The Purple Gang: Organized Crime in Detroit, 1910-1945 by Paul R. Kavieff Read Free Book Online Page B

and
bootleggers on his beat.
    A
raid could be very costly in terms of the loss of an operator's
equipment when Prohibition officers busted it up. All Whisman had to
do was threaten Prohibition violators with a police raid and the
money rolled in. So, Whisman and Welch became partners in the
protection business.
    They
were aware that bootleggers were protected by organized crime.
Gangsters were quick to put their competitors out of business
'permanantly' as long as they were other gangsters, but never police.
It was not considered good business to kill police, there was enough
money for everybody.
    Unfortunately
for Whisman and Welch, this protocol was not embraced by the Purple
Gang. Barely out of their teens in 1926 the purples were already
fearsome, and did not adhere to codes. What gave them their edge was
that anyone who crossed paths with them was fair game.
    Whisman
and Welch had begun to prosper but whispers of Whisman's extortion
racket circulated throughout the Department. Oddly, Welch escaped
suspicion. Amidst rumors Whisman resigned. The resignation took place
presumably to protect his lucrative underworld shakedowns because
after a cooling off period, Whisman was reinstated on the force and,
still under suspicion, began making pickups on days off. He kept his
distance from Welch during duty hours but the two remained partners
in extortion.
    Greed
got the best of them, and they increased their payoff demands.
Bitterness grew until a group of bootleggers actually complained to
police about Whisman. There was no way to arrest them as the
operators, predictably, wouldn't testify in court.
    However,
their complaints provided ammunition for a police trial board to
bring Whisman up on charges. He was officially discharged from the
Detroit Police Force. Still, Welch was untouched.
    The
law had nothing left to say about what they were up to, but someone
more powerful and infinitely more intimidating did. When Welch and
Whisman shook down a Purple Gang operated brewery, Welch was singled
out for vengeance. Detroit Police theorized that Whisman was forced
by the Purple's to set up his partner for them by driving him to his
execution.
    At
1:10 P.M. on a January day in 1928 a woman, startled by gunfire,
rushed to her living room window. She saw a man limping through her
yard, chased by two men firing pistols as they ran. They disappeared
down the street and after several more shots, she heard the screech
of tires.
    Down
the block, a second woman saw the man collapse in the street. One of
the gunmen stood over the body and took careful aim, firing several
rounds into his head as he lay prone. The woman wrote down the
license plate of the getaway car and phoned police.
    Information
on his body identified the dead man as Vivian Welch. The attack was
so blatant that many eye witnesse accounts pieced together the events
of the murder. Those present from the beginning related how the car
stopped suddenly in the middle of the street and a man (Welch) jumped
out and started running.
    Two
men then vaulted from the car with pistols, shooting as they ran.
When the victim fell in the street, both men fired several rounds
into him. They turned around the car and passed right over the body
as they roared away.
    Arrests
in the police dragnet ranged from every known Purple to Whisman and
his common law wife, whose alibis didn't match. Whisman told police
he arrived home around noon the day of the murder and left again at 3
P.M. She said he'd not returned until four, which would've given him
time to set Welch up for the attack.
    In
addition to the gangsters taken in the dragnet, police arrested six
Purples by February 2nd. Blind pig operator Ben Weiss was booked on
the murder charge, and Whisman was closely watched. Police felt he
was at least present for the murder.
    All
were booked under their aliases and sent around the loop while the
police scrambled desperately for leads. After travelling through
every Detroit precinct house, they ended up