Karl J. Niemiec

The Polish Gang: Detroit 1929 Karl J. Niemiec

In the grips of the "Roaring Twenties" Detroit was wide open to bootleggers and murderers. Dollars by the fistful were for the taking by anyone strong, cunning and murderous enough to chance dying for them. A city in a stupor, gone mad with drink, where blood ran at the drop of rum, Detroit became a civilization taken over by strong-armed gang members. During this time of social unrest, at the very height of prohibition, there existed - now only in old-timers' porch swing tales that grow mysteriously dim as time slips by - a small band of young men known as The Polish Gang. Just what happened to The Polish Gang? Where did they go? And why do so few people remember? And why, in a time of such profound documentation and national scrutiny of one city is there but one small newsprint article hinting about this elusive band of young men?

These mysteries and more are answered in The Polish Gang.

Though this story is a complete work of fiction loosely based on my grandfather's family, the naked girl in the back seat of my pop's convertible on the front lawn of Michal's Bar was not.

This is a 'what if' she was promised to someone else -- a love story set in 1929 Detroit.

Inspired by the antics of my pop, Bronislaus Niemiec.