean Willmott
In 1987, Donna Jean Willmott and her beau Claude Daniel Marks earned a rare double spot
on the Most Wanted list, becoming the first couple to do so.
These two weren't exactly Bonnie and Clyde, though.
During a scheme to blow up the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, to free a radical
Puerto Rican political figure, Willmott and Daniel attempted to purchase explosives from
an undercover FBI agent.
Whoops.
They went underground, changed their identities, and were living peacefully under assumed names
when they finally surrendered to authorities in 1994.
Shauntay L. Henderson
Kansas City gangster Shauntay L. Henderson holds the record as the woman who stayed on
the Most Wanted list for the shortest period of time.
Added to the list on March 31, 2007 for murdering a man at a gas station, Henderson was caught
later that same day.
Authorities believe she was involved in at least five other murders, but have been unable
to prove it.
Still, one killing was enough to land her 17 years in prison, where she remains today.
Brenda Delgado
It reads like a bad telenovela, but the shocking crime that landed Brenda Delgado on the Most
Wanted list in 2016 was all too real.
Jealous of her ex-boyfriend's new relationship, Delgado hired hit men to murder his new girlfriend,
dentist Kendra Hatcher.
"Police say the suspected hit man, seen on this surveillance camera leaving the scene,
was promised drugs in exchange for killing Hatcher."
Known by the press as "The Jilted Lover," Delgado fled to Mexico after the killing,
but Mexican authorities, working in conjunction with the FBI, tracked her down and brought
her in.
Shanika S. Minor
Later on in 2016, Shanika S. Minor became the tenth woman to land on the Most Wanted
list, after the shocking murder of pregnant neighbor Tamecca Perry.
After Minor's mother complained that Perry was playing music too loud, Minor went after
Perry with an automatic weapon.
Minor's mother managed to defuse the situation temporarily, but early the next morning, Minor
shot Perry at point-blank range in front of Perry's children.
Both Perry and her unborn child died.
"Minor is being sought for her alleged involvement in first degree intentional homicide."
Minor went on the run, and was caught less than a week after being added to the Most
Wanted list.
Angela Davis
One of the most famous cases in FBI history was Angela Davis.
In 1970, Davis was a political activist and professor at UCLA when several guns she had
purchased were used in a violent courtroom takeover that left a judge and three others
dead.
Since she had purchased the weapons, she was charged with murder.
Soon, she went on the run and became a cause célèbre, as many people believed she was
being targeted for her political beliefs.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono even wrote a protest song about her, as did the Rolling Stones.
She was finally arrested and brought to trial, but a jury found her not guilty and cleared
her of all charges.
She has since written several books, and remains a noted educator and activist to this day.
Bernardine Dohrn
Like Angela Davis before her, Bernardine Dohrn was a political activist.
She was also a domestic terrorist, leading the radical left-wing organization called
the Weather Underground, which bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol, and several police
stations in the late 1960s and early 70s.
"The group promises more attacks on the establishment around the entire country, starting next week.
The medium for this message was a tape recording, reputedly by the fugitive Weatherman leader
Bernardine Dohrn."
In 1970, after going into hiding, Dohrn landed on the Most Wanted list.
She was removed from the list in 1973 after charges against her were dismissed, but she
didn't emerge from hiding until 1980, when she turned herself in.
After serving a year in jail, she studied law and spent over two decades as an adjunct
at the Northwestern University School of Law.
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