The FBI Files

In September 1997, a team of masked gunmen robbed an armored car facility in Los Angeles and made off with nearly $19 million, the largest cash heist in U.S. history. 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 - they hoped to connect him to the crime and find his collaborators.

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

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

After a career criminal committed a vehicular homicide in New Orleans, the FBI tracked him through his habits and addictions. They concentrated their investigation on gambling communities throughout the United States and, when he resurfaced in Atlantic City, agents used all of their resources to trap the violent sociopath who declared that he would never be taken alive.

In the early 1980s, a pair of serial bank robbers who took hostages and emptied bank vaults across the Midwest, gained a reputation among law enforcement officials as formidable bandits. After the criminals escaped from police custody, FBI agents familiar with the devious duo believed that they would attempt a grand-scale heist. Authorities tried to anticipate the next target.

In the summer of 1999, a brutal serial killer who traveled by train terrorized Texas. The FBI assembled a special task force to profile the violent drifter and 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 search an entire continent in an effort to catch him.

In October 1987, a Boston police officer responding to a domestic disturbance call was fatally wounded. Local police launched a citywide manhunt but were only able to find the fingerprints of the suspect. Believing that he had fled the area, the FBI followed the suspect's trail to the West Coast and across the Mexican border, always aware of the desperation of a cop killer.

In August 1984, the son of a successful real estate developer was kidnapped in Miami. After the father received a $3 million ransom demand from a self-proclaimed terrorist, the FBI became involved and agents began to suspect a pair of Colombian nationals with a known grudge against the businessman's family.

In 1995, a South Carolina family was taken hostage as part of a bank robbery. Local police quickly identified two of the perpetrators but the criminal mastermind behind it all proved to be more elusive. Authorities suspected the fugitive of involvement in a series of bank robberies up and down the 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 Ohio was fatally shot in his van. After discovering thousands of dollars in the vehicle, police knew that robbery was not the motive. 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 hit carried out by a gang member.

In June 1973, a young girl was abducted from a state park while camping with her family. A criminal profiler 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 robbed a bank in Washington using homemade bombs and military precision to escape. The FBI learned that the robbers might be preparing for a small-scale war with law enforcement. After the suspects were identified, the FBI was tasked with 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, his friends, family and neighbors began to receive ransom calls. Authorities noticed that one neighbor seemed to have a rapport with the kidnapper and began to question his level of involvement, knowing that he could be their only link to the missing woman.

After a string of bank robberies in Illinois turned deadly, Chicago police and the FBI began to suspect that a law enforcement officer was responsible for the crimes. With the holdups becoming increasingly violent, authorities set out to capture the dangerous killer and prove that even the police must face justice.

In 1988, a criminal confessed that two prominent community members hired him to murder a South Carolina farmer. With this information, local police and FBI agents arrested a wealthy businessman and later learned that, even behind bars, he had the power to corrupt and kill. Using prison informants, authorities had to prevent him from murdering again.

In October 1993, a robber surprised unsuspecting customers by dropping through the roof of a California bank, only to escape from the roof in a hail of bullets when the police arrived. A local resident led police and FBI agents to the perpetrator. However, they learned 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 officer disappeared from his post near the Del Rio, Texas border crossing, prompting local police to search for four Latin American suspects. The following day, the official was found dead. Local police and the FBI continued searching for the suspects, prepared for a confrontation with desperate criminals.

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