David Berman (mobster)

David Berman
Born	1903 Odessa, Russian Empire
Died	June 16, 1957 Las Vegas, Nevada
Nationality	American
Occupation	Organized crime figure

David Berman (1903–1957), nicknamed "Davie the Jew", was a Jewish-American organized crime figure in Iowa, New York City, and Minneapolis. 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 was one of the few mobsters of his era to die a non-violent death (during surgery).

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 Ashley, North Dakota, on land provided by Baron Maurice de Hirsch's Jewish Colonization Association. 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.

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, 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.

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