Detroits Notorious Purple Gang free essay sample

Abstract When Prohibition began in Michigan on May 1, 1918, the young Purple Gang escalated from crimes of vandalism, petty thievery, and pick pocketing on Detroit’s lower east-side Paradise Valley located within the Hastings Street neighborhood to armed robbery, extortion, bootlegging, hijacking liquor, and even murder. They were used as terrorists by corrupt labor leaders to hold union members in check. The Purple Gang was led by four brothers. Abraham (Abe), Joseph (Joey), Raymond (Ray), and Isadore (Izzy) Bernstein were ruthless, but prospered and soon branched out into strong arming, gambling, and narcotics. The Purple Gang remained in power in Detroit’s underworld from about 1927 to 1935. They controlled the wire service to all Detroit bookies and eventually became the illegal liquor supplier to Al Capone’s Chicago mob. The Purple’s reign ended when most of the members were either killed off or arrested to serve long prison terms. Detroit’s Notorious Purple Gang â€Å"Prohibition is an awful flop. We like it. It can’t stop what it’s meant to stop. We like it. It’s left a trail of graft and slime, it won’t prohibit worth a dime, it’s filled our land with vice and crime. Never the less, we’re for it† (Adams, F. 1931). Prohibition by definition is an act of prohibiting. In Michigan, the sale, distribution, and consumption of alcohol were prohibited on May 1, 1918, over a year sooner than the rest of the country. Enter the young Purple Gang, a gang of Jewish juveniles disrupting Detroit’s lower east-side neighborhoods. These juveniles quickly learned to profit from the nation going dry by hijacking and strong arming bootleggers and rum runners. The Purple Gang was notorious for being ruthless, vicious, feared, and was used by other gangs as gunners and protectors. The Purple gang was led by the four Bernstein brothers, Abe, Joey, Ray, and Izzy. The brothers were juvenile delinquents that went to school at the Bishop Ungraded School on Winder Street with other child ruffians, Harry and Lou Fleisher, Sam Davis, and Philip and Harry Kewell. The youngsters robbed local merchants, victimized street peddlers, and rolled drunks for easy pocket change (Kavieff, P. 2008, p. 9). The Purple’s were mentored by Charles Leiter and Henry Shorr, who ran a corn sugar business located on Oakland Ave. named the Oakland Sugar House. The Oakland Sugar House was a legitimate business, providing corn sugar for home brewers still allowed to make a set amount of liquor for personal use. The Sugar House became a valuable resource to illegal stills and alley breweries and was run by mobsters. They used the Purple gang to strong arm and extort businesses (Gribben, M. n. d. par. 10). There are different theories on how the gang received its colorful name. Rumor has it that the gang inherited the name as a result of a conversation between two shopkeepers terrorized by the juveniles. The shop keepers claimed the boys were â€Å"tainted, off color, rotten, purple, like the color of bad meat† (Gribben, M. par. 7). Another theory is that Purple Gang member Eddie Fletcher, a featherweight boxer, always wore purple boxing shorts during matches. Yet, another story is that Sammy Cohen, A. K. A. Sammy Purple, was an originator of the Purple Gang (Jones, L. 2008, par. 4). In all likelihood, the name was invented by a local journalist. However the name came about, that’s what they got tagged with and it stuck with them until the end. When the Prohibition took effect in Detroit, in May 1918, the Volstead Act closed down Detroit’s 1500 saloons, but by 1925 there were over 15000 speakeasies or â€Å"blind pigs† as they were called, and many of them came under the control of the Purples. The Purple’s, merging with the Oakland Sugar House Gang, had control of the illegal liquor distribution and sales. They preferred hijacking to rum running. With the Detroit River less than a mile across in some places, and 28 miles long with thousands of hiding places, it was a smuggler’s dream. Although Ontario had banned the sale of liquor, their government approved and licensed distilleries and breweries to manufacture, distribute, and export it. These waterways carried 75 percent of the liquor supplied to the United States during Prohibition. From Detroit, liquor was shipped to Chicago (where Al Capone sold it under his â€Å"Log Cabin† logo), St. Louis, and points west (Gribben, M. par. 15). Illegal liquor sales were the second biggest business in Detroit next to the auto industry, netting around $215 million a year. Walkervilletimes. n. d. par. 26). By the mid-1920’s, the Purple gang divided it’s time working for Leiter and Shorr and hiring themselves out as guards for wealthy Detroit gamblers. In 1925, Abe and Francis X. Martel, the corrupt president of the Detroit branch of the American Federation of Labor, partnered up to regulate the cleaning and dying industry . They, together with Sam Polakoff, president of the Union of Dyers and Cleaners, fo rmed a racketeer controlled Cleaners and Dyers Association. All cleaners and dyers in the city were expected to join the association and if they refused, members of the Purple Gang would be sent out to obliterate cleaning plants, destroy truckloads of laundry, and lambaste and terrorize drivers. At least two union agents were murdered (Kavieff, P. p. 29). The nationally dubbed â€Å"Cleaners and Dyers War† stormed the Detroit area from 1925 to 1928 only ending when local cleaners filed a complaint with the Wayne County prosecutor resulting in the trial of 13 gang members on extortion charges. Every one of the Purple Gang members was acquitted in September, 1928. The gang’s reputation quickly soared into invincibility. In 1926, a local distributor named Johnny Reid was murdered for unknown reasons, sparking retaliation. Abe Axler and Eddie Fletcher, who had joined the gang from New York and had a reputation as brutal gang enforcers, rented an apartment in The Milaflores Apartment Building at 106 East Alexandrine Avenue and was set up to be a meeting place between the Purple’s, and Reid’s murderer, Frank Wright. Wright and two cohorts, Reuben Cohen and Joe Bloom, came to Detroit from a St. Louis mob and began muscling in on the Purple Gang’s local interests. On March 27, 1927, the three St. Louis men were gunned down in the Milaflores apartment by hired freelance gunman Fred â€Å"Killer† Burke, who opened fire with a Thompson submachine gun. The Milaflores Massacre is rumored to be the first time a Tommy gun was used in any murder in Detroit. Burke, would eventually become a suspect in the 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. This event, coupled with the extortion acquittal, gave the Purple gang the honor of being known as untouchable. Among corrupt police officers of the Prohibition Era was Vivian Welch. Welch, along with his partner, Max Whisman, was extorting money from the Purple Gang supplied blind pigs. Welch lost his job on the police force but Welch continued to shakedown pig operators. In January, 1928, Vivian Welch was taken for a ride by Purple members and murdered being shot nine times in a Chevrolet coupe belonging to Ray Bernstein. No one was ever charged or convicted of the crime (Kavieff, P. p. 42). The hijacking of the Purple’s shipment of Capone’s Old Log Cabin Whiskey in 1929 led Abe Bernstein to set up a hit on the Chicago’s Moran gang by telephoning George â€Å"Bugs† Moran the day before the killing, and arranging to deliver a shipment of liquor into the garage that day, hoping Moran would be there himself, to accept the delivery. Some sources claim that Police records confirmed that four members of the Purples, the Fleisher and Keywell brothers stayed at a boarding house at 2119 Clarke Street, Chicago, directly across from the garage where the killings took place, before, during and after the shooting (Jones, L. ar. 39). On February 14, 1929, the garage occupied by the Bugs Moran gang was ambushed and 7 people were murdered. This day is unofficially known as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Philip Keywell and Morris Raider were the first Purple Gang members to be convicted of murder, stemming from the July 1930 slaying of 15 year old Ar thur Mixom, an unarmed ice peddler who unknowingly peeked in on a Purple liquor cutting plant. This is a plant where liquor is watered down and stretched to provide more liquor for a better profit (Gribben, M. ). During Detroit Mayor Charles Bowles election, radio host Jerry Buckley advocated for an electoral recall. Bowles was for the prohibition and the Purple’s wanted him to stay in office. At 1:40am on July 23, 1930, in the lobby of the La Salle Hotel in Detroit, three men came in and shot Buckley. No one was ever charged with the murder (Time. com. 1931). A partner in the bookmaking operation, Solly Levine, was a go between for rivals Purple’s and three men that were brought to Detroit by the Oakland Sugar House Gang as rod men to protect the mobs alcohol supply. The three men, Hymie Paul, Joe Lebowitz, and Joe Sutker decided they were not nterested in being someone else’s strong men. They decided to branch out on their own. The trio disregarded the strict code of Detroit’s underworld. They hijacked friends and enemies, and double crossed business partners. They refused to stay within their boundaries and stepped on the toes of other gangs. The men were warned numerous times to cool it, to no avail. They had served the gang well as enforcers but had to be eliminated. A peace meeting was set up on September 16, 1931 in apartment 211 at 1740 Collingwood Avenue, a few blocks from the Gang’s home base on Oakland Avenue. Ray Bernstein got Levine, who originally brought Sutker, Lebovitz and Paul into the gang, to bring the three men to the apartment. There was a big business convention going on in Detroit, and the meeting was seemingly called to discuss liquor supplies. Ray got the guys comfortable. They lit up cigars and were puffing away merrily when three of the Purple’s present, blew them into eternity. The shooters were Irving Milburn, Harry Fleischer known to the gang as H. F. and young, eighteen year old Harry Keywell. They made sure they missed out on Levine, who made his own way from the apartment at a rapid pace. Levine later testified on the Collingwood Manor Massacre in place of immunity and ultimately the shooters, along with Ray Bernstein, were convicted of the murders (Jones, L,). Solly Levine was put on a boat to France by the police. However, once arriving, French officials were unwelcoming and sent him back. He tried to go to Ireland but could not get a passport. Solly Levine was never heard from again (J-Grit. com. n. d. ). Because of the Purple Gang’s notoriety of kidnapping for ransom, they were quickly suspected in the March 1, 1932 kidnapping of American aviator Charles Lindbergh’s baby, Charles Jr. n order to extort their biggest customer, Al Capone. It was quickly discovered that the Lindbergh’s nurse, Betty Gow, was related to a Purple named Scotty Gow, but the FBI could find no direct evidence of the gang’s involvement (Bammer, S. 2011 par. 11) Detroit’s Public Enemies Number One and Two, Abe Axler and Eddie Fletcher were known as the  "Siamese Twins† of the Detroit underworld because they were inseparable (Kavieff, P. p. 32). The duo was misappropriating Purple money that was to be used to buy a brewery after the repeal of the prohibition. Axler and Fletcher were found by an Oakland County constable urdered in the back seat of Axler’s new Chrysler in the early morning of November 26, 1933. They had been shot multiple times in the face and were laying side by side, holding hands. On December 5, 1933, the 18th Amendment (Prohibition) was repealed. The black market liquor sales were drying up and senior Purple members were serving lengthy prison sentences. Rumor has it that in 1935, the Bernstein brothers were called to a meeting with the Italian Detroit Mafia and were told that the mob would be taking over the now defunct Purple’s rackets. Abe, realizing the core of his Purple Gang was gone, relinquished. He was essentially taken care of by the mob and was often utilized as an advisor. Smaller, individual groups of Purple gangsters continued to operate. Former Purple Gang Enforcer Harry Millman led a crew of Jewish mobsters who shook down mafia controlled handbooks and brothels. Millman’s hatred for the Italian’s was well known and he was advised and warned multiple times by Bernstein to quit making trouble for the mob but blatantly continued to be destructive. His hatred for the mob and the fact that Bernstein no longer wished to protect him, caused his demise. On November 25, 1937, after several attempts on Millman’s life, he was gunned down while standing at the bar at Boesky’s Restaurant in Detroit (Kavieff, P. p. 97) The Purples governed Detroit’s underworld for a brief time but left lasting impressions in the memories lawmen and the people whose paths had crossed theirs. The memory they evoked, would be rekindled in 1960, with the release of a movie about them, called, not surprisingly, The Purple Gang. It starred Barry Sullivan, and Robert Blake, who hit the news in connection with the mysterious killing of his wife, Bonny, in 2001. A reference to the gang turned up in one of Ian Flemings Bond novels. Helmut M. Springer, noted as a member of The Purple Gang of Detroit, is a character in Goldfinger, hired to help with the Fort Knox robbery (Jones, L. par. 88). They even found immortality in of all places, a 1957 rock Elvis Presley’s â€Å"Jailhouse Rock† singing, The drummer boy from Illinois went crash, boom, bang. The whole rhythm section was the purple gang. † The infamous Purple Gang started as juvenile riff raff, targeting locals and terrorizing the neighborhood. With the Prohibition, they swiftly moved up to more serious, severe crimes and control. Their finalization in the underworld came quickly with the end of the Prohibition. Most senior Purples were sent to prison or murdered, which led to the Italian Mafia closing in and taking over the rackets started by the Purple Gang. References Adams, F. 1931, Prohibition. Retrieved on August 17, 2011 from http://druglibrary. net/schaffer/History/e1930/adamsprohibition. htm Bamer, S. 2011, Detroit’s Purple Past: Mayhem in Motor City. Retrieved on August 17, 2011 http://www. jackdetroit. om/post/8691160536/detroits-purple-past-mayhem-in-motor-city CRIME: Detroit’s Question. 1931. Retrieved from http://www. time. com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741546,00. html Gribben. M. n. d. The Purple Gang-Jewish Organized Crime. Retrieved August 17, 2011 http://www. j-grit. com/criminals-the-purple-gang. php Jones, T. L. 2008, Mob Corner. Retrieved on August 17, 2011 from http://realdealmafia. co m/purplegang. html Kavieff, P. R. 2008, Detroit’s Infamous Purple Gang. Charleston, S. C. Arcadia Publishing, Mobsters, Mayhem, Murder. Retrieved on August 17, 2001 from http://www. walkervilletimes. com/34/mobsters1. html