Organized Crime Figure. One of the most prominent members of Detroit’s “Purple Gang”, he was part of a younger generation of Jewish youths in Detroit’s North End who sought to emulate the older, established members of the of the Purple Gang. Harry Millman was a handsome, tough, hard drinking young man who rose to prominence in the early 1930’s. He had a pathological hatred for Italian criminals, constantly aggravating the city’s Mafia leadership. After an attempt to blow him up failed in August 1937, both the Mafia and the remnants of the Purple Gang sought to remove the volatile Millman from the scene. He was shot to death in the early morning hours of November 25, 1937 at Boesky’s, a restaurant-deli located at Hazelwood and 12th Streets. His killers have long rumored to have been Harry “Pep” Strauss and Harry “Happy” Maione of Brooklyn’s Murder, Incorporated.