The Purple Gang: Organized Crime in Detroit, 1910-1945 (22 page)

Lou
Fleisher turned himself in before the warrants were put into effect.
On September 14, 1936, he arrived in Jackson with his wife. After
talking to a local attorney he went to the offices of the Jackson
Chief of Police where the Assistant Prosecutor tried to cut a deal.
Fleisher only told him, "1 have nothing to say. I would rather
be in jail than in a coffin." Fleisher was turned over to
Calhoun County authorities on the Albion warrants. He was arraigned
on the stolen car charge and for possession of burglar tools. The
charges were reduced to possession of burglar tools, and he was
released on bail. Fleisher then returned to Detroit. Fleisher was
scheduled to appear in Battle Creek Circuit Court. He failed to
appear and his $5,000 bond was forfeited.

With
the heat on Lou Fleisher in the heist racket, he turned to other
endeavors after moving back to Detroit. He soon became involved in an
old familiar sideline, labor racketeering. Fleisher joined forces
with a Purple Gang labor racketeer named Jack Ekelman. In 1933
Ekelman was instrumental in organizing the Jewish Barbers Association
in northwest Detroit. He was the business manager for this labor
organization but was dissatisfied with his income. At that time there
was a legitimate union organization known as the Master Barbers
Association. This union actually worked for the good of all its
members to provide benefits. Ekelman was greedy. He wanted control of
the Association so he began to use his goon squad to try to muscle in
on barber shops which belonged to the Master Barbers.

He
soon realized that the job was too big for his organization. Ekelman
went to see a local Mafia capo known as "Scarface" Joe
Bommarito, who often worked with Purple gangsters in racket schemes.
Ekelman offered Bommarito a business deal.

He
explained that there was a lot of money to be made for the both of
them if Bommarito would help Ekelman muscle into the Master Barbers
Association, particularly in the downtown Detroit area shops. They
agreed that once the takeover was accomplished, Ekelman would be
installed as the head of the union. Both Ekelman and Bommarito would
then share equally in a percentage of the members' monthly dues.

On
the night of the next meeting of the Master Barbers Association, Jack
Ekelman strutted in accompanied by Joe Bommarito and his henchmen,
who displayed drawn revolvers and pistols. Bommarito ordered everyone
in the place to be silent. Ekelman then told the chairman of the
association that he was taking over. He explained that the Master
Barbers Association and the Jewish Barbers Association would be
combined into one. The union officers promptly handed everything over
to Ekelman: all moneys in the treasury, books, records, and meeting
minutes. Ekelman then explained that from then on every Detroit
barber shop and anyone employed by the owners of these shops must
belong and pay dues directly to him and not to the American
Federation of Labor.

The
old Master Barbers Association was an affiliate of the A.F.L. The
officers were ordered to remove their A.F.L. charter from the union
offices, and informed that the new association would be an
independent union, not associated with the A.F.L.

News
of the racketeer takeover quickly reached Frank X. Martell, President
of the Detroit Federation of Labor. Martell called an emergency
meeting and told the members not to allow themselves to be forced
into Ekelman's union. This was easier said than done. Joe Bommarito
and his men went to work smashing windows, throwing stench bombs, and
bombing the shops of any barbers who did not belong to their union.
This campaign of terrorism lasted for several months. By the time it
ended, almost every barber
shop
in the city was a member of the Master Barbers Association. Ekelman
quickly became a powerful labor leader and joined with other labor
organizations to create a greater power base. As Ekelman's power
grew, he demanded a larger income from the Master Barbers union. By
that time Ekelman's end was already $3,000 a month, a tidy sum for
the Depression era. Once things settled down and Ekelman decided he
was secure in his position, he decided that he no longer needed Joe
Bommarito as a partner. He stopped paying Bommarito his share.

Bommarito,
who was also a union official, had no intentions of bowing out.
Ekelman soon received word that his life was in danger and fled
Detroit. He went into hiding in New York City where he remained for
six months. Ekelman eventually received word from Detroit that
Bommarito was having difficulties with the labor organization as well
as the Detroit police and assumed it was safe to return to Detroit.
He believed that Bommarito had other, bigger problems.

Upon
his return in late 1936 Ekelman attempted to reorganize the Barbers
union. It was at this point that he became affiliated with Lou
Fleisher. Fleisher decided that he and his associates would take over
the Kosher Barbers Union, the Kosher Meat Cutters Union, and the
Kosher Meat Bosses Union. He also wanted more control over Ekelman's
Master Barbers Association.

Lou
Fleisher and Jack Ekelman did not get along and often argued
furiously over the division of spoils. Shortly after getting the
Kosher Meat Cutters Union and Master Barbers Association reorganized,
Fleisher jumped his bond in the pending Calhoun County indictments
and left for New York. He had been scheduled
to
appear for trial in Battle Creek on May 3, 1937. Before leaving the
city Fleisher borrowed $500 from Joe Bommarito, as he and the
Fleisher brothers were old friends. The money was used as a retainer
for Fleisher's lawyer to attempt to settle the pending case against
him in Calhoun County. Before leaving, Fleisher arranged for Ekelman
to send his $50 a week salary as a union organizer to him in New
York.

Ekelman
wasted little time in attempting to double cross Lou Fleisher once
Fleisher was out of sight. Fleisher was also getting money from two
other unions through the collections of Jack Ekelman's henchmen.
Fleisher soon received word from his partners in Detroit that Ekelman
was cheating him. Fleisher immediately returned to Detroit. He met
with Ekelman and discussed the money problem. The partnership was
dissolved at this meeting. Fleisher essentially gave Ekelman the
Master Barbers Association. Fleisher and his men would continue to
control the Kosher Meat Cutters and Kosher Bosses Onions, from which
Fleisher was getting a considerable amount of money.

Police
later estimated he was taking in more than $2,400 a month from labor
racketeering. One poultry association was reported to be paying Lou
Fleisher and his men $2 per week per store. There were over 100
stores in the association. The President of the Jewish Meat Cutters
Association, was reported to be the payoff man to the Purples.

At
this point Fleisher was working with Sam Millman, Joe Bommarito, and
Hymie Cooper. Millman was reported to have inherited a prostitution
protection racket from his older brother Harry. These Purples
continued collecting from brothels in Ecorse, Mt. Clemens, Hamtramck,
and Detroit. The resorts had been paying Harry Millman and his men
various amounts each week for protection. Protection, in this case,
from Harry Millman and his men.

When
Lou Fleisher went on the lam in 1937, Ekelman accidentally met Joe
Bommarito one night in a local beer garden. Hoping to get back into
Bommarito's good graces, Ekelman offered to pay off Lou Fleisher's
$500 loan. He told Bommarito that because he and Fleisher were
partners he wanted to take care of Fleisher's debt. Bommarito agreed
to the offer. Ekelman was to bring $250 to Bommarito's office the
next day and the other $250 the following week. The next morning
Ekelman failed to show up at Bommarito's office. Bommarito called
Ekelman and demanded to know why he didn't bring the money. Ekelman
told him that he had been drunk and did not remember making the
offer. Bommarito told Ekelman to "pay up or it'll be your ass."
Ekelman was frightened. He called Sam Millman and Hymie Cooper to
accompany him to Bommarito's.

Ekelman
told off Bommarito while the others stood quietly in his office.
Bommarito then calmly told Millman and Cooper to leave, that this
business was between him and Ekelman. The two Purples left
immediately. Ekelman then calmed down, apologized, and agreed to pay
off Bommarito.

Not
to be deterred, Ekelman met with one of Fleisher's collectors, a
strong arm man named Dave Krause, whose job was to collect from the
Butcher Bosses Union and send the payments directly to Lou Fleisher.
Ekelman ordered Krause to stop sending money to Fleisher and to turn
over the collections to him. Krause refused, saying that the only way
that would happen is if he got orders to give the money to Ekelman
directly from his
boss,
Lou Fleisher. Ekelman threatened Krause, telling him, "You
carried the money long enough. Now is the time for you to bring the
collections to me." When Krause told Fleisher what had happened,
Fleisher was furious. He called Sam Millman, who was supposed to take
care of things while Fleisher was on the lam. Millman suggested to
Fleisher that the way things stood he should come back to Detroit and
handle the situation himself. Fleisher went to Detroit and threatened
Ekelman, promising to "kick your head off if you don't lay off
of Krause." Once again, Ekelman concocted a story. He told
Fleisher that he was drunk at the time and did not remember making
any promises to Bommarito or to Krause. Fleisher arranged a meeting
with Bommarito to find out the truth. It was decided at this meeting
that Ekelman had to go. Days later Ekelman disappeared.

Jack
Ekelman vanished while supposedly on a business trip to meet with Lou
Fleisher. Charles Leiter had driven along with Ekelman that day. When
questioned by Detroit police, Leiter claimed that he had fallen
asleep in the car because he had been drinking all day. He did not
know whether or not Ekelman had actually seen Lou Fleisher. According
to Leiter, when he finally woke up they were back in Detroit riding
down Gratiot. Ekelman dropped Leiter off and that was the last he had
seen of him. Leiter claimed that he had been with Ekelman all day and
that they had met with several owners of Detroit slaughterhouses.
Leiter and Ekelman had planned to organize the slaughterhouse
workers, but only four workers showed up and the idea was a failure.
Afterward, the men sat around and drank. Leiter stated that he passed
out in the car.

On
April 27, 1938, Highland Park police, acting on an anonymous tip,
arrested Lou Fleisher, Jack
Sherwood,
and Fleisher's wife Nellie. When Fleisher stopped his car, his wife
burst out of the passenger side door. She ran into a nearby tailor
shop and tossed something into a pile of laundry. In the clothes
police found a .38 caliber automatic pistol which had a special
device for automatic discharge of all of its bullets. The gun was, in
effect, a hand-held submachine gun. Officers arrested all three.
Police initially charged Lou Fleisher with being a bond jumper in the
Albion burglary tool case. The Fleishers' Highland Park apartment was
searched. Inside a large trunk police found what was described as the
largest underworld arsenal ever seized in the Midwest.

The
trunk contained three Luger automatic pistols, two of which were
modified into hand-held machine guns which could hold a 32-round
clip, a .38 automatic pistol, a .32 revolver, five silencers, 500
rounds of ammunition, a case of tear gas shells and a gas gun, and a
pair of brass knuckles.

Both
Fleisher and Sherwood were questioned about the disappearance of Jack
Ekelman. Police knew that Ekelman and Fleisher were partners. Law
enforcement officials had been looking for Fleisher for more than a
year. During questioning, Fleisher insisted that the guns found in
his apartment belonged to Jack Sherwood and that he knew nothing
about them. In the meantime, Nellie Fleisher threatened to burn down
the Highland Park Jail if she was locked up. On the morning of April
29th, 1938 she made good on her threat by setting fire to a mattress
in her cell.

Police
thought that it may have been a ploy to divert the attention of
guards while Fleisher and Sherwood attempted to escape.

Both
men's cells were searched. Guards found that
bolts
on a window guard in Fleisher's cell were loosened, but couldn't
figure out how he'd done it.

Fleisher
and Sherwood's interrogations were relentless. Sherwood claimed that
he had lived in Detroit for 10 years, but could not answer the
simplest questions about local streets or even where he lived. The
three were prosecuted on violations of the Federal firearms law and
charged specifically with not registering their machine guns. The
maximum penalty at the time was five years in prison and/or a $3,000
fine for each weapon in the possession of the defendant.