Prostitutes - despite their dubious reputation and disgraceful occupation - managed to fall even lower. Besides selling their charms, they were thieves, blackmailers and even murderers. Get to know the stories of women of easy morals in interwar Poland.
In the interwar period, prostitutes were required to register with the police, have a "black book" and carry out regular medical checks. Prostitution by women who turned 21 was not illegal, but pimping itself - including running a brothel and trafficking in women - was severely punished.
Despite the possibility of theoretically legal practicing of the oldest profession in the world, this was often not enough for prostitutes and engaged in other illegal activities. One of the most common crimes they committed was theft. They knew their clients would be embarrassed and few would decide to report the theft to the police.
In 1908, Jan Sklepiński, who lives in Vienna, went on a men's trip to Warsaw with his friends. In one of the places he visited, he met a very good dancing lady. The night was marked by successive opening bottles of champagne and sexual excesses. The morning turned out to be less pleasant when it turned out that the prostitute had disappeared along with three thousand dollars.
Prostitutes in the Planty Park in Kraków
In 1932, Franciszek Kubicki, wishing to experience bodily pleasures while visiting Warsaw, met two women with whom he went to dinner in Wilanów, located near Warsaw. During the evening walk with the newly met ladies, he became drowsy, and in the morning he woke up in a ditch poorer, among others. for a wallet and a revolver.
Two years later, a merchant from Łódź married a prostitute with whom he fell in love. However, the idyll did not last too long, because after less than two months, the beloved, together with a jewelry collection and PLN 1,500, disappeared like camphor.
Bullying and blackmailing customers
Thefts are crimes of the smallest caliber, committed by women of light manners. Prostitutes were also able to intimidate and blackmail their clients.
In 1938, a court hearing was held, during which the case of Stanisław M., a victim of 40 years of age from Warsaw, was examined. The man was a bum in life, and even though he had reached middle age, he still lived with his sisters. When he was alone in his apartment during the holidays, he decided to have some fun, drinking too much alcohol and inviting a prostitute to his place .
The woman realized she was dealing with a lame and seized the opportunity. Just a few weeks after the intercourse, she called Stanisław M. to inform him that she was pregnant and needed PLN 30 for a medical appointment immediately. Then she demanded 80 zlotys, then 120 zlotys. The price for the silence continued to rise.
Stanisław M. was so afraid of publishing information about using paid sexual services that he gave tribute to the prostitute until he ran out of money. Then the criminal decided to write a letter to the man's sisters, containing the threat of informing the neighbors about the sexual excesses of their brother. M.'s sisters did not succumb to the blackmailer and informed the prosecutor's office that the prostitute had broken the law. The police arrested the woman and the court sentenced her to three months' imprisonment.
Aggressive prostitute attacks with ax
Theft and blackmail are a prelude to more serious crimes. Ladies of light manners did not avoid blows - they took part in fist and nail fights, as well as those with the use of tools.
In 1930, in Sulejów near Łódź, Julian Sady, flooded with a prostitute, entered the home of a prostitute, Janina Papiernik, demanding alcohol and sexual services. Papiernik with her pimple wanted to get rid of the uninvited guest. The intruder began to confront the hosts, which upset the woman. Without thinking for long, she grabbed an ax and struck Sadi in the head . Pimp took the pushy client outside, washed him of the blood, and then drove him home. The prostitute and the pimp did not get away with it - they were arrested and the victim was hospitalized.
A prostitute at work
Seven years later, an unusual situation occurred in Warsaw, when there was a fight on Aleje Jerozolimskie between two rival ladies of good morals. When the policeman tried to separate the fighting women, they both accepted a common front and ... attacked the constable. After the support arrived, the prostitutes decided to give up in a rather unconventional way - shedding their clothes. The enthusiasm of a large group of onlookers made it difficult to transport the daughter of Corinth to the police station.
Sexual murderers
In the underworld of harlots, there were also situations where clients were deprived of both valuables and life instead of receiving sexual services. The most famous case from the interwar period took place in 1932 in Warsaw.
On June 26, the body of actor Abram Gottfried was found in the fields of Marymont. The deceased had a tight tie around his neck - one tie at the front and two knots at the back. As a result of the investigation, the police established that the murderer was most likely Zofia Kuzio, who sold bagels during the day and provided paid sexual services in her spare time. After several days of searching, the suspect was caught who was hiding from law enforcement officers.
Kuzio admitted that on June 25, 1932, she accompanied Abram Gotfryd, drank a liter of vodka together, and then went to Marymoncka Street. The actor took off his coat, jacket and shoes and demanded that the prostitute choke him. As payment, she was to receive the aforementioned wardrobe. She performed the service, took her belongings, but it is not known in what condition she left Gotfryd in the fields of Marymont. When the information about the actor's death reached her, she hid on a wild beach by the Vistula.
Zofia Kuzio was charged with premeditated murder, which was to be confirmed by a double knot tied at the back of the victim's neck, which was tightened so tightly that only by cutting the material open, the body was freed. She was in prison for a year for manslaughter.
Prostitutes, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Another interesting story happened on the night of October 29-30, 1920. Seweryn Smolikowski, a well-known Warsaw bibliophile, collector and historian of philosophy, was deprived of his life in an apartment located in a tenement house at ul. Chmielna 7. Smolikowski had a rich collection of art in his place, but the rich collection remained intact. However, ten thousand Polish marks disappeared.
The seventy-year-old historian had two loves:art and young women of whims . Unfortunately, this second fascination led him to the grave. Smolikowski was strangled, and his body showed signs of a fight - six ribs were broken and the torturer's blood was under his fingernails.
On the basis of the traces found in the apartment, the police established that one of the prostitutes then visiting Smolikowski's apartment introduced three men. The newcomers murdered the host, appropriated money in the above-mentioned amount, as well as a wardrobe in the form of two furs and pants.
The girl who let the thugs into the apartment at 7 Chmielna Street turned out to be 18-year-old Helena Gruszczyńska. The young prostitute testified that she did not know the names of the men responsible for Smolikowski's death. As "remuneration", she received a hundred marks and a blouse from the murderers, and in 1922 the court sentenced her to five years' imprisonment. The perpetrators of the crime have not been found.
Bibliography:
- Milewski, Dark matters of the interwar period , Iskry 2002.
- Stachowicz, A. Haska, Merciless Just 2015.
- Zaleski, Post-war prostitution , Warsaw 1927.