William Raymond Nesbit was a 1930s jewel thief, born in Marshalltown, Iowa

Marshalltown, Iowa

Marshalltown is a city in and the county seat of Marshall County, Iowa, United States. The population was 27,552 in the 2010 census, an increase from the 26,009 population in the 2000 census. -History:...

. On December 31, 1936, he killed fellow thief Harold Baker in a gunpowder

Gunpowder

Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...

 explosion in Minnehaha County, near Sioux Falls, South Dakota

South Dakota

South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...

. He was arrested 26 February 1937 and convicted on May 28, 1937 to life imprisonment, which on 18 February 1946 was commuted to 20 years incarceration. Imprisoned in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, he eventually became a "trusty" and the personal chauffeur of the warden. On 4 September 1946 he failed to return from running errands, and on 26 December 1946 he was charged in absentia

In absentia

In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...

 with unlawful flight to avoid confinement. On 15 March 1950 he became the third member

FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives by year, 1950

In 1950, the United States FBI, under Director J. Edgar Hoover, began to maintain a public list of the people it regarded as the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives....

 of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

's first-ever FBI ten most wanted fugitives

FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives

The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, and William Kinsey Hutchinson, International News Service Editor-in-Chief, who were discussing ways to promote capture of the...

 list, and was arrested in a cave in Saint Paul

Saint Paul, Minnesota

Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...

, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, three days later.