James “Whitey” Bulger. (AP)
BOSTON – The public naming of a former Miss Iceland as the tipster who turned in notorious gangster James “Whitey” Bulger means she may be in danger and could have a “chilling effect” on other potential informants, a former US Attorney warned Monday.
“They can’t guarantee her one hundred percent safety going forward,” former US Attorney Michael Sullivan told the Boston Herald. “It’s unnecessary publicity and unnecessary harassment.”
Bulger, 82, accused of 19 murders in Boston dating back to the 1970s, and his girlfriend Catherine Greig, 60, went into hiding in 1994. They moved to Santa Monica, California, in 1998 and were arrested last June.
On Sunday, the Boston Globe identified Anna Bjornsdottir, a model who was named Miss Iceland and won the congeniality award at the 1974 Miss Universe pageant, as the person who turned in the couple.
Bjornsdottir, who collected a $2 million reward, called the FBI after she saw photos of her former neighbors on television when she was home in Iceland in June.
Bulger and Greig were arrested in their apartment, where police found guns and more than $800,000 hidden in the walls.
Greig and Bjornsdottir had bonded over a stray neighborhood cat at their Santa Monica apartment building, according to the Globe.
Former prosecutor Sullivan told the Herald that naming Bjornsdottir as the FBI informant meant, “there is a huge risk to the (tipster) program, generally, to be able to cultivate informants if their identification is at risk. It has a chilling effect.”
Former federal prosecutor Michael Kendall told the paper exposing Bjornsdottir’s identity may be a “constitutional right – but it doesn’t mean you should.”
Greig faces charges of conspiracy to harbor and conceal a fugitive.
Bjornsdottir, now a yoga instructor, had a modest career as an actress after finding fame as Miss Iceland. Between 1979 and 1991 she starred under the name Anna Bjorn in films and TV series such as “More American Graffiti,” “Diff’rent Strokes,” “Fantasy Island” and “Remington Steele.”
