Shades Run and the Purple Gang is there any truth to the Legend in Penn Hills ?

My Friend the late Noel McCarthy known to everyone as Grizzly often told the story of Shades Run.
 It is located along Allegheny River Blvd just as you cross from city to Penn Hills and go over a concrete bridge .

Its all grown up this time of year but normally you can look up the Hollow.
Grizzly talked about a pack of Wild Dogs runs around it and how Body dumps and suicide victims where found there but he also talked about the Purple Gang or Purple Hood gang who conducted  mayhem and murder  in the  caves hidden among the weeds during the 1920's Boot Legging hay days

As you can see in the Google Earth Image its a very big very thickly wooded area some of it encompassed by the Former Government Run VA facility to the left .
While victims of foul play and suicides as well as walk away's from VA who lost there way and perished where  found in the area  as well as cases of wild dogs running free in area have been documented  .I can find nothing on the Purple Gang or Purple Hood Gang linking them to the area other than the notorious Purple Gang in Detroit which was loosely associated with the mob and had dealings  in almost every big city during boot legging days supplying booze   and possibly  did business with Larocca  Crime family here in its early days .
But almost all of the old mob of Pittsburgh have passed into history  and if the actual purple gang operated here other than to deliver booze to the city  I can find no evidence of it or the supposed caves

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19500203&id=WuMpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZyMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5356,833005

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=20001106&id=2rNRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iG8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7007,5350488

I am hoping I will run into an older Penn Hills resident who might be able to further fill in the story or legend .
and also some day I hope to explore the area to see if there are even any caves up there which is always a possibility with terrain in area but for now it seems more legend than fact. Like the 13 bends road across the river in Harmar Twp.