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Title	Martin Piniak
Alternative Title	Piniak, Martin; Wooly; Wooly Bully; The Man Under the Bridge; The Old Man Under the Bridge; Old Man Martin
Genre	Legend -- People -- Local -- Eccentrics
Description	Ellen Guckien's transcribed interview of Wayne Demkowicz about Martin Piniak. Demkowicz tells three different accounts of Piniak. In one account, Piniak lost his money in the stock market crash and went to live under a bridge. In the second account, Piniak went to live under the bridge because a girl ended a relationship with him. In the final account, Piniak's family was killed and he was so distraught about this that he began living under a bridge.
Informant	Demkowicz, Wayne
Collector	Guckien, Ellen
Date of Original	1973-04-21
Contextual Information	Martin Piniak lived in the East Chicago, Indiana, area. He lived from 1903 to 1976. He is still widely discussed and well remembered by people in that area of all ages. Recurring motifs in this story are T211.5, "Man becomes a hermit after his wife's death" and T93.2 "Disappointed lover turns hermit."
Repository	Indiana State University Folklore Archives, Special Collections, Cunningham Memorial Library, Terre Haute, Indiana 47809
Coverage	United States -- Indiana -- Lake County -- East Chicago -- 1973
Subject	Tramps Bridges Homeless persons
WV3 Subject	Folklore
Type	text
Material Type	Interviews
Date Digital	2011-05-16
Technical Metadata	image/tiff 300 dpi; Epson GT-20000; Epson Scan
Copyright	Digital image copyright c 2011 Indiana Folklore Collection.
Item ID	isuf-MartinPiniak020

Martin Piniak

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