Polish Mob

Polish-American organized crime has existed in the United States throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Although not as well known as Russian or Italian mafias, the Polish mob has a presence in many urban Polish American communities.

Prohibition-era

During the Prohibition era, many Polish or Polish-American criminal gangs took advantage of the opportunity to make money through the illegal sale of alcohol. In Chicago, "Polack Joe" Saltis allied himself with Al Capone's Chicago Outfit in the gang wars that gripped the city, while Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik became a trusted associate of Capone's. However, fighting Capone was the North Side Gang, which, while mostly Irish-American, had a large Polish presence in it as well, with the leaders "Bugs" Moran and Hymie Weiss both having a Polish heritage. The Polish American Fred Goetz was involved in carrying out the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, the organization led by Mickey Duffy, born William Michael Cusick, was the dominant bootlegging gang in the Delaware Valley until his assassination in August 1931.

Joseph Filkowski, a Polish Catholic organized crime figure, actually led a mostly Polish bootlegging ring in Cleveland, Ohio, along with gangster Joseph Stazek. Paul Jawarski (or Paul Jarwarski) was also a prominent figure, carrying out the first armored car robbery.

The Kielbasa Posse

The Philadelphia Polish Mob, known as the Kielbasa Posse, are a Polish American organized crime group operating from the Port Richmond area in Philadelphia. Named after a type of Polish sausage, the gang is made up of Polish immigrants living in Port Richmond, Kensington, North Philadelphia, Northeast Philly, Bucks County, and South Jersey, as well as second-generation Polish Americans.

The gang moved into territory occupied by Russian and Italian Mafia outfits, namely the trafficking and dealing of Ecstasy, and are said to have moved into bookmaking and loansharking operations as well. They would meet several times a week at a local Polish bar and although they have a tough and fearsome reputation, they are said to be very polite and gentleman-like to local citizens and do not start fights unnecessarily. [ [http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2002-12-12/cb3.shtml Philadelphia City Paper - Pole Vaulting] ]

The Greenpoint Crew

In March 2006, the United States Attorney's Office in New York published a press release covering the indictment of twenty-one members of the so-called Greenpoint Crew, an infamous Polish criminal organization operating out of the heavily Polish neighborhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Led by Ostap Kapelioujnyj and Krzysztof Spryasak, the gang ran it's operations of gunrunning, armed robbery, drug trafficking, extortion, car theft, credit card fraud and fencing (reportedly including a stolen 18th century Stradivarius violin) mostly in New York City, as well as having connections back in Poland and Eastern Europe. The gang was not above resorting to violence to achieve their aims, as one video used as evidence shows Kapelioujnyj discussing his threatening to kill a debtor with a golf club after already taking two computers, a camera, and an iPod. [ [http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nye/pr/2006/2006mar8.html United States Attorney's Office - Greenpoint Crew Indictment] ]

Other

Polish organized crime groups exist and have existed in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo, and many other cities with large Polish American populations.

Associates of organized crime with Polish heritage include Richard Kuklinski, a contract killer known in the underworld as "The Iceman."

References