Prohibition Crime in Detroit

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Featured Collection

Bootlegging, Gangs, Speakeasies, Prohibition

During the American Prohibition, many opportunistic individuals saw their chance to make a great profit through bootlegging, rum-running and other...

Image of a Packard Automotive factory plant, very large and surrounded by the urban sprawl of Detroit.

Press photo of top Purple Gang members on trial for the Collingwood Massacre

Newspaper article about the early adoption of prohibition/temperance by Detroit, a foreshadowing of the Purple Gang and other criminal groups.