The Purple Gang: Organized Crime in Detroit, 1910-1945 (16 page)

Police
searched everyone entering the courtroom. The city fire marshall
limited the crowd of courtroom spectators to 500. The state planned
to call a phenomenal 52 witnesses. It took four full days to pick the
jury.

Over
one hundred prospects were examined by attorneys. Judge Van Zile
ordered the jury locked up after the selection process. The case
would be tried by Wayne County Prosecutor Harry Toy and Assistant
Prosecutor Miles Cullehan. Edward Kennedy Jr. and Rodney Baxter were
to appear for the defense.

The
day before the trial, the assistant prosecutor received a report that
Purple Gang protected handbooks in the city were being squeezed for
an extra two dollars a day to provide money for a defense fund.
Detectives were ordered to bring in any bookmaker who would admit to
being approached. None could be found.

On
November 2, 1931 testimony in the Collingwood Massacre trial began.
From the witness stand,
Solly
Levine recited the events of his life, giving a brief biography and
explaining how he had gotten involved with the underworld. He thought
the meeting at the Collingwood Manor Apartments had been called to
settle the alcohol debt between Ray Bernstein and his three partners,
and claimed that he had no idea that he was taking the three men to
their deaths.

Levine
testified from 10:30 am to 3:00 pm, guarded by ten detectives. Four
officers remained near Levine at all times while he was testifying.
Levine believed that he would be killed right on the stand.

Even
more was revealed the second day of the trial. The caretaker across
the alley from the Collingwood Manor Apartments testified for the
State. Harry McDonald had been standing in his kitchen when his
attention was attracted to Bernstein's car. He related how the motor
racing and the horn blowing were followed by a volley of shots.

He
also saw the four men run out of the building. When asked by the
prosecution if he could identify the driver, McDonald walked over to
Ray Bernstein and put his hand on Bernstein's shoulder. McDonald even
placed the time of the incident.

The
defense continued to concentrate on what they called Sol Levine's
lack of credibility. The jury was taken to the scene of the slayings.
The defendants, handcuffed to each other, stood by and watched while
police armed with Thompson submachine guns guarded the alley.

At
Apartment 211 the positions in which the bodies were found and bullet
fragments from the shootings were presented as evidence. The jurors
were taken to and from the apartment in a heavily guarded city bus
followed by a patrol wagon carrying the defendants. Five carloads of
detectives brought up the rear.

Witness
after witness took the stand, claiming sightings of the getaway car,
although at least one perjured earlier testimony. Before giving the
case to the jury, the State made an effort to prove that Ray
Bernstein was the man who had posed as James Regis when he rented
Apartment 211 the previous August.

The
whole case was circumstantial, dependent upon whether Levine's
testimony was believable. The only argument the defense had was that
Levine himself was actually involved in the murder plot.

A
verdict in the Collingwood Manor Massacre case was returned in one
hour and 37 minutes. All three defendants were found guilty of first
degree murder. Pandemonium erupted in the courtroom, while relatives
and friends of the defendants became hysterical.

Chief
of Detectives James E. McCarty later commented to the press, "This
conviction is the greatest accomplishment ... in years. Not only does
it break the back of the Purple Gang but it serves notice on other
mobs that murder doesn't go anymore in Detroit."

The
three convicted Purples were sentenced to life in Marquette Prison
without parole. This was the first time that Bernstein or Keywell had
ever faced a jury on a murder charge.

The
Collingwood Manor Massacre turned Detroit around. There was a major
law enforcement crackdown in its aftermath. As
a
result,
gangsters turned to entrepreneurs.

"One-Armed"
Mike Gelfand developed a novel idea. In August of 1931 Gelfand's
sister Lillian had been given eighty acres of land in Michigan. Here,
Gelfand planned to build a remote haven to be used by Detroit
gangsters on the lam. Gelfand's sister sold him the property for one
dollar.

He
and his wife moved to the area and had plans drawn up for a
restaurant and dancing pavilion to cater to local residents while
providing a safe house for gangster fugitives. It would become known
as the Famous Graceland Ballroom.

During
its heyday in the mid-thirties, the resort boasted a runway for small
aircraft, tourist cabins, and three tunnels, used by fugitives to
escape into the nearby woods. The place was visited by many notorious
Purple gangsters, as well as underworld characters from all over the
Midwest.

The
same week that the Collingwood Massacre shocked the citizens of
Detroit, the State's new Public Enemy Law became effective. The main
thrust of the law was to attack underworld mobs like the Purple Gang
by making it a crime to be associated with any organization which
engaged in an illegal occupation or business. Officially known as the
Disorderly Persons Act, State legislators were hopeful that the new
law would drive hoodlums out of Michigan.

For
political corruption, it imposed fines and jail sentences on bondsmen
and criminal attorneys who loitered around police stations, court
buildings, hospitals, etc., soliciting criminals. For the actual
gangsters, all the State required was proof of an individual's
reputation. Any person convicted would be guilty of a misdemeanor and
fined $100 or 90 days in jail, a second conviction could bring a $100
fine and six months in jail, and a third conviction could mean a fine
and two years in prison.

The
first local characters to be tried under the law were Purples picked
up in a dragnet following the Collingwood Massacre. Charles "The
Professor" Auerbach, in whose home Keywell and Bernstein were
arrested,
was held as a public enemy along with Abe Axler and Eddie Fletcher.
In the warrants Axler and Fletcher were charged with "having
joined with other gangsters and confederated into an illegal group
commonly known by the name Purple Gang, conducting illegal business
..."

Auerbach
was charged with "having in his possession unregistered guns and
tear gas bombs for the purpose of unlawfully distributing them."
The three men were arraigned and pleaded not guilty, requesting a
jury trial. They were released on bonds of $500 each.

Abe
Axler's trial opened on October 5, 1931—the first ever under
the Public Enemy Law—with a three hour argument between defense
attorney Edward Kennedy Jr., and County Prosecutor George S.
Fitzgerald. Kennedy argued that any actions of Axler before the law
became effective were out of bounds.

The
State attempted to prove the gangster's reputation with police
testimony, his criminal record and press notices. The second day of
the trial was spent arguing the constitutionality of the new law.
Twice Kennedy made a motion for a mistrial.

After
deliberating for 3 hours and 37 minutes, the jury brought in a "not
guilty" verdict. Undeterred by the results of the Axler trial,
Fitzgerald declared that he would prosecute Fletcher, Auerbach, and
other Purple gangsters held on similar charges.

Cases
against Eddie Fletcher, Harry Millman, and Morris Raider were later
dismissed because the State had had no criminal charges against these
men since September 18, 1931 and they could not be tried for crimes
committed before the Act took effect. But it was already too late for
the original Purple gang, they were suffering the final blows.

In
late 1931 the so-called Junior Purple Gang was to make its debut in
the Detroit underworld. This was a group several years younger than
the Purple Gang. But only one, a flashy, clever wise guy named Myron
"Mikey" Selik, would approach the notoriety of some of the
original Purple gangsters.

On
October 8, 1931, Selik, Irving Feldman, Sollie Isaacs, and Robert
Goldstein held up a handbook located in the basement of a restaurant.
The four casually walked into the building and went to the basement
as if to place a bet. About thirty men were present when Selik,
Isaacs, and Goldstein produced revolvers and ordered the occupants to
line up facing the wall. Goldstein searched the victims while the
others kept them covered. The bandits collected the grand total of
$225 worth of loot including some jewelry and several pistols. One
man who had escaped the robbery in the confusion ran down Monroe
Street yelling "stick up!"

His
plea for help attracted the attention of a nearby patrolman who
accompanied the man back to the restaurant. The chef showed the
police officer the stairway to the basement handbook. When the
patrolman arrived on the scene, he found the robbery in progress. The
officer ordered the bandits to drop their guns, which the
inexperienced outlaws quickly did. Upon arresting the men, pistols
were found in all of their pockets.

Selik
alone had three guns in his overcoat and pants. He was sentenced to
six to twelve years in the Michigan State Reformatory and would spend
most of the next 30 years in and out of State prisons.

Unlike
the first wave of Purples, Selik was born into an affluent home. His
father owned a successful
machine
shop which prospered during World War I. His parents split in the
early twenties, the result of his father's infidelity and gambling.

Selik
spent most of his time on the street, left school in the tenth grade,
and drifted from one job to another. He began gambling and hanging
around poolrooms frequented by Purple members. Selik admired the now
aging gangsters and began to emulate them in dress and behavior.

He
later told a prison social worker that "only suckers work."
But the beginning of a younger Purple Gang was the era of decline for
the real thing. They saw the end of their reign with the murder of
Milford Jones.

For
nearly fifteen years Milford Jones terrorized the midwestern
underworld. As a youngster Jones had been a gunman for the ruthless
Egan's Rats Mob. In later years he gained notoriety as a freelance
killer, bank robber, and kidnapper; one who'd participated in a
number of kidnapping plots with Purple gangsters. He based his
reputation as a professional killer on the fact that he'd run many
Sicilian and Italian mobsters out of St. Louis, or killed those who
refused to leave. By 1930 many former St. Louis gangsters were living
in the Detroit, and they feared and hated Jones. At four A.M. on June
15th, 1932, Jones stepped up to the bar of the glamourous Stork Club.
Four well dressed men stood quietly at the other end. Jones greeted
the men and turned to order a drink. In the mirror, Jones watched
helplessly as the men pulled pistols.

Realizing
that he was about to be "hit," Jones jerked his jacket up
over his head and made a plea for mercy, barely audible above the
roar of pistols. Jones collapsed in a heap at the bar, his legs
tangled in its rail.

The
police were not notified for more than three hours. Gunfire had
caused the patrons and the band to panic. Unfinished meals were on
the tables and instruments thrown to the floor as the crowd dashed
for the door.

The
only person in the place when police arrived was the owner, Jack
Green. He'd placed the call to Police Headquarters by telling them he
had a dead man in his club.

At
the time of his death, Milford Jones was operating a cabaret in St.
Louis. He was reported to have been supplying his club through his
long time connections with the Purple Gang. The rumor was that Jones
was in Detroit on a contract with Irish gangsters to drive Thomas
"Yonny" Licavoli out of Ohio for strong-arming competing
mobsters out of bootlegging and other lucrative rackets.

Jones
had a fearsome reputation. It was even reported that he had called
Licavoli when he arrived in Detroit and said, "Get your mob out
of Toledo or I'll come down there and get you out."

In
Jones, the Purple Gang had had an important underworld ally. The loss
of any freelance strong arm men weakened the foundation of the
skeleton crew that made up the actual Purple Gang. Without outside
muscle, they were vulnerable to those who wanted to topple the former
underworld power.