David Berman – From Capone to Bugsy Seigel

Gangland Wire

Gary Jenkins: Mafia Detective

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 623 Ratings

🗓️ 31 July 2023

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. David Berman 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, a partner with mobster Bugsy Siegel at the Flamingo Hotel. Berman died in 1957 during surgery. Berman began his criminal career at 13 by running a crew of teenage thugs committing petty extortions and eventually a string of illegal distilleries. He then went on to supplement his earnings by also running his own armed robbing crew. Later after a time in the Twin Cities and serving in WW II, Berman moved his crew to the Las Vegas strip and operated there in concert with Genovese Family associates Bugsy Siegel, Dutch Goldberg, and Moe Sedway. According to journalists Ed Reid and Ovid Demaris, Berman was involved in the mob’s investigation into Siegel and the missing profits of the Flamingo Hotel and Casino. Both journalists further allege that Berman “had talked to Benny many times about it, warning him that if the matter was not settled soon, he was going to find himself minus a head.” Twenty minutes after the 1947 assassination of Bugsy Siegel in Beverly Hills, California, Gus Greenbaum, Moe Sedway, and David Berman walked into the lobby of the Flamingo and announced that they were in charge. This episode was brought to you by BetterHelp Subscribe to the Podcast for a new gangster story every week. Support the Podcast. Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwireClick here to “buy me a cup of coffee” To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup click here To rent Brothers against Brothers, the documentary, click here. To rent Gangland Wire, the documentary, click here To buy my Kindle book, Leaving Vegas: The True Story of How FBI Wiretaps Ended Mob Domination of Las Vegas Casinos. To subscribe on iTunes click here. Please give me a review and help others find the podcast. Donate to the podcast. Click here!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Well, hey, all you wiretappers out there back here in the studio of Gangland Wire.
0:03.6	I have a little known story about a little known Jewish gangster, Jewish American gangster of the 1940s, 50s, 60s, almost.
0:13.7	I guess he died in 1957, real instrumental in helping to get Las Vegas going.
0:19.2	David Berman, born in 1903, you know, kind of interesting.
0:23.5	He came from the Midwest. He's a good Midwest boy in Sioux City, Iowa, and Twin Cities,
0:28.2	then out to Las Vegas. And he was really a casino gambling pioneer. He was a partner with
0:33.4	Bugsie Siegel at the Flamingo early on. I'll tell you a little bit about where David Berman
0:39.1	came from. He was born in Odessa, Russia, the Russian Empire back in 1903 before the revolution in
0:47.5	1917. His father was a rabbinical student, played a violin, kind of more of a cultured sort of a guy.
0:55.2	But when he was a young man, you know, those programs over there in Russia caused a lot of
1:00.6	Jewish people to leave Russia.
1:02.1	They moved to, they relocated to Ashley, North Dakota.
1:07.4	Now, can you imagine, I guess the lay of the land, the steps, the Russian steps,
1:13.0	the North Dakota prairie might not be so different. I don't know if he was a farmer or not.
1:18.9	I couldn't figure that out. But there was a Baron Maurice de Hirsch, who was a Jewish guy,
1:26.3	had a colonization association. And when people were leaving
1:30.2	Russia and coming to the United States, this was a place that he had set up to relocate people.
1:36.5	They say that his mother was horrified when she got off the train and saw it was the Wild West.
1:42.9	It was cold. They were used to Odessa, which is a decent
1:47.4	sized city. The Bermans didn't do too well, and they moved south. Not very far south as Sioux
1:53.7	City, Iowa, which is cold and heck too, you guys in the upper Midwest, no. But that's where he began
1:59.5	his criminal career. Like all these other newly arrived immigrants back in the upper Midwest, no. But that's where he began his criminal career. Like all these other newly arrived immigrants back in the 19, the teens and the early
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