X-Nico

6 unusual facts about Purple Gang


Cleveland crime family

Licavoli, worked for the infamous Purple Gang in Detroit during the Prohibition, and then moved to Cleveland, where he gradually rose up the ranks of the city's underworld.

History of the Jews in Metro Detroit

In the 1920s and early 1930s, during the Prohibition Era, the Jewish gang Purple Gang operated alcohol smuggling and committed acts of violence in Detroit.

James McLain

McLain took a run-in with a few Purple Gang members, They were fighting with him telling him that it was a Jewish area.

Purple Gang

Purple People Eaters, defensive line of the Minnesota Vikings from the late 1960s to the late 1970s

East Harlem Purple Gang, Italian American gang of drug dealers and hitmen

The Purple Gang, Jewish American bootleggers and hijackers in Detroit during the 1920s


Andrea Leeds

The Howards also owned the Howard Manor in Palm Springs, a hotel originally built as the "Colonial House" by Las Vegas casino owner and Purple Gang member Al Wertheimer.

Harry Keywell

Harry Keywell, (December 8, 1910 - August 30, 1997), was a convicted member of Detroit's infamous Purple Gang, which terrorized the city of Detroit during Prohibition.


see also

East Harlem Purple Gang

In Carlito's Way the Purple Gang was referred to as the 'Pleasant Avenue Crew'.

Joseph Zerilli

Working as a laborer with the Detroit Gas Company, Zerilli founded the Purple Gang with William Joseph "Bugs Bill" Bernstein, Abe Bernstein, Harry Fleisher, and Louis Fleisher at the onset of Prohibition.