$2M Whitey Bulger Reward Goes to Ex Miss Iceland

Anna Bjornsdottir got to know neighbors she later recognized on CNN
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 10, 2011 2:42 AM CDT
Updated Oct 10, 2011 4:32 AM CDT
Ex Miss Iceland Collecting $2M for Whitey Bulger Tip
Whitey Bulger's longtime girlfriend Catherine Greig has pleaded not guilty to helping Bulger elude authorities during his 16 years as a fugitive.   (AP Photo/U.S. Marshals Service, File)

A former Miss Iceland and Noxzema model has collected a $2 million reward for dropping a dime on long-time fugitive killer Whitey Bulger, according to the Boston Globe. Anna Bjornsdottir tipped off the FBI after getting to know Bulger and girlfriend Catherine Greig, aka Carol Gasko, while they were neighbors in Santa Monica. Bjornsdottir admired the couple, who worked together to help a stray cat on their street. She later recognized photos of them on CNN when the FBI launched a new publicity campaign about Bulger, a former Boston gangster wanted in 19 murders who had been on the lam for 16 years.

The couple, busted in June after Bjornsdottir turned them in, were known as friendly retirees and model tenants who were cordial, but kept to themselves. Greig paid the rent every month like clockwork—in cash. One of the property managers would joke with her: "Carol, did you rob that bank again?" It was the apparent banality of the couple's life that was their best protection. “We were looking for a gangster and that was part of the problem,’’ an agent told the Globe. “He wasn’t a gangster anymore.’’ But their lives turned out to be not so normal after all. When Bulger was busted, agents reported finding hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and an arsenal of weapons stashed in the walls of the couple's rent-controlled apartment. Bulger has pleaded not guilty to 19 murder charges. (More Whitey Bulger stories.)

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