Quick Facts
Biography
Joseph Corbett, Jr. (October 25, 1928 – August 24, 2009), a former Fulbright scholar, became the 127th fugitive named on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, placed there March 30, 1960 for the kidnap and subsequent murder of Adolph Coors III, heir to the Coors Beer fortune.
Corbett was convicted of shooting a man in the back of the head in 1951. He claimed it was self-defense. He was placed in a maximum security prison and due to good behavior, he was later transferred to minimum security, from which he then escaped.
After Coors was missing and Corbett was implicated, a nationwide manhunt was conducted that spanned from California to Atlantic City, New Jersey, and eventually to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He was finally arrested October 29, 1960 in Vancouver by Canadian police after two Canadian citizens recognized him from a November 1960 Reader's Digest article.
Corbett was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was paroled in 1978.
On Monday August 24, 2009, Corbett, who was 80 and had been suffering from cancer, was found dead in his apartment of a single self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.