The Purple Gang of the 1920s

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Today, the Detroit River is one of busiest waterways in the United States, shipping iron and other goods to and from Canada. Only 100 years ago, those waterways were being used to transport illegal liquor from Canada to the Unites States (“Rum-running in Windsor.”). The men to pick it up were called the Purple Gang. The Purple Gang was a mainly Jewish, well established group of criminals, that by the late 1920s and controlled the city's drug trade, liquor, vice, and gambling (“The Purple Gang.”).

The Cleaners and Dyers War

In 1924, the laundry business was doing terribly. The companies kept prices too low to make a profit and their tailors threatened to leave if they had to pay their cleaning bills. The business was doing terribly because the Purple Gang run, labor union for laundry services was causing chaos in Detroit. They threatened anyone who didn’t join the union by bombing or harassing them (Fitzpatrick, “Cleaners and Dyers War”).

Seeing an opportunity for crime, Francis X. Martel asked Ben Abrams to start an organization, which could be then used as a coverup for th...

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