Joseph Filkowski

Joseph Filkowski was a Polish-American gangster active in Cleveland, Ohio, US. A longtime figure in Cleveland's underworld, Joseph Filkowski led the Polish bootlegging gang, the Flats Mob. He was responsible for a rash of bank robberies and jewelry heists in Cleveland and New York City between 1930 and 1932; he was also associated with numerous prominent criminal figures in the Midwest, such as Joseph Stazek and Morris Cohen.

Early life Filkowski was born in 1900 in a slum of Cleveland, Ohio, to Polish immigrants.

When Filkowski was 16 years old, he stole bikes out of a box car; he was never charged for this. At the age of 17, he stole copper wire from a box car. He was sentenced to spend time in the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield. He was paroled after a few months and returned to the part of Cleveland where he grew up. On February 22, 1919, he was charged with stealing a car, driving it into a freight yard in Cleveland, breaking into a boxcar, moving stolen goods from the boxcar to the stolen car, and then driving off and selling the stolen merchandise; for this offense, he was sent back to the reformatory in Mansfield for nine months. while Veryk was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Meanwhile, some of the construction workers who witnessed the murder were able to provide police with the license plate number of the car in which Filkowski fled. Police later discovered that the license plate numbers were faked. He also had the nickname of "Smiling Joe" among his associates in the Cleveland crime underworld. During his time on the run for the murder and numerous prior and subsequent robberies, Cleveland police designated him "Public Enemy No. 1".

On January 4, 1931, Cleveland detective Pat McNeeley saw a man who looked like Joseph Filkowski. He shot at the man and killed him before a confrontation could begin. The man he shot turned out to be Joseph Fortini, a newspaper route manager for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. and had also adopted the alias of William Blake, the name that he used at the hospital when he received plastic surgery.

On December 5, 1931, Filkowski, alongside a notorious Chicago-based robber named Morris Cohen, held up an Empire Trust and Savings Bank in New York City. Filkowski and Cohen escaped with $1,200. Nine days later, on December 14, Cohen was arrested and confessed to the police that he and Filkowski had been responsible for the bank holdup; Cohen also gave detectives the address to a house where Filkowski stayed on occasion. Detectives in Chicago went to that house, and while they did not find Filkowski, they found that he was making plans with a fellow ex-convict from Los Angeles; the two had discussed Filkowski potentially moving there, and the ex-convict recommended that Filkowski discreetly schedule a meeting to further discuss those plans by responding to a personal ad that the ex-convict would place in a Kansas City newspaper. Detectives used this information to place their own ad in an attempt that would ultimately result in Filkowski's apprehension.

Filkowski went on trial for the murder of Tony Veryk in April 1932. His jury consisted of six men and six women. During the prosecutor's final arguments, Filkowski caused a disruption by springing up from his seat and shouting at him, "You are more guilty than I am." The jury deliberated for approximately 3 hours before returning with a guilty verdict for first-degree murder. However, when deliberating on the sentence Filkowski should receive, they were split 8-4 in favor of a death sentence, with two men and two women hesitant to impose the death penalty; later, they were split 6-6. In the end, they compromised on a life sentence; the jury recommended mercy and imposed a sentence of life imprisonment for Filkowski. Common Pleas Judge Frederick P. Walter formally sentenced Filkowski to life on April 18, 1932. On the same day, he was transported to the Ohio State Penitentiary to begin his sentence. Guards later determined that Filkowski had only helped to transfer notes between prisoners and had no intentions of escaping with the group, so he was not punished. During his first seven years in prison, Filkowski was involved in three separate escape attempts.

On April 15, 1963, Joseph Filkowski was released from prison on parole after serving almost 31 years in prison for Veryk's murder.

Filkowski's life after his release from prison and his marriage is unknown.