David Berman (mobster)

David "Davie the Jew" Berman (1903–1957) was an American mobster in Iowa, New York City, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was also one of the pioneers of gambling in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was a partner with Bugsy Siegel at the Flamingo Hotel and one of the few mobsters of his era to die a natural death.

Early life

Berman was born into a Jewish family in Odessa, Ukraine, 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 South 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.

Gangster

After failing on the land, the Bermans moved to Sioux City, Iowa, 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 (gangster). 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, he also used his crew to intimidate and terrorise members of the racist Silver Shirts, driving them out of Minneapolis.

Soldier

Nazi crimes against his fellow Jews angered Berman so much that he fought the Germans after enlisting in the Canadian Army, after he was turned away by the U.S. military because he was a convicted felon (Pearl Harbor had not yet brought the U.S. into the war). He served in northwest Europe 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.

Viva Las Vegas

After his return to Minneapolis, Davie's gambling operations were shattered during the first term of racket busting Mayor Hubert Humphrey. 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.

Family

While he lived in Minneapolis, Berman met and married Gladys Ewald, a German-American dancer who later converted to Judaism. 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 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.

References

""Who Killed Susan Berman?" Cathy Scott, Las Vegas CityLife, February 25, 2004.
"Who Killed the Gangster's Daughter? Lisa DePaulo, New York Magazine, March 12, 2001.