Eddie Fletcher
Named in 1929 wire reports among four Purple Gang 'ringleaders' convicted in federal court at Detroit, and reported by the Bureau's Detroit office in November 1933 as murdered with Abe Axler.
- Died
- 1933
- Rights
- Biography on this page is limited to what the cited federal records and the filed newspaper pages state.
On the record
- 1929-07 — Milwaukee Leader, 25 July 1929: named with Abe Axler, Harry Sutton and Irving Milberg as ringleaders of the "purple gang" sentenced in federal court at Detroit.
- 1932-03-25 — Bureau of Investigation, Detroit: the list of photographs includes "Henry Fletcher," Detroit Police No. 28544, among those "known to be ring leaders of the Purple Gang." The 1933 letter gives 28544 as Eddie Fletcher's police number.
- 1933-11-28 — Bureau of Investigation, Detroit: clippings "concern the murder of two alleged members of the Detroit Purple Gang, Abe Axler and Eddie Fletcher"; "the Detroit Police number of ... Fletcher [is] 28544."
No family line is set: the 1933 Bureau letter calls Axler and Fletcher “alleged members,” which reports an allegation, and the 1929 page is a wire report. The 1932 list prints “Henry Fletcher” under the same police number the 1933 letter gives for Eddie Fletcher; the two letters are recorded here as printed, and the role field is left empty because the 1932 list does not use the name Eddie. The death year is the 1933 letter’s.
Records
itemDetroit Bureau of Investigation letter on the deaths of Abe Axler and Eddie Fletcher (28 November 1933)Special Agent in Charge Wm. Larson at Detroit sends the Director Detroit Times clippings on 'the murder of two alleged members of the Detroit Purple Gang, Abe Axler and Eddie Fletcher', with their Detroit police numbers.
itemDetroit Bureau of Investigation letter sending Purple Gang photographs to New York (25 March 1932)A three-page Bureau of Investigation letter from Detroit, written during the Lindbergh kidnapping inquiry, lists thirteen Detroit police photographs and states that all the men pictured except Joe Tocco 'are known to be ring leaders of the Purple Gang'.
clippingMilwaukee Leader, 25 July 1929, page 4: Detroit's rum ring now disorganizedA short item from Detroit: the 'purple gang', once Detroit's most powerful bootlegging organization, was 'disorganized' after a federal jury convicted four of its ringleaders, Abe Axler, Eddie Fletcher, Harry Sutton and Irving Milberg, of prohibition violations.