Not in New York or Chicago, but in our little Paris in the north, in Warsaw, a terrorist mafia has settled - the "Secret Detective" alarmed in January 1932. Of course, all this mafia was what it was. Oh, for Polish possibilities ...
The Secret Detective specialized in finding cheap sensations, exaggerating cases and spreading panic. This time, however, the editorial office outdid itself. She announced that she was holding the face of all northern Warsaw… a union of porters. You read well. Not Al Capone, not Nucky Thompson, but porters!
This peculiar mafia was apparently a real nuisance and a terror for the merchants and ordinary inhabitants of the city. It included mostly athletic individuals [who] recruited (...) from among the scum of society. Each member was sent by the bosses to a specific "station" spanning several streets. In return, he paid "upstairs" several hundred dollars. The job of the mafia porter was as follows:
When goods, even the lightest and smallest package, are brought to a merchant, no one may bear the package, not even the owner, carter, or agent. It can only be tolerated by the porter from a given clipping, or his assistant, whom the merchant is forced to pay tribute in this way.
Admittedly, an ingenious solution. In America, gangsters made money by providing "protection" and smuggling booze. In Poland, they did not have to break the law at all:they just carried parcels. Or they didn't, because often all their tragedy had purely symbolic value: If the porter is very busy at the moment, he runs up to the parcel and touches it with his hand. This means that someone else can handle the parcel, but he, as a member of the tragic organization, must receive an appropriate tax.
Illustrations of the Secret Detective. On the left Aron Halbzajd, on the right his maid Menia. In the middle - a market hall in Warsaw.
Apparently, the tax was not only very high, but was also forced into bloody terror. Merchants allegedly assured that they would lower their prices by up to 30% if someone freed them from tragic punishment. Anyway, people who did not trade at all also complained about the omnipotence of the union: When someone brings coal or furniture, he has to pay tribute to members of the organization (...), even if he did not use their services.
Tragic gangster
According to the "Secret Detective", a porter placed at a good "station" could collect up to PLN 3,000 a month with a wrap. The highest ranking officials in the state earned similar amounts! In today's zlotys, it would be 30,000. A really nice salary for carrying crates.
Okay, but what was the fate of the rebellious? The Secret Detective described one case of debt enforcement. And frankly speaking, our Polish mafia came out very, very pale ...
The "Secret Detective" issue of January 10, 1932. It was the first time it wrote about Warsaw gangster porters.
A particularly bitter opponent of paying tribute was a certain Aron Halbzajd - the owner of a fish warehouse. In order to overcome his resistance, the porters organized a robbery on his mob at 49 Elektoralna Street. They prepared themselves for the action quite professionally (many hours of observation of the building), and even took some "image" inspirations from gangsters from overseas. Finally, around nine o'clock in the evening - when there were only two Halbzajda servants in the apartment - they knocked on the kitchen door:
When the maid opened (...) 4 people with revolvers in their hands burst into the apartment. The bandits were disguised in an unusual way, and they wore multicolored silk stockings over their heads and faces, fastened with silk garters.
- Hands up, not a word! The leader was ordered, his trimmed beard peeking out from under the stocking pulled over his face.
The robbers led the frightened women to the room and tied them there. The boss tried to get some information out of them ( And now, where's the money and the country diamonds ?!) but, in the absence of a consistent answer, he ordered the servants to be gagged. The intruders started searching the apartment, then suddenly… the doorbell rang. Halbzajda's 17-year-old daughter, Pola, returned from the hairdresser: Miss, not feeling anything wrong, stepped over the threshold. At that moment the door was slammed behind her and a revolver was placed against her temple.
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It is a pity to destroy the handles with ropes
The bandits genuinely felt their roles. They acted like real gentlemen. One said that it is a pity to destroy such beautiful hands with ropes , another found a clean and pleasant to the touch handkerchief to plug the girl's mouth. On all of this the "gentlemen" wasted so much time that someone rang the doorbell again. One of the servants' fiance came to visit! At the sight of armed men, he ran out into the yard and began to call for help. He must have put the entire neighborhood on its feet. Frightened bandits escaped without any loot. It was quickly discovered that they were porters, although the stockings did their job and the police were unable to identify the specific perpetrators.
In any case, the whole robbery could hardly be called successful. Halbzajd - having heard about an attempt to temper him, in which he did not lose a single zloty - probably only confirmed his opinion about the protection money.
The haughty merchant, however, had to take into account also other Warsaw gangs! According to the journalists of the "Secret Detective", the porters' organization was not the only mafia in the capital. Others allegedly operated under the guise of trade unions. Their members watched the buyers throughout the day, recorded all transactions, and in the evening they reported to the traders:
for protection money from the turnover and the customer. Merchants are helpless, and woe to him who tries to put up some resistance. He is dealing with an elusive and powerful, brilliantly organized mafia that will not only ruin and destroy him materially; not only will it block the store by keeping customers out - but it will also often kill or, at best, maim with knives.
Tasiemek's dad himself.
Boss of all bosses
It's all nice business, but where's the political influence? Where is power and inviolability? Where are the mafia bonzos, like those from "The Godfather"? We also had such. Or rather:we had one. Łukasz Siemiątkowski was listed in his documents, but all of Warsaw knew him as "Tasiemka". In his youth, he was active in the Polish Socialist Party, fought for independence, sparing no resources and not afraid of getting his hands dirty. After 1918, however, he did not follow in the footsteps of other socialists - he did not become civilized and did not get off the red tram. Instead, he began to make a career in a completely different field. The gang led by him forced tributes from merchants who traded in the most popular and at the same time the most mean market in Warsaw:"Kercelak". Brawlers working for Siemiątkowski beat the reluctant, threatened with weapons. The "ribbon" himself stood to the side, so that it could not be tied to anything. Even the Minister of the Interior, Felicjan Sławoj-Składkowski admitted in his memoirs: The peace, order and safety of Kercelak's stalls rests on the discreet boys of "Tasiemka".
The influence of the Siemiątkowski gang was far-reaching, and many politicians eagerly used his "subsidies". But even the "Tapeworms" should have a leg in the end. After a long trial - in which many witnesses mysteriously changed their testimony or ended up in hospitals with symptoms of severe beating - Siemiątkowski was sentenced to two years in prison. But what if he never saw the inside of the cell? President Ignacy Mościcki pardoned him immediately.
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