Anyone else interested in the Purple Gang? I just read a couple books about them. It's an interesting bit of Detroit/Jewish history, but that's about it. As a mob, they were in nearly the exact same rackets as the Italian mafia, but they didn't have the background or infrastructure to last. They were on average younger, disorganized, and more violent than most organized crime entities, and many had major drug and alcohol abuse problems, probably underscoring that a decent amount of them were fundamentally mentally ill.

It was kind of like what might have happened to all the mobsters who came out of the 42 Gang if there hadn't been an Outfit--they were largely formed from juvenile delinquents. By their mid-late 20s most were dead or in jail and by the time they were in their 30s, the gang had self-destructed and been pushed aside by the Italian mafia.

For a long time in Detroit, the local Jewish media wouldn't write about them. I understand, as they didn't want to reinforce the anti-Semitism at the time.

The last Purple, Myron "Mike" Selik died in 96.

I remember reading a story where one of the old gangsters who had gotten out of prison, I think it was in the 80s, would come into this deli near the old Tiger Stadium, and a writer tried to go there and get an interview, but never got it.

That guy must not have believed how much Detroit had changed in the time he'd been away.