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1 to moonstiners and controlled alley | alcohol prices in Detroit. it fi- jnanced moopeliners- bought blind | Plas and night clubs, and the Oak- | ‘land Sugar House gang became a, fang within a gang, allied by birth, || friendship, and by Ulcgitimate entere lp priscs. The gang had nation-wide alii- ances, It shinped out liquor to New York and Chicago. . These alliances were disclosed in February, 1925, when three Purples were identified as having partici pated in Chicago's most violent fang : cpisode, iis so- ~calied bt. Valentine's Day Miissacre. © IDENTIFIED IN XIASSACRE Seven membcrs of the Bugs Moran gang had been executed by underworld machine gunners dis- guised as Chicago policemen.’ . The a -Keywells and Fletcher were es] rows SLAIN IN CAR fied by witnesses as having rented and occupied a room across from th garage in which the killings wore committed. The gang flourlshed through the prehibition “era and almost muir- aculously maintained a& precarious peace with tne Licniou-Cellura- Piz~ gino East Side gang of liquor run ners. In September, the so-cailed Goellingwood maseccre broke * the mob’s power at a time when its ieaders thought it was strong cnoush to wipe out the Little Navy Gang one bald stroke. . This gang of invading hoodluns ‘from. Chicago, who made Third ’ lsureet their headquarters, challenged the Purples’ power. The Little Navy mob hijacked the Purple, liquor warellouse, shot its alky cook-. ers and beat up some of its straw | besses, Iazy Sutker, Nigger oe Lebkow its and Hymie Paul were its leaders, 'They were shot to death in a Ccl- ‘Winkwwood avenue apa.'t: ‘nent on Sept. 16,4193. art | 1 ! | vA “laadoye fat “ wo.months later tree leaders o ind Purple Gang, fay Bernstein. Miiberg and ‘Harry Keywell went to Marquette Branch Prison for, life, convicted,o7, this. crime. The Purple mob never Tecovered from this blow , by law and enforcement, directed by Harry 5. Toy, then prosecutor, DECLINES TO A WHISPER The repeal of prohibition ended the underworid's pewer and its most lucrative profits. Leaders of the! mob pulled away, now rich. Some | Telired; Sofie went into legitimate | pursuits, In the gang itself, there developed a dog fight for leadership, and | slowly the pang declined to only a _whisper of its former power. Meanwhile, quar happened to its tough guys? Shapero had been a gorilla’ for £ rf d 7 THE DETROLT Niue Novenber 28, 1937. the gang. . He wns taker for a ride and kijled tn 1929. Frang Klayman, Vepecialist in -retenzp trucks Jaden with automobile accessories, dled in the Ohio State Penitentiary in 1930. Jack (Ziggie) Selbin, pal of many urples, was shot to death in April, (1929, when gunmen cornered him jin a blind pig doorway on Twelfth Street. Phillip Keywell was sentenced + the Southern Prison of Michigan in; 1930 for life fur wantonly taking the | i life of a Nezro youth who waé! caught snooping sareund a Purple alcohol-cutting plant. Maurice Raider, another gangster whigh in Purple councils, went to the isame prison for life for another slaying. . Eari Pasman was shet and killed by enemy gunmen in July, 1931, on | akland avenie. —_——— + Fletcher and Axler held hands in| the back seat of Axler’s automobile: iin November, 1933, when they were killed on Quarton road near Tele-~ graph road, for trying to seize the gang leadership. Shorr, for many ycars the gang Ibrains, Gisappesred in December, } 1935, after meeting Ficisher in a Twelfth street restaurant. Fleishel's automoovlie later was found with bloodstains on ‘the cushions, But | ‘Shorr never was seen again, The police decided Siorr had been | ;taken for a ride. Bus his body’ | [never was found. Fleisher had an! /nirtig ght alibi. { In 1932, | Carmoay, head of the police identi- fication bureau, drew up a confi-; dential prospectus of the gang. Hei disclosed’ that there were 50 mem-: Ten were serving penitentiary seven were wanfed for were: bere. sentencves, murder and kidraping, four’ | dead and 28 were at large and being. Inspector Charles ©.} ACCUSER VAMISnS5 Fleisher had been accused of peel ing ‘one’ of the four ‘triggermen in! the Collingwood massacre. He beat the charge when a State's witness chenged his story and gave him a clean bill, The witness then dis-: appeared. Police still wonder ‘where Soliy' Levi the missing witness, is. Fle her: is in Alcartraz prison, erving an elght-year seatence for 5 Sowa y, far seclence ior conspiring to “violate the internal revenue law by running #0 $159, 000, alley distillery. * The distillery. was raided in April, 1925, and Fleisher, and three other Purples, Sam Fleisher, & relative and Joseph Stein were «onvicted: in Federal Court in the spring of 193) Fleisher had had a charmed hie in the underworld. Once a police- man shot hit in the band. ‘He escaped death a score of times. He; hed been arrested 39 tims. but | never eanticted far a maijar oflense | though he had seer. chargéd with all the Nigh erimes. aa ‘With Fleist.ci's departure, Mull- man took up the shaky eminerce as Detroit No. 1 Tough Guy. And then other gangsters cut Millman aown! 1O Gs size, ar ‘watched by the police,. ' Four years later Fleisher an mere handful of the Purpies were left, ‘The others were dead, same ach,.a scholar who: became the armament agent for the raoh, were ‘fortunate to die of natural causes. 'Others were in jail, A faw smart leaders-had retired from the crimi- nal scene. a like Charlie (the Professor) Ader-|