DETROIT HISTORY TOURS: FELONIES, MISDEMEANORS, DETROIT COPS AND MOBSTERS

The tour is $51; your order confirmation email will serve as your only ticket.

Here is the website to purchase, please be sure to select the right tour, on the correct date and time: August 8, 2025 Cops and Mobsters Bus Tour

Some of the world’s most notorious criminals, mobsters, and gangsters bamboozled their way through Detroit. Meanwhile, some of history’s most infamous, brilliant, or honorable policemen tried to stop them. On our Felonies and Misdemeanors: The Detroit Cops and Mobsters Tour, escape into the city’s criminal underworld as we investigate stories about Jimmy Hoffa, Prohibition, The Purple Gang, “Joe the Hood,” The Gotham Hotel, and Detroit’s mob families.

You’ll hear the story of La Mano Nera—or Black Hand extortionists—in Detroit at the turn of the century. We’ll explore the illegal liquor wars of the 1910s. We’ll visit an iconic bar where we’ll learn about the police chief who resigned his appointment as a judge to bring “civility back to the police.” As we traverse the city, we’ll uncover the history of mobster-owned speakeasies and some of their most memorable raids.

From riots to rolling men into the river, from African American gambling rackets to Italian mobsters fixing professional football games, from hookers, madams, and street corner pimps to cops, mounted police, and mayors of all types—welcome to the criminal side of Detroit.

Because drinking and swearing are part of this history, all public bus tours are strictly for guests 21 years of age and older.