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William J. Sharkey (pictured), a small-time politician in 19th-century New York, shot and killed his friend Robert Dunn over a gambling dispute. Sharkey was arrested and jailed, but only for a short time before escaping a Manhattan prison and fleeing to Cuba. Sharkey was never heard from again.
"Mysterious" Dave Mather acted as a marshal and lawman across the Wild West during the 1800s, and became notorious for his shooting skills, which he used both to uphold the law and for his own personal gain. After racking up around a dozen murders, Mather was wanted in numerous territories across the West and successfully hid out of sight for the rest of his days. The last definitive sighting of Mather occurred in 1885, but some say he traveled north to Canada to join the Mounted Police.
Known as the Robin Hood of the West and a symbol of Resistance in the Southwest and Mexico, Joaquin Murrieta was one of the most wanted horse bandits and gang leaders of the mid-19th century. A group of Texas Rangers claimed to have slain Murrieta and taken his head as a trophy in 1853, but many sources since denied that the head was truly Murrieta's, and others throughout the years claimed to have seen Murrieta slinking quietly in and out of towns and settlements.
Dan Bogan (pictured) was an outlaw at the end of the 19th century who had a famous rivalry with one Constable Charles Gunn in Lusk, Wyoming. After a number of run-ins with Gunn, Bogan shot him at close range in front of the citizens of Lusk. The town put him in custody, but Bogan soon escaped, resulting in one off Wyoming's largest manhunts in history. However. Bogan was never captured, although claims of sightings of him came from as far as Argentina.
The Bender family are suspected of committing 11 murders between 1871 and 1873 across Labette County, Kansas. The team of parents John and Elvira, along with children John Jr. and Kate, fled Kansas after their neighbors suspected them of abducting multiple travelers. After their escape, their homestead was searched, revealing numerous gravesites and bodies.
Norwegian immigrant Belle Guinness took up residence in Indiana, where she is suspected of at least 14 and possibly as many as 40 murders, almost all men whom she married and almost immediately killed, sometimes for large life insurance payouts. In 1908, Guinness' farmstead burned to the ground, revealing a decapitated corpse believed to be Guinness herself, along with dozens of other gravesites. Shortly afterwards, it became apparent that the headless body was not Guinness, and to this day it's believed that Guinness faked her own death and made a clean getaway before anyone suspected a thing.
Butch Cassidy (pictured), the iconic outlaw of the Wild West, was born Robert Parker in 1866. Along with Harry Longabaugh, better known as the Sundance Kid, Cassidy led a series of successful bank and train heists with his gang called the Wild Bunch.
English immigrant and pastor Francis Hermann set up shop in Salt Like City, Utah, at the end of the 19th century. During his time in Utah, Hermann abducted and murdered at least four women, including his own wife, via incineration, poisoning, and dismemberment. Once the law and the community of Salt Lake City caught on to Pastor Hermann's diabolical habits, Hermann fled eastward. A national warrant was issued for his arrest, and although the police were able to stay on his trail for a while, Hermann was never caught and his fate remains unknown to this day.
By the turn of the century, Cassidy and the Kid (pictured far left) had racked up a great deal of notoriety and were wanted all over the Western states. Nevertheless, the pair only served four years of jailtime between the two of them. After a string of high-profile train robberies, they fled to Bolivia, where they continued their life of crime. It's possible they died in a shoot-out with Bolivian authorities, but many, including Cassidy's own family, believe that they quietly returned to the States at the turn of the 20th century and worked in Nevada for the rest of their days.
Haskay-bay-nay-ntayl, more popularly known as the Apache Kid, was a highly skilled Native American scout for the US Army. That is, until he was mixed up in an altercation with some other scouts, escaped arrest, and was sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence. But during a prisoner transfer in Arizona in 1889, the Kid and nine other prisoners overpowered their guards and went on the run. All were eventually captured, except for the Apache Kid, who was never tracked down again.
Hungarian serial killer Béla Kiss, a well-liked member of his community, managed to murder 23 women and one man in his house without anyone noticing. Kiss pickled the bodies of his victims in massive, metal drums outside his home. The bodies weren't found until after Kiss was sent to fight in World War I and his landlord discovered the bodies. Authorities tried to track Kiss down throughout the war, but to no avail. The last possible sighting of Kiss was in New York City in 1932, where he was thought to have worked as a janitor, but this theory has yet to be substantiated.
Another killer hailing from Hungary, Szilveszter Matuska harbored a unique fascination with derailing passenger trains. He tried twice and failed, but succeeded two more times, causing the deaths of 22 people and the serious injury of dozens upon dozens more. Matuska was caught and sentenced to life in prison in the Hungarian town of Vác, until the prison was abandoned in 1945 as the Soviet Army pushed westward. Some say Matuska then worked as a surgeon in the Red Army, others believe he returned home, while still others claim to have spotted him fighting in the Korean War. None of these theories were able to be proven, and his true fate remains unknown.
Ivan Marchenko, also known as Ivan the Terrible, was a guard and gas chamber operator at the notorious Treblinka concentration camp. Even among other Nazis, Marchenko was said to be particularly violent, gleefully cutting off prisoners' ears while they worked and beating them with pipes. For some time, a Ukrainian-American known as John Demjanjuk was thought to be Ivan, but evidence eventually proved otherwise. The true Marchenko was never found.
Leo Burt is suspected as a key player in the 1970 Sterling Hall bombing at the University of Wisconsin, an attack carried out in protest of the Vietnam War. Burt is thought to have made the bomb itself, and a warrant has been out for his arrest ever since the bombing. Burt's last-known location was in Ontario, Canada, that same year. He is still at large, with a US$150,000 bounty on his head.
Known in New York as the Angel of Death, mobster Frederick J. Tenuto escaped from prison with two other inmates in 1947. One was captured, the other was killed, allegedly by Tenuto, but Tenuto himself was never seen again. Some suspect he was killed within the mob and secretly buried, but no one knows for sure.
Clarence and John Anglin (left and center, respectively) escaped from Alcatraz Island with Frank Morris (right) in 1962 after leaving papier-mâché heads in their cots, breaking out through ventilation ducts, and fleeing the island on a makeshift boat. The trio were never seen or heard of again, and while contemporary experts suspected they drowned in the waters surrounding the island, evidence revealed in the following years that they may very well have been successful in their bolt for freedom.
One of the most high-profile and fascinating disappearances in the history of the United States, a man known only as D.B. Cooper hijacked a commercial flight from Oregon to Washington in 1971 and was given US$200,000 (more than $1 million in today's money) in ransom money. Staying on the plane, he ordered the pilots to start flying towards Mexico City. Around 30 minutes into the flight, Cooper parachuted out of the plane with his fortune, and was never seen again.
Civil rights leader and former member of the Black Liberation Army, Assata Shakur was convicted of the murder of a New Jersey state trooper in 1973 and consequently sentenced to life in prison. Shakur managed to escape shortly thereafter and fled to Cuba, where she was granted political asylum. The FBI has placed a US$2 million bounty on her head, but although it is known she resides in Cuba, her exact location remains a secret.
Anthony Cox, the husband of Yoko Ono before John Lennon and father of her daughter, Kyoko, won custody over Kyoko after their divorce, but in 1971 fled with a cult, Kyoko in tow, breaking the rules of his custody. Neither Cox nor Kyoko have been seen again, although Ono and Kyoko are in close correspondence.
Hassan Izz-Al-Din is a suspected member of the Hezbollah terrorist organization and was one of the hijackers of TWA Flight 847 in 1985 that saw the entrapment of dozens of civilian passengers for over two weeks and the death of one member of the US Navy. Izz-Al-Din and his accomplices managed to escape the situation after some of their demands were met and has never been caught, despite being put on the FBI's 22 Most Wanted Terrorists list in 2001.
Sharon Kinne (pictured center) was convicted of the murder of her husband and one of her boyfriends' wives in the early 1960s, but was released on bond and immediately fled to Mexico. There, she was convicted of another murder, and placed in a Mexican prison. However, Kinne escaped during a blackout in 1962 and hasn't been heard from since.
Texas native Elizabeth Ann Duke is wanted by the FBI for her involvement in the 1983 US Senate bombing. Duke was released on bail in 1985 and skipped town shortly afterwards. Despite the US$50,000 reward still being offered by the FBI, Duke's whereabouts remain unknown.
John Bingham , Seventh Earl of Lucan, was a British diplomat who was accused of the murder of his housekeeper and the attempted murder of his ex-wife, Veronica Duncan (pictured). It is suspected that the housekeeper's death was a mistake, and Bingham's only true target was his ex-wife, with whom he was furiously fighting with over custody of their children. Duncan managed to escape and alert the authorities, but not before Bingham made his own run for it. Bingham was charged with murder, but was never seen again since that fateful night in 1974.
Matteo Messina Denaro, despite being a wanted fugitive and described by Forbes as one of the 10 most wanted fugitives in the world, has stayed active since his disappearance in 1993. Staying fully out of sight, Denaro has risen through the ranks of the Sicilian Mafia, and is now thought to be the head of Cosa Nostra. His whereabout have remained a mystery for almost three decades.
Former sailor of the US Navy and ex-firefighter Robert Fisher was known for his violent outbursts towards his wife and two children. In 2001, the Fisher family home burst into flames. The fire was quickly labeled as arson, and the bodies of the Fisher family, Robert excluded, were pulled from the wreckage. His wife, Mary, had been shot in the head, while his two children had their throats slit. To this day, Fisher remains the only suspect in the investigation. Fisher was placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list, but has not been seen or heard from since.
Sajidah Talfah, the widow of Saddam Hussein, has been one of Iraq's most wanted fugitives since she fled the country in 2003. She is thought to reside in Qatar, but no one is certain of her whereabouts.
Ismael Zambada, known as "El Mayo," started life as a humble farmer before slowly working his way up to a command post in the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel. Until the arrest of El Chapo in 2016, the two ran the cartel together, but Zambada is now thought to rule the crime syndicate on his own. There are numerous bounties on his head both in the US and in Mexico, but he has successfully evaded capture. It is suspected Zambada underwent plastic surgery to change his appearance in recent years.
Sources: (Grunge) (Ranker)
See also: Infamous criminals in the Witness Protection Program
Heinrich Müller was one of the primary architects of the Holocaust and acted as chief of the Gestapo for the majority of World War II. He is the highest-ranking Nazi officer whose whereabouts remain unknown. He was last seen in Hitler's bunker the day after the Nazi leader took his own life. The last confirmed words of Müller before his disappearance were, "We know the Russian methods exactly. I haven't the faintest intention of being taken prisoner by the Russians." He was never seen or heard from again.
For every criminal successfully put behind bars, it seems there's always another who evades capture. Sometimes, despite the best efforts and collaboration of the authorities and the public, notorious or dangerous criminals find a way of slipping through the cracks. It turns out some felons are just as good at hiding away as they are at making a scene. Sure, it was easier in past centuries to hide from the law, especially before the advent of cameras or the internet, but some stories of fugitives of old are truly remarkable tales of evasion and survival.
Intrigued? Read on to learn about some of the hardest-to-find criminals in history.
Frightening fugitives from the law who disappeared and were never seen again
The most elusive lawbreakers in history
LIFESTYLE Crime
For every criminal successfully put behind bars, it seems there's always another who evades capture. Sometimes, despite the best efforts and collaboration of the authorities and the public, notorious or dangerous criminals find a way of slipping through the cracks. It turns out some felons are just as good at hiding away as they are at making a scene. Sure, it was easier in past centuries to hide from the law, especially before the advent of cameras or the internet, but some stories of fugitives of old are truly remarkable tales of evasion and survival.
Intrigued? Read on to learn about some of the hardest-to-find criminals in history.