Revived Crime Show Helps Nail Murder Suspect

The producers of “America’s Most Wanted” couldn’t have scripted it any better.

Axed by the network and revived by popular demand, the call-in crime show led to the capture of a triple-murder suspect within a half-hour of its television reincarnation.

Since it began airing on the Fox Network in 1988, “America’s Most Wanted” has won a reputation among law enforcers as an effective link between the public and police.

After Fox executives said the show would be dropped from the fall schedule because of sagging ratings, viewers flooded the network with 85,000 letters and calls, and 34 governors petitioned on the show’s behalf.

Alan White, arrested Saturday night in Boston, was the 435th fugitive the show is credited with bringing to justice. Twenty missing children also have been found thanks to calls by viewers.

White was wanted in connection with a July murder of an 81-year-old woman, her daughter and her great-grandson in Salina, Kan. A viewer phoned the program after recognizing him as a resident of a Boston homeless shelter.