Alan Berg

Alan Berg (January 1934 – June 18, 1984) was a Jewish-American attorney and radio talk show host.

On the evening of June 18, 1984, he was assassinated in the driveway of his Denver, Colorado home by members of the white nationalist group, The Order. Ultimately, two members of the group were convicted in the case.

Early life

A native of Chicago, Illinois, Alan Berg attended the University of Colorado at Denver before transferring to the University of Denver.^[1] At age 22, Berg was one of the youngest people to pass the Illinois state bar examination and he went into practice in Chicago. However, he began to experience neuromuscular seizures and he had become an alcoholic.^[2] Berg's wife, Judith Lee Berg (née Halpern), convinced him to quit his practice to seek help. They moved to her hometown of Denver and he committed himself. Berg completed his rehabilitation, but he continued to be plagued by the seizures. He was ultimately diagnosed with a brain tumor. After it was surgically removed, he made a full recovery.^[2]

Radio career

Alan Berg opened a clothing store in Denver. It was here where he met KGMC-AM talk show host Laurence Gross. Impressed with Alan Berg, Gross made him a guest on several occasions. When Gross left KGMC to take a job in San Diego, California, he requested that Alan Berg be named his successor.

From KGMC, which changed its call sign to KWBZ, Berg moved to KHOW, also in Denver. After being fired from KHOW, Berg went back to KWBZ before it changed to an all-music format and he again lost his job. The unemployed Berg was courted by both KTOK in Oklahoma C ity, Oklahoma and Detroit, Michigan. He was lastly hired by KOA and debuted on Monday, February 23, 1981. He worked at KOA until his death.

Listeners in more than thirty states listened to Alan Berg's largely liberal opinions on such topics as gun control, homosexuality, religion, and anti-Semitism. He became notorious for upsetting some disagreeing callers to the point they began sputtering, whereupon Berg would berate them. However, Berg later toned down somewhat, especially after he returned to work after serving a suspension for similarly berating Colorado secretary of state Ellen Kaplan on his show.

Death

At about 9:30 p.m. on June 18, 1984, Alan Berg was shot thirteen times in the driveway of his Adams Street townhouse after he stepped out of his Volkswagen Beetle. He was returning home after a dinner date with his ex-wife, Judith. They were attempting a reconciliation.^[3] The murder weapon, a semi-automatic Ingram MAC-10 which had been illegally converted to an automatic weapon, was later discovered at the home of one of The Order's members by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's hostage rescue team.^[4]

Four members of The Order were ultimately indicted: Jean Craig, David Lane, Bruce Pierce and Richard Scutari. However, only Lane and Pierce were convicted, though neither of murder.^[5] Rather they were convicted of racketeering, conspiracy, and violating Berg's civil rights. Both were sentenced to essentially life terms: Lane's sentence was 190 years; Pierce's was 252 years.

David Lane was a former klansman who later joined the Neo-Nazi Christian Identity group Aryan Nation. He steadfastly denied any involvement in Alan Berg's murder, but neither did he regret that Berg was dead. In the 1999 History Channel documentary, Nazi America: A Secret History Lane, who called into Alan Berg's radio program at least once, stated: "As I remember, he used to go ballistic over things and I think I yanked his chain just a little bit just to see what he'd do ". In regards to Berg's murder, Lane stated in the same interview: "The only thing I have to say about Alan Berg is: regardless of who did it, he has not mouthed his hate-whitey propaganda from his 50,000-watt Zionist pulpit for quite a few years".

While incarcerated at Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, David Lane died at age 68 on May 28, 2007 of an epileptic seizure.^[6]

Jean Craig and Richard Scutari were convicted of unrelated crimes. The leader of The Order, Robert Mathews, believed to be a lookout for the Alan Berg assassination (which was never proven) was burned to death during a standoff with federal authorities on December 8, 1984 at his home at Whidbey Island, Coupeville, Washington.^[7]

Years before Alan Berg's assassination, Dr. William Luther Pierce, a former member of the American Nazi Party who went on to co-found what eventually became the National Alliance, described the similar assassination of an unnamed liberal Jewish talk show host in his fictional novel, The Turner Diaries. The book has also been described as the inspiration for the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on April 19,1995 due to the similarity to the book's account of the decimation of a government building in Washington D.C. and the fact that Timothy McVeigh, the man convicted of the Oklahoma City bombing, was an avid reader of The Turner Diaries.^[8]

Films and plays inspired by Berg's assassination

Alan Berg's murder was the basis for Eric Bogosian's 1987 play, Talk Radio and the fictionalized 1988 motion picture adaptation directed by Oliver Stone. Steven Dietz's 1988 play God's Country and the 1988 film Betrayed were also based on the incident.

References

External links

• Alan Berg at the Internet Movie Database
• Talk Radio Assassination!, WFMU website 1996
• "Living Out Loud: Death of a Radiohead", Cincinnati CityBeat July 14, 2004
• Judith Lee Berg, a profile of Alan Berg's widow

Sponsors:

Friends: