Wertheimer family database

Al Wertheimer was a member of Detroit's Purple Gang, founded by the Bernstein brothers, Abe, Joe, Raymond and Izzy, and mentored Henry Shorr and Charles Leiter.
His reputation included co-orchestrating the Valentine’s Day Massacre with Al Capone.
By 1935, the Purple Gang was out of business.

In 1934, Al Wertheimer went to Palm Springs and promised the City Council he would build a fabulous palace with good food and music that would attract his friends from back east. Wertheimer opened his posh Dunes club in Cathedral City, with a special road leading to it; that street became Date Palm Drive.
He built the Colony Palms Hotel, originally named The Colonial House, as a popular speakeasy, and a front for a brothel and gambling house.

In 1941, the California Attorney General’s office and Riverside County Sheriff’s Department swooped down on Palm Springs' three gambling houses, definitively closing them.
Al Wertheimer was fined $800, convicted of maintaining a gambling establishment and ultimately tax evasion.
The Dunes’ furnishings were sold at auction, and the whole place burned down.