"the Kielbasa Posse - Polish and Polish-American gangsters from the Port Richmond
Alexander Sharon
Another group of Eastern-European gunsels makes its mark.
by Brendan McGarvey
Russian gangsters in the Philadelphia area are pissed off about their new
competition. Lately, a small group of tough Polish and Polish-American
gangsters from the Port Richmond area have been cutting into the Russian mob’s
territory -- buying Ecstasy from Israeli mobsters and European wholesalers
and reselling it to patrons of area nightclubs and after-hours dance clubs.
And the Polish mobsters, who are sometimes referred to as "the Kielbasa
Posse," after the smoked Polish sausage of the same name, are also moving
into a little loansharking and sports bookmaking, according to both law
enforcement and Underworld sources.
The Polish mob is a rather small group but they seem unafraid of the bigger,
more violent Russian crime families in the Delaware Valley. (The local
Russian underworld is fluid; there are six to eight Russian mafias in our
area, some more organized than others and sometimes cooperating and
sometimes acting independently of one another.)
The Kielbasa Posse is made up of a few Polish immigrants from Port Richmond,
Northeast Philly, Bucks County and South Jersey, as well as several
second-generation Polish-Americans. The Poles have recently banded together
to share in the illegal profits that the Russians have traditionally earned.
While their numbers are relatively small, people familiar with Polish
mobsters say they are smart, tough and brutal when they have to be. They
also have language on their side. Because Poland was under Soviet domination
for so long, many of them are fluent in Russian, and sometimes their
customers, connections and victims actually mistake the Kielbasa Posse for a
Russian gang.
Other languages spoken by some of the Polish mob include Czech,
Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian.
While the Kielbasa Posse is unafraid of Russian crime groups, there is one
ethnic mob the Polish gangsters refuse to deal with, according to an
Underworld source who knows some of the Polish gang members. She asked us to
call her "Marja" and she told City Paper last week that the Poles will deal
with "just about anybody. Dominicans. Blacks. Italians. Asian street gangs.
Russians. But they won't go near the Albanian mob. The Albanians are too
violent and too unpredictable."
The Polish mob has told its associates that the Albanians are like the early
Sicilian Mafia -- clannish, secretive, hypersensitive to any kind of insult
and too quick to use violence for the sake of vengeance.
Several times a week, the Kielbasa mob meets in Port Richmond, sometimes
hanging out at a Polish bar frequented by a new generation of Polish emigres
in their 20s and 30s.
There, the gangsters sip Warsaw beers and chain-smoke cigarettes to relax.
"All of them are very polite and well-dressed," Marja said. "They wear
expensive black or brown leather jackets. They never bother anyone in the
bar and act like perfect gentlemen."
Marja explained that not everyone knows who they are and the older Polish
residents of the neighborhood choose to ignore the existence of the gang.
"Most Poles here are hard-working," Marja said. "There are so few criminals
in our community that it's hard for the older generation to accept that
there are Poles who are not law-abiding or hard-working or in legitimate
pursuit of the American dream."
Ironically, one of the former leaders of the Northeast Philadelphia mob,
also known as the K&A gang, moved to Port Richmond several years ago to run
his sports-booking business and lay low because, he said, it was such a
quiet, safe place that nobody would ever think of looking for him there. Now
his new neighbors represent the toughest and most recent immigrant crime
family.
The rise of the Kielbasa Posse in Philadelphia is not the first time that
Polish-Americans have flexed their muscle in the underworld.
Eighty years ago, a poor Polish-American boy from Grays Ferry was on his way
to becoming Philadelphia's Public Enemy No. 1. Born Michael Joseph Cusick,
the young hoodlum used the Irish-sounding alias, Mickey Duffy, to better fit
in with the local gangsters.
Duffy was arrested in May 1919 for assault and battery with intent to kill
and served almost three years in prison. When he got out, Prohibition was
the law of the land and crime syndicates everywhere were in business
smuggling, making and selling illegal alcohol to a thirsty nation.
Duffy opened an illegal beer brewery in Camden, N.J., and it wasn't long
before he became known as the Beer Baron of South Jersey.
With thousands of dollars in profits pouring in, Mickey Duffy opened the
fashionable Club Cadix at 23rd and Chestnut streets in Philadelphia. He ran
his bootlegging and numbers businesses from the old Ritz-Carlton hotel --
everybody knew Mickey.
But it was a violent business, and Duffy was shot three times leaving the
Club Cadix late one night. He survived and continued to run his crime empire
for several more years.
He had so much money from the beer and numbers businesses that he built a
palatial home on City Line near Haverford Avenue in Overbrook.
Sometimes Duffy would head down to Atlantic City. He often stayed at the
luxurious Ambassador Hotel and spent his time strolling the boardwalk or
sitting on the beach.
But the Beer Baron had enemies, and on the night of Aug. 29, 1931, as he lay
sleeping in his suite at the Ambassador, someone shot him dead.
Police suspected that Duffy was slain by his own men, who wanted to take
over his rackets. But no one was ever charged with his murder.
Duffy's funeral was a big deal. Thousands of people flocked to the cemetery
to see him off but a police line kept them back from the entrance gate --
friends and family of Duffy needed a special pass to get in.
After Duffy's funeral, souvenir hunters took flowers from the hundreds of
floral tributes at the gravesite -- the better to remember the poor Polish
kid from Grays Ferry who had gone on to become, briefly, Philly's Public
Enemy No. 1.
PTN
> Another group of Eastern-European gunsels makes its mark.
>
> by Brendan McGarvey
>
> Pisalem, ze moja rodzina wyjechala dobrowolnie do Rzeszy,
From: Alexander Sharon
Newsgroups: soc.culture.polish
Sent: Sunday, June 20, 2004 5:38 PM
> Zgadza sie.
> Pisalem, ze moja rodzina wyjechala dobrowolnie do Rzeszy, gdyz schronienie
> posrod cywilnej ludnosci niemieckiej u bauera na wsi bylo bezpieczniejsze
> niz wsrod szmalcownikow w Wilno czy Oszmianach. [...]
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.polish/msg/ad12e461716da4a0
From: Alexander Sharon
Newsgroups: soc.culture.polish
Sent: Sunday, June 20, 2004 5:38 PM
> Zgadza sie.
> Pisalem, ze moja rodzina wyjechala dobrowolnie do Rzeszy, gdyz schronienie
> posrod cywilnej ludnosci niemieckiej u bauera na wsi bylo bezpieczniejsze
> niz wsrod szmalcownikow w Wilno czy Oszmianach. [...]
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.polish/msg/ad12e461716da4a0
From: "Alexander Sharon" <a.sha...@shaw.ca>
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 2003 21:58:17 GMT Local: Wed 8 Oct 2003 22:58
Subject: Re: Prasowka "Jacek Lipkowski" wrote
> 8<<<<<<<<<<<< sni
Ten Jerychiwski Ross to rzeczywiscie wyjatkowo pieprzeniety.
Gowniarz lazi z napisem "Jude raus", a Zydzi maja sie z nim za to
jednac? W morde go.
Rossizm, psia jucha. Jedrychowszczyzna.[copyright]
--
Alexander
Newsgroups: soc.culture.polish
From: "Alexander Sharon" <a.sha...@shaw.ca>
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 20:52:10 GMT
Local: Thurs 12 Jul 2007 21:52
Subject: Re: Attention Mr. Sharon--your assistance is needed in grassing
Omni, unicorn, mclaren, mcgregor,jdr, :-) and several other are nicknames
used by the hateful paraplegic wheelchair bounded Polish retiree form
Scotland.
He is ex Polish KGB lower rank shethead and anti-Semite that has managed to
settle in Scotland thanks to his Polish commie security buddies. They
allowed him to leave Poland when no normal person had a chance to receive
passport - this only fact let you know about him a bit.
Alexander
***
ostroznosc w pisaniu czegokolwiek co moze
obrazac oponenta lub wypaczac prawde.
Nie ma potrzeby siegac do KLAMSTW :
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/soc.culture.polish/msg/6dcb0d24323ee09a
sarkazmow, ironii, wyzwisk czy wulgaryzmow.
Zwykla argumentacja winna zastapic inwektywy
i klamstwa. W przeciwnym przypadku bedziemy miec do
czynienia z czyms w rodzaju:
Andrzej Adam Filip
> Pole-Vaulting
> Another group of Eastern-European gunsels makes its mark.
>
> by Brendan McGarvey
>
> Russian gangsters in the Philadelphia area are pissed off about their
> new competition. Lately, a small group of tough Polish and
> Polish-American gangsters from the Port Richmond area have been
> cutting into the Russian mob's territory -- buying Ecstasy from
> Israeli mobsters and European wholesalers and reselling it to patrons
> of area nightclubs and after-hours dance clubs.
> [...]
Czy wy "w Mossadzie" zawsze operujecie tak świeżą informacją? :-)
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2002-12-12/cb3.shtml
December 12-18, 2002
Another group of Eastern-European gunsels makes its mark.
by Brendan McGarve
--
Andrzej Adam Filip : Świat jaki jest każdy widzi (inaczej).
Wszyscy Bogowie byli nieśmiertelni!
-- Lec, Stanisław Jerzy (1909-1966)