Anyone know of any discussion forums for 1910-1950 organized crime history?

A#1

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Feb 18, 2018
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Traverse City, Michigan
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I decided to add cache hunting into my normal research, just for fun.

I want to look into any crimes that may have been committed by a certain (somewhat high level) group, and maybe any links to loot that may have been hidden.

I have access to some land that they owned during their reign.

Anyone know of some forums that talk about organized crime history?
 

I want to look into any crimes that may have been committed by a certain (somewhat high level) group, and maybe any links to loot that may have been hidden.

Since you know who this "certain (somewhat high level) group" is, you might have better luck doing specific, historical research on their activities. I'm not sure how much luck you will have in finding loot, though. People involved in organized crime were more about living large and having a good time, not stashing away money for a rainy day. But hey, you might find a lot of old guns and bodies if the land is rural.
 

I do know who the group was, but it was a large group. Kinda like saying "The Capone Gang"....tyere was Capone himself, and a vast number of underlings composing "the gang"

I wanted to start by forming a list of member names to search, maybe make some name associations, learn of some misdeeds.

The gang was long lived, very active, highly connected, and very wealthy. Strangely I haven't found a lot of intel on them, but I've never had any interest in mafia kind of stuff till now. I found one book on a closely related group that i'm about to read, but it still cant cover everything.

The property is rural, remote, and bloody huge, like 10,000+ acres huge.

I have no reason to think anything is there, but it gets the imagination flowing.


I was just suprised I couldnt find a forum related to them somewhere.
 

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Good luck I hope you find a million dollars! There are the occasional posts on crime/gang related stashes but its always a guess. One guy was searching a camping area where the members of some gang(famous) had hid out and found a stash of several thousands of dollars. The one guys diamonds were never found. and there is s\a site in Indiana that is suppose to be where one guy buried his stash while his chauffer waited.....never been found...even thought the highway exit and directions are supposedly known and in circulation.
 

Wouldn't be the purple gang would it?

No, actually it isn't.

The Purple Gang definately gets talked about , histories and names often confused, took a while to sort out what I have so far.

The Purples were a much a much flashier group than who I'm looking at. Short lived really, they were "livin large"....as MiddenMonster said. Feeding their egos,making names for themselves, publicly violent, they got sloppy. They eventually spun out in the end, and went away.

The Purple Gang made a much better story than the group I'm interested in, I suppose that's why history remembers them.

I think the guys I'm looking at were plenty violent criminals, but they were also businessmen and investors......there was just as much organized as there was crime I guess. I think that's why all this land was initially bought. It's widespread, and it would have been quite worthless at the time. They bought out homes, farms, and thousands of acres of swampland
 

I do know who the group was, but it was a large group. Kinda like saying "The Capone Gang"....tyere was Capone himself, and a vast number of underlings composing "the gang"

I wanted to start by forming a list of member names to search, maybe make some name associations, learn of some misdeeds.

The gang was long lived, very active, highly connected, and very wealthy. Strangely I haven't found a lot of intel on them, but I've never had any interest in mafia kind of stuff till now. I found one book on a closely related group that i'm about to read, but it still cant cover everything.

The property is rural, remote, and bloody huge, like 10,000+ acres huge.

I have no reason to think anything is there, but it gets the imagination flowing.


I was just suprised I couldnt find a forum related to them somewhere.


Start looking for something out of the ordinary or that catches your eye from where you think they stood or stayed most of the time. Sounds like fun place to hunt. Have fun and good luck!

BigW.jpgshawshanktreescene.jpg
 

Easier said than done really. My best count says in the 40's they had 38 parcels of land, totalling 10,106 acres. Thats a lot of land to search through.

I was hoping to find a way of isolating more interesting places....like many just weren't accessable by roads. The main house is lost to development, and literally gone, including the original lay of the land. The surrounding forest has been logged time and again.

One neat thing I found was a waterfront place. The water is a main attraction to the area. Out of all that land, I only found one small place they had on the water.
 

Yup,actually I think the purple gang was remembered for a couple reasons.They were enforcers for capone,they were also the first gang to use the thompson.
 

I decided to add cache hunting into my normal research, just for fun.

I want to look into any crimes that may have been committed by a certain (somewhat high level) group, and maybe any links to loot that may have been hidden.

I have access to some land that they owned during their reign.

Anyone know of some forums that talk about organized crime history?

I don't think there are any forums here that discuss that... probably have to start a thread here.

I prohibition era cache hunt too and it's not just in the country where you'll find things associated with who and what you're talking about. Privately owned businesses and homes in the cities were used a lot.

I've got some photos to post that I'm about ready to put up on a site I was at. I had to take them from a VHS tape. ugh. You can see a couple Prohibition threads I talked a little about it.

I'd like a section to talk about what you're interested in. There's more to it than anything I've seen here.

Kace
 

On Treasure Net... in "Everything Else" Forum...?

He's looking for Cache Sites...

The High Level Group I took to mean the immigrants who formed the US organized crime syndicate...When he said Mafia.

He was right to put it in Cache Hunting I think. I'm not sure where else it would fit. Cache's could be from a private or an organized group.

This would be a great topic.

Kace
 

Start it in this Forum, then. "Mafia"...? NYC, Chicago, Miami, Virginia Beach... WHERE...?
 

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start it in this Forum, then. "Mafia"...? NYC, Chicago, Miami, Virginia Beach... WHERE...?

Kansas City was the Hub during prohibition...Then Chicago from KC, Omaha from KC, NY from Chicago, Detroit from Chicago,Milwaukee from KC and Chicago,Eastern Seaboard from NY.

Each of the major cities had links to each other. Each city and surrounding towns had their own distribution system and storage.

Those are where you'll find Cache's.

In most cases, the very rural areas were different from the cities. River towns are a prime place to find distribution sites.


Kace
 

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Kansas City was the Hub during prohibition...Then Chicago from KC, Omaha from KC, NY from Chicago, Detroit from Chicago,Milwaukee from KC and Chicago,Eastern Seaboard from NY.

Each of the major cities had links to each other. Each city and surrounding towns had their own distribution system and storage.

Those are where you'll find Cache's.

In most cases, the very rural areas were different from the cities. River towns are a prime place to find distribution sites.


Kace

Also add in Cleveland Ohio, and Even Canton Ohio. I have no "facts" but heard stories of where. My Great Grandfather was born in 1904 and talked about things that went on. Sadly I never wrote anything down. He even claimed to have met ..Capone...I believe it was. One of the big guys form the time.

I think mostly what your going to find is stories that are past down. Find the 80 year old people of that area and start asking for info some are a wealth of stories or knowledge of things past down to them from their parents. You'll have to sort it out to find a piece of fact. You also have to remember, their families live on(crime families) and most caches have been searched out by family members with way more info than what your going to find. Most of that stuff hasn't been forgotten and was probably recovered by someone at some point. But...who knows..there may be something there.

I "heard" of one(Cache) about ten years back that was passed down through the family from prohibition time, that was involved on the Ohio river. The daughter(or grand daughter) finally cashed it out. it had been held in the basement of a house for almost 100 years. No one will ever know this or who, I just "heard" through the grapevine because I was a gold and silver buyer at that time. And because of who the person that told me was, I believe it 100%. I was asked to buy it and couldn't because of the amount that was involved. But I was never given a name or an exact location unless I was ready to buy.

It's still out there(other Caches), but I believe most were either sold off over the years by family or is stuck where someone knows where it is(or at least the location). Another that I heard of was from a "speak easy". The Son bought property and farm land with it. When he passed the family looted the house and found a lot of money still stashed. I even went and looked a little with one of his daughters. There is still probably money there, but the family still continues to look....almost 100 years later. They are so sure there is still money hidden there that I wasn't allowed by the rest of the family to detect the land.
 

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I decided to add cache hunting into my normal research, just for fun.

I want to look into any crimes that may have been committed by a certain (somewhat high level) group, and maybe any links to loot that may have been hidden.

I have access to some land that they owned during their reign.

Anyone know of some forums that talk about organized crime history?

If they ran in Detroit or Chicago they were known...

Vacation and cooling off places were all over Mi..
Cache sites often just speculation.
Buildings were noted for hiding places.https://www.themorningsun.com/news/...cle_d6acd3b8-103f-5845-aaa2-d017da9e917a.html

Have not found any account of large caches. Accountability had to factor. As well as loyalty.
Some folks won't tolerate thieves among thieves....

Never know though. Some of those "hideouts" may have had a tide you over in emergency cache.
A cautious approach when arriving to be sure the cops are not waiting.
And maybe a cache you can recover even if they are.
That would put it in site of the building. But not close. At least till dark....
 


And What? I don't know what you're asking...

I've got two Prohibition Era Threads on here in this cache forum. If you read those, you'll be caught up with what I've posted so far. 'A Couple Dollars' is one and 'She Was Eyeballing Me' is the other. My Avatar is from the latter. More pics on that thread of it and pics on the first thread.

I'll post pics from the tape soon I hope (that's time consuming taking postable pics off of a tape) on another thread with a few of the recoveries from distribution sites as well as what was left behind.

I don't want to hijack A1's thread....But If he, you or others want to discuss this topic, I'm In. I'll post my stuff on another thread.

It's an interesting topic and time in our history. Hidden Rooms, Speakeasies, Boats, Bars, Barons and Booze! lol!

Kace
 

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