The Purple Gang: Organized Crime in Detroit 1910-1945 [Hardcover]

Paul R. Kavieff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2000

The Purple Gang was a loosely organized confederation of mobsters who dominated the Detroit underworld and whose tentacles reached across the country. Beginning in the Prohibition Era, the Purple Gang prevailed in distilling alcohol and running liquor from Canada, kidnapping, and labor racketeering. This is the hitherto untold story of the rise and fall of one of American's most notorious criminal groups. In an era resembling the Wild West when post World War I America groped for identity, chaos was the rule. And in Detroit's underworld, the Purple Gangsters were the rulers.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The Purple Gang, a vicious group of mostly Jewish immigrants who prospered during Prohibition days in Detroit, was ruthless and untouchable for a number of years. They supplied liquor to blind pigs (establishments that sold liquor illegally), hijacked liquor shipments by land and water, watered down whiskey, and committed kidnappings, murder, and more. Toward the end of their reign, the colorful group self-destructed and started killing one another. Kavieff, an engineer at Wayne State University and a historian of organized crime, even supplies photographs of bullet-ridden bodies. But this book will be a disappointment to true-crime fans. It should have been a gripping tale of the rise and fall of organized crime in Detroit, but it lacks momentum. Each chapter starts out by recounting a gruesome crime but then meanders into related tales. Fortunately, Kavieff provides a detailed index and an extensive bibliography, which readers can use to keep the thugs straight. Recommended only as a reference/research tool for libraries with extensive organized-crime or Detroit-area history collections, though extensive typographical errors and a lack of editing should alert readers to be cautious. Karen Sandlin Silverman, Ctr. for Applied Research, Philadelphia
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 214 pages
• Publisher: Barricade Books (February 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569801479
• ISBN-13: 978-1569801475
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #870,155 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Could Have Been Better, October 9, 2001

By 

Rick "Mad Dog" Mattix (Iowa) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Purple Gang: Organized Crime in Detroit 1910-1945 (Hardcover)

I eagerly awaited Paul Kavieff's The Purple Gang and in some ways it was worth the wait. It's certainly the best book written on this notorious gang but mainly because it's the only one. There's a lot of good background info on the gang and some great photos. Because of this, unlike some reviewers, I won't quibble about the writing style and the typos. I read the book from cover to cover and this did not bother me in the slightest. One thing I, as a fellow crime historian, found highly annoying, though, and which detracts from Kavieff's obvious research, is his vagary on dates. A serious history providing otherwise detailed accounts of murders or other events should not begin with "one fateful day in 1923" or "early in 1933." Times, places, etc. are given in detail but dates are maddeningly few in this book on the sordid side of Detroit's history. The latter phrase, leading into the murders of Purple Gangsters Abe Axler and Ed Fletcher, is also way off. Axler and Fletcher were slain on November 26, 1933, certainly not early in the year. Many crime historians also wonder if there may have been a connection between their killings and that of Verne Miller, triggerman in the Kansas City Massacre, who was also slain in Detroit just three days later. These three homicides were heavily covered in the Detroit press at the time and it's a wonder Kavieff didn't delve into this further. The Purples' alleged connection to the St. Valentine's Day Massacre is also highly doubtful. It's a worthwhile book for crime historians and deserving of a second edition but with considerable rewrite.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Purple Gang of Detroit, February 23, 2003

By 

RDtoo "Some guy in Detroit" (Detroit) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Purple Gang: Organized Crime in Detroit 1910-1945 (Hardcover)

As another reviewer pointed out, this is an important book because it is the only book on the Purple Gang. How this gang has escaped serious study is beyond me. Growing up in the Detroit area their name has popped up over the years many many times, as some oldtimer recollects or a house that once was a Purple Gang hideout is bulldozed, stuff like that. One time in the Detroit Public Library I went into the history room and they asked for my ID and I jokingly said, "what do you think I am in the Purple Gang or something?" The guy who asked laughed and said "funny you should say that. A writer has been trying to research the Purple Gang, and is having a hell of a time. It seems like most of the police files on them have somehow disappeared". I cannot vouch for that info, but I suppose that it was the author of this book that was doing the research and maybe that explains why there is so little info available. For that reason alone, despite the grammatical errors that others found annoying, I give it 5 stars. I found it a fascinating read.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Criminals, First and Last, August 16, 2000

By 

Daniel G. Berk (West Bloomfield, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Purple Gang: Organized Crime in Detroit 1910-1945 (Hardcover)

This book probably contains more information on the individuals comprising the organization commonly known as The Purple Gang than any other single source. In addition to being informative, it effectively de-mythologizes and de-romanticizes the characters involved, and reveals them for what they really were, vicious, violent, and evil men. The one downside in the book is that the prose leaves something to be desired, and I discovered a number of grammatical errors, which were somewhat disconcerting. But for that, I would have considered this a five, rather than a four-star book.