Era Of Prohibition In The Usa

During the 1920’s and early 1930’s, the United States went through something called the Prohibition Era. During this time, the 18th Amendment was ratified by the Volstead Act. This made the manufacture and the sale of alcohol illegal. This gave many gangs opportunities to expand and conquer. (1) During the Prohibition Era, Jewish gangs were starting to dominate major cities across America. These gangs were located in New York, Cleveland, Detroit and others. One of the most famous gangs that was starting to rise was the Purple Gang.

The gang’s origins have been traced to Detroit’s east side in the Jewish area. This same area included many ethnic groups that included Germans, Russians, African Americans and many others. The Jewish community was to be seen to be around almost 35,000. This amount was only 3.5 percent of Detroit’s total population. The members of the gang were children of eastern Europe immigrants who were mostly Russian and Polish during immigration between the years 1881 to 1914.

Most of the children were boys who were born in the United States or came to the country when they were very young. As children they started with smaller crimes such as stealing fruit or candy. Once they got older and more confident, they began “rolling drunks” and “waylaying pedestrians”. When they became older, they started to look into illegal saloons and gambling joints. The Purple Gang was created when two Jewish gangs merged into one major gang. The first gang was called the Oakland Sugar House Gang.

Get quality help now

KarrieWrites

Verified

Proficient in: Gangs In America

5 (339)

“ KarrieWrites did such a phenomenal job on this assignment! He completed it prior to its deadline and was thorough and informative. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

The leader of this gang was Charles Leiter, he owned a distillery and was the leader of that gang. Harry Fleisher started with the Oakland Sugar House Gang as a driver but eventually made his way up to killing. Henry Shorr was the person who handed all the financial needs for the gang and Irving Milberg who was very young but known to be an excellent fighter.

These were the major people of the Oakland Sugar House Gang, but you also had its regular members that included Harry Altman, Harry Keywell, Morris Raider and Phil Raider. Now you have the second gang was seen more as a group at the time. This group was formed by a man named Sammy Cohen (AKA Sammy Purple). This smaller group was being led by the Bernstein brothers – Abe, Joe, Ray and Isidore. These four brothers immigrated with their parent from New York to Detroit. The Purple Gang started to become famous in 1926 when they were hired to protect establishments. Local gamblers hired them to protect them from a gang known as the “Egan’s Rats” This gang was a powerful gang that came from St. Louis. Over time, the Purple Gang hired several members of the rat gang to help them with the war against the Italian mobs in Detroit.

After some time, several members of the rats betrayed the Purple Gang and a new rivalry was created. In 1927, the Purple Gang performed Detroit’s first machine gun execution. During that year, the gang grew to fifty members and they decided to hit their competitors. In March, purple members known as Fletcher and Axler rented a suite in the Milaflores Apartments and invited three St. Louis gangsters for a meeting. The three members wanted to set up an operation in Detroit but once they entered the room, Purple Gang members fired upon them with machine guns. Due to this incident, Fletcher and Axler were now known as Detroit’s Public Enemies No. 1 and 2. The gang’s reputation hit its peak in 1928 when they dominated the Detroit area. They were seen as ruthless and violent as Capone’s gang. They were being called the toughest Jewish mob in the nation.

The Purple Gang went through many methods in order to get money. Due to alcohol being banned, the gang’s biggest source of income was bootlegging. The Purple Gang would control liquor coming in from Canada. In order to distribute the alcohol, they created a fake business named “Art Novelty Company.” They would bring the liquor from Canada into their warehouse and repackage them with fake labels. Once they were done, they were transported using two main methods. The first method would be by train/track to other cities. The second method would be using automobile dealers to move cargo in cars to certain drop-off points located in Ohio. They also owned many illegal saloons and gambling houses. They would force these businesses to pay “protection money” so they would not get “attacked.” They also hijacked prizefight films and would force theaters to show them for higher fees. The Purple Gang was involved with gambling and drugs. A favorite of the gang was to fake car accidents and defraud insurance companies.

They would also resort to more violent ways such as kidnapping people and would accept contracts to kill people from other gang members. As time went on, they found a new target. The would target laundry businesses for protection money and made thousands of dollars. This lasted 2 years until the police arrested many members of the Purple Gang but were eventually acquitted of the charges. After that incident they no longer extorted money. Due to this business, the Purple Gang would become even more notorious due to a major attack they would pull off. For many years, the Purple Gang would send Al Capone Canadian whiskey. (2) One day, a shipment of Purple Gang whiskey was highjacked by the Bugs Moran Gang and tried to kill Al Capones No. 1 enforcer, Vincent McGurn. Al Capone went to the underworld and asked the Purple Gang for help in carrying out an attack. The Purple Gang were said to be more than happy to help. Abe Burnstein placed a fake phone call to Bugs Moran offering him a lower price for the Canadian whiskey to set him up.

Once everything was set up, the Purple Gang sent Fletcher, Axler, the Keywell brothers and burke to Chicago. On February 14th, member of the Purple Gang and Capone’s men waited near the meeting point. Some members from both gangs were dressed up like police officers waiting to ambush the Moran gang. Once the Moran gang arrived, Purple Gang lookouts signaled the fake police to ambush the Moran gang and lie them up against the wall. Once they were lined up against the way, they were then machine gunned down. The victims included high end Moran members such as Albert Weinshank, the Gussenberg brothers and Albert Kachellek.

For the Purple Gang being so powerful, their reign of power eventually came to an end for many reasons. As the Purple Gang committed more crimes, police were able to arrest them due to members leaving behind too much evidence. At the same time, a rival gang called the Sicilian mob was starting to take over the area. The Sicilian mob would start killing Purple Gang members whenever they got the chance. They were so effective at taking out hit contracts that the remaining purple gang members would leave the Detroit area. Since this was a time during Prohibition, liquor violations were eventually placed on Fletcher, Axler, Sutton, and Milberg. Phil Keywell killed a young boy because he thought the kid was spying on him. Police caught Phil and used him to get closer to Morris Raider. In 1931, the Purple Gan committed the Coilingwood Manor Massacre due to a Chicago gang interfering with their alcohol profits. Similar to their earlier massacre, they brought the group in to a room for a fake meeting and dunned them down.

Irving Milberg, Ray Bernstein and Harry Keywell were given a life sentence. This arrest crippled the Purple Gang as these three men were high ranking members. In 1938, Louis Flesher was arrested for gang related crimes linked to robbery and arson. The rest of the gang leaders were executed. Irving Sharpiro was kidnapped and shot 4 times in the head in July 1929. Ziggy Selbin was cornered in a hallway and shot to death. Axler and Fletcher were found in the back of Axler’s car dead from gunshots to the head. Henry Shorr disappeared, and it is assumed he was executed. The final blow to the Purple Gang was the death on Harry Millman. Millman tried to keep the gang going by taking control. Attempts were made on his life but failed. It was until Millman was eating at a restaurant when two men walked in shooting him multiple times. It is said that his death was the signal that the Purple Gang was gone. The death of the Purple Gang was due to the Sicilians gang lead by Joseph Zerilli.

The question is why did these people do this? A report by Robert A. Shofar stats that “Poverty? Perhaps. But the Purple gangsters were no more deprived than their peers who grew up on Detroit’s east side. These men were not products of crushing poverty, broken homes, or widespread economic despair. Most of them had been raised in lower middle-class households where the father had a steady, if not well-paying, job.” He also points out that “Detroit’s Jews also encountered economic discrimination in commercial banks, industrial corporations, public utilities, such as the Detroit Edison company, insurance companies, and widespread social discrimination in local clubs, like the Detroit Athletic Club.” “Perhaps some of these tough young Detroit Jews were angry enough at this situation to strike back at society through crime.

More likely, however, these men selected careers in crime because they wanted money, power, recognition, and status, and they wanted it fast. Crime offered them a quick way to realize their dreams.” Another thing this author does look at is Antisemitism for why the gang was started. The reason for this is because he states that “the Detroit of the 1920s was not always a pleasant place for Jews to live. From 1920 to 1922, Henry Ford vilified Jews in the pages of his Dearborn Independent newspaper and in pamphlets entitled ‘The International Jew.’ Ford required his automobile dealers to give a pamphlet to everyone who purchased one of his cars, and millions of Americans bought Fords. And Ford allowed the Ku Klux Klan and the antisemitic Black Legion to proliferate at his Detroit plants.”