Discuss Detroit » Archives - Beginning January 2006 » Detroit during prohibition on History Channel « Previous Next »
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Iddude313
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Username: Iddude313

Post Number: 16
Registered: 07-2005
Posted From: 70.236.165.62
Posted on Saturday, March 18, 2006 - 3:32 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Last night on the History Channel much film footage was shown on Detroit during prohibition.
There were movie clips of the big steamers, of skyscrapers being built, people driving their cars over the icey river to Windsor to get whiskey, streetcars and a very active downtown.
It was very cool to see.
Anyone else see it?
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Broken_main
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Username: Broken_main

Post Number: 975
Registered: 06-2005
Posted From: 69.222.11.226
Posted on Saturday, March 18, 2006 - 3:42 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I would have loved to see it. If it comes on again I will have to save it on the computer. I will check into it.
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Erikd
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Username: Erikd

Post Number: 554
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 69.242.214.106
Posted on Saturday, March 18, 2006 - 5:23 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That was the show on Prohibition. It has been on before. It does have some cool footage of 20's Detroit, and many pics of dead bodies, courtesy of the Purple Gang.

Some interesting factoids from that show:

Between 1925 and 1931, there were over 500 UNSOLVED murders in Detroit, most of them were attributed to the Purples.

During Prohibition. the murder rate in America jumped 80%.

America needs to wake up and realize that the War on Drugs is a major failure, and responsible for most of the murders in this country. Prohibition of drugs and alchohol doesn't work.
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Lilpup
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Username: Lilpup

Post Number: 888
Registered: 06-2004
Posted From: 205.188.116.137
Posted on Saturday, March 18, 2006 - 5:47 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Rumrunners, Moonshiners And Bootleggers available on DVD or VHS for the low, low price of $29.95
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Detroit313
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Username: Detroit313

Post Number: 13
Registered: 02-2006
Posted From: 12.45.2.184
Posted on Saturday, March 18, 2006 - 8:08 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanks lilpup:-)
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Jerome81
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Username: Jerome81

Post Number: 941
Registered: 11-2003
Posted From: 64.142.86.133
Posted on Sunday, March 19, 2006 - 3:37 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Agreed ErikD. Those who want it will get it. Why not make a profit on it, decrease the murder rate, and stop spending money to fight a war you can't win?

Oh, because morally, its the right thing to do? Yeah, that excuse is worth it.
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Lilpup
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Username: Lilpup

Post Number: 890
Registered: 06-2004
Posted From: 64.12.116.204
Posted on Sunday, March 19, 2006 - 3:47 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

No, Jerome, it's because prescription drugs are more profitable and the war on illegal narcotics is money laden and keeps a lot of people employed.
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Rustic
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Username: Rustic

Post Number: 2216
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 67.163.181.81
Posted on Sunday, March 19, 2006 - 8:53 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yay Detroit!
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Mcp001
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Username: Mcp001

Post Number: 2053
Registered: 11-2003
Posted From: 69.14.135.95
Posted on Sunday, March 19, 2006 - 11:56 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The History Channel will rotate this through their lineup about every month or so.

Their website has a link to their program guide as well a a listing of when a particular program will be shown in the future.
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Jimaz
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Username: Jimaz

Post Number: 476
Registered: 12-2005
Posted From: 68.2.191.57
Posted on Sunday, March 19, 2006 - 2:12 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I vaguely recall another (PBS?) documentary about Henry Ford's "Service Bureau" run by, um, Harry Bennett?

Ford wanted his employees to live virtuous lives outside of work and the Service Bureau would pay visits to their homes to check for alcohol, etc. In the end, the Service Bureau became so corrupt that Ford had to disband it (to protect his own family?).

I'd like to find that documentary or, better, a webpage that tells the story.
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Mikeg
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Username: Mikeg

Post Number: 28
Registered: 12-2005
Posted From: 69.136.155.244
Posted on Sunday, March 19, 2006 - 2:55 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Michigan's oldest continually operating bar, The Stonehouse Bar, is located in Detroit, near the State Fairgrounds. Their website claims that their building was a clubhouse for the Purple Gang during Prohibition, however, I don't think that place was anywhere near the Purple's turf.

The Stonehouse was originally known as the "Sportsmen's Rendezvous Bar", when a distant cousin of mine opened it in May of 1933, within days of the repeal of Prohibition in Michigan. Upon his death in 1940, it was sold to his business partner and it has remained in operation ever since, even though it has changed names and ownership several times.
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Danny
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Username: Danny

Post Number: 3817
Registered: 02-2004
Posted From: 141.217.174.223
Posted on Monday, March 20, 2006 - 9:44 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I wonder did the Purple Gang and Oakland St. Sugar House Gang did some booze smuggling?
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Walkerpub
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Username: Walkerpub

Post Number: 83
Registered: 12-2003
Posted From: 24.57.42.143
Posted on Monday, March 20, 2006 - 9:47 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Read up:

http://www.walkervilletimes.co m/prohibition.html
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J32885
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Username: J32885

Post Number: 23
Registered: 11-2005
Posted From: 68.41.108.161
Posted on Sunday, March 26, 2006 - 10:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I saw that special a while back on the History Channel, and it was a good one.
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Crash_nyc
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Username: Crash_nyc

Post Number: 566
Registered: 08-2004
Posted From: 24.193.163.82
Posted on Monday, March 27, 2006 - 5:02 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I'm an Editor at A&E Networks (A&E, History Channel, etc), and love to delve into our video library in my off-hours to check out video footage of old Detroit.
A few months ago I stumbled upon some archival footage of a prohibition-era booze-bust in Detroit. The Feds were hauling barrels out of a place that vaguely resembeled the old Woodbridge Tavern in Rivertown. I worked at the Woodbridge during the early '90s, and remember hearing stories about how it's basement was once used as a temporary storage location for booze that was smuggled across the river from Canada.

My great-grandfather operated a prohibition-era blind pig in a basement somewhere the vicinity of 8 Mile & Woodward, and he was one hardcore mofo. He had scars on his forearm & chest after surviving a shotgun blast from the Purple Gang, who busted into his place one night to 'deliver a message' that they weren't happy with his establishment.
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Sailor_rick
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Username: Sailor_rick

Post Number: 120
Registered: 02-2004
Posted From: 12.2.192.223
Posted on Monday, March 27, 2006 - 6:55 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yikes! Not as risky as getting a chestfull of lead, but my grandfather used to run booze between between Canada and Wyandotte in his fliver whem the ice froze.
In the warmer months, he'd use his fishing/duck hunting boat.
I understand back in the day, this was quite the "cottage" industry downriver.
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Digitaldom
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Username: Digitaldom

Post Number: 433
Registered: 08-2004
Posted From: 24.192.148.150
Posted on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 - 1:06 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Correct the purple gang did ALOT of smuggling during this period.. My great-grandfather was on the Detroit Police gang squad to fight the purple gang during this period.. Unfortunately he passed away several years ago, otherwise I would ask him for details...
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Livedog2
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Username: Livedog2

Post Number: 6
Registered: 03-2006
Posted From: 24.223.133.177
Posted on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 - 2:31 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Not to be outdone by the Capone Gang the Purple Gang had an answer to the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Three members of the "Little Jewish Navy," a group of Purples who owned several boats and participated in rumrunning as well as hijacking, decided they would break away from the gang and become an underworld power themselves. The three men, Hymie Paul, Isadore Sutker aka Joe Sutker, and Joe Lebowitz, were lured to an apartment on Collingwood Avenue:

http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_res ult?addr=collingwood&csz=detro it%2C+mi&country=us&new=1&name =&qty=

on September 16, 1931. They believed they were going to a peace conference with Purple Gang leaders. In reality, they were only going to their deaths.

After a brief discussion, the three unarmed Purples were shot to death by the Purple Gangsters they had gone to meet. A bookie named Sol Levine, who had transported the three men to the fatal rendezvous, was arrested soon afterwards and was quickly frightened into becoming a State's witness. Levine had been allowed to live because he was a friend of Ray Bernstein.

The State had a live witness to the murders and Levine's testimony was devastating. Three of the four Purples involved in the incident which became known as the Collingwood Manor Massacre were quickly arrested. Irving Milberg, Harry Keywell, and Raymond Bernstein, three high ranking Purples, were convicted of first degree murder in the Collingwood Manor Massacre and sent to prison for life.
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Detroit_stylin
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Username: Detroit_stylin

Post Number: 2585
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 66.202.227.12
Posted on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 - 11:32 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I remember watching that particular special on the HC. I found it interesting that 95% of the illegal booze that was sold in the US originated in Canada and crossed into the US through Detroit. Another intersting fact that I found out was how Canada at the same times as the US had gone dry, however seeing how profitable bootleging was in the US authorized Canadian distilleries to open up on the river and legally make alcohol, but illegal to sell it in Canada...

How's that for international cooperation?
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Detroit_stylin
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Username: Detroit_stylin

Post Number: 2586
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 66.202.227.12
Posted on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 - 11:34 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

BTW the bldg where the massacre took place is no longer standing, I believe...
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Jt1
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Username: Jt1

Post Number: 7097
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 198.208.159.20
Posted on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 - 11:41 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Ah during the good old days when Detroit was crime free and a perfect place. Funny how people ignore how violent our past was to think about the 'good old days'
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Detroit_stylin
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Username: Detroit_stylin

Post Number: 2588
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 66.202.227.12
Posted on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 - 11:46 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yanno Jt1?

Back in the days when no one had to think about leaving the city for safer crime free areas...
lol
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Rustic
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Username: Rustic

Post Number: 2279
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 130.132.177.245
Posted on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 - 12:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

DS and Jt1, nonsense! Crime was CLEARLY the reason Hupp Motor Car company went outta business and of course crime chased Ford out of Highland Park down to Dearborn. Take off your blinders, guys!

ps -- Nowadays crime is the reason that the Ford Wyoming Drive in is likely gonna close, and with GM troubles, forget about eroding market share, legacy costs and sclerotic management -- crime is the culprit!
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56packman
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Username: 56packman

Post Number: 160
Registered: 12-2005
Posted From: 129.9.163.234
Posted on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 - 12:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jimaz--the Ford "service bureau" stayed intact during old man Ford's lifetime, and as he became more mentally feeble (but no less powerful), Bennett weilded more power. The Fed Gubb-ment went and early-discharged HFII (Hank the duce) to take things over, so that war goods would flow from Ford without the interupptions of a senile old man. Upon arrival, HFII began a big power struggle between himself and Bennett.
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Wabashrr1
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Username: Wabashrr1

Post Number: 24
Registered: 03-2006
Posted From: 152.163.100.8
Posted on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 - 1:00 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

From..

http://www.autolife.umd.umich. edu/Design/Gartman/D_Casestudy /Harry_Bennett.htm

"Harry Bennett (1892-1979) was head of Ford’s Service Department, or internal security. He ruled the Rouge Plant, and some say Henry Ford himself, through threats and intimidation, arguably becoming more influential than Edsel Ford, Henry’s son and the company’s President from 1919 to 1943. He first worked in Ford’s art department in 1917, but his “tough guy” manner got him appointed head watchman, and eventually he supervised over 3000 reputed crooks and retired policemen in the Service Department. “The Battle of the Overpass,” Ford’s 1937 response to attempts at unionization, was led by Bennett. Ford fought unionization until 1941. While rumor had it that Ford wanted Bennett to replace him as president, that job went to Henry Ford II, who fired Bennett in 1945."

The Battle of the Overpass

http://www.reuther.wayne.edu/e xhibits/battle.html

Some photos at the site too though, most were destroyed by bennett and his thugs.

I wonder if Ford Motor Co. would have survived if not for W.W.II (war production needs).

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