Frederick J. Tenuto
(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 he replaced Stephen William Davenport, #12, as the first replacement of a fugitive who was not among the original ten.
Background
Tenuto was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on January 20, 1915.
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.
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
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
train by
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
resident
Arnold Schuster
Arnold L. Schuster (1927 – March 8, 1952) was an American clothing salesman and amateur detective known for his involvement in the capture of bank robber Willie "The Actor" Sutton and for Schuster's subsequent murder by either the Gambino cri ...
. After Schuster was murdered following a television interview, authorities suspected Tenuto of the killing, supposedly on the orders of New York mobster
Albert Anastasia
Umberto "Albert" Anastasia (, ; ; September 26, 1902 – October 25, 1957) was an Italian-American mobster, hitman, and crime boss. One of the founders of the modern American Mafia, and a co-founder and later boss of the Murder, Inc. organizat ...
. Tenuto, who had been officially placed on the
FBI's Ten Most Wanted
The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives is a most wanted list maintained by the United States's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, and William K ...
list on May 24, 1950, was never captured.
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
*
List of fugitives from justice who disappeared
This is a list of fugitives from justice, notable people who disappeared or evaded capture while being sought by law enforcement agencies in connection with a crime, and who are currently sought or were sought for the duration of their presume ...
References
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.
External links
Prison Breaks: Convicts and Escapes-Breaching prison Walls, Inmates Tunnel Out of Historical Prison - About Frederick Tenuto
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tenuto, Frederick
1915 births
Possibly living people
American escapees
American gangsters of Italian descent
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
Missing gangsters
Gangsters from Philadelphia