If you look at "wanted" to be prefixed to everything in the list, it'd expand to: "wanted: dead, and wanted: alive". While this: "Wanted: dead or alive" could

If you look at "wanted" to be prefixed to everything in the list, it'd expand to: "wanted: dead, and wanted: alive". While this: "Wanted: dead or alive" could be interpreted as: "We haven't decided yet what we actually want, if it's dead, or alive, but it's one of those". Then it can be good to give them (the police) a call and ask if they have decided yet, before you go looking for the wanted person