The FBI Files

At 9:30 am on the morning of January 30, 1997, Richmond, VA police respond to a report of shots fired at a local bank. Two masked men brandishing automatic weapons confront, and open fire on officers responding to the call. The gunmen exit the bank, and retreat on foot, eventually eluding the officers. The FBI soon responds, only to find one bank teller dead, another wounded, and the bank's security guard shot four times, yet still alive.

A man is found suffocated in his Pennsylvania home, his checkbook, credit cards and vehicle appear to have been stolen. Fingerprints from the victim identify a recent escapee from a minimum-security prison, as well as his girlfriend. Investigators flag the dead man's credit cards, and are alerted when one is used in North Dakota. The FBI is called in and joins another task force already assembled because of a suspected kidnapping.

In Wisconsin, a varsity athlete is blindfolded, gagged, and shoved into a van by four gunmen. The kidnappers contact the victim's family and demand $30,000, but offer no instructions on how to transfer the money. The victim's family contacts the police. The boy's captors tell his family they have shot him, and will kill him if they do not receive their money. At an agreed upon drop site, FBI agents approach the captor's vehicle, only to watch them flee and quickly be followed by authorities.

A New Jersey State Trooper is shot to death on the side of Interstate 80 near the Pennsylvania border. Witnesses to the shooting identify the shooter's car. Police issue an APB, and locate the vehicle hours later. Fingerprinting of the vehicle points to a fugitive wanted on bank robbery charges. Authorities who inspect the fugitive's home find some incriminating evidence including a box of bullets linked to the Trooper's murder.

In June of 2000, two gunmen rob a Seattle, WA bank, and flee on foot as officers chase them. One of the gunmen is killed in a firefight with police, the other escapes after assaulting a family and using their home to hide. The family helps FBI agents identify the man, who is suspected of several other robberies. Seattle SWAT teams, working with the FBI, search the home of the assailant's mother, and find ammunition matching that used at the bank robbery.

A California bank manager panics and calls in the FBI after the door to his vault refuses to open. Upon inspection, the vault has been blasted into from the ceiling, and over $2 million in valuables is gone. When agents find no clues as to the robbers or their whereabouts in California, they send details of the crime to other FBI field offices. It is not long before agents in Ohio are investigating a bank vault robbery that is strikingly similar to the California heist.

An Arkansas State Trooper is shot and killed after pulling over a van for a traffic violation. Officers apprehend the shooter, after a car chase and shootout. ATF is alerted when officers find weapons and explosives in the man's vehicle. Further testing of the weapons reveals one was used in a murder several months earlier. ATF traces some of the firearms to purchases made by another man from and arms dealer. They also match silencer marks from the weapons to a third man previously arrested for stealing a flatbed truck.

A Washington DC professor is shot and killed as she tries to get into her car. The killer leaves the body in the parking lot and drives away in her vehicle. A week later, a man robs a bank, and security cameras capture the same vehicle as the getaway car. The FBI believes they are dealing with the same man. Days later, the same vehicle is involved in a shootout with police, but eventually would elude them. Eventually, the vehicle is found, the interior covered with red dye from the stolen bank packs.

Four inmates from a Delaware Correctional Center turn up missing in the middle of the night. A few hours later, a stolen vehicle is recovered; inside, one of the inmate's fingerprints is found, as well as the address book of one of the other fugitives. A multi-state manhunt ensues with the help of the FBI. A nearby robbery report is the agent's first tip, followed by a murder in the same neighborhood.

In the Spring of 1997, a killer preying on senior citizens terrorizes the River Parish area of Southern Louisiana. By May, local police and the New Orleans FBI are exploring a connection between the April 9 murder of a 71-year old widow and the May 9 murder of a retired couple. A month later, authorities forward information on the crimes to the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit in Quantico, VA, hoping a profile will help them narrow the field of possible suspects.

On December 21, 1998, two gunmen kidnap three janitors on their way to clean the Bank of America ATM repository in Las Vegas. The gunmen force the janitors to let them in the ATM repository and hold them hostage until the armored car guards arrive to make their nightly collection. When the guards enter the bank, the gunmen surprise them and shoot one guard in the chest before escaping with $1,088,000, the largest bank robbery take in Las Vegas history.

In Henderson, NV, a suburb of Las Vegas, two robbers brandishing assault rifles ambush armored guards as they exit their truck on March 3, 2000. The robbers kill both guards and seize $5,000. As the killers run to their getaway car, a police officer arrives and opens fire, striking one escaping assailant in the leg. After loosing the killers in a chase, police collect blood left by the injured robber and bullet casings from the firefight.

On February 12, 1997, two men use a sledgehammer to break into a Camden, NJ home. The homeowner shoots at the intruders, hitting one in the hand before they escape. Camden Police respond and track the suspects to a nearby park. One of the men shoots at the officer before police arrest his accomplice. The man gives up the identity of the shooter. Twice, police stake out homes where they believe the shooter is hiding, but he eludes them.

When violent criminals strike, the FBI strikes back, employing every available resource, and creating new ones when necessary. From forensic science to criminal profiling, specialized intelligence to global fugitive tracking, the agents of the FBI battle the bad guys with a most powerful arsenal: the crime-fighter's toolbox. This special episode of The FBI Files celebrates the groundbreaking science, investigative technique, and gut-level instinct that has made the FBI the world's premier law enforcement agency.

In the 1970's, Otpor, a violent arm of the Croatian National Resistance commits terroristic acts against non-supportive Croatians living in the U.S. With the help of an informant, the FBI is able to apprehend, arrest and convict members of the group for crimes ranging from conspiracy and extortion to murder.

In 1994, a rash of home invasion robberies take place in the metropolitan Detroit area. The thieves turn out to be part of a local gang dubbed the Home Invaders. Their crimes extend to insurance fraud, theft, and illegal lottery schemes. The Violent Crimes Task Force (VCTF) opens an investigation, and with the cooperation of a gang member who was apprehended at the scene of a crime, they are able to obtain the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of 16 gang members.

This is the story of the FBI's first capture of an international Lebanese terrorist. In June 1985, the terrorist and his four accomplices hijacked Royal Jordanian flight #405 shortly before take off in Beirut, Lebanon. On board were American citizens, a professor and his teen son. The FBI opened a criminal investigation and worked with various other government agencies to form Operation Goldenrod, a task force specifically charged with bringing the terrorist to justice in 1989.