David Berman

David Berman (1903 – June 16, 1957) was a Jewish-American organized crime figure active in Sioux City, Iowa, the Twin Cities, and the Las Vegas strip. He was a casino gambling pioneer in Las Vegas, where he was a partner with mobster Bugsy Siegel at the Flamingo Hotel. Berman died in 1957 during surgery. Early life Berman was born into a Jewish family in Odessa, 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. David's mother was reportedly horrified after getting off the train and realizing that they had exchanged the relative 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 began his criminal career. At the age of 13, he ran a crew of teenaged thugs committing petty extortions and eventually a string of illegal moonshine distilleries during the Prohibition era. He then went on to supplement his earnings by also leading an armed robbery crew. In 1927, Berman was allegedly recruited from the Midwest by the New York City-based Bugs and Meyer Mob in order to kidnap wealthy criminals for ransom. However, after Berman and Joe Marcus' kidnapping of Brooklyn real estate baron and bootlegger Abraham Scharlin, both kidnappers were surprised by the NYPD while waiting for the $20,000 ransom payment in Central Park. Marcus drew his side arm and was shot dead. When offered a deal after his arrest in return for testifying against those who had hired him, meaning Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel, Berman famously quipped: "Hell, the worst I can get is life." For his role in solving the Scharlin kidnapping, NYPD Detective John Cordes became the only police officer in that department's history to be awarded a second Medal of Honor.