The Purple Gang

 For all those who mistakenly hold the view that all Jews, religious or not, are wonderful people. Note all the traditional Jewish names in the following excerpts.

(from wikipedia:)

The Purple Gang, also known as the Sugar House Gang, was a criminal mob of bootleggers and hijackers, with predominantly Jewish members. They operated in Detroit, Michigan during the 1920s of the Prohibition era and came to be Detroit's dominant criminal gang. Excessive violence and infighting caused the gang to destroy itself in the 1930s.The gang was led by brothers Abe, Joe, Raymond, and Izzy Bernstein,^[8] who had moved to Detroit from New York City.^[9] 

The Purple Gang was involved in various other criminal actions, such as kidnapping other gangsters for ransom, which became very popular during this era. The FBI suspected that they were involved with the Lindbergh baby kidnapping.[6][12]


By the late 1920s, the Purple Gang reigned supreme over the Detroit underworld, controlling the city's vice, gambling, liquor, and drug trade.[13] They also ran the local wire service, providing horse racing information to local horse betting parlors.[1] The gang members consorted with more infamous mobsters, branching into other cities, as well. Abe Bernstein was a friend of Meyer Lansky and Joe Adonis, with whom he owned several Miami, Florida gambling casinos in his later years.[14] The gang hijacked prizefight films and forced movie theaters to show them for a high fee. They also defrauded insurance companies by staging fake accidents.[9]

As the gang grew in size and influence, they began hiring themselves out as hitmen[14] and took part in the Cleaners and Dyers war. The Purples profited from the Detroit laundry industry unions and associations.[8] They were hired out to keep union members in line and to harass non-union independents.[8] Bombing, arson, theft, and murder were the usual tactics that the gang employed to enforce union policy.[6][14]

Abe Axler and Eddie Fletcher were reputedly imported from New York City to take part in the scheme (although other sources put their origins in Detroit).[6][10] In 1927, nine members of the Purple Gang (Abe Bernstein, Raymond Bernstein, Irving Milberg, Eddie Fletcher, Joe Miller, Irving Shapiro, Abe Kaminsty, Abe Axler, and Simon Axler) were arrested and charged with conspiracy to extort money from Detroit wholesale cleaners and dyers.[14] They were eventually acquitted of all charges.[6]

A Detroit Mob War soon ensued between the Italian, Irish, and Jewish bootleggers over territory. The Purples fought a vicious turf war with the Licavoli Squad led by the brothers Tommy and Pete Licavoli.[1][4] In March 1927, three men were killed. The deceased men had been brought into Detroit as hired assassins for the Purple Gang and the motive for the murder was believed to be retaliation for a "double cross". The homicides took place in an apartment leased by Purple Gang members Eddie Fletcher and Abe Axler (and reportedly Fred Burke, which made them prime suspects in the slaying.[10]) The three suspects (Fletcher, Axler, and Burke) were questioned, as were the other Purples and associates.[17] No one was ever convicted of the murders.[6] These murders were reportedly the first use of a submachine gun in a Detroit underworld slaying.[18]

The Purple Gang was suspected of taking part in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago.[9] On February 13, 1929, Abe Bernstein reputedly called Bugs Moran to tell him that a hijacked load of booze was on its way to Chicago. Moran, who was in the middle of a turf war with Capone, had only recently begun to trust Bernstein, who had previously been Capone's chief supplier of Canadian liquor.[14] The next day, instead of delivering a load of liquor, four men, two in police uniforms, went to S.M.C. Cartage on North Clark Street (Moran's North Side hangout) and opened fire with Thompson submachine guns, killing seven men in what has become known as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.[14]

The Purple Gang began terrorizing Detroiters with the street executions of their enemies....In 1931, an intra-gang dispute ended in the murder of three Purples by members of their own gang, Chicago gangsters who had been imported to Detroit to help out the Purple Gang.[6] The three men had violated an underworld code by operating outside the territory allotted to them by the Purple Gang leadership.[8] Herman "Hymie" Paul, Isadore Sutker a.k.a. "Joe Sutker", and Joseph "Nigger Joe" Lebowitz were lured to an apartment on Collingwood Avenue on September 16, 1931.[22] They believed they were going to a peace conference with the Purple leaders.[8] After a brief discussion, the three men were gunned down.[22] Authorities caught up with the gang when they burst into Fletcher's apartment and found the suspects (Abe Axler, Irving Milberg, and Eddie Fletcher) playing cards. Ray Bernstein and Harry Keywell were also arrested.[22]

Irving Milberg, Harry Keywell, and Raymond Bernstein, three high-ranking Purples, were convicted of first-degree murder in the Collingwood Manor Massacre and were sentenced to life in prison.[8] Bernstein, Milberg, and Keywell were accompanied by police officers on a special Pullman train bound for Michigan's Upper Peninsula to begin serving their sentences in the state's maximum security prison in Marquette, Michigan.[23] Harry Fleisher, another suspect, remained on the run until 1932, but he was never convicted in connection with the massacre.