Forty years after Alan Berg’s murder, his legacy remains powerful and poignant. The talk radio host was ambushed by a member of The Order, aka the Bruders Schweigen (German for Silent Brotherhood), firing a Mac-10 submachine gun into Berg in his central Denver driveway.

Berg’s assassination on June 18, 1984, reminds us of the persistent threat of bigotry and the perils of honest broadcasting. The threat of further extremism, directed by a president with immunity, felt more ominous after Monday’s awful Supreme Court ruling for Donald Trump. We remember Trump dining with a neo-Nazi leader and his affiliation with the Proud Boys.

In the past five years, History Colorado and the Denver Press Club have honored Berg. 9News anchor Kyle Clark marked the 40th anniversary by explaining that Berg’s execution was committed by “neo-Nazis who hated him because he was Jewish and because he called out their lies and their hate.” Clark wished Berg could address current events. 

I recently visited the Adams Street site of Berg’s assassination to pay my respects. Afterward, I interviewed the talented Kevin Flynn, co-author of “The Silent Brotherhood, The Chilling Inside Story of America’s Violent, Anti-Government Militia Movement.” My podcast honoring Berg was published on June 18 at 9:21 p.m., precisely four decades after his murder.

Now a veteran Denver city councilman, Flynn was an ace Rocky Mountain News reporter in 1984 and followed this story throughout America with his Rocky colleague and co-author, the late great Gary Gerhardt. 

A new film, “The Order,” based on Flynn and Gerhardt’s book, will star Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult. Podcaster/comedian Marc Maron is cast as Berg. The film and book primarily focus on the perpetrators and how they were caught and punished.

Alan Berg was a complicated man, best explained in Stephen Singular‘s book “Talked to Death,” which was the source for the not-too-faithful-to-the-book Oliver Stone movie “Talk Radio.” Singular knew Berg from listening to him and meeting Berg to profile him for The Denver Post.

Berg had flamed out as a high-flying Chicago trial attorney who drank too much. He rebounded in Denver as a sober haberdasher who found his true calling behind a radio microphone. 

Berg was outspokenly Jewish yet contemptuous of organized religion, including Judaism. He railed against racism while harboring some conflicted feelings about race. Berg’s independence and liberalism would not be welcome on today’s MAGA-AM radio.

Singular, who passed away in February, told me in 2021, “They once held a contest in Denver to say who’s the most liked and most disliked personality on the air. And he (Berg) won both awards.” 

David Savitz, a prominent Denver attorney and author, was one of Berg’s closest friends. They bonded over clothes, law and kibbitzing. 

Savitz told me what he observed toward the end of Berg’s life between Alan and his ex-wife, Judith: “I observed a very respectful and loving relationship between the two where they had understood that issues had occurred early in their marriage that drove them apart. And then, when he worked awfully hard to correct those issues, especially the alcoholism, and then he was suffering from headaches and seizures, she would often be by his side. So it was a love that had endured throughout the course of their divorce and something that brought them back together in an effort to reconcile.”

By 1984, Berg was 50. He was toning down his on-air antics, contemplating marital reconciliation and still competing hard for ratings and a new contract from KOA. 

Berg was changing, but he consistently stood up to bullies. I’ve spoken many hours with Judith Berg, who told me (here, at 1:50:40) about her former husband’s friends and also those he did not like. 

Savitz explained what Berg would say today: “(Berg) would compare the faces of the Order, the ones who killed him, with the faces in Charlottesville, and the faces on January 6th. He would say they’re all the same. He would be as critical and disgusted with them as one could imagine. He would not hold back in terms of how vile he thought they were.”

Denver attorney Harold Dubinski worked with Berg’s close friend, attorney Al Zinn. Dubinski gave me the Berg and Zinn sound he recorded perfectly on a cassette from an entertaining 1981 KOA broadcast. At one point, Berg told his CU ZBT fraternity brother, Zinn, “What I do here in talk radio is a waltz compared to what we used to undergo when I was a practicing attorney.” (here at 1:22:55).

Tragically, Berg’s work in talk radio and being Jewish ended his life.

Singular’s 2018 work, “Trolling for Assassins,” drew parallels between Trumpism and Berg’s killers, cautioning that extremists have shifted from isolated Idaho compounds to constant online presence, ready to act on Trump’s directives. 

The neo-Nazi types who silenced Berg are out of the shadows now, finding new life in MAGA, right-wing TV, AM radio and Steve Bannon podcasts. AM radio favorite Lauren Boebert will replace Bannon while he’s jailed. 

Veteran Berg listeners like me all agree he’d be a Never-Trumper. But after Thursday’s debate debacle, Berg would yell for Old Joe Biden to get off the stage because he’s too old. Berg would be 90 now, and he’d be correct. And entertaining.

Craig Silverman is a former Denver chief deputy DA. Craig is columnist at large for The Colorado Sun and an active Colorado trial lawyer with Craig Silverman Law, LLC. He also hosts The Craig Silverman Show podcast.

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