Researching organized crime in detroit's history

I have been interested in gangland dramas from the gangster era of the twenties and beyond since my ex turned me on to the microfilm room at the DPL and I scrolled onto black and white typo stories about the Collingwood Ave Massacre and Purple Gang. It is fun to read about the exploits and capers of the Giacalone brothers and the structure of the Detroit mafia family and how they interacted with black gangsters,Jewish and Italian partnerships in the handbooks and policy rackets etc.

Obviously there is the online archives of the newspapers and phone books and pictures at the Walter Reuther historical collection but how would a crime history researcher go about obtaining and reading full transcripts of trials, viewing mugshots and criminal histories of prohibition era gangsters?When the police museum was open at 1300 Beaubian I inquired about mugshots [[it would be cool to dig into some sixties and seventies era mugs as well) but that was awhile back and I do not recall the protracted process which included something about the Freedom Of Information Act.

I have always wanted to dig deeper and explore a house or abandoned store that at one time was owned or occupied by a Purple gang affiliated mobster and find some tangible piece of history like a ledger, policy racket tickets a stash of pistols or remnants of an alky still...

Some landmarks remain.Charles Leiter, an Oakland Sugar House gangster owned and operated Leiters Lounge on Baltimore for forty years.Him and his brother in law were busted selling bootleg liquor there in the forties and the place was connected to a bookmaking ring in the early seventies .The upstairs of the Scvitz bath house was rented to bookie Chickie Shermans crew in the seventies. Charlies spot is Northern Lights Lounge and the Scvitz is still in operation...

Many moons ago, when Jams was still pouring at the Beaubien Street Saloon...but before my loft was ready in Eastern Market...I had an interesting exchange with a fellow sitting at the Shores Inn on the east side.

That puts it near the 2005-6 time frame, geez ten years ago.

Jim lent me his "bouncer's" book on The Purple Gang, written by Paul Kavieff. I devoured it overnight...it was a great read, but I was driven by the fact that none of this history had ever been discussed by either half of my ancestry. [[although later on I heard of Grandpa Joe having a not-so-nice meeting with some Purples over great-grandma's bathtub gin making in the basement of their Plumer Street home)


Later that night, Cookie Mary and I ended up at the Shores Inn where I chanced into conversation with a guy whose family owned a factory "near the Capuchins"...which I later realized had to be on Meldrum or Bellevue. At some point, they had to cement cap the ground that had been under their boiler room, because it was an EPA disaster site.

Before they did so, he went down in the tunnels underneath and found a secret room that still had at least one "Tommy Gun" hidden within. [[I am sure he found more, but wasn't talkin' freely, it was all I could do to get this out of him)


It was so crazy, meeting up with him just after reading the book.


This IS a strange part of the city's collective memory, TerryH, but I shudder at your having 'fun' learning about these dregs of humanity and their exploits.


If you'd like, I'll share help detailing how Detroit's underground is tied to the JFK murder. Meyer Lansky and his Jewish Mafia cronies had links to the Mossad...see the book Final Judgement for that.

Look up Al Profit on youtube

Too bad the Hunt and Joseph Campau "Butcherhouse" on the fringe of Eastern Market was razed; there was clearly something incriminating encased in the uneven cement pourings in the basement [[dubbed "The Troth") that rose halfway past the original level of the basement's floor surface. Kavieff's book is okay, but I [[and my mother would agree) felt it was not very well edited and was copy-and-paste repetitive in some parts. Still a topic that would still make a great movie [[who would play the psychopathic Ziggy?https://www.pinterest.com/pin/430445676859760637/).

I'm interested why no one has explored and reported enough on the Russian mafia presence in Detroit [[small in comparison as it may be to other cities)?

When I worked at a crummy hardware store in Allston [[technically West Boston), the only cool thing was one of the staff [[the only cool one there who verified that our boss was a bad person to work for) showed me a treasure in the old basement of the old building that the store was located in. It was an old defunct and dusty cigar box alarm mounted on the wall under a shelf. Speakeasy, bootlegging joint, hideout-who knows?-if cops came around though, someone upside pushed a button that would trigger the razzing bell on that homemade gizmo.

There's a rather long article online about the Hollywood Park mob [[just do a google on; 'Hubbard's Ties Are Questioned'). The article is rather long, however there are a couple of paragraphs regarding the Detroit mob of the 50s & 60s that is mentioned as being on the board of directors of HP Raceway. Also their attempt to buy a casino in Vegas. It will at the least provide you with some names for reference topics.

Gannon there was a gangster from New York that collected rare books and reinvented himself as an intellectual of sorts, Charles 'the Professor' Auerbach was an armaments dealer that supplied the underworld with an arsenal of guns,silencers and grenades.The last place he resided on Webb is still there...wonder if there are any guns stashed-hidden between the walls,in the attic or buried in the yard......A Tommy gun would for sure be a prize find.....where was-is Plumer St.?

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Originally Posted by terryh

Gannon there was a gangster from New York that collected rare books and reinvented himself as an intellectual of sorts, Charles 'the Professor' Auerbach was an armaments dealer that supplied the underworld with an arsenal of guns,silencers and grenades.The last place he resided on Webb is still there...wonder if there are any guns stashed-hidden between the walls,in the attic or buried in the yard......A Tommy gun would for sure be a prize find.....where was-is Plumer St.?

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The Tommy gun was reportedly found underground in tunnels from a boiler system...in that industrial area between Indian Village and downtown, off Vernor. I've pretty much narrowed it down to one parcel...the only cement-capped lot around.

Plumer is not far from Duly's Coney Island, but you'll not find any evidence of anything other than whatever my 33 Polish cousins might've dropped in the yard...but even then the house was sold to another family for a few years before it was torn down. It was one of the oldest structures in the area, too, dating back to one of the early farms.

I wish I'd bought it when they abandoned it...now it is part of someone's multi-parcel compound. But there are no weapons buried there, beyond some old GI Joe accessories.


I understand your enthusiasm, that Kavieff book [[and his "Violent Years" follow-up) remain on my bookshelf. My fascination is how an entire generation kept mum on their memories...many of the characters were relatively forgotten until the 70s ganglettes and 80s cracksters resurrected the names [[misspelling many of them).

It was only after my Polish grandfather died that I heard the story of his unfortunate encounter with the Purples. It was as if by their silence they could make those years disappear.

If I could go back in time, I'd love to know more...and taste the gin great-granny conjured up. And while I was at it, I'd have some specific questions to my Irish grand-pappy about his working under that thug Harry Bennett at the Rouge.

Cheers

Definitely want more Harry Bennett stories, John.