Louis "Pretty" Amberg (1897 – October 23, 1935) was an American mobster. Along with his brothers

Joseph Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

and Hyman Amberg, they competed against Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and the

Shapiro Brothers Meyer (1908–1931), Irving (1904–1931) and William Shapiro (1911–1934), collectively known as the Shapiro Brothers were the leaders of a group of Jewish-American mobsters from New York City and based in Williamsburg. Well established in ...

for control of

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

's racketeering activities during the 1920s and early 1930s.

Early life

Amberg was born in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

into a Jewish family, the fifth of eight children born to Charles and Rose ( Mindelwitz) Amberg. The family immigrated to New York in 1904. In 1910, the father's occupation was listed as a

peddler A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a chapman, packman, cheapjack, hawker, higler, huckster, (coster)monger, colporteur or solicitor, is a door-to-door and/or travelling vendor of goods. In England, the term was mostly used fo ...

. Louis Amberg was one of five brothers. In addition to Joseph and Hyman, his brother Oscar Amberg was tried but acquitted for murder and other crimes. William, who owned a furniture store, was the only brother apparently not in the crime business. Their mother had changed her name to Rose Mandell because the Amberg name became so notorious. Amberg had a tendency to stab a fork in the face of anyone who annoyed or offended him. He once stabbed

Milton Berle Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; ; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and tel ...

in the face after Berle insulted him from the stage of the Vanity Fair Club. An

urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

claims that Amberg turned down a circus scout proposal that Amberg appears as the Missing link at a salary of $50.00 a week.

Murder

Joseph Amberg was murdered on September 30, 1935. Less than a month later, Pretty Amberg's body was found on the back seat of a flaming car early in the morning of October 23, 1935 across from 131 North Elliot Place, Brooklyn. He had been stripped of his clothes, a sack placed over his head with his hands tied with wire. A witness who first spotted the flames saw several men running away from the scene. Amberg's body was claimed by an undertaker and he was buried without any ceremony. An individual named Al Stern or Stein, 21, was considered a suspect in the killing of both Amberg brothers and at least seven others since that August. The deaths of the Amberg brothers were part of a violent gangland murder spree. The day after Pretty Amberg's death,

Dutch Schultz Dutch Schultz (born Arthur Simon Flegenheimer; August 6, 1901October 24, 1935) was an American mobster. Based in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s, he made his fortune in organized crime-related activities, including bootlegging and the nu ...

and five others were slaughtered in what the media initially speculated could be retaliation for the deaths of the Amberg brothers. For the 10 months prior to his death, Pretty Amberg had been staying in a hotel in midtown Manhattan under an assumed name. Police searched the room and discovered more than $1,000 cash (), jewelry (including a gold watch with initials not matching Amberg) and extensive records. The records, which appeared to include names, addresses and other data were written in some kind of code.

Aftermath

The case remains officially unsolved, though he was alleged to have been killed by

Murder, Inc. Murder, Inc. (Murder, Incorporated) was an organized crime group, active from 1929 to 1941, that acted as the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicatea closely connected criminal organization that included the Italian-American Mafia, the ...

When asked if there were any suspects, a police detective reportedly answered, "Yeah, Brooklyn."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Amberg, Louis 1897 births 1935 deaths 20th-century American Jews Criminals from Brooklyn Date of birth missing Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Male murder victims Murdered Jewish American gangsters People murdered by Murder, Inc. People murdered in New York City Unsolved murders in the United States

Early life

Murder

Aftermath

See also

References

External links