[7] The gang was led by brothers Abe, Joe, Raymond, and Izzy Bernstein,[8] who had moved to Detroit from New York City.
[12] The Purple Gang started off as petty thieves and extortionists,[5][6] but they quickly progressed to armed robbery and truck hijacking under the tutelage of older neighborhood gangsters (Charles Leiter and Henry Shorr).
[15] Chicago gangster Al Capone was against expanding his rackets in Detroit, so he began a business accommodation with the Purple Gang in order to prevent a bloody war.
[6] For several years, the gang managed the prosperous business of supplying Canadian whisky to the Capone organization in Chicago.
[6][17] By the late 1920s, the Purple Gang reigned supreme over the Detroit underworld, controlling the city's vice, gambling, liquor, and drug trade.
Abe Bernstein was a friend of Meyer Lansky and Joe Adonis, with whom he owned several Miami, Florida gambling casinos in his later years.
[20] As the gang grew in size and influence, they began hiring themselves out as hitmen[19] and took part in the Cleaners and Dyers war.
[8] Bombing, arson, theft, and murder were the usual tactics that the gang employed to enforce union policy.
[6][19] Abe Axler and Eddie Fletcher were reputedly imported from New York City to take part in the scheme (although other sources put their origins in Detroit).
[21] The prosecution alleged extortion activities against Detroit area businesses during the sometime violent showdown known as the Cleaners & Dyers Wars.
Rosman testified that the Purple Gang asked for $1000 per week from his and other area cleaners & dyers' businesses for their "protection" against violence.
The deceased men had been brought into Detroit as hired assassins for the Purple Gang and the motive for the murder was believed to be retaliation for a "double cross".
[9] On February 13, 1929, Abe Bernstein reputedly called Bugs Moran to tell him that a hijacked load of booze was on its way to Chicago.
[1] Among their victims was city police officer Vivian Welsh, killed on February 1, 1927; he was later revealed to be a dirty cop who was reputedly trying to extort money from the Purple Gang.
[25] In 1930 the gang was accused of murdering Jerry Buckley, a well-known radio figure, in the lobby of a downtown hotel.
[28] Irving Milberg, Harry Keywell, and Raymond Bernstein, three high-ranking Purples, were convicted of first-degree murder in the Collingwood Manor Massacre and were sentenced to life in prison.
[29] According to Detroit Police Chief of Detectives, James E. McCarty, the convictions in the Collingwood Massacre "broke the back of the once powerful Purple Gang, writing finis to more than five years of arrogance and terrorism".
Different waves of bloodier-than-previous infighting ensued, with the aggressive and high-ranking members Abe Axler and Eddie Fletcher getting shot dead.
"Jailhouse Rock" by Leiber & Stoller, recorded by Elvis Presley, has the lyric "The whole rhythm section was the Purple Gang".
Although he was gunned down in the first scene, Max Allan Collins identified "The Rodent" as a Purple Gang torpedo in his novelization of the 1990 film Dick Tracy.
Detroit rapper Proof has a song on his debut album Searching for Jerry Garcia titled "Purple Gang".