AMERICA’S MOST WANTED: JOHN WALSH'S DIRTY DOZEN: L-R: John Walsh and Callahan Walsh in the AMERICA’S MOST WANTED: JOHN WALSH'S DIRTY DOZEN special airing Wednesday, May 14 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. CR: Amanda Mazonkey / FOX ©2025 FOX Media LLC.
Originally posted onMay 14, 2025 @ 9:17 pm
America’s Most Wanted Dirty Dozen Recap
This is a special episode of America’s Most Wanted on Fox. It is the 1100th episode, featuring the Dirty Dozen, aka the most influential cases the show has ever covered.
John and Callahan Walsh talk about how the show’s history.
CASE 1:
Adam Walsh’s kidnapping and murder. He was abducted on July 27th, 1981 from a Sears store in Hollywood, Florida. His mom Reve was looking at lamps while Adam was watching older kids play a video game. The kids got rowdy and they, as well as Adam, got asked to leave.
It took less than five minutes and Adam was nowhere to be found.
On August 10th, his severed head was found in a gutter. Otis Toole confessed to the murder years later, but it would take 25 years before he was identified as the killer.
John and Reve realized that there was no system to help missing children. They dedicated their lives to helping find missing children, with the help of President Ronald Reagan, The Center for Missing and Exploited Children was born.
In 1988, John began hosting America’s Most Wanted, which became an national phenomenon.
About 1,200 fugitives were captured and many children were reunited with their families.
CASE 2:
John List was an accountant, family man and Sunday School teacher. When he lost his job, he has trouble making ends meet, so he killed his entire family and went on the run.
Frank Bender, a famous sculptor, made a bust of John in 1989, which was filmed on AMW. He was caught eleven days after the show aired and 18 years after disappearing. He got five consecutive life sentences.
John shows the bust and how spot on it was to John himself. He and Callahan explain how different technology is now used to make age progressions and other ways to show how a criminal or missing person may look.
CASE 3:
This is the very first case on the very first episode and the very first capture. The FBI gave the show several names to feature. Reve said they should choose someone who hurt children, so they settled on murderer David James Roberts, who killed his wife and children in a horrific house fire.
He was freed on $10,000 bail and on November 15th, 1974, a woman was on her way home from work when she was raped and abducted while her baby was left behind….eventually dying from the weather.
David was then arrested and given six consecutive life sentences. He escaped while on his way back to prison after a doctor’s appointment.
After the show aired, he was found by the Staten Island Ferry and surrendered without incident….four days later.
CASE 4:
Sean Salley was featured on the show in 2001 after he murdered by the Carnegie Deli in NYC.
Jennifer Stall was an actress who sold pot to make ends meet. On May 10th, 2001, two men headed to her apartment to rob it, killing three people and wounding two others. Jennifer was one of the ones who died. Andre Smith turned himself in while Sean remained on the run.
On July 10th, hours after the episode aired, people called in, saying he was in Miami. He was captured twelve hours after the episode was aired. He got 120-life in prison.
CASE 5:
Kenneth Lovci was the 245th capture in 1993. Several people in Salt Lake City were in a bar/restaurant watching the show, where they saw a segment about a former cook being murdered…..only to see the next segment, which featured the very cook working in the restaurant they were in at that moment….by pure coincidence. He was captured fifteen minutes later.
Bryan Cranston gives him a shout out and quips that he never captured Walter White.
CASE 6:
Jose Garza was kidnapped and reunited with his dad thanks to some alert viewers. There was a custody battle between Jose’s dad Chris and his girlfriend Elizabeth Hernandez. During a custody meeting, Elizabeth shot Chris and kidnapped Jose.
Chris drove to the hospital and reported Elizabeth and her boyfriend Aaron Borrero. The media and show got wind of the case and three weeks later, they were all found and Chris was reunited with Jose.
CASE 7:
The Notorious Texas 7 were on the run. Law enforcement thought they headed to Mexico, but John thought they were going North, turning out to be correct.
The Notorious Texas 7 escaped prison and killed a cop, armed and dangerous. They would go into hiding in a religious community and the Holder family would soon watch the show and realize the truth about their identities.
Six were sentenced to death, while the seventh died by suicide during the capture.
CASE 8:
Tony Playboy surrounded in Canada and was part of a Vietnamese Nomad Gang and ended up in a gang related murder. He was charged with two murders and escaped to Canada. His sister turned him in when she saw him on AMW and he was met at the border by the FBI. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison after turning himself in.
Michael Strahan also gives John a shoutout!
CASE 9:
Timothy McGhee was a gang leader who went on a murder rampage in LA with an AK47. He owned about 47 and became public enemy #1.
Timothy would soon go on the run and end up in Arizona, where he would be captured. He served 20 years, but the case was overturned. However, he remains in jail for other crimes.
CASE 10:
9/11. The day that would leave in infamy. John himself went down there via bus to cover the case. He found four injured people days later, all of whom were crushed by the building.
John covered the case, interviewing people and promising to bring the terrorists to justice. He even aired a 2 hour episode to bring awareness to the terrorist group Al-Queda and Osama Bin Laden. The case and show went international, and began bringing the world’s most notorious criminals to justice.
He points out how this reminded him of how Adam’s case went nationwide as people searched for him.
John Ashcroft gives another shout out and talks about how he is a hero.
CASE 11:
John Riccardi killed Connie Navarro and Susan Jory were killed on March 3rd, 1983. Connie’s son Dave talks about how the murder destroyed his life and the lives of his family, especially since John was on the run.
In 1989, AMW got wind of the case and found John on January 4th, 1991. He had been living under an assumed name.
CASE 12:
AMW correspondent and activist Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her bedroom in Salt Lake City. Her sister remembers seeing the kidnapper and identified him as a man named Emmanuel who worked on the case. He was really Brian David Mitchell and was found ten miles with Elizabeth and fellow abductor Wanda Barzee. Ten months later, Elizabeth was brought home.
Elizabeth herself would go on to help bring other children home. She thanked John for saving her at the time and he calls this one of the best stories he ever covered. He and Callahan think she is amazing and love the works she does for the show and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Jason Priestley offers his own congratulations to John and AMW.
CASE 13: (I guess this is a baker’s dozen of cases?)
This case was actually covered last season. Davie Albarran was a child predator whose daughters used social media to bring his crimes to light. The story went viral and after the story aired on AMW, Davie was captured.
John and Callahan thank viewers and each other, with Callahan promising to keep working on his father’s behalf.
About the Author
