ASSOCIATED PRESS: Bulger is scheduled to make an appearance in Los Angeles federal court Thursday. He faces a series of federal charges including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, narcotics distribution, extortion and money laundering. He was on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list for his alleged role in 19 murders. The arrest brings an end to a manhunt that received worldwide attention as the FBI received reported sightings of Bulger and Greig from all over the United States and parts of Europe. He has been the subject of several books and was an inspiration for the 2006 Martin Scorsese film “The Departed.” Along with Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, he led the violent Winter Hill Gang, a largely Irish mob that ran loan-sharking, gambling and drug rackets in the Boston area. U.S. Attorney Donald K. Stern said in 2000 that the two were “responsible for a reign of intimidation and murder that spanned 25 years.” The government has connected Bulger to a series of ruthless killings. One victim was shot between the eyes in a parking lot at his country club in Oklahoma. Another was gunned down in broad daylight on a South Boston street to prevent him from talking about the killing in Oklahoma. Others were taken out for running afoul of Bulger’s gambling enterprises. He fled in January 1995 after being tipped by a former Boston FBI agent that he was about to be indicted. Bulger himself was a top-echelon FBI informant. MORE

RELATED: The FBI’s latest tactic in the hunt for Whitey Bulger — a Times Square billboard and TV ad focused on his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig — proves that the agency is still hard on the hunt for the South Boston mobster, accused of 19 murders. It also demonstrates the irony that, in this age of broad concerns about privacy, it’s still possible for someone to hide for 16 years. Maybe even in plain sight. That’s the notion behind the feds’ ad campaign, which posits that someone on the lam still needs a social life — or, at least, an occasional trip to the dentist or hair salon. The ads, which offer a $100,000 reward for information leading to Greig’s whereabouts, are aimed at Greig’s demographic: women in their early 60s, who might notice a gangster’s girlfriend getting her hair dyed blonde, or walking with a man two decades older. These women are more likely to watch “Ellen’’ than “America’s Most Wanted.’’ And they’re certain to notice the FBI’s stark ads, which are quite different in tone from the household-cleaner and weight-loss fare that’s most common on daytime TV. MORE