Virtual FBI Wanted Poster

(AP)  Federal authorities are pursuing fugitive crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger in cyber space under a first-of-its kind agreement announced Wednesday between the FBI and Web portal Terra-Lycos.

Lycos, the Waltham-based subsidiary of Spanish telecom company Terra-Lycos, will flash a banner ad message about Bulger around its global network in hopes of generating tips on Bulger's whereabouts and bringing attention to the FBI's $1 million reward offer.

The "virtual wanted poster" will be run as a public service on U.S.-based Terra-Lycos Web properties such as the Lycos network, Wired News and quote.com, as well as on sites run by the company's Miami-based Latin American network.

With a presence in 42 countries and in 19 languages, Terra Lycos is known for the worldwide scope of its Web presence.

"It might simply be a clerk in a grocery store bagging groceries, goes home that night, gets on the Internet and says, 'you know, I think I saw that person bagging groceries today,"' U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said during a news conference in Boston on Wednesday morning.

Terra-Lycos spokesman Brian Payea said the company wasn't being paid for the service.

"We're committed to providing important services to our community and we feel it was a very worthwhile effort," he said.

Bulger is now wanted in connection with 21 murders.

A member of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List, Bulger disappeared in January 1995 after former FBI Agent John J. Connolly Jr. told him he was about to be indicted. Connolly was convicted earlier this year for tipping off Bulger and other mobsters about their indictments.

FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said the FBI continues to chase down Bulger leads and fingerprints suspects "weekly," including one last week in Singapore, but nothing has panned out.

Bulger is the brother of William Bulger, the president of the University of Massachusetts and the former president of the state senate. William Bulger was subpoenaed by a Congressional committee looking into the Boston FBI's relationship with criminal informants, but last week he refused to testify, citing his Fifth Amendment protections.