This book is based on factual events that occurred; however, it is a fictionalized account. Except for the names of Hugh “Idzi” Rutkowski, Paul “Shrimp” Chovanec, and a couple of others, the characters are the products of my imagination.
During a short period from late October to early November 1935, Milwaukee came under siege during the “Reign of Terror” by someone termed “The Mad Bomber.” This fictional book is based on that small snapshot of time.
I include the cast of characters during the Public Enemies era because it sets the stage for this book by showing some of the notorious criminals of that time. Or as Bryan Burrough put it, “America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the birth of the FBI, 1933-1934.”
Courtesy of the Theodore C. Sliwinski family
“HAPPIER TIMES”
Top Row: Sigmund “Sig” Powalisz (1914), Gus Sliwinski (1908),
Unknown, Hugh “Idzi” Rutkowski (1915)
Middle Row: Alois “Bingo” Powalisz (1910),
Charles “Charlie” Sliwinski (1910)
Bottom Row: Theodore C. “Bevo” Sliwinski (1912)
Photo of neighborhood friends and baseball team members,
taken between 1933 and 1935.
CAST OF CHARACTERS DURING THE PUBLIC ENEMIES ERA
• Al “Scarface” Capone (born 1899): Probably the most notorious of all the criminals during this era. He was imprisoned at Alcatraz in 1931 and died of cardiac arrest on January 24, 1947.
• Bonnie Parker (born 1910) and Clyde Barrow (born 1909): Outlaws, robbers, murderers; died of multiple gunshot wounds on May 23, 1934, in an ambush on a rural road in Bienville Parish, LA, by four Texas police officers.
• John Herbert Dillinger (born 1903): A gangster and bank robber; Public Enemy Number One. He and his gang did a number of bank robberies in 1933 and 1934, along with pulling the big prison escape from Indiana. He left the Biograph Theatre in Chicago on the night of July 22, 1934, after watching a movie with Polly Hamilton, his girlfriend, and Anna Sage, the infamous “Woman in Red.” The trio were confronted by FBI agents and local police, including Melvin Purvis, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago FBI office. Dillinger drew a weapon and attempted to flee; he was shot three times and died at the scene.
• Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd (born 1904): Bank robber; he became the primary suspect in the June 17, 1933, gunfight known as the “Kansas City Massacre” that resulted in the death of two FBI agents and two Kansas City police officers. Committed a number of bank robberies. Died of gunshot wounds in a cornfield on October 22, 1934, in northern Ohio while being pursued by local police and FBI agents.
• Lester Joseph “Baby Face Nelson” Gillis (born 1908): Known under the pseudonym George Nelson; bank robber and murderer. He killed more FBI agents in the line of duty than any other single person. Gillis died on November 27, 1934, in a running gun battle with FBI agents in what became known as the “Battle of Barrington,” in Barrington, Illinois. Two FBI agents, Herman “Ed” Hollis and Samuel P. Cowley, were also killed.
• The Barker Family, AKA the “Bloody Barkers”:
◊ Kate “Ma” Barker (born 1873): Born in Ash Grove, Missouri. She was the mother of four sons: Herman, Lloyd, Arthur (Doc), and Fred, who were all born in Aurora, Missouri. Believed to be the leader of the twenty-five-member Karpis-Barker gang responsible for three kidnappings, ten murders, and thefts of more than one million dollars during a three-year period that began in 1932. Ma Barker and son Fred were killed by FBI agents on January 16, 1935, while hiding out on Lake Weir in Ocklawaha, Florida.
◊ Herman Barker (born 1893): AKA Fred Hamilton; committed suicide on August 29, 1927, in Wichita, Kansas. He shot himself during/after a shootout with police to avoid arrest for murder.
◊ Lloyd William “Red” Barker (born 1896): He spent twenty-five years in Leavenworth Prison (1922-1947) for robbery. Barker was killed by his wife in 1949 in Denver, Colorado, less than two years after his prison release.
◊ Fred Barker (Born 1903): Bank robber, kidnapper; he and his mother were killed by FBI agents in 1935.
◊ Arthur R. “Doc” Barker (Born 1899): Bank robber, kidnapper; he was arrested in Chicago by FBI agents, including Melvin Purvis, on January 8, 1935. Sentenced to Alcatraz in 1936 and killed by prison guards while trying to escape, January 13, 1939.
• Alvin “Creepy” Karpis (born 1907): Bank and train robber, kidnapper; after Ma Barker and Fred Barker were killed, Karpis became Public Enemy Number One. While holding that distinction, he committed a bank robbery in July and a train robbery in October 1935. He was arrested by FBI and local police in New Orleans, Louisiana, on May 1, 1936. Karpis was confined at Alcatraz Prison with other Karpis gang members. He was then transferred to another prison where he once taught guitar to a young Charles Manson. Paroled in 1969 and deported to Canada. Died in Spain in 1979.
• George “Machine Gun Kelly” Barnes (born 1900): Gangster, bootlegger, and businessman; arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for smuggling alcohol onto an Indian reservation and sent to Leavenworth Prison for three years. He married Kathryn Thorne, who bought Kelly his first machine gun. Kelly and others kidnapped a wealthy Oklahoma City resident and a friend in September 1933. He was arrested shortly thereafter and sentenced to life in prison. He spent seventeen years at Alcatraz where he was known as “Pop Gun Kelly” because he was a model prisoner and not the hardcore criminal his reputation depicted. Kelly died at Leavenworth Prison on July 18, 1954.
I would also like to give tremendous gratitude to Wikipedia and the Milwaukee Journal/Milwaukee Sentinel archives, along with several other open sources, for being very valuable and helpful in the writing of this book.
Larry Powalisz
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Terrorism is not a new phenomenon in our country. Up until September 11, 2001, Milwaukee had the dubious honor of having the most police officers killed in one day in United States history. This occurred on November 24, 1917, when a bomb exploded at police headquarters and five police officers, three detectives, one police alarm operator, and a citizen were killed. Anarchists were suspected to be behind the bombing. The case remains unsolved.
Law enforcement has been much of my life for over four decades. This book is dedicated to all the police officers, detectives, supervisors, and support staff with whom I worked at the Milwaukee Police Department from 1973-2001. It is also written in memory of those who died in the line of duty and whose names are forever inscribed on the marble walls of the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington, DC, to all those who have since died, and to the millions who have ever stood watch and who still stand watch on “the thin blue line.” You have my utmost gratitude and respect. God bless you all!
Thanks to my friend, Cary Collins, for tightening up the manuscript and providing his strategic use of action words. To Morgan James Publishing and their wonderful staff. Thank you for giving me a chance and taking on CIRCLE OF TERROR. I would also like to thank Angie Kiesling and her talented team at Editorial Attic for doing such a great job on the final professional editing.
Finally, this book is lovingly dedicated to the memory of my father, Sigmund. Along with a number of other friends and acquaintances, he was taken into custody by Milwaukee Police Department personnel in November 1935, and questioned concerning his activities and friendship with a neighbor and fellow Boy’s Tech High School attendee, Hugh “Idzi” Rutkowski, AKA, “The Mad Bomber.” Without the stories my father shared with my siblings and I years later, this story would never have been written.
Larry Powalisz
CIRCLE OF TERROR
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