In 1934 a dapper character named Abraham (Sometimes he referred
to himself as Alex) Sycowski showed up at the Polish border claiming to be
returning Pole from the United States. The Poles refused him entry because he
lacked a US passport or any other solid identification.
Sycowski then went to Paris where police reported that he had
set up an opium/ morphine trade ring however he fled to Austria in 1935 before
he could be arrested. However, the Austrians locked him up because he had
entered the country on fake Canadian passport.
While awaiting his trial, Sycowski spread a story that in the
United States underworld he was known as "Kid Tiger", that he had
been a bootlegger in Chicago with distilleries in Canada. He said he was close
friends with Al Capone and Jack "Legs" Diamond and that he was
sitting on several million dollars that belonged to them which he was guarding
in deposit in an Amsterdam bank. He eventually he added to the story by saying
he was a half brother to New York goon Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel.
Another rumor had it that Sycowski had financial connections to
Mussolini's Fascist party and was underwriting the Dictators army in Africa
turned out to be at least somewhat true. And he did have money. Border guards
found $2.5 million in Jewelry and about $5 million in Swiss francs in his
luggage.
The little that is known about Sycowski is that he was born on
July 13, 1892, in Wielgolyn, Poland, the son of a Jewish feldspar. The family
moved to Chicago in 1898 and he may possibly have been a booze smuggler.
While it was all very interesting, the Austrians locked him up
seven months, after which he was booted out of the country for Romania but the
Romanians refused him entry. He did manage to sneak into France and lived in
Paris for a while until he was deported in 1937 to Gdańsk in Poland. After that
he disappeared from public view, never to be heard from again. He was more than
probably executed by the Nazi’s.