The former Miss Iceland turned yoga coach who claimed $2m reward for tip-off which led FBI to mob boss

Bjornsdottir in a recent picture taken outside her home in Iceland

A former Miss Iceland has claimed the $2million reward for the tip which led to the arrest of fugitive crime boss James 'Whitey' Bulger.

Anna Bjornsdottir, a 57-year-old yoga instructor who starred in 1974's Miss Universe, tipped off police after recognising Bulger, one of America's most wanted people who had been on the run for 16 years, on a television news report.

She is said to have become friendly with the mobster's long-term partner Catherine Greig in Santa Monica, California, after the two women took a shared interest in a local stray cat.

Bulger, 82, and longtime girlfriend Greig, 60, were arrested in June with a stash of about 30 firearms and $822,000 in cash hidden in the walls of their apartment.

Just days before the arrest, the FBI had launched new televised public service announcements about the pair, aimed at female viewers who might have seen Greig.

To evade authorities, the couple had moved from Boston to California, where they assumed the aliases Charles and Carol Gasko

Bulger was rarely seen by neighbours and known as a frail old man, no longer strong enough even to accompany his 'wife' on her morning stroll with their dog.

In fact, with hundreds of thousands of dollars and a hoard of weapons stashed inside his flat, the Boston gangster was second only to Osama bin Laden on the FBI's 'Most Wanted' list for his alleged role in 19 murders.

The notorious fugitive now faces a possible death penalty for his alleged crimes as a mobster.

Bulger was notorious for leading the violent Winter Hill Gang, a largely Irish mob that ran loan-sharking, gambling and drug rackets in the Boston area.

He was nicknamed 'Whitey' for his shock of bright platinum hair and wanted for his alleged role in 19 murders, including the killilngs of businessmen in Florida and Oklahoma.

Mrs Bjornsdottir received the huge reward in June, the FBI said, after she recognised Bulger in a news report when she was at home in Reykjavik, Iceland, and called authorities.

The FBI had revealed in September that it had paid $2.1 million to 'more than one individual' for information that led to the arrests of Bulger and Greig, but had not given any more details.

According to the Boston Globe, Bjornsdottir collected $2 million of the $2.1 million in FBI rewards for her tip.

A call to the FBI's Boston office was not immediately returned on Sunday.

Bulger had fled Boston after hearing from a corrupt FBI agent that he was about to be indicted. Greig joined him a short time later and has been charged with harbouring Bulger as a fugitive.

Past Boston FBI officials had used Bulger as an informant for years against other organised crime factions and, later investigations found, tolerated or enabled his own ongoing criminal activities in what an appeals court in a related case earlier this year termed an 'unholy alliance.

Bulger, who for years led the Boston-based Winter Hill Gang, faces charges that include 19 alleged murders from the 1970s and 1980s. Both Bulger and Greig have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

Through her husband, Bjornsdottir declined to comment.

She had moved to Southern California in the late 1970s and appeared in cosmetics commercials.