The FBI Files

On February 3, 1990, a 14-year-old girl ran away from her mother's home and disappeared without a trace. Her mother hoped Pasadena, Texas police could find her before it was too late. Six months later, their worst fear was realized when a farmer discovered the young girl's remains in an Illinois barn. The FBI was called in to help. Agents tracked down a trucker who they believed was responsible for 50 more deaths. Investigators knew they had to stop this menace of the highways.

When a Delaware woman vanished in 1996, family and friends discovered her secret life. The appointments secretary to the Governor had carried on an illicit affair with a wealthy married man. Agents suspected that her powerful ex-lover was responsible, but they had little physical evidence to support their theory. Investigators never found the woman's body or the murder weapon. The FBI's only hope was to go undercover, and turn brother against brother.

In the early 90s, Washington, D.C. police were losing the battle against street gangs who enforced their territories with lethal violence. The homicide rate in the nation's capital climbed to the highest in the country. Local police turned to the FBI for help, but agents soon found themselves in the direct line of fire. In the fall of 1994, a gang member walked into police headquarters, killed two FBI agents and one detective, then turned the gun on himself.

In June of 1992, masked bandits pulled off a daring mid-day bank robbery. It marked the beginning of a four-year crime wave that rocked Seattle. With each new robbery, the bandits perfected their craft, leaving behind no evidence and escaping with hundreds and thousands of dollars. As the robbers became increasingly violent, pressure mounted to end their reign. With few leads, the FBI forced their own luck. The effort put them face to face with an armed and desperate fugitive.

When police in a small Washington State community began looking into the disappearance of a 22-year-old woman, they had no way of knowing it would evolve into a nationwide hunt for a sexual sadist. Police knew the killer's identity, but he was a master of disguise. The FBI was called on to help. Agents discovered that several unsuspecting women across the northwest had fallen prey to his charms.

A stranger snatched an eight-year-old girl as she played in her Tucson, Arizona neighborhood, leaving behind an abandoned bicycle and a frantic mother. Hundreds of citizens and police officers fanned out across the region, hoping to find some trace of the young girl or her abductor. Within hours, a suspect emerged; a drifter who was out on parole for abducting and molesting children. He was nowhere to be found and time had run out for the innocent child.

On a chilly afternoon in 1989, Marine Captain Shirley Russell disappeared from Quantico, Virginia. Captain Russell was a dedicated officer; her friends and colleagues were certain she had not gone AWOL. FBI agents found her husband, a former Marine, was acting strangely, and a blood-like stain on the couple's floor disappeared before agents could examine it. There was no body, no witness and no weapon.

In February of 1996, New Jersey millionaire Frank Black flew to Florida to close a major business deal before retiring. He never came home. Authorities in New Jersey sensed foul play and brought in the FBI. Agents learned of a mystery woman in Florida who was to meet Black. Phone records showed a flood of calls to Black from his business rival just before the disappearance.

In the early 1980s, the decapitation of a young African-American male led the Miami-Dade police department and the FBI along a trail of murder. Investigators quickly discovered that the victim was a dissident member of a religious sect headed by a man calling himself Yahweh ben Yahweh, or God, Son of God. Although the FBI believed Yahweh ben Yahweh and his followers were responsible for many murders, they could find no direct evidence linking them to the crimes.

In November of 1994, when a Wells Fargo armored van disappeared from a Glendale, Arizona mall, local authorities and the FBI scrambled to recover it, and its cargo of nearly a million dollars. Six hours later, agents found the van, its driver shot dead inside and the money gone. It was a perfect hit by professionals who left no clue behind. Months passed before a solid lead developed. In January, a tip led agents to look into a former prison guard.

Beginning in California in 1995, a serial killer targeted vulnerable women. At first charming and generous, he quickly became violent. He was brutal with his kills and quick in his getaways. Traveling across the country, he struck in Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida. The FBI and local police needed to stop this cross-country killer before more women fell victim to his insatiable rage.

In 1987, a successful television producer was gunned down in his New York office. It looked like a professional hit. With no leads, the investigation stalled. Four years later and a continent away, a man told Los Angeles police he had been hired to murder two exotic dancers. Investigators linked the two crimes and uncovered a businessman willing to kill to protect his interests.

A 1981 armored car robbery near New York City left one guard dead and another critically wounded. Police stopped suspects nearby and another shoot-out ensued, claiming the lives of two officers. Local police and the FBI suspected a large group of domestic terrorists with a history of violent crime. They would try to ferret out these heavily armed criminals who moved in a shadowy underworld and were not afraid to kill authorities.

When a California man was found dismembered in 1990, police suspected a local burglar, but they couldn't find him. Six months later, he was caught robbing an Arizona bank and sentenced to life. But prison couldn't hold him for long, and within a year he escaped. The FBI would lead a multi-agency manhunt for a killer on a desperate run through the tourist regions of the west.

At first it seemed like a tragic hunting accident when 18-year-old David Wilkey was shot to death in rural Virginia in 1983. A tenacious insurance investigator suspected foul play, but he had no direct evidence. Two years later a man contacted North Carolina FBI agents with a complex story of conspiracy and murder-for-hire: he claimed he had been hired to murder Wilkey's killer.

On a summer night in 1990, a body was discovered burning in a Minnesota alley. Weeks later, police finally identified the victim, a suspected drug courier from California. The FBI began working with local police and slowly uncovered a multi-state crime ring run by a deadly drug lord who used violence and intimidation to keep those around him silent. Agents needed to infiltrate and dismantle the crew before more people died.

In the early 1990's drug gangs terrorized Harlem, New York neighborhoods. When a 10-year-old boy fell victim in the crossfire, NYPD detectives and FBI agents clamped down on the problem. They formed a task force called C-11, designed to dismantle the gangs. In an environment of violence and fear it would be difficult to identify, arrest and convict those involved in the secretive and deadly world of big money drugs.