Chicago Crime Commission searching for new 'Public Enemy Number One'

FOX 32 NEWS - The search is underway for a criminal of such worldwide notoriety that he deserves to be labeled "Public Enemy Number One."

Back in 1930, crime boss Al Capone was the first ever "Public Enemy Number One," named by the Chicago Crime Commission. It took more than 80 years before the commission named another one: Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Now, the search is on for a third "Public Enemy Number One."

“We have a few ideas, then once that goes public, we'll let you know, then we'll try to capture that individual and bring that person to justice just like El Chapo,” said Andrew Henning of the Chicago Crime Commission.

The commission had maintained El Chapo's designation during his incarceration in Mexican prisons because of the chance that he would escape. That all changed with his extradition to a U.S. prison in New York.

“Now he has been extradited, he is behind bars, he's not able to communicate with foot soldiers here in Chicago, and elsewhere, now we can finally take him off,” Henning said.

The Crime Commission's general counsel admits to being slightly disappointed that El Chapo will go on trial in Brooklyn, instead of at the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago.

“Yes, we would have liked him to be here in Chicago because Chicagoans, moms, dads, sisters, aunts, brothers, deserve to have their day in court as victims. And so does the city of Chicago deserve that,” Henning said.

Henning won't speculate regarding the next “Public Enemy Number One.” The candidates could include some of the FBI's ten most wanted fugitives, like William Bradford Bishop Junior, who allegedly bludgeoned five people to death in  Maryland in 1976, or Robert William Fisher, who allegedly killed his wife and two children, then blew up their house in Arizona.

The commission is talking with federal law enforcement agencies as it looks for what Henning calls the worst of the worst.

Coincidentally, the crime commission's announcement on Wednesday came on the 70th anniversary of Al Capone's death. He died of a heart attack at age 48.