Did the Italian Mafia and the Purple Gang lock horns?
No. I think it’s a Hollywood myth that the Jews, Irish, and Italians all fought. There were fights among individuals, but in the Detroit underworld, there was a tremendous amount of ethnic cooperation. But Harry Millman was an exception. Millman was a wild card. Millman came along later, during the closing years of the Purples’ power. He was an enforcer, a strong-arm guy, and he had a bad alcohol problem. He hated Italians. Why that is, I don’t know. Maybe it was because by 1935, the Mafia controlled things the Purples once had. He was kind of a lone wolf in the Detroit underworld. He was going into cocktail lounges owned by the Mafia, slapping people around, and robbing Mafia-protected brothels and handbooks. … In 1937, Millman started hanging out at Boesky’s deli at Twelfth and Hazelwood, in what was then a nice family neighborhood. On Nov. 25, 1937, in the crowded restaurant — there were probably 100 people in there — hitmen fired on him at point-blank range. The Mafia set that out.
