The Purple Gang in Detroit
History
During the liquor prohibition in Detroit which happened from 1920-1933. As a result of Michigan passing a law and adopting the Damon Act that banned liquor from being sold and consumed in the town, organized crime began taking shape during this era as Jewish gangsters controlled the underworld of the American society (Kavieff, 20). The Purple Gang was led by one of four brothers by the name of Abe Bernstein and it was formed by young Jewish immigrants as a result of the harsh living conditions the residents of Detroit faced. They would engage in illegal activities while they were still young, like conning residents of Detroit and even stealing from people, and this small mischievous habits led to them engaging …show more content…
During this Prohibition period, the Purple gang used Detroit as a major port to carry out their illegal activities and also for distributing and running the booze business and selling of alcohol products that were transported by boat from Canada. The gang mostly had its operations between Chicago and Detroit and they would hold their meetings in secret locations like rented out house in Albion or behind a film theatre by the name of Bohm Theatre. They are believed to have murdered and killed over five hundred gang members from enemy mobs that were also in the bootlegging business as they engaged in numerous bootleg wars. The gang would normally hire out assassins from the Al Capone gang that would execute the assassinations for the Purple gang. With their bad reputation increasing in the town, this brought about fear from the residents of the town and local businesses (Meyer). They had instilled so much fear in people such that even the Chicago Al Capone gang did not want to expand their territory in their region as they knew this would result in a blood bath with the Purple gang, therefore deciding to start a business accommodation policy with the purple gang that ensured no one crossed paths. The Purple gang enjoyed the rights of supplying Canadian whisky for several years to other …show more content…
The gang even fixed horse racing results by operating the local wire service where they sold information about horse racing activities to the local betting handbooks and parlors concerning the results of the horse racing events. They gang even branched out to other cities outside of Detroit by collaborating with other mobsters that were infamous (Lupsha, 25). One of the brothers called Abe had a string of casinos used for gambling in Miami which he co-owned with several of his friends such as Joe Adonis and Meyer Lansky. The gang would also defraud insurance firms by acting out accidents that were fake and even hijacked a filming company called Prizefight and forced them to charge higher entrance fees. The gang was considered to be overly violent than any other gang within the city of Detroit and even the neighboring cities, and it would constantly be fighting with different enemy mob groups over issues like territory control, deals gone bad or even supply of booze within the city. They constantly appear in the newspaper each and every other day about executions, gang murders and killings from either side of the war. They were quite different from other gangs because as other gangs performed murders in secrecy, the Purple gang would carry out
History
During the liquor prohibition in Detroit which happened from 1920-1933. As a result of Michigan passing a law and adopting the Damon Act that banned liquor from being sold and consumed in the town, organized crime began taking shape during this era as Jewish gangsters controlled the underworld of the American society (Kavieff, 20). The Purple Gang was led by one of four brothers by the name of Abe Bernstein and it was formed by young Jewish immigrants as a result of the harsh living conditions the residents of Detroit faced. They would engage in illegal activities while they were still young, like conning residents of Detroit and even stealing from people, and this small mischievous habits led to them engaging …show more content…
During this Prohibition period, the Purple gang used Detroit as a major port to carry out their illegal activities and also for distributing and running the booze business and selling of alcohol products that were transported by boat from Canada. The gang mostly had its operations between Chicago and Detroit and they would hold their meetings in secret locations like rented out house in Albion or behind a film theatre by the name of Bohm Theatre. They are believed to have murdered and killed over five hundred gang members from enemy mobs that were also in the bootlegging business as they engaged in numerous bootleg wars. The gang would normally hire out assassins from the Al Capone gang that would execute the assassinations for the Purple gang. With their bad reputation increasing in the town, this brought about fear from the residents of the town and local businesses (Meyer). They had instilled so much fear in people such that even the Chicago Al Capone gang did not want to expand their territory in their region as they knew this would result in a blood bath with the Purple gang, therefore deciding to start a business accommodation policy with the purple gang that ensured no one crossed paths. The Purple gang enjoyed the rights of supplying Canadian whisky for several years to other …show more content…
The gang even fixed horse racing results by operating the local wire service where they sold information about horse racing activities to the local betting handbooks and parlors concerning the results of the horse racing events. They gang even branched out to other cities outside of Detroit by collaborating with other mobsters that were infamous (Lupsha, 25). One of the brothers called Abe had a string of casinos used for gambling in Miami which he co-owned with several of his friends such as Joe Adonis and Meyer Lansky. The gang would also defraud insurance firms by acting out accidents that were fake and even hijacked a filming company called Prizefight and forced them to charge higher entrance fees. The gang was considered to be overly violent than any other gang within the city of Detroit and even the neighboring cities, and it would constantly be fighting with different enemy mob groups over issues like territory control, deals gone bad or even supply of booze within the city. They constantly appear in the newspaper each and every other day about executions, gang murders and killings from either side of the war. They were quite different from other gangs because as other gangs performed murders in secrecy, the Purple gang would carry out