Monday, June 16, 2014

The Famous Bootlegger

The Famous Bootlegger
What a life this man lived. Algoth Niska. Famous bootlegger from Finland. He played football for Finland in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. He fought in the Finnish War. He smuggled illegal liquor between Finland, Sweden and the Baltic states. He had his headquarters in the old Tyresta village (today part of the National Park),in Haninge. He served time both in Finland and Sweden. He also smuggled out Jewish refugees from Germany to Finland between 1938 and 1939. He was married twice and had two kids. He died poor and alone in 1952 from a brain tumour. I noticed this truck driving by my favorite cafe and had time to take this photo that shows Algoth Niska. The paint brush is based on a photo that belongs to the Finnish Customs Museum.

3 comments:

Lowell said...

What an interesting post, great photo and enchanting story (well, except for how the man's life ended!).

Geoff Wilkinson said...

Interesting story, always good to have the information relating to the picture

PerthDailyPhoto said...

Bit of a character Algoth! That's a pretty special paint job Steffe, you were lucky to catch it going by like that.