Irving Milberg
Named in 1929 among four Purple Gang 'ringleaders' convicted in federal court at Detroit; a 1932 Bureau of Investigation letter says he had been in jail since September 1931 in the murder case for which Harry Keywell received a life sentence.
- Family
- Purple Gang (Bureau of Investigation letter, 1932)
- Role
- among those "known to be ring leaders of the Purple Gang" (Bureau of Investigation, Detroit, 1932)
- 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 (as printed, "Irviug Milberg") among four ringleaders of the "purple gang" sentenced in federal court at Detroit.
- 1932-03-25 — Bureau of Investigation, Detroit: "Irving Milberg, #28547, has likewise been in jail since September, 1931, in connection with the same murder for which Harry Keywell was sentenced to life imprisonment. Milberg is likewise confined in the Michigan State Penitentiary." He is among those "known to be ring leaders of the Purple Gang."
The family and role lines quote the 1932 Bureau letter. The letter does not name the killing, and no court record of the case is filed here.
Records
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.