Bugsy Siegel
leaned forward.
"You mean to
tell me Jews are
fighting?"
the Capone organization.
An all-Jewish mob known
as the Purple Gang
dominated most of the
bootlegging in Detroit. Max
"Boo Boo" Hoff and, later,
Nig Rosen, ruled in
Philadelphia, controlling
bootlegging, gambling and
much of the police force as
well. Abner "Longy"
Zwillman, one of Prohibi-
tion's biggest bootleggers,
was the crime boss in New
Jersey.
In New York, by 1920 the
largest Jewish city in the
world, criminal activity was
masterminded by Arnold
Rothstein, considered by
historians to be the pioneer
big businessman of
American crime. Best
known as the man who
allegedly fixed the 1919
World Series, Rothstein put
together the largest gambl-
ing empire in the nation.
With access to unlimited
cash, he financed bootlegg-
ing and dope deals, bought
judges and public officials
and loaned money to
legitimate businesses.
Rothstein's wide-ranging in-
fluence earned him the title
"Czar of the Underworld:"
Among Rothstein's more apt
pupils were Meyer Lansky,
who later became a major
figure in organized crime
and the man who brought
gambling to Cuba and the
Bahamas; Benjamin
"Bugsy" Siegel, who
organized the rackets in Los
Angeles and opened Las
Vegas to the mob; Louis
"Lepke" Buchalter, who
commanded an army of
more than 200 gangsters
and through terror and in-
timidation controlled the
New York garment in-
dustry; and Arthur "Dutch
Shultz" Flegenheimer, a
vicious killer, the un-
us en
o
news_RA
ingwo-tieWs' s‘
'z gie. ) Despite
its notoriety, this slaying was
merely the latist in a long
series of crimes perpetrated
by the Pui-ple Gang, Detroit's
most famous Prohibition era
mob.
The gang had its origins in
the Jewish section of Detroit's
east side, where its members
grew up together and attend-
ed the same school. They
started off in crime by steal-
ing fruit and candy from ped-
dlers. Later they graduated to
rolling drunks, shaking down
Jewish shopkeepers for
thenlaelves
alcohol for
Their base of otiellgt
Oakland Sugar touse
Oakland Street, iiite
the name "The Oa. la
Sugar House Gang." The
original members of
gang
6
were Harry Fleisher, Henry
Shore, Eddie Fletcher, Irving
Milberg, Harry Altman,
Harry Keywell and Morris
and Phil Raider.
Another group of petty
criminals on the east, side
formed around Samuel
Cohen, known as Sammy
"Purple," In the early 1920s,
disputed beer baron of the
Bronx.
Jews like these opted for a
life of crime because they
wanted money, power,
recognition and status;
crime offered them the
quickest way to realize their
dreams.
Reflecting on what a life
in crime did for him, West
Coast mobster Mickey
Cohen said that "I'm an
uneducated person. So
where could I have ever had
the opportunity to meet the
people that I've met in my
life? Being an uneducated
person, what walk of life
••
- .7 • •
•
• •
••••
•
.
o
•
as
°
i c
.
,1 nd the vis
three
hoodlums
; •
g
mPaul ,
e- _Ad Joseph Sutker,
a-oorbell of an apart-
:t 1740 Collingwood
local bookmaker WY
bro*litthem the
to discuss a
ftWillste"*Y
- 'wi
with rival
They came
d.
un
the apartment, Irv-
H
Milberg, Harry Keywell,
Bernstein and arry
Fleisher, all members of
Joget V:
er on a long couch.
- Purples sat facing them.
After "V chatting for some
.
nimutos,
Bernstein got up
id rift. Suddenly, the
#ples drew guns and began
doting, When the smoke
cleared, Lebovitz, Sutker and
Paul, their bodies riddled
with bullets, lay dead. The
killers, with Levine in tow,
fled in a waiting car driven by
Bernstein.
Keywell, Bernstein and
Milberg were quickly caught,
tried and convicted. They
received life sentences.
Levine, who testified against
the three men, dropped out of
•%"
•""
-
sli
clitailing.an
in to
:;
ventuaily, instead 441e; ti
petit* the two groups --
forces under the leaders
AfiiIiernstein and branc
out into the business of im-
porting liquor across the
Detroit River from Canada.
The origin of the gang's
name is in dispute. One story
has it that the name came
from the remark of a
Continued on Page 25
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
23