The Purple Gang: Organized Crime in Detroit, 1910-1945 (10 page)

Capone
had always had a shaky relationship with Moran's gang, but gave him a
deal to sell Purple Gang supplied whiskey in his part of town. Moran
didn't like the price he was paying for it. When offered a cheaper
supply by another hijacking outfit, Moran decided to terminate his
arrangement with Capone, vis
a
vis
the Purple Gang.

He
peddled the cheap booze for the same price as Old Log Cabin while
pocketing the difference. But customer's began to complain about the
quality of the new whiskey. Moran was forced to go to Capone to beg
for his consignment back, whereupon Capone cheerfully told Moran that
the it was already spoken for—he had been selling off Moran's
supply.

Moran
decided to solve his supply problem by hijacking whatever Old Log
Cabin he needed. The Purple gang shipments were hijacked constantly.
When Old Log Cabin began turning up at Moran-supplied Chicago
speakeasies Capone and the Purples knew they needed a plan.

An
agent gained Moran's trust by selling him cheap loads of "hijacked"
Old Log Cabin from Purple Gang shipments." The day before the
St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the agent baited Moran with a large
shipment. Moran agreed to pick up the whiskey personally at the
Garage. According to one account, it was Purple Gang boss Abe
Bernstein who placed the fatal call.

The
second theory is that the massacre was all about revenge. Moran sent
men to kill one of Capone's principal lieutenants, "Machine Gun"
Jack McGurn. For years the Northside gang had been trying to kill
Capone, and eliminating this top enforcer might make it easier.

The
Gusenberg brothers caught McGurn in a phone booth and blasted away.
Leaving him for dead, they hurried back to Moran with the good news.
Unfortunately for them, McGurn lived.

He
also knew the Gusenbergs represented Bugs' Northside Gang. When he
recovered, he went to Capone to get permission to eliminate the
Northsiders once and for all. With Capone's blessing, McGurn planned
the massacre.

A
hit team was assembled that consisted of Fred Burke; James Ray,
another Egan's Rats gunman; Joseph Lolardo; and two of the Capone
organization's top killers, John Scalise and Albert Anselmi. Burke
and Ray were to wear police uniforms so they wouldn't be recognized
by Moran's boys.

These
gangsters had walked in each other's territories for years but now
they'd come together for one of the most sensational killings in
organized crime's history. The first and only clue to the identities
of the killers was the result of a traffic accident in Michigan at
the end of the same year.

On
the evening of December 14th, 1929 Forrest Kool was driving south on
U.S. 12, headed for St. Joseph, Michigan, when a Hudson coupe heading
in the opposite direction veered into his lane. Kool swerved hard to
avoid a collision, but the Hudson coupe struck him and drove on.

Another
driver who'd witnessed the accident followed the Hudson with Kool on
the running board. Just up the road the men spotted it on the
shoulder. Kool might've kept on going that night had he realized the
driver of the coupe was Egan Rats' gunman Fred "Killer"
Burke.

Burke
had recently bought a hideout in the area, and he and his girlfriend
had been there for several months. He was already wanted for robbery
and murder. Most of the law enforcement agencies in the Midwest were
looking for him.

When
the men approached him, they noticed that he was drunk. He agreed to
go look at the damage he'd done to Kool's car. He offered twenty-five
dollars for the damages, but said he did not have anything smaller
than hundreds. Kool wanted to call the police.

Burke
replied, "Well, if that's what you want it suits me!" He
actually helped straighten out the fender and then got back in his
car. When he pulled onto the road, Kool followed him.

Just
down the road, Burke pulled off again and waved Kool around him, then
followed behind. As they arrived in St. Joseph Burke began blowing
his horn as if to get Kool's attention. Hoping Burke had decided to
settle for damages he pulled over, but this time Burke fled.

As
Kool was describing the accident to an officer, the gangster drove
by. The officer jumped on the running board of Kool's vehicle and ran
down to Burke's at a stop light. He leaped onto the running board and
rode for several blocks until Burke stopped at a light, waited for it
to turn green, and shot him at point blank range.

The
officer collapsed in the street while Burke's car roared away. Burke
wrecked the coupe further down the road and left the car. Police
found his drivers license inside.

A
raid of his hideout produced an arsenal of weapons: two machine guns,
two automatic rifles, a sawed-off shotgun, several revolvers, and
several hundred rounds of ammunition. Inside a bedroom closet was a
valise containing $310,000 in stolen negotiable securities. Burke,
meanwhile, had disappeared.

Headlines
screamed Burke's Detroit underworld background and his role in the
Milaflores Apartment Massacre in March of 1927. His membership in
Joseph "Red" O'Riordan's Irish gang of violent kidnappers
had made him famous years earlier, now he was suspected of the St.
Valentine's Day Massacre.

The
new science of Ballistics had just gained credence by the time of the
massacre. Major Calvin Goddard had proven that every firearm leaves a
distinctive series of marks on the bullet as it passes through the
barrel. No two weapons mark ammunition in the same pattern.

Each
Valentine killer had provided a set of uniquely different mechanical
fingerprints. The machine guns in Burke's hideaway were sent to
Goddard's Chicago laboratory where he compared the bullets and shells
to those collected at the scene of the massacre. The scientist
concluded that bullets fired from one of the guns matched markings in
the bodies of the victims. On March 4th, 1929 the Chicago Police
Department publicly named the participant's in the St. Valentine's
Day Massacre as Burke, James Ray, and Joseph Lolardo: Jack McGurn's
assembled team of hitmen. After receiving a life sentence, Burke
arrived at Marquette Prison on April 28th, 1931 where he remained a
model prisoner until his death from a heart attack in 1940. The
Detroit police never arrested the Purples for
their
role in the massacre. Their cooperation with Capone was completely
ignored.

By
the late twenties the Purple Gang had reached the zenith of its
power. They were asked to attend the first national underworld
conference initiated by the notorious New York mob. This meeting of
gang bosses from major cities of the U.S. which took place in
Atlantic City, it was rumored to have been organized by Charles
"Lucky" Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and Johnny Torrio, rising
stars in the New York underworld.

Torrio
was a semi-retired boss who'd passed the mantle of leadership in
Chicago on to Al Capone. At the conference were Capone and his
business manager Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik, as well as
bosses representing Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Kansas City, and
Detroit.

The
purpose of the conference was to put an end to unnecessary violence
escalating in the underworld over territorial disputes, hijacking and
bidding for liquor shipments. The frequency of murders on crowded
city streets had ignited public outcry for police action. Outraged
citizens forced authorities' hands, which resulted in loss of revenue
for organized crime.

The
conference was the birth of organized crime. A national federation of
underworld gangs was formed whose leaders would meet to settle
disputes between mobs. Each group was allowed to operate as it saw
fit within its territory without interference from other
gangs.

Their
plan was to gain a national monopoly on the liquor trade. Proceeds
from their prohibition profits would be put into distilleries and
breweries should liquor become legal. The first national wire service
was even established as a result of this conference.

For
their contibution to the cause, the Purple Gang was extremely good at
persuading recalcitrant blind pig operators into stocking the liquor
and beer they sold. Even if the product was poor the incentive to buy
it was good, as the mobsters kept their arguments in their shoulder
holsters. Born in protection and hijacking rackets the Purples'
talents extended to smuggling and transporting whiskey themselves.

The
Purple Gang began taking over and buying into blind pigs and cabarets
all over Detroit. Several Purple gangsters could merely walk into a
blind pig and demand a cut of the day's profits. If they were
crossed, the place would be shot up.

By
1929 they either controlled or had a cut of most of the Detroit area
blind pig industry. Having conquered independent business, the gang
took control of the many docks and boat slips along the Detroit
riverfront. A cut was demanded from the profits of Canadian whiskey
brought into port.

Rumrunners
who failed to pay, lost their cargoes and their lives. Tribute was
paid in cases of whiskey. Dealing with liquor meant dealing with the
mob, and the the mob was all about tribute for the right to operate.

Businessmen
through and through, the gang developed a system by which they made
150% profit on every freely acquired bottle. The Purple Gang's
distributors told blind pigs that they would sell them the whiskey at
cost. Because they were selling the whiskey at cost, the distributor
would explain, they required a share of the blind pig's profits,
neglecting to mention that the whiskey had been acquired free for
protection or hijacked from the pier.

Distributing
whiskey this way was business genius because it gave the Purples
financial leverage over the clubs. They gained controlling interest
in many of the city's best cabarets and blind pigs. Not only were
they taking a cut, but the whiskey was
being
cut
and sold locally or shipped to the New York and Chicago mobs.

Cutting
whiskey produced two and a half bottles for every one purchased or
hijacked. The whiskey cutting process involved diluting the actual
product with water and artificial flavoring then rebottling it. Bogus
labels and tax stamps were affixed to the new bottles so they looked
like the genuine article.

By
the late twenties illegal liquor profits exceeded $215,000,000
annually, second only to automobile manufacturing. The liquid gold
flowing into Detroit began to attract the attention of Al Capone. He
traveled to Detroit personally to investigate the possibilities of
establishing a Chicago foothold there.

But
at the conference Capone was rebuked by the gang, who insisted "That
is our river!" Capone instead arranged for them to supply him
Canadian whiskey. He shrewdly made the Purples his liquor agents
rather than going to war with them.

How
the Mighty Fall

The
Purples may have wielded control over the famous Al Capone, but they
were facing trouble with the law and within their own gang. In 1929,
Mabel Wildebrandt, Attorney General of Prohibition Enforcement,
issued a directive to destroy the Purple Gang. It was an enormous
task, but the Federal government had allocated funds for fighting
Prohibition and ignited interest in the rumrunning taking place on
the Detroit River.

Prohibition
agents set their sights on the Purple Gang. "Knock offs" or
federal confiscation of whiskey,
became
more frequent. Payoffs had only been made to local officials, so
between March and May of 1929, the Purples lost more than $90,000
worth of liquor to Federal agents.

The
crackdown increased tensions on the streets. On the morning of May
2nd, two customs officers parked by the river, acting on a tip that a
large shipment was due at the 24th Street pier. The two officers
approached just as the first of three rumrunners' boats landed and
its occupants unloaded cases into trucks. The first boat was tied to
the pier while the others remained anchored in the river. The agents
crept out of the patrol car, pistols drawn. As soon as the runners
spotted the agents they opened fire and officers, outnumbered,
retreated and called for reinforcements. The gangsters continued
loading their trucks until two carloads of agents pulled up. As
officers approached the dock a freight train cut them off, but they
climbed between cars and started shooting. One hundred rounds were
exchanged.