CLEVEREST IN THE WORLD IS CAPTURED
Sweden and United States the Victims of His Craft — Skoog Was Loaded Down with Bogus Bills
A notorious international counterfeiter, wanted by both the U.S. and Swedish governments, was recaptured after a jailbreak in which an accomplice's accordion-playing masked the sound of sawing through bars — a story stranger than fiction from the golden age of counterfeiting.
NewsPipe summary
Daily Inter Mountain · April 11, 1901 · Page 1
1 min readChicago, April 11.
Upon receiving news from New York of the capture of Albert Skoog, who is pronounced one of the cleverest counterfeiters in the world, Captain Clark of the United States secret service, located in this city, at once made arrangements to have him returned to Chicago for trial. A bench warrant was issued for the prisoner and a copy of the indictment was mailed to the authorities in the east.
The arrest was considered of so much importance that a cablegram was sent to the authorities in Sweden, who have been waiting to take possession of Skoog as soon as the United States government gets through with him.
Skoog was arrested in this city on January 27, 1897, for passing a counterfeit $20 bill. Government officers then searched his house and secured a complete outfit for making bogus bills. Besides, they found eighty-five $2 bills and over $3,000 worth of the bogus Swedish kroner notes.
Pending a hearing of his case before the federal grand jury, Skoog was confined in the county jail at Joliet while the Cook county jail was being reconstructed. Early in the morning of March 22 he made his escape with two other alleged counterfeiters, James Foley and Jacob Johnson. The latter two sawed the window bars of the jail, while Skoog smothered the sounds by playing an accordion.
Skoog is said to have re-engaged in counterfeiting the same bills since his escape.
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