Find out what criminals and terrorists to watch for now

As a kid I used to amuse myself at the post office by standing backward in line, checking the bulletin board’s FBI Most Wanted List while my mother mailed packages.

Today, we can see fugitives’ mugshots and information about their evilness online. It’s a far-ranging list, with Osama bin Laden on the top line.

As angry as we may remain since 9/11, we don’t forget to pay attention to who’s done what locally. The Baltimore County Police Department’s Web site has its own Most Wanted List, and lists for unsolved homicides and missing persons.

The Chicago area has a Web site (above, left) intended for catching its bank robbers. “BanditTrackerChicago.com
is brought to you by federal, county, and local law enforcement agencies as well as partners in the Chicago banking industry,” it says. Still photos from bank security cameras show the perpetrators at work.

The FBI’s Web site lists wanted fugitives, terrorists and missing persons.

But that’s so 1998, you say. Can’t they spend our tax dollars on something more high-tech? Well, the FBI will show you the Most Wanted on your cellphone. Also, the FBI has podcasts about current news and the agency’s most famous cases.

And today, its video page features a retelling of a failed attempt to take out John Dillinger and “Baby Face” Nelson in 1934. You can use it to judge how accurately Johnny Depp portrays Dillinger in a movie that’s coming out soon.

Or, you can watch a video about a scientist’s search for hijacker D.B. Cooper, who parachuted from the airliner with a ton of cash. Another video announces the FBI’s addition of the “first domestic terrorist” to be included on its Most Wanted Terrorists List — a guy accused of bombing buildings in support of animal rights.