For 50 years, he's been a courtroom legend.  His controversial cases made history -- and made a lot of people mad. Now Goodman is making his last stand.

Technically, the six people on trial in Detroit were charged with sedition, advocating the violent overthrow of the U.S. government.  But everyone understood the real charge against them: They were Communists.  

In 1953,  it was hard to imagine a more loathsome offense. If you were charged with murder, rape or child molestation, you could at least find a lawyer to defend you. But if you were a Red, no one would take your call.

No one, that is, except Ernie Goodman.

Gangsters: Purple Gang members hide their faces from the camera in May 1929 after they were arrested on charges of providing protection to Detroit narcotics dealers. Over the years gang members were accused of hijacking, bootlegging, extortion, kidnaping and murder.

By Paul R. Kavieff / Special to The News
July 16, 1999

With the advent of Prohibition in Michigan on May 1, 1918, the young delinquents quickly graduated from nuisance types of street crime to armed robbery, hijacking, extortion, and other strong arm work. They became notorious for their high profile manner of operation and their savagery in dealing with enemies.

The four Bernstein brothers, Abe, Joe, Raymond, and Isadore (Izzy), soon became the recognized leaders of the mob. The Purple Gang was never a tightly organized criminal syndicate but a loose confederation of predominantly Jewish gangsters. By the early twenties, the Purples had developed an unsavory reputation as hijackers, stealing liquor loads from older and more established gangs of rumrunners. The Purple Gang always preferred hijacking to rumrunning and their methods were brutal. Anyone landing liquor along the Detroit waterfront had to be armed and prepared to fight to the death as it was common practice for the Purples to take a load of liquor and shoot whoever was with it. In the early years, the Purple Gang preyed exclusively on other underworld operators, insulating them from the police.