Victoria area put on alert for book-loving ex-mobster

Described on the FBI website as the leader of Boston’s notorious Winter Hill Gang, Mr. Bulger is wanted for a variety of mob-related crimes including racketeering, money laundering, drug trafficking, extortion and as many as 19 murders.

He is also “an avid reader with an interest in history” and “is known to frequent libraries and historic sites,” the FBI website says.

Mr. Bulger was a key figure during the most violent decades of Boston’s underworld, an era that forms the basis for the 2006 Martin Scorcese film, The Departed, in which Mr. Bulger was played by Jack Nicholson.

He disappeared from the Boston area in January, 1995, after receiving a tip that FBI agents were about to arrest him. He has been on the bureau’s Top 10 Most Wanted list ever since.

An FBI task force dedicated to capturing Mr. Bulger has scoured five continents in search of the aging fugitive, who is known to be adept at using disguises...

Mr. Munro, who was out of town for the FBI visit, said the agents didn’t give his staff much information about why they were warning bookstores specifically in the Victoria area.