The Purple Gang: Organized Crime in Detroit, 1910-1945 (13 page)

The
summer of 1930 marked the beginning of significant changes in Detroit
society. The Purple Gang suffered the first successful conviction of
leaders in a murder case. It seemed that an organization too wild to
be civilized by society, was not able to survive itself.

The
city also witnessed the beginning of the Great Depression and all of
its devastation. No jobs and no money meant the city was ruled by the
only power left, that of organized crime.

Chapter
8

Bloody
July

"We
have eleven murders in 12 days
—
speaking
of crime
—
and
Mr. Bowles says, 'Scientists employ parasites to destroy one another.
Maybe this is an act of Providence in the killings of these
gangsters.' Bullets are not distinctive. Neither is the law when it
comes to defining the occupations of those who shall be accused of
murder."

—
Gerald
Buckley Radio Commentator, July 21, 1930

1930
would prove to be an eventful year for Detroit as well as for the
nation. Charles Bowles took office as new mayor in an administration
that would end in recall within six months. For the first time a
Purple gangster would be convicted of murder.

The
manufacturing centers of the midwestern U.S. were feeling the effects
of the stock market crash. As demand for production decreased,
industrial workers found themselves without a job.

The
City of Detroit was paying out almost two million dollars a month to
the growing army of the unemployed. The media reported that the worst
was over, while the working class feared the future. The city was in
the midst of the worst crime wave in it's history.

The
Fish Market Murders of 1930, in which representatives of the Eastside
and Westside mobs were brutally slain, started a major underworld war
that moved out into the streets. Shoot-outs between rival gunmen
caught Detroit residents in the crossfire. Between May 31st and July
23rd, more than fourteen men died.

At
least eleven were murdered in the first 12 days of the month. The
local newspapers began referring to the carnage as "Bloody
July."

While
the Mafia war raged, the Purple Gang was tightening control over the
brewing business.

The
Purples now controlled most of the plants in the city, as cutting
genuine whiskey proved much cheaper than producing bootleg hooch. By
1928, 150 large scale cutting plants were estimated to be operating
in Detroit. Many ran 24 hours a day to supply large and constant
demand.

Once
the operation was perfected, one case could be turned into three or
four cases of cut product. By the late twenties the Prohibition
Director of Minnesota declared that out of 350,000 gallons of rye,
bourbon, and scotch confiscated by his agents over a two year period,
less than three gallons was genuine. With half the city out of work,
the watered down whiskey probably tasted just fine.

The
cutting process was simple chemistry. Pure whiskey was poured into
vats and hot water added. After cooling down, alcohol was added to
boost the proof to between 85 and 100. Caramel was then mixed in to
give the liquid a whiskey color.

Oil
of rye was often used for the flavor of real whiskey. As a finishing
touch, a little fusel oil or glycerin was added to give the whiskey a
'bead'—a thin layer of water on the surface of good whiskey.
Many thought beading could only be acquired through aging. The
location of cutting plants was a carefully guarded secret to prevent
hijacking, police shakedowns and federal raids. The accidental
discovery of
a
Purple
Gang cutting plant in July of 1930 resulted in the unnecessary
killing of a seventeen-year-old black youth and the first successful
murder prosecution of a Purple gangster.

Arthur
Mixon was driving a horse-drawn wagon that hot July night in
Detroit's lower eastside, peddling ice off the back of the wagon with
friends. Suddenly Mixon stopped. He climbed down from the wagon and
peered underneath the doors of an old barn. According to one account,
his ball had rolled under the barn doors. He had no idea that the
building was a Purple Gang cutting plant. An associate of the gang
noticed Mixon looking into the barn, and informed Phil Keywell.

In
the meantime, Mixon and his friends got back into the wagon and drove
to the corner of Hendrie and Hastings Streets. Mixon went into a
bakery while the others waited outside. While Mixon was inside, six
Purples approached the kids and demanded to know what business they
had at the barn.

An
argument ensued just as Mixon walked out. When the Purples asked
Mixon what he was doing, he replied with a sarcastic remark. An
accompanying gangster turned to Phil Keywell and said, "Put him
on the spot."

Keywell
pulled a revolver and shot Mixon. The
youngster
staggered for about twenty-five feet before collapsing in the street.
The thugs ran back to the alley towards the cutting plant, but the
police had surrounded the block.

Mixon
was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Officers had stopped
Phil Keywell but released him when detectives ran up and called them
away, claiming that a black man was responsible for the shooting.
Keywell would later be identified by four wit nesses as the man who
killed Mixon.

Many
years later another witness to the murder claimed that Mixon's life
could have been saved; that the police ignored him while he bled to
death, pausing to take depositions before calling an ambulance.

On
September 20th, 1930, $2000 bail money was mysteriously provided for
witnesses in protective custody at police headquarters. Both
witnesses were friends of Arthur Mixon, who had positively identified
Keywell. Wayne County Prosecutor Duncan C. McCrea begged that the
youngsters be re-arrested.

The
bondsmen claimed they were acting on behalf of a sister of the boys.
But when detectives checked their story, they found that the family
knew nothing about bailing the youngsters out—under the
circumstances, the family had preferred the safety of police custody.
Police believed the Purple Gang had put up the bail in order to have
the boys released so they could be murdered.

On
September 23rd, Phil Keywell was picked out of a prisoner line-up by
a friend of Arthur Mixon. The Arthur Mixon Murder Trial opened before
Judge Thomas M. Cotter on October 6, 1930. Four neighborhood
associates of Phil Keywell were sworn in as witnesses for the
defense.

All
defense witnesses were later charged with perjury, but only Josef
Kassof, one of the boys walking by the scene of the murder, was ever
tried. Kassof was found not guilty on a motion from the prosecutor.

The
Mixon case was given to the jury on October 8th, 1930. After
deliberating more than 25 hours, Judge Cotter dismissed the jury and
reassigned the case. It's easy to see how organized crime could
simply wear out the law to avoid conviction. But finally justice
prevailed when a new jury came in with a first degree murder
conviction after an hour and a half.

Philip
Keywell had the distinction of being the first Purple ever convicted
on a murder charge. He stood before Judge Thomas Cotter and was
sentenced to life imprisonment. When asked by Cotter if he had
anything to say, Keywell replied, "1 am not guilty."

The
Purple Gang's paper thin alibis were finally beginning to wear
through. In the past, when police tried to get depositions from the
victims of the holdup, most not only refused to admit that they were
robbed but denied that a holdup had even taken place. Once Phil
actually admitted his part in the heist but refused to name his
accomplices and the only witness who agreed to testify wouldn't
identify him.

Many
witnesses to crimes would not testify against a reputed Purple
gangster in the early twenties. But by 1930, despite an appeal,
Philip Keywell's murder conviction was reviewed by the Michigan
Supreme Court, and upheld. The unchecked criminal power of the
twenties was beginning to unravel.

Organized
Crime Out of Control

As
crime intensified during the summer of 1930, and
mob
killings were so publicly executed that innocent bystanders were
killed in crossfire, the people demanded answers. Two public killings
at the LaSalle hotel sparked a media witch hunt.

It
started with the Bowles administration. Mayor Bowles had been a Judge
before running for the mayoral office in 1929. When he became mayor
he appointed attorney Harold Emmons Police Commissioner, and homicide
squad inspector Patrick O'Grady Superintendent of Police. With these
men, Bowles promised, the city would be cleaned up. But as murder
rates increased many citizens came to view the Bowles administration
as nothing more than a tool of the underworld.

To
make matters worse, Mayor Bowles complained of being misquoted by the
local press and issued orders to all subordinates to refuse
interviews. Political observers theorized that it was this alienation
of the press that led to his recall.

The
city that distrusted its own mayor had spiraled out of control. The
LaSalle Hotel was host to the fateful attacks that exemplified
Detroit's blatant mob violence. It's difficult to imagine today that
in 1930, one could sit in a hotel lobby and witness mob executions.

On
July 3rd, three gangsters were sitting in a parked car outside the
hotel engaged in casual conversation. As the last of rush hour
traffic crawled towards home, a six foot, dark complexioned man in a
Panama hat strode out of the hotel. He pulled a pistol out of his
jacket and began firing into the open window of the car.

George
Collins was in the passenger seat. The first bullet hit his chest at
point blank range. The gunman methodically turned his pistol on the
driver, William
Cannon,
who was frantically working at the steering wheel to maneuver out of
the tight parking space. As he threw open the door to run, a slug
tore through his neck and he collapsed into the street in a pool of
his own blood.

The
man in the back seat, Mike Stitzel, played dead but the ruse didn't
work. The gunman turned his pistol on Stitzel's body and fired
several rounds before casually replacing it in a shoulder holster and
disappearing into the hotel crowd.

William
Cannon and George Collins were minor Chicago gangsters who had been
forced out of the city. They were known by Chicago police as small
time heist artists and hijackers who attempted to muscle in on a beer
syndicate that supplied the suburbs south of Chicago. The syndicate
was affiliated with Capone, and the Capone mob had given the two
thugs a choice:
leave
or die.

Two
gold badges inscribed "Special Police" were found in the
pockets of Cannon and Collins. Police figured the men were presenting
themselves as law officers to speakeasies and then robbing them. Mike
Stitzel had once been a doorman at a local gambling house and was
probably a spotter for the two gunmen.

The
men were no strangers to police. Cannon had a record of fifteen
arrests in Detroit and Chicago, including impersonating an officer.
George Collins had also been arrested fifteen times in Indiana,
Illinois, and Michigan. Mike Stitzel was a small time Detroit
gangster with twelve arrests on minor charges and no
convictions.

Stitzel
had survived, and admitted to detectives that he had known the pair
for several years. They were using police badges to knock over
speakeasies. Police
believed
that their hijacking of underworld operators was the reason for their
murders and that Stitzel just happened to be at the wrong place at
the wrong time. It would be nearly a year before a Collins/Cannon
murder indictment. The actual killer was identified as Leonard "Black
Leo" Cellura. But Cellura had vanished. On July 28, 1936,
Leonard "Black Leo" Cellura casually walked into the
Homicide Squad Room at Detroit police headquarters and turned himself
in. He had been a fugitive for more than six years. Cellura admitted
shooting Collins and Cannon to death but claimed self-defense.