Even when he was on the lam, Whitey Bulger was a “Rock” star.

At one point during his epic, 16-year run from justice, the bloodthirsty Boston gangland baron posed as a common tourist during a brazen visit to his old stomping grounds — Alcatraz Island.

Although he was one of the country’s most wanted fugitives, Bulger took time out to don cartoonish prison stripes at a photo booth outside the legendary San Francisco prison — and a source close to his family provided the pictures to prove it.

One of Bulger’s many mob molls, gal pal Teresa Stanley, was at his side. She also slipped into some jailbird garb stenciled with the phrase “Property of Alcatraz,” and smiled as if she hadn’t a care in the world.

PHOTOS: ‘WHITEY’ BULGER

Bulger, now 81, grinned like a college alum visiting his alma mater — and, in many ways, Alcatraz was his felonious finishing school.

Early in his criminal career, Bulger was locked up on “The Rock” on a federal armed-robbery rap. He stayed on Alcatraz from 1959 to 1963, and famously befriended another of the prison’s most well-known inmates, Clarence “The Choctaw Kid” Carnes.

The family source who provided the photo said it had been taken while Bulger was on the lam, but the date was not clear.

The pair was reported to have traveled to San Francisco in 1995, sometime between Jan. 6 and Jan. 20, just a few weeks after he fled Boston under the threat of an indictment for murder and racketeering, according to The Boston Globe.

Bulger was tipped off to the criminal charges by a crooked FBI agent, and was able to make his escape. The bureau has long taken heat for allegedly not looking hard enough for the mob leader.

When he was discovered last week living comfortably with another girlfriend, Catherine Greig, in a Santa Monica, Calif., apartment building, observers were shocked at how he had been able to hide in plain sight and live off the millions of dirty dollars he had stashed away.

But no one realized that he was so bold — and the heat on him so light — that he felt safe enough to travel to San Francisco and relive old times on the prison island.

He didn’t even mind posing with nooses, though some of the charges he faces from jurisdictions outside Boston could get him the death penalty.

Bulger apparently took home the picture of himself and Stanley in a metal trinket frame emblazoned with “San Francisco.”

Although life running from the law seemed to have suited Bulger, it wasn’t so attractive to Stanley. According to the Globe, she left him and gave up the fugitive life shortly after their San Francisco visit.

She could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, the FBI yesterday said the tipster who pointed agents to Bulger’s California hideout had recognized him and Greig from a TV ad campaign — though the tipster lived 4,000 miles away in Iceland.

The FBI ran 30-second ads in 14 television markets asking viewers to be on the lookout for Greig at beauty salons.

The tipster in Iceland had seen a CNN story about the FBI’s public-service announcements, the Globe reported.

The woman realized Bulger and his moll were the same people with whom she had once crossed paths while visiting Santa Monica, the newspaper said.

The gangster and Greig were caught Wednesday in an FBI ruse that may have been carried out with the unwitting help of their building’s superintendent.

A woman called the super to report someone had broken into the basement, the Globe said. He, in turn, called the building’s tenants and asked them to come outside — which is when the feds grabbed Bulger and Greig.

todd.venezia@nypost.com

