Paul Jaworski
| |
|---|---|
| Born | Paul Poluszynski 1900 |
| Died | (aged 28/29) |
| Cause of death | Execution by electrocution |
| Resting place | Prison Cemetery, Rockview[1] 40°51′01″N 77°46′38″W / 40.85028°N 77.77722°W / 40.85028; -77.77722 |
| Known for | Coverdale armored car robbery |
| Criminal status | Executed |
| Relatives | Sam Jaworski, Tom Pallas, Catherine Logan |
| Conviction(s) | First degree murder |
| Criminal penalty | Death sentence |
Paul Jaworski (born Paul Poluszynski, 1900, died January 21, 1929) was a Polish-American gangster born in Poland. He immigrated to the United States in 1905. Although born to Catholic parents, when offered the services of a chaplain before his execution Jaworski said:
"I preached atheism since the day I quit singing the choir. A man is yellow if he spends his life believing in nothing and then comes crawling to the church because he is afraid his death is near."[2]
He was the leader of the Flathead gang, which committed the first-ever armored car robbery, on March 11, 1927.[3][4] The gang stole over $104,000 from an armored vehicle on Bethel Road (now Brightwood Road), Bethel, (now Bethel Park), 7 miles outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[5] The bandits placed 500 pounds of black powder (stolen the previous day from nearby Mine 3 in Mollenaur, PA) under the roadbed, and made off with money that was on its way to Coverdale, Pennsylvania for the Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company.
The gang was also known for the payroll robbery of The Detroit News business offices in 1928.[6]
Jaworski was shot and arrested in Detroit on 13 September 1928, while attempting to escape from the police across Chambers Avenue, after being hunted down to a nearby restaurant.[2] He was sentenced to death in Pennsylvania on January 2, but received a stay of execution, until a sanity evaluation could be completed.[7] Jaworski was executed by electric chair in Pennsylvania for a separate payroll robbery which resulted in a murder.[6] The execution took place on January 21, 1929.[8]
Of course pre-war crime in Cleveland had not been wholly from the Italian and Jewish element. There were at least two major Polish-led gangs of robbers. One was the Flatheads led by Paul Jaworski. On 13 September 1928 when Jaworski and Frank "Whitey" Kraft were caught in a restaurant, Kraft ran out the back but Jaworski holed up in Chambers Avenue. He was driven out by tear gas and was shot. It was not thought he would survive, but he did so. He has already shot a prison guard escaping from Pittsburgh, and was said to have killed up to 26 people including a former gang member who was also a drug addict. Jaworski, rather than see him suffer, threw his body in the river. Returned to Pennsylvania where he was electrocuted." "Shortly before his execution, Jaworski sent his friends a postcard with his future address - 45 Hellsfire Road, 6/14 miles from Hell. Father Pat O'Brien would not have used him as an example. Frank "Whitey" Kraft was later killed by police in Detroit.
