Gambling, local wire service, drug distribution, bootlegging, certain trade unions, as well as extortion rackets, were all operated by the Purple Gang.
When three Chicago gunmen, Joseph "Nigger Joe" Lebowitz, Herman "Hymie" Paul, and Isadore "Izzy the Rat" Sutker, fled to Detroit, the Purple Gang's status was put to the test.
After arriving in the city the men soon became affiliated with a smaller faction of the Purple Gang, the "Little Jewish Navy."
Bernstein then convinced Levine that the Purples had decided to let Lebowitz, Paul, and Sutker be their agents in the liquor business.
He waited for the sound of backfiring and honking the horn to cue the men left in the apartment to carry out the plan.
After the crime, Bernstein, Keywell, Milberg, and Fleisher fled the scene, leaving Sol Levine as the sole eyewitness.
The guns used in the crime had their serial numbers scratched off and were thrown into paint to try to get rid of any evidence linking back to the members of the Purple Gang.
Heavily armed, the police went to the location, which was owned by Charles Aurbach, an underworld consultant and Purple Gang member.
On October 2, 1931, the men were arraigned before Judge Donald Van Zile after a motion for dismissal of Levine's claim was denied.
After an hour and 37 minutes, the jury returned with the verdict, finding the men guilty of the charge of first-degree murder.
Chief of Detectives James E. McCarty made a statement to the press: "This conviction is the greatest accomplishment in years.
Not only does it break the back of the Purple Gang but it serves notice on other mobs that murder doesn't go anymore in Detroit."