David Berman (mobster)
Encyclopedia
David "Davie the Jew" Berman (1903, Odessa
, Russian Empire
– 1957, Las Vegas, Nevada
) was a Jewish-American organized crime
figure in Iowa
, New York City
, and Minneapolis, Minnesota
. He was also one of the pioneers of gambling in Las Vegas, Nevada
. Berman was a partner with Bugsy Siegel
at the Flamingo Hotel and one of the few mobsters of his era to die a natural death (death during surgery.)
, at that time in the Russian Empire. His father was a former rabbinical student
who played the violin. When he was a young child, his father departed for America and settled in Ashley, North Dakota
, on land provided by Baron
Maurice de Hirsch
's Jewish Colonization Association
. Mr. Berman then sent for his wife and children. Davie's mother was reportedly horrified after getting off the train and realizing that they had exchanged the warmth of Odessa for the icy cold of the Great Plains
.
, where David got his start as a mobster. At the age of 13, he ran a crew of teenaged thugs committing petty shakedowns and eventually a string of illegal distilleries. He then went on to run his own bank-robbing crew. After developing close ties to the Genovese crime family
, he moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota
, where he operated a major bookmaking operation in rivalry with local mob bosses Kid Cann
and Tommy Banks. One of Berman's closest enforcers during those years was Israel "Ice Pick Willie" Alderman, a homicidal Jewish gangster from North Minneapolis. His brother, "Chickie" Berman, also worked for him.
Due to his close relationship with Minneapolis mayor Marvin L. Kline, Berman briefly eclipsed his rivals as boss of the Minneapolis gambling rackets.
According to his daughter, Susan
, Berman also used his crew to intimidate and terrorize members of the pro-Nazi Silver Shirts, driving them out of Minneapolis.
had not yet brought the U.S. into World War II
. He saw combat in the European Theater with the 18th Armoured Car Regiment (12th Manitoba Dragoons), a reconnaissance outfit, along with Minnesota friend Nathan Gittlewich. Berman was well liked, and fellow troopers did not know of his criminal background.
. Berman moved his crew to Las Vegas
and operated there in concert with Genovese Family associate Moe Sedway
,
Almost immediately after the assassination of Bugsy Siegel
, Sedway and Berman walked into the lobby of the The Flamingo
and announced that they were in charge. Berman died on the operating table during surgery to remove polyps from his colon on Father's Day
, 1957.
. Their only child, daughter Susan Berman
, wrote a memoir about growing up as Las Vegas mob royalty titled Easy Street
(1981, '83). In her memoir, Susan indicates she knew little of her father's past until an acquaintance brought to her attention the mentions of her father in the book The Green Felt Jungle. Gladys Berman died shortly after Davie Berman at age 39 of an overdose of barbituates, although it is unclear whether it was suicide or a mob murder for refusing to give up Davie Berman's shares in the Flamingo for pennies on the dollar.
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
, Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
– 1957, Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
) was a Jewish-American organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
figure in Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
. He was also one of the pioneers of gambling in Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
. Berman was a partner with Bugsy Siegel
Bugsy Siegel
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was an American gangster who was involved with the Genovese crime family...
at the Flamingo Hotel and one of the few mobsters of his era to die a natural death (death during surgery.)
Early life
Berman was born into a Jewish family in Odessa, UkraineUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, at that time in the Russian Empire. His father was a former rabbinical student
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
who played the violin. When he was a young child, his father departed for America and settled in Ashley, North Dakota
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
, on land provided by Baron
Baron
Baron is a title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and Latin baro meaning " man, warrior"; it merged with cognate Old English beorn meaning "nobleman"...
Maurice de Hirsch
Maurice de Hirsch
Maurice de Hirsch was a German-Jewish philanthropist who set up charitable foundations to promote Jewish education and improve the lot of oppressed European Jewry. He was the founder of the Jewish Colonization Association which sponsored large-scale Jewish immigration to Argentina...
's Jewish Colonization Association
Jewish Colonization Association
The Jewish Colonization Association was created on September 11, 1891 by the Baron Maurice de Hirsch. Its aim was to facilitate the mass emigration of Jews from Russia and other Eastern European countries, by settling them in agricultural colonies on lands purchased by the committee, particularly...
. Mr. Berman then sent for his wife and children. Davie's mother was reportedly horrified after getting off the train and realizing that they had exchanged the warmth of Odessa for the icy cold of the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
.
Gangster
After failing on the land, the Bermans moved to Sioux City, IowaSioux City, Iowa
Sioux City is a city in Plymouth and Woodbury counties in the western part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 82,684 in the 2010 census, a decline from 85,013 in the 2000 census, which makes it currently the fourth largest city in the state....
, where David got his start as a mobster. At the age of 13, he ran a crew of teenaged thugs committing petty shakedowns and eventually a string of illegal distilleries. He then went on to run his own bank-robbing crew. After developing close ties to the Genovese crime family
Genovese crime family
The Genovese crime family , is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The Genovese crime family has been nicknamed the "Ivy League" and "Rolls Royce" of organized crime...
, he moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
, where he operated a major bookmaking operation in rivalry with local mob bosses Kid Cann
Kid Cann
Isadore Blumenfeld , commonly known as Kid Cann, was a Jewish-American organized crime figure based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for over four decades and remains the most notorious mobster in the history of Minnesota...
and Tommy Banks. One of Berman's closest enforcers during those years was Israel "Ice Pick Willie" Alderman, a homicidal Jewish gangster from North Minneapolis. His brother, "Chickie" Berman, also worked for him.
Due to his close relationship with Minneapolis mayor Marvin L. Kline, Berman briefly eclipsed his rivals as boss of the Minneapolis gambling rackets.
According to his daughter, Susan
Susan Berman
Susan Berman was a reporter and author who was the daughter of Davie Berman, a mob figure in Las Vegas. She wrote extensively about her late-in-life realization of her father's place in a criminal empire...
, Berman also used his crew to intimidate and terrorize members of the pro-Nazi Silver Shirts, driving them out of Minneapolis.
World War II
Persecution of his fellow Jews enraged Berman so much that he enlisted in the Canadian Army. He had previously been turned away by the U.S. military as a convicted felon. In addition, Pearl HarborPearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
had not yet brought the U.S. into World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He saw combat in the European Theater with the 18th Armoured Car Regiment (12th Manitoba Dragoons), a reconnaissance outfit, along with Minnesota friend Nathan Gittlewich. Berman was well liked, and fellow troopers did not know of his criminal background.
Las Vegas
After his return to Minneapolis, Davie's gambling operations were shattered during the first term of racket busting Mayor Hubert HumphreyHubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
. Berman moved his crew to Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
and operated there in concert with Genovese Family associate Moe Sedway
Moe Sedway
Moe Sedway was the faithful lieutenant of organized crime czar Meyer Lansky. Sedway had his own police record dating as far back as the early 1920s in New York. He began making trips to Las Vegas on Lansky's behalf in the early 1930s to franchise the syndicate's Trans-America race wire service...
,
Almost immediately after the assassination of Bugsy Siegel
Bugsy Siegel
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was an American gangster who was involved with the Genovese crime family...
, Sedway and Berman walked into the lobby of the The Flamingo
Flamingo Las Vegas
The Flamingo Las Vegas is a hotel casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada and is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment Corp.. The property offers a casino along with 3,626 hotel rooms...
and announced that they were in charge. Berman died on the operating table during surgery to remove polyps from his colon on Father's Day
Father's Day
Father's Day is a celebration honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. Many countries celebrate it on the third Sunday of June but it is also celebrated widely on other days...
, 1957.
Family
While he lived in Minneapolis, Berman met and married Gladys Ewald, a German-American dancer who later converted to JudaismJudaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
. Their only child, daughter Susan Berman
Susan Berman
Susan Berman was a reporter and author who was the daughter of Davie Berman, a mob figure in Las Vegas. She wrote extensively about her late-in-life realization of her father's place in a criminal empire...
, wrote a memoir about growing up as Las Vegas mob royalty titled Easy Street
Easy Street (book)
Easy Street is the first memoir of Susan Berman, daughter of Las Vegas mobster David Berman. In it, Berman chronicles her mother Gladys' and her own obliviousness to what went on around them...
(1981, '83). In her memoir, Susan indicates she knew little of her father's past until an acquaintance brought to her attention the mentions of her father in the book The Green Felt Jungle. Gladys Berman died shortly after Davie Berman at age 39 of an overdose of barbituates, although it is unclear whether it was suicide or a mob murder for refusing to give up Davie Berman's shares in the Flamingo for pennies on the dollar.
Further reading
- Berman, Susan. Easy Street: The True Story of a Gangster's Daughter. Bantam Books, 1983. ISBN 0553229354.
- Scott, CathyCathy ScottCathy Scott is an American true crime writer and investigative journalist, born and raised in San Diego, United States growing up in nearby La Mesa, California...
. Murder of a Mafia Daughter: The Life and Tragic Death of Susan Berman. Barricade Books, 2002. ISBN 1569802386. - Scott, Cathy. "Who Killed Susan Berman?" Las Vegas CityLife. February 25, 2004.
- DePaulo, Lisa. ""Who Killed the Gangster's Daughter?" New York Magazine. March 12, 2001.