In the tumultuous era of Prohibition-era Detroit, a man named George Cohen, a male, became a casualty of the city's vicious gang warfare. His life came to a violent end on March 28, 1927, in what would become known as the Milaflores Massacre. Cohen, along with fellow gangsters Frank Wright and Joseph Bloom, was deeply enmeshed in the criminal underworld, with associations to the notorious Purple Gang.
Their activities included kidnappings and murders, which ultimately sealed their fates.
The chain of events leading to the massacre began on Christmas night of 1926 with the murder of Johnny Reid, a saloon keeper and liquor agent for the Purple Gang. This act was believed to be an act of revenge orchestrated by a Sicilian gangster. In the ensuing months, Wright, Cohen, and Bloom escalated their own criminal endeavors, including the murder of a drug peddler for the Purple Gang named Jake Weinberg on February 3, 1927. This final act of aggression proved to be their undoing, as it provoked the wrath of the Purple Gang's leaders, the Bernstein brothers.
Seeking retribution for Weinberg's death, the Bernstein brothers hired notorious hitmen Fred Burke and Gus Winkler. A trap was set for Wright by kidnapping his friend, Meyer 'Fish' Bloomfield. On the morning of March 28, 1927, Wright, accompanied by Cohen and Bloom, arrived at the Milaflores Apartments, unknowingly walking into an ambush. Three assailants armed with pistols and submachine guns opened fire. Joseph Bloom and George Cohen were killed instantly in the barrage of bullets. Frank Wright, despite being shot numerous times, clung to life long enough to provide a brief statement to authorities before succumbing to his injuries.
The Milaflores Massacre was a significant event in Detroit's history, marking the first recorded use of a Thompson submachine gun in the city's gang conflicts. The subsequent police investigation into the brutal killings pointed to the involvement of several members of the Purple Gang. Among those implicated were Eddie Fletcher, Abe and Simon Axler, Joe 'Honey Boy' Miller, and John Tolzdorf.
