Frederick Tenuto
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive
ChargesPrison escape
AliasAngel of Death
Description
BornFrederick J. Tenuto
(1915-01-20)January 20, 1915
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
GenderMale
Status
AddedMay 24, 1950
Number14
Removed from Top Ten Fugitive List

Frederick J. Tenuto[1] (born January 20, 1915) was a New York City mobster and criminal who was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list for over a decade, the longest on record at the time. As Top Ten fugitive number 14[2] he replaced Stephen William Davenport, #12, as the first replacement of a fugitive who was not among the original ten.[1]

Background

Tenuto was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on January 20, 1915.[3]

Tenuto was a career criminal who was believed by police to have served as a hit man in several organized crime murders. A police psychiatrist who interviewed him described Tenuto as a man who could murder someone and then calmly sit down to a meal.[4]

Tenuto escaped from the Philadelphia County Prison in a jailbreak with four other inmates including bank robber Willie "The Actor" Sutton on February 10, 1947. Eluding authorities for several years, Sutton was eventually identified in early 1952 while riding in a New York City Subway train by Brooklyn resident Arnold Schuster. After Schuster was murdered following a television interview, authorities suspected Tenuto of the killing, supposedly on the orders of New York mobster Albert Anastasia.[5] Tenuto, who had been officially placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list on May 24, 1950,[6] was never captured.[7]

Tenuto's name remained on the FBI's Most Wanted list for over 14 years. It was removed on March 9, 1964, amid reports Tenuto had been killed and secretly buried.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Dolan, Francis X. (2007). Eastern State Penitentiary. Arcadia Publishing. p. 67. ISBN 978-0738550398. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  2. ↑ "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives 1 to 100". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved 2019-12-25.
  3. ↑ "Clipped from the Burlington Free Press". The Burlington Free Press. May 24, 1963. p. 16.
  4. ↑ SCHUSTER SUSPECT ALREADY A KILLER; Tenuto, 37, Has One Murder, Many Burglaries and Prison Breaks in 21-Year Record, The New York Times, 10 March 1952, p. 13
  5. ↑ Tuohy, John William (January 2002). "New York Stories Part III". American Mafia. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  6. ↑ Clark, Jerry; Palattella, Ed (2019-09-17). On the Lam: A History of Hunting Fugitives in America. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-6259-1.
  7. ↑ Clark, Jerry; Palattella, Ed (2019-09-17). On the Lam: A History of Hunting Fugitives in America. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-6259-1.

Further reading

  • Davis, John H. Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.
  • Turner, William W. Hoover's FBI. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1993.
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