Notorious figures
Abe Bernstein
1892–1968 · leader of the Purple Gang
Eldest of the Bernstein brothers who led the Purple Gang, the Jewish mob that dominated Detroit's underworld during Prohibition.
- Born
- Died
Detroit, Michigan- Detroit years
- 1900s–1968
- Field
- Notorious figures
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Abe Bernstein and his brothers Joe, Raymond and Isadore came to Detroit from New York as youths, growing up in the poor immigrant streets around Hastings Street. Prohibition, which began in Michigan in 1918, turned the Detroit River into a highway for Canadian liquor, and the Bernsteins' crew, known as the Purple Gang or the Sugar House Gang, grew from hijacking rivals' shipments into the dominant force in the city's underworld by the late 1920s. The gang ran bootlegging, gambling, extortion and drug rackets and reached an understanding with Al Capone, who chose to buy Detroit whiskey rather than fight for the city. In 1927 Abe and eight associates were charged with extorting Detroit's cleaners and dyers, one of the gang's labor rackets. Violence and infighting destroyed the gang in the 1930s, and after the 1931 Collingwood Manor killings Raymond was sentenced to life. Abe survived as a gambling figure and died in his room at the Book-Cadillac Hotel in 1968.
Highlights
- Led the Purple Gang with his brothers Joe, Raymond and Isadore
- The gang dominated Detroit's underworld in the late 1920s
- Charged in the 1927 cleaners and dyers extortion case
- Died at the Book-Cadillac Hotel in 1968
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Related place · 1968
Westin Book Cadillac Hotel
The downtown hotel where he lived out his last years and died in 1968; closed in 1984 and reopened in 2008 after restoration.
Related place · 1931
Collingwood Manor apartments
Status being checked
Apartment building where Purple Gang members killed three Chicago gunmen on September 16, 1931; the case sent Raymond Bernstein to prison for life and broke the gang.