:: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Purple_Gang ::
The last living member of the Purple Gang lived above the local hardware store and walked the streets of my hometown.
He passed away around 1993 or so.
Cool dude. We no mess, he no mess. Everything was cool.
LOL! had not heard of the PURPLE GANG - good stuff!
Detroit’s Purple Gang
Man does this bring back memories. Everyone knew someone who knew someone who was in the Purple Gang if you grew up in Detroit.
My grandfather was a teamster who thought Jimmy Hoffa was a god. He drove laundry trucks in Detroit. The Purple Gang and laundry was a big deal then.
My father worked at a neighborhood hardware store as a teenager. The first day on the job the owner said to him “Hey, buddy, from now on, around here, you go by Jimmy (not his real name of coarse)
My father was then taught to run packages to other businesses and how to answer the phone and write down the numbers callers gave him.
Hardware was seldom spoken of or sold.
After 2 years my father had turned the shop around and it was a good little hardware shop. Which was welcomed by the owner as the Purple Gang was getting out of overseeing numbers being ran and the owner went legit.
I moved up north and my very first apartment the owner pulled me over to the window and said, “Do you see the Island out in the bay? The Purple Gang would ship in booze by waiting at the Island until dark. When all the windows in the top floor (which today is home to Bay Bread in Traverse City, MI) had a light on the sill, that was the signal the cops were paid off and the boats could come ashore and unload.
And on and on and on with the stories of Detroit’s Purple Gang and all the connections, real or imagined.