The Purple Gang: Organized Crime in Detroit, 1910-1945 by Paul R. Kavieff

Author:Paul R. Kavieff [Kavieff, Paul R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: True Crime, Organized Crime
ISBN: 9781569804940
Google: UgS2MgEACAAJ
Publisher: Barricade Books
Published: 2013-10-14T23:00:00+00:00

The Purple Gang was also responding to the chaos and tension of intensified violence during the Great Depression. Earl Passman, identified by Detroit police as a bookkeeper for the Purple mob, was shot to death by another Purple gangster in an Owen Avenue apartment in a senseless shooting.

The apartment was being used as the headquarters for a whiskey delivery business. While several Purples were in the kitchen taking telephone orders, Harry Altman, Harry Pont, and Passman sat in the living room drinking. Around 8:30 P.M., Altman got up to leave.

He noticed an open door and walked into the closet by mistake. Passman, a practical joker, seized the moment to play a prank on Altman. He jumped up and slammed the closet door shut, holding it tight. Pont ran up and helped Passman hold the door.

According to testimony by Pont, Altman yelled that if they didn't open the door he was going to shoot his way out. They thought Altman was joking. Suddenly a bullet splintered the closet door, striking Passman in the chest.

Not knowing what to do with the body, the men took it out to the alley behind the apartment building to make it look like Passman had been the victim of a drive-by shooting. At first, detectives thought that Passman was the victim of another underworld feud. Two days later, Harry Pont told detectives how Passman had really been killed.

In court Harry Pont refused to admit that he made a statement to police. The charges against Altman were dropped. Pont was held for contempt of court and given thirty days.

The gangsters were so tightly wound that they had simply become foolish. Purple gangsters were also encountering a new, serious problem. Witnesses were finally testifying against reputed Purple gangsters in open court.

It was the beginning of the end.

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