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United States Government office memorandum to the Director, FBI, from SAC Miami, subject Detroit Purple Gang, National Stolen Property Act, listing names and police numbers
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Miami office memorandum 'Detroit Purple Gang' (April 1948)

An FBI office memorandum from the Special Agent in Charge at Miami to the Identification Division lists seven men, with aliases and police numbers, said 'according to information received by the Miami Office' to be 'presently members of the notorious DETROIT PURPLE GANG'.

Date
1948-04-15
Kind
case-file
Source
FBI Records: The Vault, Purple Gang Part 01, p. 55
Retrieved
2026-10-12
Docket
62-29632 (stamped)
Rights
A record of the Federal Bureau of Investigation released under FOIA through the FBI Vault. A work of the United States government, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105.

A Standard Form 64 “Office Memorandum” to the Director, FBI, attention Identification Division, Single Fingerprint Section, from the SAC at Miami. The subject line reads “Detroit Purple Gang, National Stolen Property Act.” The date line prints “April 15,” with the year illegible on the scan; the “Recorded and Indexed” stamp reads April 20, 1948, which is the basis for the year given here.

The memorandum states: “According to information received by the Miami Office, the following individuals are presently members of the notorious DETROIT PURPLE GANG.” Seven names follow with aliases and Michigan State Police or Detroit police numbers: Harry Fleischer (aliases including Harry Fleisher, Harry Fleish and Henry Fink), Sam Fleisher, Sam Abramowitz, Charles Leiter, Isadore Schwartz, Morris Raider and Peter Apostolakos. Handwritten numbers have been added beside several names.

The membership statement is the Miami office’s report of what it was told. The memorandum does not say what stolen-property matter prompted it.

itemFBI Vault file on the Purple Gang (aka Sugar House Gang)The FBI Vault's four-part release of Bureau file 62-HQ-29632 on the Detroit Purple Gang: 1932 to 1959 letters and memoranda from the Detroit, New York and Miami offices, mixed with newspaper clippings the Bureau pasted into the file.itemAlcatraz warden's notebook page for Harry Fleisher, No. 320Bureau of Prisons notebook page with the identification photograph of Harry Fleisher, No. 320, received at Alcatraz from Leavenworth on 6 August 1936 on an internal revenue conspiracy conviction from Detroit; co-defendants Sam Fleisher, Joe Stein and Jack Selbin. A copy is stored here.itemAlcatraz warden's notebook page for Sam Fleisher, No. 327Bureau of Prisons notebook page with the identification photograph of Sam Fleisher, No. 327, received at Alcatraz on 6 August 1936 on the same Detroit internal revenue conspiracy case as his brother Harry; transferred to Leavenworth 18 March 1937. A copy is stored here.