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.
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, 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. He was nicknamed "Davie the Jew". 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.
Bergman said that persecution of his fellow Jews enraged him so much that he enlisted in the Canadian Army. He had, in fact, previously been turned away by the U.S. military as a convicted felon. In addition, Pearl Harbor had not yet brought the U.S. into World War II. He saw combat in the European Theater with the 18th Armoured Car Regiment, 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 Humphrey. Berman moved his crew to Las Vegas and operated there in concert with Genovese Family associate Moe Sedway, Almost immediately after the 1947 assassination of Bugsy Siegel, Sedway and Berman walked into the lobby of 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. The couple's only child, daughter Susan Berman, wrote a memoir about growing up as Las Vegas mob royalty titled Easy Street. In her memoir, Susan indicated 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 barbiturates, although it is unclear whether it was suicide. Berman's daughter Susan Berman was murdered in her Southern California home — the suspected murderer, whose trial is set to begin September 3, 2019 is Robert Durst.
