An old photograph from the Detroit Times shows various members of the Purple Gang awaiting arraignment on extortion charges as a result of their involvement in the Cleaners & Dyers War of 1925-1928. Left to right: (first row) Abe Bernstein, Irving Milberg, Harry Keywell, Joe Miller; (second row) Ray Burnstein, Simon Axler, Edward Fletcher, Abe Axler, Irving Shapiro. The scene looking east on Collingwood Ave from 12th Street. Sept. 20, 1931, between by Detective Edward Crimmins. There are numerous theories as to the origin of the name Purple Gang. One explanation is that a member of the gang was a boxer who wore purple shorts during his bouts. Others believe that the name came from a Hastings Street merchant who complained that these neighborhood kids were "tainted, off-color," like bad meat, "they're purple." Many dismiss these explanations and think it was merely a journalistic invention that stuck. Detroit Police Headquarters built in 1923 The Purple Gang was to Detroit what Al Capone and his gang were to Chicago. From the late 1920s until their demise in the the early 1930s their members were the leaders of the city's underworld. Raymond Burnstein, Abraham Burnstein's brother. He was one of the chief enforcers of the Purple Gang. From: Detroit's Infamous Purple Gang by Paul R. Kavieff One characteristic of this group that made it quite unique was that it was the only Jewish crime organization to completely control the criminal underworld of a major American city. While other American Jewish gangsters worked within cross-ethnic alliances, the Purple Gang dominated Detroit entirely on its own. Police mug shots of Purple Gang members Sammy Millman, from left, Phillip Keywell and Harry Keywell. From The Detroit News: Like its criminally minded contemporaries, the Purple Gang was engaged in various criminal enterprises including bootlegging, hijackings, gambling operations, narcotics and kidnappings. And plenty of homicides were committed along the way... Detroit's Purple Gang Bootlegging, fraud, and murder by a gang of Detroit Jews By Rabbi David E. Lipman Detroit's Purple Gang was a local Jewish gang. The "Purple Gang," which operated during the 1920's and 1930's, had its beginnings in the Jewish section of Detroit's East Side. The Detroit River was a highway for Canadian liquor during Prohibition. A Detroit News photographer hid in a coal elevator to get this picture of rumrunners loading their cars at the foot of Riopelle in 1929. From The Detroit News: Originally formed around Samuel "Sammie Purple" Cohen, the leadership of this group of petty criminals was initially assumed by the three Bernstein brothers--Abe, Isadore, and Ray---who had emigrated to Detroit from New York. Beginning with shoplifting and extortion, the gang moved up into the distilling and brewing business. Detroit News file photo A crowd quickly formed outside the Collingwood Apartments at 1740 Collingwood in Detroit, where three men were shot by Purple Gangsters in 1931 in one of their most daring crimes yet. ST VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE For several years, however, the Purples managed the prosperous business of supplying Canadian whisky--Old Log Cabin--to the Capone organization in Chicago. Despite its relatively high price, this brand could be sold easily because of its well-known quality. It was the hijacking of a shipment of Purple Gang Old Log Cabin whisky by the Bugs Moran gang of Chicago that led to the St. Valentine's Day Massacre of seven Moran gangsters in 1929. On the morning of Thursday, February 14, 1929, a handful of men — some wearing police uniforms, others wearing suits and ties — entered a garage at 2122 North Clark Street, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. Within minutes the men had lined up five members of Bugs Moran’s North Side Gang (along with two other associates) against an inside wall and swiftly executed. In September 1928, Purple Gang defendants were found not guilty of extortion in the "cleaners and dyers war." This photo shows the prosecutors, defense lawyers and defendants during the trial before Judge Charles Bowles. From The Detroit News: MLIVE Courtesy Photo Law enforcement officers seized this armored Graham-Paige sedan, with bullet-proof glass and revolving license plates, in 1936 in an Albion garage. It was used by Jackson native Louis Fleisher Jr. and other members of the Purple Gang in safe-cracking jobs in Jackson, Albion, Battle Creek, Coldwater, Ionia, Grand Rapids and Lansing. In Detroit bootlegging was huge. The Purples had all kinds of systems for smuggling booze across the river. Boats, sleds, canoes, trucks, you name it. They even had a cable system that they used to pull barrels underwater. In the winter, hundreds of cars just drove across the ice and came back with a load of booze. There are supposedly quite a few cars at the bottom of the river from those times. On Grosse Ile, we looked at one house that supposedly had bullet holes in it somewhere from some bootlegging dispute. Our house was allegedly once used as a blind pig or a distribution point. If you look at the history of this time period you will see that a huge percentage of the Alcohol consumed in the US during prohibition came accross the Detroit river from Canada. It was very big here. It just did not get as violent and did not get as much press attention. Probably because the purple gang had no strong rivals and the feds did not get into gunfights with them like they did with Capone. Windsor's Rum Runner's Tour The Downfall Because they were flamboyant and well-known in the city's night spots, and because many of them liked to dress well, be seen in public, and live in fine houses, a romantic aura surrounded the Purples that distinguished them from other gangs in Detroit. The gang was destroyed from two directions: The police moved against them when gang members left behind too much evidence of their crimes, and a rival Sicilian gang, tired of competing with the Purples, decided to eliminate them. One by one, the Purples were murdered until most of them were either dead or afraid to remain in the Detroit area. So stealthy was the Sicilian move that neither the Purples nor the public realized what was going on. READ MORE ON RK HARRY GROSS: DETROIT PURPLE GANG MEMBER DETROIT MOBSTERS: THE PURPLE GANG DETROIT'S PURPLE GANG: THE ALBION CONNECTION DETROIT RUMRUNNERS, WYANDOTTE AND MORE KENYON'S HIDEOUT DETROIT'S PURPLE GANG THE PURPLE GANG: GRACELAND BALLROOM