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The Most Significant Cases in US Law Enforcement History

The Most Significant Cases in US Law Enforcement History

Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Rosenberg Espionage

Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Black Dahlia murder

Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

D.B. Cooper hijacking

fbi / Flickr / Public Domain

Murder of Special Agent Edwin C. Shanahan

fbi / Flickr / Public Domain

Frank Sinatra, Jr., kidnapping

Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Reservation murders

Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Bombing of United flight

Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Army deserters kill FBI agent

Courtesy of the FBI

Greenlease kidnapping

Courtesy of FBI

JFK assassination

Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

Weyerhaeuser kidnapping

Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Special Agent J. Brady Murphy slain

Courtesy of the FBI

Krupp diamond theft

Courtesy of the FBI

Special Agent William R. Ramsey murder

Courtesy of the FBI

Judge Vance murder

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Lindbergh kidnapping

Keystone / Hulton Archive via Getty Images

Robbery spree on East Coast

Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Osage murders case

Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Patty Hearst abduction

Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Unabomber attacks

Stephen J. Dubner / Contributor / Getty Images

Hijacking of United Flight

Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Murder of Anne Marie Fahey

DenisTangneyJr / iStock via Getty Images

Joanne Chesimard terror spree

Public Domain / flickr

German saboteurs

Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Robbers in the Midwest

Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Rosenberg Espionage
Alcatraz escape
Black Dahlia murder
Brinks robbery
Charles Ross kidnapping
D.B. Cooper hijacking
Murder of Special Agent Edwin C. Shanahan
Frank Sinatra, Jr., kidnapping
Reservation murders
Bombing of United flight
Army deserters kill FBI agent
Greenlease kidnapping
JFK assassination
Weyerhaeuser kidnapping
Special Agent J. Brady Murphy slain
Jonestown mass suicide
Krupp diamond theft
Special Agent William R. Ramsey murder
Judge Vance murder
Lindbergh kidnapping
Robbery spree on East Coast
Osage murders case
Patty Hearst abduction
Unabomber attacks
Hijacking of United Flight
Murder of Anne Marie Fahey
Joanne Chesimard terror spree
Oklahoma City Bombing
Murder of Medgar Evers
German saboteurs
Robbers in the Midwest

The United States did not have a federal investigation agency until the creation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the early 20th century. Since then, the agency has handled some of the most famous crime cases in American history.

To compile the most significant cases in U.S. law-enforcement history, 24/7 Tempo drew on information from the FBI's website. We exercised editorial discretion in assembling our list based on the importance of the case, its challenges, the historical significance, and national interest in particular cases.

The FBI began as America's premier law enforcement agency in 1908 when Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte ordered the creation of a special agent force in the Department of Justice. The need for a national crime-fighting unit arose with the passage of acts that were national in scope such as the Espionage Act and the National Motor Vehicle Theft Act. The FBI became a force to be reckoned with when J. Edgar Hoover took over the bureau in 1924.

Since then, the FBI has handled cases pertaining to kidnappings, robberies across state lines, plane hijackings, bombings, murder, and slaying of law-enforcement officers.

Some of the more famous kidnappings were of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., the 20-month-old child of the famed aviator and author Anne Morrow Lindbergh in 1932, and Hearst publishing heiress Patty Hearst in 1974. Law enforcement apprehended the thieves who pulled off the Brink's robbery in Boston in 1950; the string of bank holdups in the Northeast in 1961; and the theft of the Krupp diamond ring in 1959 (it was later bought by Richard Burton for his wife Elizabeth Taylor).

There are two plane hijackings on our list, one perpetrated by a Vietnam War veteran who was caught, and the infamous hijacking by D.B. Cooper, who bailed out of the plane with ransom loot and has not been found.

The FBI solved politically motivated bombings in the 1980s and 1990s such as the Unabomber, and one bombing that was carried out for greed. (These are the most famous major cases in FBI history.)

One of the century's most notorious murders, the grisly death of the so-called Black Dahlia in 1947, remains unsolved. Also included on our list are the cases involving the slayings of special agents in the line of duty.

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