BOSTON (AP) – Fugitive mobster James “Whitey” Bulger is getting better with age, even as federal authorities say they’re refining their hunt for the former South Boston crime boss.

“He’s gotten better and better at it,” U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said at a news conference at which authorities released a detailed timeline of Bulger’s nearly 10-year odyssey.

Authorities say they’re as determined as ever to capture Bulger, who lived a double life as a ruthless gangster and an FBI informant before fleeing racketeering charges in January 1995. He’s also charged in connection with 21 murders.

Bulger, 75, has made fewer mistakes in recent years. Early on, he made regular contact with associates, but the timeline released Tuesday shows he’s since isolated himself. “He’s extremely bright, extremely devious,” Sullivan said. “He’s very cunning. He prepared for a life as a fugitive.”

Bulger as early as 1986 opened a London bank account under an alias, “Thomas Baxter,” the timeline shows. The last confirmed sighting of Bulger was September 2002 in London.

There’s credible information that Bulger has been spotted since then, but Sullivan wouldn’t say where or when.

Bulger remains on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, with a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture.

His former FBI handler, former agent John J. Connolly Jr., tipped him off just before Christmas 1994 that he was about to be indicted.

The Boston FBI office’s checkered past with Bulger has led to speculation that perhaps the FBI doesn’t want to catch him, but the head the local office dismissed that Tuesday.

“There’s nothing that’s going to stand in my way to get this person caught,” said Ken Kaiser, special agent in charge of the Boston’s FBI office. “Forget about the grand conspiracy theory that we’ve got something to hide, because we don’t.”

The FBI, Sullivan’s office, and state police investigators combined their efforts in September, forming a single Bulger Task Force.

Kaiser said it’s been more challenging since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks to maintain resources on the Bulger hunt, but Sullivan said the diversion of resources was brief after the terror attacks.

“This investigation has been fully funded and fully staffed,” Sullivan said.

Investigators over the past decade has looked into Bulger sightings in about 30 nations and every continent but Antarctica. Most of the sightings, however, were proven to be false alarms.

Sullivan said they believe Bulger is traveling with companion Catherine Greig and that both are in good health.

“We wouldn’t rule out the possibility that he continues to get help from other people,” Sullivan said.

Bulger, the former leader of the Winter Hill Gang, thrived for decades in Boston’s underworld as an informant. Connolly allowed Bulger to commit crimes in exchange for information that Connolly used to convict other mobsters.

Connolly, ironically, has become an informant himself. Connolly has told authorities that a fellow inmate at federal prison in Lexington, Ky., confessed to killing two potential witnesses.

AP-ES-12-21-04 1903EST