Alan Berg - Biography

Alan Berg (January 1, 1934 – June 18, 1984) was a Jewish American attorney and Denver, Colorado talk radio show host. Berg was notable for his largely liberal, outspoken viewpoints and confrontational interview style.

On the evening of June 18, 1984, Berg was fatally shot in the driveway of his Denver town home by members of the white nationalist group, The Order. He died immediately. Ultimately, two members of The Order, David Lane and Bruce Pierce, were convicted for their involvement in the case, though neither of homicide.

Alan Berg's life and death were chronicled in the book, Talked to Death: The Life and Murder of Alan Berg by Stephen Singular. The book was an inspiration for the films Betrayed and Talk Radio.

Early life

Alan Berg was a native of Chicago, Illinois. He attended the University of Colorado Denver before transferring to the University of Denver. 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. His then-wife, Judith Lee Berg (née Halpern), convinced him to quit his practice to seek help. They moved to Denver, her hometown, and he entered rehabilitation voluntarily. Although he completed his treatment, he continued to be plagued by seizures. He was ultimately diagnosed with a brain tumor. After it was surgically removed, he made a full recovery. For the rest of his life, Alan Berg wore long bangs to hide the surgical scars.

Radio career

Alan Berg worked at a shoe store and later opened a clothing store in Denver where he met KGMC-AM talk show host Laurence Gross. Impressed with 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 City, Oklahoma and Detroit, Michigan. He was lastly hired by KOA and debuted on February 23, 1981. He worked at KOA until his death.

Listeners in more than thirty states listened to Alan Berg's liberal social and political views. He became notorious for upsetting some callers to the point they began sputtering, whereupon Berg would berate them. However, he later toned down somewhat, especially after he returned to work after serving a suspension for an incident involving Colorado Secretary of State Ellen Kaplan on his show.

Death

At about 9:30 p.m. on June 18, 1984, Alan Berg returned to his Adams Street townhouse after a dinner date with Judith, with whom he was attempting a reconciliation. Berg stepped out of his black Volkswagen Beetle and gunfire erupted. He was struck twelve times. The murder weapon, a semi-automatic Ingram MAC-10, which had been illegally converted to an automatic weapon, was later traced to the home of one of The Order's members by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Hostage Rescue Team.

Four members of The Order were ultimately indicted on federal charges: Jean Craig, David Lane, Bruce Pierce and Richard Scutari. However, only Lane and Pierce were convicted, though neither of homicide (which is a state crime). Rather, they were convicted of racketeering, conspiracy, and violating Alan Berg's civil rights (which are federal crimes). Both were sentenced to what were, for all practical purposes, 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 Berg's murder, but neither did he regret that Berg was dead. In an interview presented as part of the History Channel documentary, Nazi America: A Secret History, Lane admitted to calling the show and goading Berg into an exchange and stated: "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". Lane, incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, died of an epileptic seizure at age 68 on May 28, 2007. One of the alleged gunmen in the Alan Berg assassination, Bruce Pierce, who was incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Complex in Union County, Pennsylvania, died of natural causes at age 56 on August 16, 2010. Craig and Scutari were convicted of unrelated crimes. The leader of The Order, Robert Jay Mathews, believed, although never proven, to be a lookout in the Alan Berg shooting, was burned to death during a standoff with federal authorities on December 8, 1984, at his home in Coupeville, Washington.

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, wrote the white nationalist themed novel The Turner Diaries. Robert Mathews had named his organization, The Order, after the fictional group of the same name in the book. The Turner Diaries has also been described as the inspiration for the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995, due to the similarity to the book's account of the destruction of a government building in Washington, D.C., and the fact that Timothy McVeigh was an avid reader of The Turner Diaries.

Films and plays inspired by Berg's assassination

Steven Dietz's 1988 play God's Country and the 1988 films Betrayed and Talk Radio were also based on the incident.

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