Charles Lee Herron
{{Short description|American criminal}}
{{Infobox FBI Ten Most Wanted
| name = Charles Lee Herron
| image = Charles Lee Herron.jpg
| caption =
| charge =
| birth_date = April 21, 1937
| birth_place =
| death_date = January 6, 2014
| death_place =
| added_date = February 9, 1968
| caught_date = June 18, 1986
| remove_date =
| number = 265
| status = Captured
}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2021}}
Charles Lee Herron (April 21, 1937 – January 6, 2014){{cite web|url=https://www.ebay.com/itm/323364792200|title=Black Power/BLA Cop Killers Herron, Allen, Parker & Canady FBI Wanted Photos|work=Federal Bureau of Investigation|access-date=November 22, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221122081129/https://www.ebay.com/itm/323364792200|archive-date=November 22, 2022}}{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1979/01/28/wanted-by-the-fbi-a-better-class-of-criminal/ade9714a-0e5a-4299-b869-0b2429a62f07/|title=Wanted By the FBI: A Better Class of Criminal|date=January 28, 1979|author1=Garrett Epps|author2=Garrett Epps is a staff writer with The Magazine.|newspaper=The Washington Post|place=Washington, D.C.|issn=0190-8286|oclc=1330888409}} was an American criminal who featured on the FBI Top Ten Wanted list.{{cite web|url=https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/topten-history/hires_images/FBI-265-CharlesLeeHerron.jpg/view|title=265. Charles Lee Herron|website=Federal Bureau of Investigation}} He was arrested in 1986 in connection with a 1968 shooting of two police officers.{{cite news|url=https://apnews.com/article/e8c915b44dd14319812f812f7a053d2d|title=One of Two Arrested Top FBI Fugitives Went For Officer's Gun|website=AP NEWS}}
Police murders and arrest
Herron was an advocate of the black power movement. In January 1968, while racial tensions in Nashville, Tennessee were strenuous, he shot and killed two police officers. Officer Thomas Johnson died instantly from a 30-30 rifle, while officer Charles Thomasson died three months later from his wounds after they were called to investigate five black men parked in a dead end street. Four of the men were suspected in a money order scheme.{{Cite news |date=1987-02-27 |title=Article clipped from The Tennessean |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-tennessean/99427676/ |access-date=2024-12-27 |work=The Tennessean |pages=3}} Herron was arrested 18 years later in Jacksonville, Florida, when police staked out his home.{{Cite web |title=A black power advocate the FBI has hunted longer... - UPI Archives |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1986/06/18/A-black-power-advocate-the-FBI-has-hunted-longer/3355519451200/ |access-date=2024-12-27 |website=UPI |language=en}}{{Cite news |title=WASHINGTON TALK; F.B.I.; They Who May Never Have Heard of Quiche |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/26/us/washington-talk-fbi-they-who-may-never-have-heard-of-quiche.html |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20150524193642/http://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/26/us/washington-talk-fbi-they-who-may-never-have-heard-of-quiche.html |archive-date=2015-05-24 |access-date=2024-12-27 |language=en}}
He was arrested alongside one of his four accomplices, William Garrin Allen, who was also on the FBI Ten Most Wanted list. He had escaped prison for the same murders where he was sentenced for 99 years.{{Cite news |date=1986-06-19 |title=Article clipped from The Tampa Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-tampa-tribune/99427525/ |access-date=2024-12-27 |work=The Tampa Tribune |pages=16}} Herron was subsequently interrogated and he told officers he had actually been arrested in 1975 for a fake license in Atlanta, Georgia, but was not recognized.{{Cite news |date=1987-05-16 |title=Article clipped from The Tennessean |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-tennessean/99427742/ |access-date=2024-12-27 |work=The Tennessean |pages=53}}