In the criminal underworld of the 1930s, Louis 'Pretty' Amberg was a known Jewish American mobster. His life, however, came to a violent and mysterious end on October 23, 1935. The body of the 37-year-old man was discovered in the backseat of a burning car in Brooklyn, New York. He had been stripped of his clothing, a sack had been placed over his head, and his hands were bound with wire.
A witness at the scene reported seeing several men fleeing the burning vehicle.
The investigation into Amberg's murder unfolded against a backdrop of a brutal gangland war. Less than a month before his death, his brother, Joseph Amberg, had also been murdered. The timing of these events led to speculation that the killings were connected to a larger power struggle within the criminal syndicates of the time. The day after Louis Amberg's body was found, notorious gangster Dutch Schultz and five of his associates were killed in Newark, New Jersey, fueling theories of a retaliatory massacre.
Despite the high-profile nature of the case, no one was ever officially charged or convicted for the murder of Louis Amberg. An individual by the name of Al Stern or Stein was considered a suspect in the killings of both Amberg brothers and several other gangland figures. The prevailing theory among law enforcement at the time, though never proven in court, was that the assassination was the work of the infamous enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicate known as 'Murder, Inc.'. When asked about suspects, one police detective cryptically remarked, 'Yeah, Brooklyn,' a testament to the perceived reach and anonymity of the criminal organization. To this day, the murder of Louis Amberg remains officially unsolved.
