Larsen 1

Amanda Larsen
Elizabeth Hudson
Honors 1000
20 October 2015
A New Life of Crime in Detroit
April 12th, 1922
It is not safe to live in Berlin anymore. There have been increasing
amounts of violence towards people with our beliefs.1 Ive made a plan with
my beloved wife Sara to escape to America. I have recently received letters
from my cousin Abraham and his wife about their successful journey to this
promising country. America sounds like the land where all your dreams
really could come true and have equal opportunities in life. Traveling there
would be like going through a gateway to a better life. The aspirations of
having an improved quality of life in America pushed me, a young German
Jewish immigrant, to find a way to live there.
May 3rd, 1922
We managed to get aboard a ship to America. We safely arrived at Ellis
Island after a 21-day long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Sara was
leaning on my shoulder sleeping when I first caught a glimpse of it. A large
green statue in the shape of a lady stood over the bay. People crowded by
the rails of the ship and pointed while others cried at the sight. We got off
the boat and someone snapped our picture while we looked out over the
1 "German Jewish Refugees, 19331939." United States Holocaust Memorial

Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 18 Aug. 2015. Web. 25 Oct.
2015. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005468>.

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water.2 I will never forget the moment I first laid eyes on this new place. I
saw crowds of other immigrants bustling about, starting over with as much
as they could carry in their suitcases.3 There was now an entire ocean
separating me from my homeland and past and I faced a fresh, but
uncertain, future in America.
June 5th, 1924
Sara and I have found a house in a Jewish community near 12th Street.
There seems to be quite a bit of crime in this neighborhood due to the
poverty of the immigrants in this area. Hopefully we can safely live here
because I wish to start a family with Sara soon. I met a man named Abe
Bernstein while I was on my way to the store for groceries the other day. He
was clean cut, wearing a spotless beige colored suit with a matching fedora.
He emanated a sense of intensity and confidence. We had a conversation
about the newly passed prohibition act and our distaste for it. He offered to
give me work, although he didnt specify exactly what his line of work was.
June 14th, 1924
Ive met up with Abe again and he introduced me to his brothers; Joseph,
Raymond, and Isadore (Izzy). They are members of the Purple Gang, a
group that has been bootlegging alcohol because of prohibition. They also
run gambling operations along with the distillation of alcohol. Abe promised
me that I would make large amounts of money if I joined their mob. The
2 Two Emigrants on the Seashore. 1912. Library of Congress, Digital Image, Web.

21 Oct. 2015. <http://www.loc.gov/item/2012646354/#about-this-item>.

3 Bitzer, G. W. "Arrival of Emigrants [i.e. Immigrants], Ellis Island /." The Library of
Congress. Digital Video, N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2015.
<http://www.loc.gov/item/00694368>.

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name of their gang was interesting and I inquired of the origin of it. Joseph
told me it stemmed from the time that they rented a small cottage by Lake
St. Clair and swam in the lake with purple swimming trunks.4 Abe said that
they didnt choose the name, it was given to them by the news papers.
June 20th, 1924
My first assignment as a part of the Purple Gang was to go with Izzy and
some other men to pick up smuggled booze from Windsor. They gave me a
gun and showed me how to use it. The gun was a small pistol with a wood
handle. I had never used a gun before. Im not really sure if Im okay with
using violence for the sake of gaining money, but at this point theres no
backing out. We made it to the banks of the Detroit River and met up with
some other members of the gang who had hijacked another mobs boat for
booze. We gathered the large wooden crates of Old Log Cabin whiskey and
put them in the truck. On our way to the cutting plant, where they diluted
the liquor, Izzy told me about the gangs encounter with Al Capone, a
notorious mobster in Chicago. He explained that Capone wanted to set up a
base of operations in Detroit but the gang told him that the river belongs
to us.

Capone did not accept this and offered to hire some men to be his

agents, thus avoiding a possible conflict with the Purples. Hopefully I

remain on the good side of the gang, because they have dominated the city.
February 20th, 1924
4 From the, Detroit N. "The Purple Gang." The Washington Post (1923-1954): 10.

Mar 28 1939. ProQuest. Web. 25 Oct. 2015 .

5 Schneider, Stephen. "Speakeasy or Die." Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in
Canada. Mississauga, Ont.: Wiley, 2009. N. pag. Print.

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The Purple Gang recently created a front called the Wholesale Cleaners
and Dyers Association. They pledged to stabilize the professional laundry
market by controlling prices and preventing tailors from switching cleaners
without a reason.6 I knew the association wouldnt help the laundry industry
at all. It was purely to collect a profit to fund gang activities by requiring
cleaners and dyers to pay dues to protect them from harassment from the
gang.7 That morning, I rode with Abe to harass a cleaner and dyer who did
not want to join the association. In the trunk of our car, we had a box of
stink bombs and bricks that we were going to throw into the facility. We
pulled up to the front of the building and I threw a brick through the large
glass window, shattering it into countless shards that covered the sidewalk.
Abe threw some stink bombs and we drove off, laughing about the stinky
clothes that the cleaners were going to have. Being in the mob was
dangerous, but it was thrilling. People were too afraid of us to say anything
to the police; we were above the law.
Reflection
My character was ultimately detrimental to the city of Detroit and changed
to fit in with a bad crowd. In the beginning, my character just wanted to live
a better life but changed to wanting to live a life of crime with the Purple
Gang, who wreaked havoc upon the city. Joining the gang made the city
more unsafe and more prone to crime. My character did not prioritize his
6 "Cleaners and Dyers War." Cleaners and Dyers War. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.

<http://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/cleaners-and-dyers-war>.
7 Rockaway, Robert A. "The Notorious Purple Gang: Detroit's all-Jewish Prohibition
Era Mob." Shofar 20.1 (2001): 113. ProQuest.Web. 25 Oct. 2015.

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wife and put people in danger by getting involved in the gangster lifestyle.
The choice to join the gang was beneficial to my character as an individual,
but not for the people of Detroit.