Globe editors explain decision to name Bulger tipster

The revelation was part of a story, written by reporters Shelley Murphy and Maria Cramer, that chronicled Bulger’s life in hiding and the circumstances that led to his stunning arrest. It detailed how Bjornsdottir befriended Bulger and his girlfriend, Catherine Greig, and bonded over a stray cat.

It promptly drew criticism from some quarters, including a front-page story in the Boston Herald, that the paper put Bjornsdottir’s safety at risk.

Editors who oversaw the Globe story said they deliberated at length over whether to print her name, but were ultimately convinced that doing so posed no danger. It had already been widely reported that the tipster was from Iceland, making her identity clear to many neighbors in Santa Monica, including Bulger and Greig.

“We were confident Whitey Bulger and Cathy Greig knew exactly who the tipster was,’’ said Jennifer Peter, the Globe’s deputy managing editor for local news. “We asked people directly involved in the investigation if she would be in danger if we named her. No one told us she would be in danger at all.’’

Globe editor Martin Baron said the paper had learned “from a variety of sources’’ that Bulger would certainly have known the tipster’s identity already.

Murphy said that she told representatives at the FBI and the US attorney’s office before the story ran that the newspaper was considering naming Bjornsdottir, and that neither agency raised concerns about her safety.

Bulger, a longtime FBI informant, fled shortly before a 1995 federal racketeering indictment after being warned by a corrupt former handler that charges were looming. He is now being held without bail on charges of killing 19 people.

Bulger’s former associates cooperated against him after it was revealed he had been informing on his friends, as well as Mafia rivals, for years.

Globe editors said that identifying Bjornsdottir served a vital public interest - rebutting rampant speculation that the FBI had invented the tipster.

“The only way to document that there was a tipster was to identify the tipster,’’ Baron said.