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Former Speakeasy Reinvented into Mediterranean-Style Boutique Hotel Throughout the 1920s and '30s, Detroit’s Purple Gang was a notorious crime syndicate. The gang's operations extended all the way to California, where member Al Wertheimer built the Colonial House as a front for a brothel and gambling den. Hollywood executives would weekend at this underground speakeasy, entering via a secret staircase tucked behind a cupboard. The property later went on to become a hotel that welcomed the likes of Frank Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor. Today, the Colonial House is now in its fourth reincarnation as the Colony Palms Hotel. And though it has long since shed its sketchy affiliations, the Colony still has nods to its early days, such as decorative black-and-white portraits of scantily clad starlets hanging on the walls. Tribal weavings, red concrete floors, and half-shell lanterns make up some of the hotel's intriguing array of Moorish-style decor. The central