Herman Amberg

Organized Crime Figure. Along with his brothers Louis “Pretty” and Joseph Amberg, they were the most feared gangsters in the Jewish neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York City, New York during the 1920s and 1930s. Hyman was arrested for the murder of a Brooklyn jeweler in 1926 and placed in the “Tombs” jail in Manhattan to await trial. On November 3, 1926, he and another prisoner (armed with guns) tried to escape from the jail. They got as far as the prison wall but were trapped by the guards. With all hope of escape lost they put their guns to their heads and shot themselves to death.