EPISODE · Sep 7, 2026 · 16 MIN

Detroit’s Purple Gang: The Jewish Bootleggers Who Ran the River

from A History of the American Mafia Podcast: Organized Crime, Mob Families, Bosses, Gangsters, Prohibition, Criminal Trials, and the Rise of La Cosa Nostra · host Podily & Josh Linsk

This episode dives into the Detroit Purple Gang, a Jewish outfit that dominated river smuggling during Prohibition, bribed city officials and linked with Chicago’s Outfit. We chart their rise to bootlegging power, the political machinery they relied on, and how Prohibition’s end ushered in their decline and the ascent of the Italian‑American Detroit Partnership. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Sep 7, 2026

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Detroit’s Purple Gang: The Jewish Bootleggers Who Ran the River

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This episode is 16 minutes long.

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This episode was published on September 7, 2026.

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