Let me tell ya' about these sociopath 'big shots' that are part of my family on my mother's side... MY UNCLES -THE KASZKA BROTHERS:
My maternal Grandmother whose name is ''Busha'' had five boys and my mother. Her husband, my Grandfather (don't know what the hell his name was, never could figure it out) was a whoremaster who would go shack up with other women on a farm somewhere out in the boonies. Now and then he would slither back home and make a kid, act nuts, go on drunk binges, crawl down the alley from the corner beer garden on the avenue. ...get locked up overnight in the downtown police drunk tank, bang his head on the walls and then sneak home and get thrown out again by the family members.
First, we'll start with Michas (everyone calls him 'Fatty') the oldest brother was a rum-runner for the local mobster in town who was connected with the Gang of Purple. ''The Purple Gang as they are known was a loosely organized confederation of mobsters who dominated the Detroit underworld and whose tentacle s reached across the country. Beginning in the Prohibition Era, the Purple Gang prevailed in distilling alcohol and running liquor from Canada, kidnapping,and labor racketeering.'' Fatty ran booze from Canada to Detroit along the Detroit River regularly during the 20's and early 30's. The gang that he was with, carried out their operations on a scale employing a system that worked like clockwork. His band of thugs arranged the purchase of liquor at the export docks along the river, another gangster crew transported the liquor across to a designated location; a third team of mobsters quickly picked up the cases of whiskey and transported them to warehouses and later another arranged the shipments to speakeasies in Detroit. Finally, He made enough money in the rackets, to buy a business, that is now owned by his younger brothers after they kicked his ass out and bamboozled him of his racket money.
Szmuel, the second brother was an ex-fighter with a winning record who served a few years in prison for a barroom brawl at a dirty, side street, sleazy barroom beer garden hangout in town that left three seriously injured in a coma. Szmuel (a.k.a Sammy) was once a leading feather-weight contender that fought in venues from Detroit, Cincy, Toledo to Chicago. My father told me stories of Sammy "Flash" Kaszka. The time he fought 'Kid Melendez' at the Marigold Gardens in Chicago and "Rocky Lotta" at St. Nick's in Buffalo. He told me that he took a beating from Melendez but, won the 15 round bout barely standing. Months after, he got a shot at Lotta in Buffalo and got knocked out in eight rounds. What happened in Buffalo is: ...In round eight, he moved in on Lotta near the corner to throw more punches. By the eight, his power, however, seemed shot. The punches were coming in slow and hesitant. At this point, Lotta turned and caught him with a devastating right hook, his head snapped that made Sammy gasp. Then Rocky racked him with a six punch combination and a right uppercut that sent Sammy flying into the ropes and kissing the canvas. The count went to ten and "Flash" went into retirement. After the Melendez fight and the punishment he took at the St, Nick's, he never was the same. He fought five more times through 1940 in small clubs from Detroit to Youngstown. He was diagnosed with some sort of brain damage and started drinking heavily for the next few years. He was in and out of jail numerous times. After He got involved in that bar brawl, and served his time in the Big House; his brothers mysteriously took him to the Eloise nut house at the farms in Ypsilanti, Michigan and had him committed. He still had his mental problems though, but got reformed after he got out of walking around the snake pit in Eloise. I remember he was pretty eccentric, afterwards. Still tough as hell! ..."Has a few screws loose in his head."But, I found him to be still, quick with a joke, he can recall his fights in painstaking detail. But he sometimes stumbles over words, and often repeats himself because he simply forgets what he's just said. I've been to his house numerous times with my old man. Sammy always causing trouble around the house. He has a private room that he goes into, to talk to himself in the mirror and makes crazy faces. The room is covered with mementos gained in a sport he found by accident in the lairs of a tough Detroit reform school during his rebellious youth.
Stach is my godfather and the third brother-- a sleek, handsome fellow who is involved in shady dealings with his chop shop disguised gas station business. He is well dressed, seemingly composed in his manifest, confident and sweet-talking, almost regal, in his manner. He is also involved with the town's shifty dirty political scene. He carries an air of confidence in a suspicious laid-back way.... My uncles-- Stach [and] Michas, back in the late 1930's and early 1940's were in business together in that 'disguised gas station auto repair shop' (...is actually a chop shop' in Downriver Detroit), a few miles to the touch of South Detroit. After Stach kicked 'Fatty's' ass out and bamboozled him out of his racket money after the war, he called in his younger brother, Hanusz -to be part owner. WOW!!
Hanusz, the fourth brother, he was a brash shiftless shy·ster. He did not care who he embezzled. He always acted very unethical, and unscrupulous, especially in the practice of business.. Always spouting orders at his newly acquired chop shop morons to come up with some way of screwing someone 'bad to the bone.' He was a tough marine sergeant. He reminded me of the drill sergeant in that movie- The D.I. with Jack Webb. YAH! HANUSZ WAS LIKE JACK WEBB. At the shop, he wanted to be called 'Sarge.'
The youngest brother, Leszek who was an unscrupulous sort of corporate swindler, -a snake- who fought his way to the top of his game, but eventually alienated all of the people who helped him on the way up. What I heard about him from stories from my old man is that he would gain the trust and confidence of his associates who he was doing business with as a County Airline 'BIG SHOT' in order to manipulate, embezzle from, or otherwise predate upon them. HOW HE DID THAT NOBODY KNOWS! Leszek always wore dark sunglasses and a hat with a feather in it, drove a fancy Lincoln, and smoked big 'El Producto Cigars' and usually handed me 20 bucks on Christmas. That was big of him. Stach my godfather would slide me 50 bucks on birthdays.
WHAT MEMORIES!!!
Source : articlesbase.com
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