legger named Abraham
Scharlin and held him for
$20,000. A few days later
police arrested Berman for
kidnapping in a shootout
near Central Park.
Berman and a co-conspira-
tor, Joe Marcus, were
lounging on West 66th Street
when they saw two detec-
tives approach. Berman had a
pistol tucked in his belt, but
a detective grabbed him
before he could draw it.
Marcus was not so lucky. He
drew his gun, but not fast
enough. The detective shot
him dead.
The police grilled Berman,
but he wouldn't talk. One of
the detectives told Davie that
if he pleaded guilty he would
go free. Berman looked at
him and said, "Hell, the worst
I can get is life."
Davie's defiance made
headlines and New Yorkers
loved it. For weeks people
went around saying, "Hell,
the worst I can get is life."
The police finally found
Scharlin hidden in Brooklyn,
but he refused to identify
Berman as the kidnapper.
The authorities charged
Davie with attempted felo-
nious assault and violation of
the Sullivan Law. Berman
still kept mum.
In November 1927, Davie
was sentenced to 12 years in
Sing Sing. In prison, he
developed ulcers that would
plague him all his life. The
police never found out who
Berman's accomplices were.
Davie proved to be a model
prisoner and was released
after seven and a half years.
The warden made a special
request to have him freed, cit-
ing Berman's exemplary
behavior, high IQ and "total
rehabilitation."
As soon as he got out, the
"rehabilitated" Berman solidi-
fied his links with organized
crime. He moved into New
York's Mayflower Hotel and
began a life-long affiliation
with Bugsy Siegel, Meyer
Lansky, Lucky Luciano and
Frank Costello.
With their encouragement
and backing, in 1934 Berman
relocated to Minneapolis,
where his brother Chickie
and his mother lived. He
concentrated on gambling
and built a city-wide gam-
bling syndicate. According to
the FBI, Berman's bookmak-
ing establishments were pop-
ular because "he always locat-
ed them near Hebrew cafes
which served excellent
Hebrew food."
The menus of these restau-
rants listed delicacies such as
tongue, flanken, boiled chick-
en, goulash, kreplach, knaid-
lach, knishes and potato pan-
cakes, most of which were
cooked in chicken fat.
When the United States
entered World War II,
Berman wanted to enlist and
"kill ten Nazis for every Jew."
Rejected by the U.S. Army
because he was too old and a
convicted felon, Davie joined
the Canadian army in 1942.
He was wounded in action on
the Italian front and honor-
ably discharged in 1944.
Berman married 20-year-
old Gladys Evans, a profes-
sional dancer, in 1939. Their
daughter Susan was born in
1945. Berman adored Susan,
and until his death he did
everything in his power to
shield her from knowing
about the life he led.
She writes: "He told his
friends that I must never
know the secrets of his past
because the knowledge might
destroy me."
Susan's mother, Gladys,
"remained fanatical about
keeping me away from any-
thing that might mention my
father — newspapers, detec-
tive magazines, books."
As a result, while she was
growing up Susan never
questioned what she later
came to see as "unusual"
precautions taken for her
safety. "We had kidnap
drills," she says. Berman told
her: "If anyone asks if you're
Davie Berman's daughter,
say no, run, scream, yell, use
whatever you have to get
away."
Susan's memory of her
father was of a man who read
to her, hugged her and played
with her. She enjoyed a won-
derful, albeit sheltered, child-
hood.
"He lived in the midst of a
world that was dangerous,
violent and severe," she says.
"But he fabricated a child-
hood for me that seemed all-
American and completely nor-
mal, disguising his real
career as carefully as he man-
aged it."
Many years after Davie's
death, Susan finally learned
who and what he had been. It
was painful for her, but she
still remembers him as a lov-
ing and wonderful father
Bugsy Siegel
11 0. **$
A* 464
4.644.4
"who was a gangster, not a
gangster who was a father."
or more than 30 years,
Abner "Longy"
Zwillman was one of
America's leading
gangsters. He had connec-
tions everywhere, from his
home base of Newark, N.J., to
Las Vegas, Los Angeles and
Hollywood. And he was on
intimate terms with
America's top mobsters, Jews
and Italians. Despite this, he
kept his family totally sepa-
rated from and uninvolved in
his illegal businesses.
Longy had three sisters
and three brothers: Barney,
Harry and Irving. According
to Itzik Goldstein, who knew
Longy very well, Longy was
wonderful to his family.
F
The Los Angeles
mansion Siegel
shared with his
longtime love, Vir-
ginia Hill, and where
he was murdered.
"The only thing is he never
wanted his brothers to be
connected to the mob," says
Itzik. Through an associate,
Louis Kaufman, Longy con-
trolled Local 244 of the
Motion Picture Machine
Operators Union. Longy used
his influence with the union
to get jobs for his relatives.
"Irving was a motion pic-
ture operator (projectionist);
Harry was a motion picture
operator," says Itzik. "Barney
had a shoe store. As the years
went by, he went into the
liquor business. He had a cou-
ple of liquor stores."
As long as he lived,
Zwillman supported his rela-