The most wanted criminal in the United States was nabbed thanks to a tip from Anna Bjornsdottir, a former model and 1974’s Miss Iceland in the Miss Universe pageant. How did a TV spokesmodel for Noxema cross paths with James “Whitey” Bulger?
Because of a neglected cat named Tiger, it turns out. Anna Bjornsdottir, who was voted Miss Congeniality in that 1974 pageant, visits Santa Monica several months out of the year. That’s where Whitey Bulger and his girlfriend, Carol Grieg, have been hiding out for the last 13 years, while the FBI was sparing no expense in chasing Whitey down.
Whitey is a bad man, they say, a gang leader from Boston who’s been formally charged with 19 murders. On the run for 16 years, Whitey had made his way to the number two spot on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. The only scoundrel ahead of him was Osama Bin Laden.
After President Obama‘s team of superhumans killed Bin Laden, Whitey Bulger became the most wanted man in America, with a $2 million bounty on his head.
He was found living near Santa Monica Pier in California, along with Grieg, longtime residents of an apartment complex where they played the role of retired couple Charlie and Carol Gasko. When they raided Whitey’s apartment, the cops found knives, guns and more than $800,000 in cash.
Here’s where the cat comes in: Carol Grieg took pity on the neglected puss and fed her regularly. On one of Anna Bjornsdottir’s trips to Santa Monica, she and Carol struck up a conversation. Then they became acquaintances, then friends who shared concern for the local stray animal.
Then Anna happened to be watching CNN and caught a report on the fugitive James “Whitey” Bulger, and she realized that Charlie Gasko was really Whitey Bulger.
Here’s Anna as Miss Iceland, looking a little like Olivia Newton John:
The cat feeding is just one of the details in this long article from the Boston Globe about what Whitey’s life was like as a fugitive from justice. Spoiler: it was mundane. He watched TV and paid rent in cash. He was cranky. He warned people that it was a dangerous world.