It turns out that James (Whitey) Bulger, the notorious Boston gangster who embarked on a life of crime around the time he was old enough to be an altar boy, has a soft side after all. It led to his undoing. So did his friendship (if he’s ever had any real friends) with a former Miss Iceland.
Anna Bjornsdottir, a former actress and Miss Iceland of 1974, was living in Santa Monica, Calif., when she noticed her neighbors Charlie and Carole Gasko feeding a stray cat a couple times a day. So Anna would stop and chat with Charlie and Carole. Anna learned that the Gaskos even took the tiger-striped cat to the veterinarian when it got sick.
Nice people, yes? Well, no. Charlie and Carole were really Whitey Bulger and his girlfriend, Catherine Greig, something that Anna learned when she was watching television back home in Reykjavik. Up popped pictures of Bulger and Greig in a report about the FBI’s efforts to track down the legendary Southie mobster.
The former Miss Iceland recognized “Charlie” and “Carole” at once and called the FBI. After 16 years, Whitey’s days on the run from a variety of charges back in Boston were over, and Anna Bjornsdottir was about to be $2 million richer, thanks to the reward for Bulger’s capture (see Main Justice’s earlier report.)
The latest details about Bulger’s capture were reported on Allan Lengel’s Tickle the Wire blog, which cited a report in The Boston Globe about Bulger’s years in exile.
Anyhow, maybe the kindness toward the cat shows that Bulger, who just turned 82, is mellowing after decades in which he robbed people, beat up people and allegedly had a role in a score of murders. Or maybe not.
