Louis "Pretty" Amberg and the Brooklyn Loansharking War

Louis "Pretty" Amberg and his brothers, Joseph, Hyman and Oscar were likely the most feared organized crime figures in Brooklyn's Jewish neighborhoods. They were active from the mid 1920s through the 1930s. Hyman Amberg was one of a trio of men who attempted to escape from the Tombs Prison in New York City on November 3, 1926. When their breakout was foiled the prisoners turned their machine guns on themselves. Louis was nicknamed Pretty by rivals and newspapers. He invented the bag murder in which victims were tortured and eventually wriggled their way to self-strangulation.