Two Purples Expire

November 26, 1933 - Detroit

Eddie Fletcher and Abe Axler died as they lived; Together. Known as the "Siamese Twins" of Detroit's notorious Purple Gang, both Axler and Fletcher grew up together in Brooklyn, New York. Just as Al Capone went west at the dawn of Prohibition to strike it rich, so to did Axler and Fletcher. The latter two ended up in the Motor City in the mid 1920s and became top torpedoes for the organization.

By 1933 the Purple gang was in disarray. Main gang members and former leaders were either dead or in prison. The Siamese Twins reportedly tried to go straight themselves but were unable to make a living. Designated Public Enemies 1 & 2, by Detroit law enforcement, they were also picked up on sight. It was mentioned that Axler had a bookmaking operation working out of a Detroit barber shop. There was also a report that the men were trying to muscle in on the dope racket.

Whatever the reason, the men were taken for a ride in Axler's own Chrysler sedan. They were last seen leaving a beer garden in Pontiac, Michigan. They climbed into Axler's car after midnight and drove off. Somewhere along the lines they ended up in the back seat. Fletcher on the left, Axler in the middle and another guy on the right. Someone else was driving. It appears that Axler saw what was about to happened and grasped his partner's hand. Police believe Fletcher got it first, a fusillade from a .38 from the front driver's seat. He was hit twice in the chest, once in the right arm and once in the forehead. Axler took five shots from a .45 to the ride side of the head. Unrecognizable, he slouched into his dead friend. The car was abandoned on deserted patch of road off of Telegraph Road near Bloomfield Hills.

A couple of days after the murder the Detroit Free Press stated that the Licavoli crime family had made an attempt on them a few weeks before the murder. Axler and Fletcher may have known they were on the spot because they had been spending time outside of Detroit.

L. Eddie Fletcher R. Abe Axler

Rub-a-dub-dub Jerry Died by the Tub

"Handsome" Jerry Ferri was an ex-Chicago gunmnan who moved out to San Francisco around 1926 because things got to hot for his in Chi-town. Supposedly he got into trouble with gang leader and had to flee the city. While in San Francisco he dabbled in bootlegging, kidnapping and as one paper stated he could walk into a North Beach cafe, demand a 50-50 split and get it. He was described as a local mafia leader.

Ferri, whose real name may have been Gennero Fieve, end came at about 2:30 in the morning on November 24, 1928 when some men accosted him at the foot of the stairwell of his apartment. The guns came and they opened fire. Ferri managed to run up the stairs to his apartment, but the gunmen chased him and fired through his front door. Making their way in they chased the gangster into his bathroom. Ferri, already wounded closed the door and the men fired through the door and one of the bullets pierced the gangster's head killing him.

Handsome Jerry Ferri with his girlfriend

Cuckoos Get Two Birds

Lester Barth and Dewey Goebel were former Cuckoo gangsters who sided with Tommy Hayes when the latter split with the St. Louis gang. It is believed that the duo were responsible for the killing of some of their former gang mates.

Like most men of their ilk, Barth and Goebel met a violent death. On November 22, 1930 both men had just exited the grocery store they visited nearly everyday at the same time (a fact no doubt known to the Cuckoo gunmen in the Hudson sedan that was following them) after loading the groceries into Goebel's Ford coupe. Speculation was that the two men had a still in operation and the daily supplies were for the men they had running it.

As they drove off from the grocery store the Hudson, containing four or five men, pulled up along side and three of the men, each armed with a Thompson machine-gun, opened fire.

Bullets ripped into the coupe and went crashed through the rear window. The groceries exploded as bullet after bullet plowed into the cases. Goebel turned, hoping to lose the Hudson but the killers made the turn as well, continuing to pour fire into the coupe. After a couple of blocks the Ford jumped the curb and came to a stop. The Hudson continued and got away.

Witnesses approached the coupe and pulled the duo, both of whom had been shot in the head, from the car. Both men died later at the hospital. A search of their homes turned up a Thompson machine-gun, two pistols and ammunition in the coal bin of Barth's house.

 L. Lester Barth    R. Dewey Goebel

The death car

Friends til the End

Around noon on November 20, 1933 the naked body of New Jersey racketeer Albert Silvers was found on a lonely patch of road outside of Somers, Connecticut. He had been stabbed twice in the heart with an ice pick and garroted with a sash cord and neck tie. When found, his tongue protruded from his mouth and blood still oozed from the stab wounds. He was partially covered with a blanket.

Though an East Coast racketeer, Silvers, who was a lieutenant of New York mob boss Lepke Buchalter, was murdered for his loyal friendship to a mid-westerner.  Ex-South Dakotan sheriff turned bank robber and hit man Verne Miller- who was the hottest man in America during the last half of 1933 due to his orchestrating the Kansas City Massacre, which resulted in the death of five law enforcement officers, including an FBI agent.

Silvers had helped Miller out after the KC Massacre when, with the help of his brother who was an optometrist, they supplied Miller with salesman's case full of optometry equipment so he could travel the country posing as salesman. Silvers also set Miller up with an automobile.

When Miller later escaped a shootout with police on Halloween, they found his car and both this and the optometry equipment were traced to Silvers. Since Silvers was a close associate to Lepke, the syndicate leader had a decision to make. If the FBI got hold of Silvers what might he say to get out of trouble? Men, no doubt friends of Silvers, were sent out to him, possibly in Hartford where he was known to stay or at a hotel in Massachusetts, no one knows for sure. Wherever they caught up with him the result was the same.

Albert Silvers 

Dead Men Write No Tales

After two of his brothers had met a gangster's fate, Francis Fabrizzio, the oldest and probably the first of the brothers to venture into the New York underworld, decided that if he couldn't lick them, he would expose them.

The first brother to go was Louis, who was gunned down on a lower East Side street in February of 1928. Next, brother Andrew was found in a sack in New Jersey. The murder was committed at the behest of Louis "Pretty' Amberg, but the last place Andrew was seen was the garage used by the Bug & Meyer (Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lanksy) Mob. Francis supposedly sought retribution by bombing the garage. Though Siegel was wounded, nobody was seriously hurt and little damage was done.

Unable to kill those whom Francis held responsible for Andrew's death, he decided to blow the whistle on the entire works. To that end, Francis wrote a book naming the gangsters who ran things and spilling the beans on who murdered who. Not wanting such publicity, the underworld went about eliminating Francis.  Gunmen caught up with the would be author on this date in 1932, while a lawyer was helping him put the finishing touches on the manuscript. As the two men worked at Francis' parents apartment, there was knock at the door. Some "detectives" flashed their badges and demanded to see Francis. The hoodlum author stepped into the hallway to see what it was all about and never made it back inside.

During the ensuing investigation, real detectives confiscated the manuscript and it disappeared.

Roadhouse Blues

November 19, 1923 saw the demise of St. Louis gangster William "Whitey" Doering in "Halfway", Illinois, (an area located halfway between Marion and Herrin, Illinois) in what is infamously known as "Bloody Williamson" County.

Doering, said to be a member of Egan's Rats, pulled up to Charlie Birger's roadhouse with a carload of confederates and, according to Birger, walked up the porch and called Birger out. The latter stepped out and Doering shot him. From inside the roadhouse a number of shots were returned and Doering collapsed with seven bullets in his body. His pals sped off, and he died later that day in the hospital.

Birger said that Doering tried to rob him and it was the guys in the car that shot him (bad aiming as Birger asserted they were trying to get him) but then again Birger was one of the biggest gangsters in the region and would want to pass blame elsewhere. Other theories were that Doering was a friend of the bartender that Birger had killed earlier that week and was seeking revenge. A bootlegging deal gone awry was another reason given.

Whitey Doering

Say it ain't so, Joe

New York City-

A man stepped out of his East Side tenement on his way to church. Slouched on the steps was a man whom he took for a drunk. He shook his head and passed. Upon returning from mass he saw the man still lying there, giving him a shake,the man's hat fell off and he saw that it was a corpse. The man summoned a cop and before long identification was made. Joseph Flanagan.

Called "Baby Joe" because he was youngest of the Four Fierce Flanagans, a quartet of East Side brothers who cut a swathe through New York's underworld during the Roaring Twenties, Joseph Flanagan met his end on this date back in 1929.

His career went back to his youth when he was sent to reform school at the age of fifteen. He spent a portion of the Jazz Age in the New Jersey State Penitentiary after being arrested during a jewelry store robbery in Perth Amboy. Like his brothers, Baby Joe was mainly an armed bandit but as the decade was coming to an end police surmised that he was also involved with beer running and, right or wrong, it was for the latter that they blamed. While on his final ride, somebody had placed a gun to Baby Joe's temple around 4 a.m. that Sunday morning and pulled the trigger. The job done, they dumped his body on the stoop.

Baby Joe Flanagan 

Shock the Monkey

New York City -

Thirty-one-year-old Mortimer "Monkey" Schubert was a slot machine racketeer who was also involved in other nefarious pursuits, including, but not limited to kidnapping. He was an associate of gangster Gene Moran and was with him the night he was killed and set on fire.

Perhaps it was friends of Moran's or maybe those responsible for Moran's murder closing up lose ends but either way Monkey Schubert suffered a horrible demise. On the morning of November 14, 1929, a street cleaner admired a coupe parked on the street. Later in the day he noticed it was still there so began to look it over. He then noticed a pair of muddy shoes on the front seat. Looking closer he saw that the shoes were attached to a body.

Schubert had been tortured before having two bullets sent into his brain. An ear had been cut off, a large number of burns were found on his chest all the way up to his neck. In addition to another bullet wound in the arm, Monkey had been shot twice through the left cheek. It was determined that he had been dead for twenty-four hours.

Mortimer "Monkey" Schubert

Clipped in a Barber Shop

Russell Hughes was a Midwest desperado who robbed banks and was said to be an associate of Handsome Jack Klutas, head of band of kidnappers who preyed primarily on Chicago gamblers.

Hughes, who was involved in a number of bank robberies, was loitering in the doorway of a Peoria, Illinois barber shop on this date in 1933.  Peoria's Chief of Detectives Fred Montgomery along with detectives Robert Moran and Gay Dusenberry were cruising town in the former's sedan when Montgomery noticed Hughes, who was wearing a fake mustache. Montgomery told Moran that he thought the guy was ringer for Hughes so they pulled over to check him out.

Hughes noticed the detectives pullover and retreated back into the barber shop. The detectives followed him in. "All right Hughes; put 'em up!" Montgomery ordered. Hughes pulled his hands. from his coat pockets. He had a gun in each and the firefight was on.

Moran fell with a wound that would prove fatal and Montgomery also dropped with a shot in his shoulder. Though wounded, Montgomery was able to keep firing. Mortally wounded, Hughes finally crumbled. "I think every shot I fired hit that fellow," Montgomery later stated, "but he just wouldn't drop. Before I knew it, my gun was empty."

Russell Hughes

End of a Flower Power

Chicago. November 10, 1924 -

Dean O'Banion, head of the North Side gang stands in the rear of his floral shop clipping chrysanthemums. He has received many orders from gangland associates for the funeral of Mike Merlo, the head of the Unione Siciliana, the man whom had been keeping him alive for a number of months. Both John Torrio and the Genna Brothers wanted him dead, but Merlo was able to keep them in line.

Earlier that year, O'Banion found out that a brewery he was part owner of was going to be raided. He saw this as an opportunity to make money and possibly get rid of a rival. He went to John Torrio and told him that he wanted out of the rackets and offered to sell his share in the brewery to the Italian gang leader. Torrio accepted the offer and paid the money. After the deal was made and the money delivered. The raid took place, resulting in the brewery being closed and Torrio facing jail time as a second offender.

Not wanting to start a war, it was decided that O'Banion wouldn't be killed. A few months later Angelo Genna ran up a large debt at a gambling parlor jointly owned by O'Banion and Torrio/Capone. The latter two decided to forget the debt out of professional courtesy. Afterwards O'Banion got on the phone and demanded payment.

Mike Merlo, whom Italian revered preached peace, but on November 8, he died. It was then decided that O'Banion would go with him. Since all of gangland used O'Banion's shop for their funeral arrangements he wouldn't be suspicious of unknown Italian men coming into his shop.

Around noon, three men stepped into the shop. Gangland lore dictates that the man in the middle is New York mob boss Frankie Yale. The guys on either side Genna gunmen Albert Anselmi and John Scalise. Hearing the arrival O'Banion walked out from the rear room. With shears in one hand O'Banion extended his free hand to the middle man. "Hello boys. You from Mike Merlo?"
"Yes." the man replied grasping his hand and holding it. As the middle man held tightly to O'Banion's hand the two side men each drew a gun and fired into the Irish gangster five or six times. O'Banion fell back onto the floor and another bullet was sent into his brain.

The killers fled the shop as the porter ran from the rear and found his boss in a bloody heap with his hands twitching.

 Dean O'Banion

                         

Go Fish

Chicago-

On this date in 1931, small time hoodlum Richard Fishman was gunned down in a gambling joint located in the rear room of a cigar store. The 24-year-old gunman was suspected in three murders, including that of another small timer named Herman Horwitz,

A week prior to the shooting Fishman had entered the gambling parlor and stated to all there, "From now on, I'm the boss around here." and to make his point, he pulled out a gun and fired three shots into the floor.

Fishman came back to the gambling room and was shooting dice with another guy when a "tall, heavy set man" entered and opened fire; killing Fishman instantly and wounding another gambler.

Richard Fishman

Detroit Vengeance

Sixty-year-old Joe Rivetts, owned a saloon in Wyandotte, Michigan. His town is in the region known as "Down River" because it is south of Detroit along the Detroit River. After years of running his business independently, in the summer of 1931 Detroit mobster Joe Evola came calling and demanded that Rivetts start taking his beer from him. Rivetts refused. Shortly thereafter, hoodlums came and wrecked the place. Rivetts fixed the joint up and reopened.

The reopening was followed with more demands and threats by Evola. Rivetts ignored them leading the Detroit mobster to pay another visit on October 15 with another man, while Rivetts was working behind the bar. Witnesses stated that Evola was cursing Rivetts and then jumped over the bar. As Evola was clamoring over the bar, Rivetts pulled out a pistol and shot him once in the chest, piercing a lung. the Detroit mobster was removed from the tavern and taken to the hospital where he expired a few days later.

Rivetts was arrested for the shooting but let go after it was determined that he acted in self defense. The case brought to much attention to Rivetts who closed his place.

On this evening back in 1931, Rivetts sat at the bar in another saloon reading the paper. Charles Tear, the owner of the place, was tending bar. Another bartender, John Pelletier was also sitting at the bar when at approximately 8:05 three men walked in. One pulled out a shotgun from under his coat and the other two pulled out pistols. Rivetts noticed them first and made a dash for the rear door. A blast from the shot gun took off half his face. He was down. Tear tried to make his way from behind the bar but another shotgun blast removed the top of his head. The guys with the pistols took care of Pelletier. For some reason, another bar tender who was in the room wasn't shot. After the three men were killed the gunmen shot up the bar some and then took off.

 Joe Rivetts                     Charles Tear

We're So Sorry, Uncle Eddie

Philadelphia gangster Handsome Eddie Rafferty pulled into his brother's gas station on this date back in 1928. His niece was on hand and jumped into the back seat. Uncle Eddie had brought some grapes for her and she sat in the rear snacking away.

As Rafferty sat behind the wheel speaking with his brother a car drove by and men with shotguns and pistols opened fire. Rafferty slouched over the steering wheel. A second car containing gunmen followed up and opened fire on the already perforated gangster. Eddie fell to the floor mortally wounded. A third car drove by and also sent a burst of gunfire but missed the gangster completely instead, peppering the walls of the filling station. The niece was unhurt.

It was said that Rafferty was associated with the Eddie Reagan gang whom were supposedly responsible for the murder of a gangster named Robert Haggerty and that the latter's friends killed Rafferty in retaliation. Another theory was that Rafferty had double crossed another bootlegger named William "Hop" Reilly. Reilly was picked up but denied there was any trouble between him and Rafferty.

Handsome Eddie Rafferty

Grape Ape

Newark, New Jersey -

On this date in 1930, Dominick "The Ape" Passelli, described as a ranking member of Newark mob boss Richard Boiardo's gang, walked into the Newark General Hospital with a slight scalp wound. He claimed he had had an accident but in reality his head had been creased by a bullet. He was on the spot.

The staff patched him up and told him he could go on his way. "No, if it's all right with you, I think I'll stay here a couple of days." He told them. He was given room 33 where he received a few visitors, two men, around three o'clock. They stayed a short time then left.

A few minutes after six two men entered the hospital and, according to different stories, it was the same two men from earlier or two new men who made there way upstairs and asked where they could find room no. 33.

Also depending on who wrote the story one man stood at the door while the other fired, or both fired. The end result was the same; The Ape caught two bullets in the head and was killed.

At the time of the murder long time Newark gangland adversaries Longy Zwillman and Richard Boiardo supposedly had a peace pact so police didn't feel that it was rival gangsters that killed him. Since some reports stated the Ape's killers were his visitors from earlier, it was suggested that he was done in by his own gang. There was also a theory that he was muscling in on the grape racket

Dominick "The Ape" Passelli

Homer goes Home

Horse Shoe Lake, Madison County, Illinois -

The skeletal remains of former Cuckoo gangster Homer DeHaven were found on this date in 1932. DeHaven had left the Cuckoos along with faction headed by Tommy Hayes. When Hayes and two confederates were murdered that spring DeHaven was brought in for questioning.

DeHaven was arrested for murder on June 14, but released three days later due to lack of evidence. A short time after being released he was at his girl friends place in East St. Louis when a call came. It was another girl who asked him to meet her at a drug store. He put on his hat an coat and told his girl that he would be back later. He was never seen again until somebody discovered what was left of him in the woods. There were three holes in his skull, assumed to be caused by .45 caliber bullets. He was identified by a signet ring and dental work.

Police theorized that DeHaven was bumped off by the same people who killed Hayes just in case DeHaven wanted to avenge the murders.

Homer DeHaven

Wild Bill is Tamed

Brooklyn, New York -

In the early hours of this day back in 1923, Brooklyn waterfront tough Wild Bill Lovett former leader of the White Hand gang, was murdered while sleeping off a drunk in a riverfront shanty. Having killed both Irish and Italian gangsters, there was no shortage of people who wanted him dead. For a time it looked as though Lovett may have dodged a gangland execution. That summer he had married Anna Lonergan, sister of his right hand man, Richard Pegleg Lonergan, and they moved from Brooklyn out to the New Jersey suburbs in an attempt to make a normal life for themselves. Lovett longed for the old ways however and returned to his old haunts and went on a bender. Word spread that the former gangster was back in the neighborhood and somebody(ies) with an ax to grind, trailed him to the stevedore shack he decided to spend the night in and after he had passed out they entered that shanty and bludgeoned and shot him to death. His killers were never found.

Wild Bill Lovett