Otto "Abbadabba" Berman, c. 1935

Otto "Abbadabba" Berman (1889? — October 23, 1935) is a legendary US Mafia accountant famous for his ability to cook accounting books. He is also known for coining the phrase "Nothing personal, it is just business." Image File history File links OttoAbbadabbaBerman. ... Image File history File links OttoAbbadabbaBerman. ... 1889 (MDCCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... October 23 is the 296th day of the year (297th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 69 days remaining. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... United States is the current Good Article Collaboration of the week! Please help to improve this article to the highest of standards. ... The Mafia, also referred to in Italian as Cosa Nostra (Our Thing or This Thing of Ours), is a secret society formed in the mid-19th century in Sicily. ... Accountancy (British English) or accounting (American English) is the process of maintaining, auditing, and processing financial information for business purposes. ...

Virtually no information on Berman has survived in the ensuing years since his death. He was born Otto Biederman in or around 1889 in NYC. When he was fifteen, he was arrested and tried for attempted rape but found not guilty. As an adult he became an accountant, well known for his ability to figure complex mathematical equations and algebraic expressions in a matter of seconds, without the use of paper or pen. A member of the New York nightlife, he met and befriended writer Damon Runyon. Runyon would go on to base his recurring character Regret on Berman, and Berman would be thus immortalized by character actor Lynne Overman when a movie was made out of Runyon's story, Little Miss Marker. New York, New York redirects here. ... In criminal law, an acquittal is the legal result of a verdict of not guilty, or some similar end of the proceeding that terminates it with prejudice without a verdict of guilty being entered against the accused. ... Official language(s) English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  Ranked 27th  - Total 54,520 sq mi (141,205 km²)  - Width 285 miles (455 km)  - Length 330 miles (530 km)  - % water 13. ... Damon Runyon Damon Runyon (October 4, 1884 – December 10, 1946) was a newspaperman and writer. ... Little Miss Marker (also known as The Girl in Pawn) is a 1934 film which tells the story of a young girl whose father gives her to a gangster as collateral to pay off a gambling debt. ...

In the 1930s Berman fully enshrined himself in the criminal underworld when he became the accountant for and advisor to gangster Dutch Schultz. In 1935 Berman was having a meeting at the Palace Chophouse tavern in Newark with Schultz and gunmen Abe Landau and Lulu Rosenkrantz when assassains hired by Lucky Luciano burst into the room. Berman suffered several bullet wounds and buckshot from a twelve gauge shotgun, and was the second of the four men to die. A photo of his bullet-riddled body appeared alongside a photo of Schultz undergoing surgery in the next morning's newspaper, under the headline, "Schultz, Five Pals Shot" (itself a misnomer; the only people attacked that night were Berman, Landau, Rosenkrantz, and Marty Krompier, one of Schultz's lieutenants). That article claimed that Berman was a gunman for Schultz; an angry Damon Runyon quickly submitted an editorial to the newspaper, defending Berman. 1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Dutch Schultz (August 6, 1902–October 24, 1935) was a New York City-area gangster of the 1920s and 30s. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Abe Landau (December 25, 1898-October 24, 1935) was the chief henchman for New York gangster Dutch Schultz. ... Lucky Luciano in his Rome villa, 1949 Charles Lucky Luciano (November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962) was a legendary Italian-American mobster. ...

Some fifty years after his death Berman became a literary anti-hero as the sage mentor to the main character in the PEN/Faulkner award winning novel, Billy Bathgate. Billy Bathgate is a character created by author E.L. Doctorow, and has been featured in three pieces of modern art: Songs of Billy Bathgate, a 1968 short story featuring the son of the character from Doctorows later novel. ...

External links

• Mugshot, aged fifteen