Cool finds.
You might be interested in this, from the ‘Detroit Free Press’ – 30th March 1928, which I would put into the “who knew?” category.
Dry Cleaning Shop Bombed
Police Seek Pair in What is Thought Latest Phase of Dyers’ War Here
An explosion in the rear of a structure occupied by the Ridley Cleaners, Inc., Hamilton and Holders Avenues, early last night, is believed to be the latest outburst in Detroit’s “dry cleaners’ war” which has caused the death of two men and resulted in property damage of several hundred thousand dollars in the past three years.
Two men, seen running from a driveway behind the two-storey brick building housing the Ridley concern, are being sought as the perpetrators of the explosion. Although the detonation was felt and heard for a block in all directions, the explosives tore but a small hole in the wall of the building. None of the windows of the dry cleaning establishment was shattered and no damage was done to the firm’s equipment, employees state.
Linked With Other Blasts
While police worked along the theory that the bombing was a new chapter in the long list of such occurrences in Detroit, employees of the victimised firm would not assign any reason for the explosion… …
Second of Kind in Week
Last night’s bombing was the second of its kind within a week, the plant of the Forest Cleaners and Dyers Company, at 533 East Forest avenue, having been bombed late last Sunday night. Police said the explosive probably had been hurled from a passing automobile. Except for shattering windows in nearby apartment houses, the bomb caused no damage.
The body of Samuel Polakoff, 8737 Grand River avenue, vice-president of the Union Cleaners and Dyers, two weeks ago was found beside his bullet-riddled automobile at Grand River near West Grand boulevard. Polakoff, police said, was a former partner of a man killed about a year ago while attempting to escape after a stench-bombing.
In 1925 depredations by warring factions in the ranks of the dry cleaners including the bombing of 80 business houses, with a damage estimated at $200,000.
Ah… who can forget the infamous carpet and dry cleaning wars of the 1920s? The dust ultimately settled in Detroit when the rug addict Mucky Luciano was given the ‘Axminster overcoat’ treatment. Rugsy Malone took the rap for that after his fingerprints were found on a blood-stained carpet-beater, although some believe he was fitted up by the floor-covering specialist Walter Wall.
