Pictured above are photos of Dutch Schultz moments are his death, the Chop House after the shooting, and a photo of Otto Berman.
In the 1930s Berman became the accountant for, and advisor to, gangster Dutch Schultz. In 1935 Berman was having a meeting at the Palace Chophouse tavern in Newark, New Jersey with Schultz and gunmen Abe Landau and Lulu Rosenkrantz when assassins hired by Lucky Luciano burst into the room. Berman was hit by several bullets as well as buckshot from a 12-gauge shotgun, and was the second of the four men to die. A photo of his bullet-riddled body appeared alongside a photo of Schultz undergoing surgery in the next morning's newspaper, under the headline, "Schultz, Five Pals Shot" (in fact, only four others were shot: Berman, Landau, Rosenkrantz, and Marty Krompier, one of Schultz's lieutenants). The accompanying article claimed that Berman was a gunman for Schultz; an angry Damon Runyon quickly submitted an editorial to the newspaper, defending Berman.
*Courtesy of Wikipedia*
Once again Doctorow has used real life and in this case real death in his novel to root his fictional characters in a believable world. This is not to say that stories that aren't believable that don't do this; it just makes it easier to believe and maybe even more enjoyable if you know something of the subject prior to reading.
2 comments:
I like that you add pictures to your blog, I can never figure out how to do that. Berman does look a little awkward, as Billy mentions. I am interested in the information you found and posted. It is crazy how back then the media would portray a horrid picture, as you mentioned of Otto. I think that Doctorow's books are interesting to begin with, even if his characters were not made from real life, but I think it adds a lot of interest for me. I like to look the people up on the Web to see what else I can figure out about them. Nice entry.
Well said.
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