Selects: How Manhunts Work

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Key Takeaways  While every manhunt is unique, there are some principles that hold true for all manhunts Law enforcement typically gets the public involved as soon as possible Generally, authorities will establish a containment zone, then conduct a door-to-door search, then shut down public forms of transportation, schools, businesses, etc. The man who killed Martin Luther King Jr. was an escapee from a Missouri prison; following the assassination, he made his way to Canada using a forged passport, then to Portugal, and eventually to the UK where he was finally apprehended Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, was on the run for 18 years before his brother identified his writing style in his manifesto and alerted the authorities Whitey Bulger was on the run for 16 years before a woman working at a hair salon recognized his girlfriend from an FBI-sponsored commercial and tipped off the police There are many loopholes that law enforcement can use during manhunts Crowd-sourced manhunts are becoming increasingly popular given the rise of social media and the online types obsessed with true crime 

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When a suspect or prisoner goes on the lam there are plenty of ways to hide: in plain sight, in the mountains, in another country. There are as many types of ways law enforcement uses to track wanted people as their are ways to go on the lam, but there are some founding principles to carrying out a successful manhunt and they actually include you. Learn about how the fuzz tracks down fugitives and how it's evolving in the age of social media in this classic episode. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.