The FBI Files

In September 1997, a team of masked gunmen robbed an armored car facility in Los Angeles, and made off with $18.9 million, the largest takeover heist in U.S. history. An employee believed she recognized the voice of one of the robbers, and FBI agents began conducting surveillance on a former employee of the facility. With only one piece of physical evidence, a fragment of a vehicle taillight, authorities hoped to connect him to the crime, and locate his accomplices.

In July 1996, two men entered a pawnshop in Birmingham, Alabama, and ruthlessly murdered the employees. Unbeknownst to the killers, a secret video surveillance camera recorded the shooting. Local police and the FBI released images of the crime to the media, and were quickly able to identify the perpetrators. Now authorities had to find two cold-blooded killers who knew that they were being pursued for murder one.

In Lincoln County, Nebraska, a fugitive drug dealer engaged in a shootout with state troopers, wounding two of them, and eluded capture after a high-speed chase. Authorities immediately set up a statewide manhunt, connecting the fugitive to a murder in western Nebraska. A chance sighting led FBI agents to a second confrontation with the killer, who was more determined than ever to escape the law.

In the early 1980's, a pair of serial bank robbers gained a reputation among law enforcement officials as formidable bandits. Using the same modus operandi, the two men took hostages and emptied bank vaults across the Midwest. After the criminals escaped from police custody, FBI agents familiar with the bandits believed that they would attempt a grand-scale heist. By conducting surveillance on known associates of the criminals, authorities tried to anticipate the next target.

In the summer of 1999, Texas was terrorized by a brutal serial killer who traveled by train. The FBI assembled a task force to gather information about the dangerous drifter and create a profile that would help locate him. As they learned that the killer had traveled extensively through the United States and Mexico, the murders became more frequent, and authorities had to cast a dragnet over an entire continent in an effort to catch him.

On October 2, 1987, a Boston police officer responding to a domestic disturbance call was fatally wounded. Local authorities launched a citywide manhunt, but were only able to find the fingerprints of the chief suspect. Believing that he had fled the area, the FBI followed the suspect's trail to the west coast and then across the Mexican border, always aware of the desperation of a cop killer and of the need for justice.

In August 1984, the son of a successful real estate developer was kidnapped in front of his father's business in Miami. After the father received a $3 million ransom demand from a self-proclaimed terrorist, the FBI became involved. Based on witness descriptions of the car used in the kidnapping, authorities began to suspect a pair of Colombian nationals with a known grudge against the developer's family.

In October 1995, a South Carolina family was taken hostage as part of an elaborately planned bank robbery. Local police quickly identified two of the perpetrators, but the criminal mastermind proved more elusive. After his escape from custody, authorities began to suspect the fugitive of involvement in a series of bank robberies up and down the east coast, and the FBI remained on his trail, hoping to catch him before he took more hostages.

In February 1988, a record store clerk in Sandusky, Ohio, was fatally shot in his van. After discovering a night deposit bag with thousands of dollars in the vehicle, police knew that robbery was not the motive, and began to investigate other possibilities. FBI agents learned that several motorcycle gang members had been stopped nearby on a traffic violation shortly after the murder and theorized that the clerk's murder may have been a botched hit carried out by a gang member.

In June 1973, a young girl was abducted from a state park on the Missouri River while camping with her family. Several months passed with no leads, then an FBI agent took a particular interest in the case. Using a new technique known as criminal profiling, he predicted that the kidnapper would contact the girl's family on the one-year anniversary of her abduction. When this prediction came true, the FBI agent noted behavioral clues, hoping that they could lead him to the kidnapper.

In 1996, a group of political extremists twice robbed a bank in Spokane, Washington, using homemade bombs and military precision to escape. The FBI learned that the robbers, part of a shadowy organization called the Phineas Priesthood, might be preparing for a small-scale war with law enforcement. After the suspects were identified, the FBI was faced with the task of safely arresting a group of terrorists with a deadly agenda.

In August 1992, a man returned to his Memphis home and discovered that his wife was missing. The husband, as well as his friends, family and neighbors began to receive ransom calls. FBI agents noticed that one neighbor seemed to have the best rapport with the kidnapper. They began to question his level of involvement, but had to proceed carefully, knowing that he could be their only link to the missing woman.

In 1990 and 1991, Chicago police and the FBI were on the trail of a bank robber whose holdups were becoming increasingly violent. The criminal consistently used stolen Japanese cars to carry out the robberies, so authorities hoped to identify him by tracking vehicle thefts. When they finally located the man known as the bearded bandit, they learned that he did not work alone and he had made a pact never to surrender.

In 1988, new light was shed on the mysterious death of a South Carolina farmer when a criminal confessed that two prominent community members hired him to commit murder. Local police and FBI agents arrested a wealthy businessman and later learned that, even behind bars, he commanded the power to corrupt and kill. Using prison informants, agents had to prevent him from murdering again.

In October 1993, a robber surprised unsuspecting customers by dropping through the roof of a California bank. When police arrived, he escaped from the roof in a hail of bullets. A tip from a local resident led police and FBI agents to the perpetrator. They would soon learn that he had masterminded a local kidnapping, and held the fate of an innocent woman in his hands.

In January 1984, a U.S. Customs official disappears from his post near the Del Rio, Texas border crossing, prompting local police to search for four Latin American suspects driving a Pontiac Grand Prix. The following day, the Customs official was found dead. Two state troopers recovered the missing officer's service revolver after a fatal altercation with two men. Local police and the FBI continued searching for the suspect vehicle, prepared for a confrontation with desperate criminals.

Amid the cocaine wars of early 1980's Miami, three dead bodies led a multi-agency tactical squad to suspect that a group of cops might be involved in illegal drug busts. Investigating rumors of corruption, the squad uncovered a ring of patrolmen who were making millions by ripping off smuggled cocaine. The investigators set out to prove that even with the advantages wealth and the protection of a police badge, nobody is above the law.