Organized crime Figure. Member of Detroit’s Purple Gang. Known throughout the city’s underworld as leading a “charmed life.” He survived a total of nine gunshot wounds, stemming from a machine-gun attack along Oakland Avenue in July 1927 and another murder attempt in February 1932, when Drapkin became one of a small handful of gangsters to survive a “one-way ride.” In the hospital, when questioned as to who shot him, he replied, “Santa Claus shot me!”