Reward for alleged mobster `Whitey' Bulger increased to $1 million

BOSTON (AP) _ Alleged mob boss James J. ``Whitey'' Bulger, on the lam for the past five years, has joined Eric Rudolph and Osama bin Laden in an exclusive club _ the reward for information leading

Thursday, November 30th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BOSTON (AP) _ Alleged mob boss James J. ``Whitey'' Bulger, on the lam for the past five years, has joined Eric Rudolph and Osama bin Laden in an exclusive club _ the reward for information leading to his capture is $1 million now.

Bulger, on the FBI's 10 most-wanted list, is just the seventh person to warrant a reward of $1 million or more, said Charles S. Prouty, head of the Boston FBI office.

The reward, which had been $250,000, is designed to ``encourage the public to be more vigilant,'' Prouty said.

Prosecutors say that from the late 1970s through last year, Bulger and Stephen ``The Rifleman'' Flemmi controlled an organized crime group known as the Winter Hill Gang that used the insular, blue-collar Irish-American South Boston neighborhood as its base.

The gang generated money through extortion, loan sharking, bookmaking and drug sales, prosecutors have said.

Bulger _ whose brother William was a state senator and is now president of the University of Massachusetts _ was even an informant for the FBI, a move that some say may have protected him from the law over the years. In fact, one FBI agent has been accused of tipping Bulger to his pending indictment, allowing him to flee before he could be arrested.

The FBI also unveiled an updated wanted poster for Bulger with a more recent 1994 picture taken before his disappearance a year later, and a new possible alias, ``Mark Shapeton.''

Bulger disappeared in 1995 when an initial indictment was issued alleging he took part in a scheme to extort money from a bookmaker. Two months ago, he was indicted on charges that he has been involved in 18 killings.

``It is critically important ... that he be caught, and returned to Boston to stand trial,'' U.S. Attorney Donald K. Stern said. ``There are people out there who have information, we know that.''

Anyone who provides information leading to Bulger's arrest will remain anonymous, Prouty said.

Bulger, 71, is thought to be traveling with his girlfriend, Catherine Elizabeth Greig. She faces charges of harboring a federal fugitive.

The FBI says that during the past five years Bulger has been in New York City and suburban Long Island; Sheridan, Wyo.; Long Beach, Miss.; Grand Isle, La.; Chicago; Albany, N.Y.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; New Orleans; Sloan, Iowa; and most recently Fountain Valley, Calif.

The FBI has received more than 1,500 tips since he disappeared, but he remains at large.

``He's a very, very clever guy,'' Prouty said. ``He blends in; he is a very clever criminal. There is speculation he has prepared for this fugitive status for years and he may have stashed money throughout the country.''

Bin Laden is suspected of masterminding the August 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Rudolph is suspected of a number of bombings, including one at an abortion clinic in Alabama that killed a policeman and one that killed a woman at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta.