Abe Axler

Organized Crime Figure. One of the most prominent members of Detroit’s Purple Gang. He was born and raised in Williamburg, Brooklyn, along with future Purples like Eddie Fletcher, Irving Milberg, Sam Abramson, and Isadore Cantor. In the fall of 1921, Abe and his brother Simon were convicted on burglary charges and did 4 years in Sing Sing. By 1926 the two Axler brothers had joined their pals in Detroit, throwing themselves into the Cleaners and Dyers War. In March 1927 he, Eddie Fletcher, and Honey Boy Miller machine gunned three gangsters to death in the “Milaflores Massacre.” Thereafter he was known as one of the most dangerous hit men the Purple Gang had. He participated in many hits over the years. In the summer of 1929, he and three cohorts went to Leavenworth on bootlegging charges for a two-year sentence. He and his life-long best friend, Eddie Fletcher, attempted to take control of the Purple Gang in the early 1930’s. After they angered the Italians by trying to take over the Detroit narcotics rackets at the end of Prohibition, their fate was sealed. Abe Axler and Eddie Fletcher were both taken for a ride and shot to death on November 26, 1933. Their killers were suspected to be members of the Purple Gang, acting on orders from the Mafia.