East Harlem Purple Gang
| Founded | early 1970s |
|---|---|
| Founding location | East Harlem (Italian Harlem), New York, United States |
| Years active | 1970s–1980s |
| Territory | Harlem (especially East Harlem, Italian Harlem, and Pleasant Avenue), South Bronx |
| Ethnicity | Italian American |
| Membership (est.) | approx. 100 (30 members approx., 80 associates approx.) |
| Criminal activities | Drug trafficking, murder, contract killing, gun-running, extortion, robbery, bookmaking, kidnapping, racketeering, loansharking |
| Allies | Five Families (especially Genovese crime family and 116th Street Crew), Leroy Barnes and The Council, Cuban Mafia, various Latin American drug trafficking organizations and African American organized crime groups |
| Rivals | At times the Five Families, especially the Bonanno crime family; various street gangs and drug dealers |
The East Harlem Purple Gang was a semi-independent gang of Italian American hit-men and heroin dealers who, according to federal prosecutors, dominated heroin distribution in East Harlem and the Bronx during the late 1970s and early 1980s in New York City. Though mostly independent of the Italian-American Mafia and not an official Italian-American Mafia crew, the gang was originally affiliated with and worked with the Lucchese crime family and later with the Bonanno crime family and Genovese crime family. It developed its "closest ties" with the Genovese family, and its remnants or former members are now part of the Genovese family's 116th Street Crew.
They allegedly named their group the 'Purple Gang' as a tribute to a Prohibition Era gang (Purple Gang) that terrorized Detroit 50 years earlier. Membership in the group was restricted to Italian Americans who grew up on Pleasant Avenue between 114th and 120th Streets, just east of 1st Avenue, also known as Italian Harlem. In the late 1970s, at the peak of its strength, the Purple Gang had about 30 members according to police reports and 80 associates, with higher numbers placing the gang's membership at over 100 (though this may include associates.) By 1977, law enforcement claimed that the Purple Gang had committed at least 17 homicides, some on behalf of 'organized crime principals', though dozens of other murders in the 1970s and 1980s have since been attributed to Purple Gang members.
The Purple Gang originated in Italian Harlem as an Italian-American youth street gang and were involved in various robberies and assaults before engaging in more organized criminal activity. Many of its founding members were related, some as brothers or cousins. When they first drifted into the narcotics business, the gang originally acted only as "delivery boys" or "spotters" (i.e. lookouts) for local established Italian mafiosi involved with the drug trade. However, the Purple Gang eventually rose to power in the Harlem drug trafficking business and subsequently graduated to committing murders following the 1973 arrests and convictions of several powerful Italian-American Mafia figures who had until then been dominating heroin and narcotics distribution in East Harlem. The 1973 arrests largely involved high-ranking mafiosi involved in the so-called "French Connection" heroin smuggling ring, such as Louis Inglese and Lucchese boss Carmine Tramunti. In the wake of these arrests, the Purple Gang filled the power vacuum created within the drug trade in East Harlem, eventually dominating the heroin trade in Harlem and the South Bronx and becoming not only major independent drug distributors but also major drug distributors for New York's "Five Families." In addition to drug trafficking and murder, the Purple Gang's other activities included kidnapping rival drug dealers for ransom, collecting loansharking debts, extortion, and labor racketeering, often carrying out these activities independently but sometimes on behalf of one of the Five Families.
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