A former Miss Iceland and Noxema model is collecting $2 million for tipping off the FBI that her neighbor was Irish mob legend Whitey Bulger, according to a report.
Anna Bjornsdottir, who was crowned her homeland's top beauty in 1974, lived next to Bulger, 81, and his longtime girlfriend in Santa Monica and got to know them before learning his true identity. Bjornsdottir and Catherine Grieg even collaborated to save a stray cat, according to the Boston Globe.
But when she went home to Reykjavik earlier this year, she happened to see a CNN report on Bulger, who had gone into hiding 16 years ago. Bjornsdottir, 57, who is a yoga instructor, alerted authorities, according to the paper.
Bulger, who was long one of the nation's most wanted fugitives, was captured in June in Santa Monica, where he had been living in a rented apartment with Grieg. Bulger, a longtime FBI informant, was wanted in connection with 19 murders. He fled Boston just before he was indicted in early 1995.
The FBI has paid $2.1 million out to Bulger tipsters, with $2 million going to Bjornsdottir. Another man, Las Vegas restaurant manager Keith Messina has said he tried to claim all or part of the reward because he called the television show "America's Most Wanted" in 2008 and reported seeing Bulger in Santa Monica. It was not known if he had been paid the rest of the reward money.
