Detroit's Notorious Purple Gang
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 “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
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 “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
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