Algoth Niska

Algoth Niska (5 December 1888 – 28 May 1954) was a Finnish bootlegger, footballer and adventurer. He was born in Viipuri in 1888 and was the youngest child. When his father died in 1903, the family moved to Helsinki, where he got interested in football. He was a member of the Finland football team which played at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, losing 4–0 to England in the semi final. Niska joined his first ship in 1908. When the First World War broke out, he went to navigation school and graduated the following year – thought he never got his papers. He was married twice and divorced both women. He had two children. The well-known Finnish musician Ilkka Lipsanen is his grandson. In 1919, when Finnish prohibition came into force, he acquired a large supply of now-illegal liquor. High society in Helsinki soon found out whom they could ask for refreshments. When the supply begun to run out, he bought a boat and begun to smuggle liquor from Estonian and German ships who waited outside Finnish territorial waters. Later he also smuggled liquor from Sweden, where it was legal but tightly controlled. Over the years he used various tricks to dodge police boats – and sometimes the bullets of their machine guns – during his trips between Turku, Helsinki, Tallinn and Stockholm and in the Åland archipelago. He never shot back. In one case he unloaded his cargo right in the heart of Helsinki while people were distracted during the visit of Gustav V of Sweden. In one stage he was sentenced for a year in prison for resisting police. He claimed to the end of his days that he was innocent. Niska was eventually wanted both in Sweden and Finland. He was sentenced for short periods in both countries. In prison he became a model prisoner and was often released early for good behavior. In 1932 Niska was exiled from Sweden and he spent time in Riga, Tallinn and Danzig. He spoke at least Finnish, Swedish, German and English. In 1938, prior to World War II, Niska begun to smuggle som