Paul Jaworski

Background

Paul Jaworski was born in Poland as Paul Poluszynski in 1900. He later immigrated to the United States in 1905. He was born to Catholic parents and later became an atheist. Jaworski led the “Flatheads” gang.

The offence

First-ever armored car robbery

Jaworski and the “Flatheads” gang committed the first-ever armored car robbery on March 11, 1927. The gang stole over $104,000 from an armored vehicle on Bethel Road, 7 miles outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The money had been on its way to Coverdale, Pennsylvania for the Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company. The bandits placed a landmine under the roadbed and made off with the money.

Detroit News payroll robbery and murder

The gang committed a payroll robbery of The Detroit News business offices in 1928. The robbery involved five men carrying paper bags entering the building and walking to second floor business offices, while a sixth waited in a getaway car on Lafayette. At a given signal the bags were ripped open, baring shotguns, and the robbery was underway.

In The News city room, Mabel Kerr, a veteran switchboard operator, was talking to Harvey Patton when another News employee who had witnessed the commotion in the business office entered the city room and announced, “My gawd, we are being robbed.” Miss Kerr relayed the report to Patton, who summoned police. A shot rang out. Paymaster Edward Krell rushed into the city room, brandishing a .45 revolver and shouting, “Where did they go?” Then a city editor announced, “Maybe we ought to have a story.”

Paul Jaworski, described as the ringleader who subsequently died in the electric chair for a payroll holdup-murder in Pennsylvania, gave details to police when he was eventually captured. Jaworski said the gang expected to get $65,000 and that it settled for $14,826. He planned the holdup after “casing” News offices for several days. After seizing available payroll envelopes, the bandits raced down a stairway to the first floor lobby. There they met Sgt. George Barstad, a traffic patrolman who rushed into the building to investigate the commotion. Barstad was shot to death on the front steps by two of the gunmen.

In the street, the gang confronted Patrolman Guyot N. Craig, a police marksman. Craig emptied his gun at the fleeing car, leaving at least one bullet hole in the stolen Ford. In the exchange of gunfire, Craig suffered minor wounds. Joseph W. Worten, a News advertising salesman, was sprayed with gunshot pellets in his legs and hand as he approached the building, apparently unaware of the robbery in progress.

Later, Thomas Paluzynski (alias Pallas) and Harry Watson were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Investigation

Pittsburgh city detectives dubbed the armored car robbery “the most spectacular job in the history of banditry hereabouts.” The robbery involved burying explosives just under the surface of the road and waiting in nearby woods. When the cars got there, the gang used a plunger-like device to trigger a blast, sending both cars into the air. The main truck flipped and landed upside down, and the second car fell into a crater left by the explosion. Everyone was shaken, but no one was killed, and in the confusion the crooks grabbed $104,000 and took off.

In the aftermath, the Pittsburgh Gazette Times reported nine bandits speeding away in two automobiles. One car was abandoned, and the villains piled into a big blue Stearns-Knight touring car, which developed a flat tire, leaving an easily followed trail as the gang headed south. The car was later dumped and the gang scattered.

Arrest

Within 24 hours, police captured two robbers near Bentleyville in Washington County. A day later, Paul Jaworski—who identified himself as John Smith—was caught in a farmhouse 30 miles south of the crime scene. Jaworski confessed, squealed on his accomplices, and led the cops to $33,000 in buried loot. He was described as the mastermind behind the heist and as having confessed to several murder-robberies.

Trial

Jaworski was sentenced to death in Pennsylvania on January 2, but received a stay of execution until a sanity evaluation could be completed. Jaworski was executed by electric chair in Pennsylvania for a separate payroll robbery which resulted in a murder.

Sentencing

Jaworski was sentenced to death in Pennsylvania on January 2.

Appeals

A stay of execution was granted until a sanity evaluation could be completed.

Outcome

Jaworski declined the services of the prison chaplain and 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.”

Jaworski was executed by electrocution in Pennsylvania on January 21, 1929.

Aftermath

Jaworski sent his friends a postcard with his future address: 45 Hellsfire Road, 6/14 miles from Hell. Frank “Whitey” Kraft was later killed by police in Detroit.