Talked to Death: The Life and Murder of Alan Berg

by Stephen Singular

Tells the story of Alan Berg, the abrasive radio talk-show host who was murdered by right-wing extremists, and describes the trial of his killers

Genres: True Crime, History, Nonfiction, Crime, Biography

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Stephen Singular is the author or co-author of 22 non-fiction books, many of them about high-profile criminal cases. He’s also written sports and business biographies and social commentary. Two of the books have been “New York Times” bestsellers.

His first book, Talked to Death, set the tone for his journalistic career. Published in 1987, it chronicled the assassination of a Denver Jewish talk show host, Alan Berg, by a group of neo-Nazis known as The Order. The book was nominated for a national award — the Edgar for true crime — and became the basis for the 1989 Oliver Stone film, “Talk Radio.” Talked to Death was translated into several languages and explored the timeless American themes of racism, class, violence, and religious intolerance.

Reviews

[Laurie Parsons Cantillo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I worked with Alan Berg at KOA. It took me 37 years to summon the courage to read this book. I was a cub reporter/producer when Alan was murdered, and I produced his noon hour show. I faced the difficulty of being impartial while covering the arrests of Alan’s (alleged) killers. Through my own research, I persuaded a white supremacist pastor to turn over a tape that later became a key piece of evidence.

What I enjoyed about the book: I learned a few things I didn’t know about Alan’s life before talk radio. The author captures the essence of who Alan was and the listener’s love/hate relationship with him. The epitaph with quotes from friends, co-workers, listeners, and Alan himself is by far the highlight of the book.

What I dislike about “Talked to Death” is it’s framed as “the life and murder of Alan Berg” and yet a disproportionate number of pages are dedicated to robberies, counterfeiting, and the lengthy, racist, anti-Semitic writings of members of The Order. What’s missing is the immediate impact Alan’s death had on not only those who knew him, but the city of Denver, those who work in radio, and beyond.

To be in the KOA newsroom the morning after Berg’s death was surreal—my co-workers and I were reeling as we juggled ringing phones and demands for interviews while processing our own shock and grief. I learned of his death when buying a newspaper on my way to work. All of Denver was riveted for years by the murder of Alan Berg. His assassination sent shock waves through the radio industry, Jewish community, and beyond.

I expected more of this and less of the crime spree and exhaustive, hateful manifestos of the neo-Nazis who took our friend from us.

[David Keaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's no exaggeration to say I've been curious about this book for at least thirty years. It's cited as the inspiration behind two popular '80s movies I saw a lot back in my video store days; Talk Radio and Betrayed. So I always wondered which one more accurately depicted the circumstances surrounding the murder of (arguably the original) "shock jock" Alan Berg. The answer is that Eric Bogosian and Oliver Stone definitely poured over this source material more feverishly than Costa-Gavras did, as there are more details in Talk Radio that are taken directly from the transcripts of the radio shows featured in Talked to Death and (more surprisingly) the musings of Stephen Singular, the author of this book. However, weirdly enough, Costa-Gavras' uncharacteristically pulpy adaptation is more in the spirit of this true-crime novel, which only spends half its time with the background and life of Alan Berg, and the other half diving headfirst into the lives of a half dozen neo-Nazis responsible for his murder. So here's the final scorecard for any movie people out there who care about this sort of thing: Repurposed snippets and scenes that found their way into Bogosian's one-man play and Stone's mostly-one-man movie include... the "What if someone takes your job?" speech Bogosian uses to shred a caller (which I always wrongly assumed was an Oliver Stone addition, especially the Vietnam stuff, but it's actually the thoughts of the author, Stephen Singular, not Berg), the entire harrowing conversation with the "Turtle Creek" rapist is here, which is apparently the word-for-word, on-air conversation Berg had with a disturbed caller, and the "kid" who flashed a camera at Bogosian to foreshadow his murder (in the book, a neo-Nazi Berg invites up to the booth points a gun-like finger at him), and, of course, almost every Holocaust denier's on-air rants are included. But probably the most surprising is the much longer epilogue of friends, family, rivals, and straight-up haters who commented on Berg's death over the end credits of Stone's movie. Now as far as material Costa-Gavras used for his very '80s "Debra Winger Gets Abused Again" thriller Betrayed... there wasn't a whole lot, at least not at first glance. Berg's murder does serve as the prologue to that movie, but the gruesome "manhunt" setpiece in the film, which remains its most memorable moment (a racist sorta Most Dangerous Game deal), is not found in here at all (not even in the "8 Pages of Shocking Photos!"). But besides the possibly off-kilter focus on the white supremacists' day-to-day, a moment that captures the spirit of that film very well also comes at the end of the book; a lyrical passage describing Midwestern farmers riding their tractors and combines for hours and hours on end, and just like someone on an endless, mindlessly circular road trip, finally clicking over to some talk radio in their cockpits as a respite from the long days in the fields... only to discover some liberal pontificating they could get murderously angry about. Indeed, Berg and his ultimately fatal dance with both the hard-working and idle dipshits stewing out there under the sun, becoming increasingly addicted to radios instead of keyboards, is a dead-on accurate preview of our addictive internet nightmare to come.

[Jeremy Maddux · Rating 4 out of 5]

So apparently Alan Berg was one of the first men to use the microphone as a weapon against his listeners. It's a formula we've seen quite a bit over the last few decades. A toxic environment, over time, will create an antipath, i.e. someone who's as 'mad as hell and not going to take this any more.' Berg got his start as a bigtime attorney for the Mafia, then after guilt consumed him, a suit salesman and finally, a confrontational voice on the airwaves. He believed his sole function was to entertain, and one of his go-to mechanisms for entertaining us was by pissing us off, something he did with great ease. Radio is a hotbed of volatile talents, from Howard Stern to Phil Hendrie to Michael Savage to Bob Lassiter, etc.

But no one else has ever agitated their audience so much that it drove one of their listeners to kill them. That's what happened with Alan Berg.

As far as the book goes, I get that it's supposed to be a procedural of sorts, but I went into this expecting a straight biography, so I was disappointed that several chapters are given over to Berg's murderer, a member of white supremacist group The Order. I found myself not caring about the man who took Berg's life, because I was too busy admiring the man who pissed someone off so much that he had to die for it.

With that being said, this is the ONE boon I will give to Berg's murderer as he leveled a criticism against the entire United States Congress a few months before committing to Berg's grisly homicide:

"All of you together are not solely responsible for what has happened to America, but each of you, without exception, is partly responsible. And the day will come when each of you will be called to account for that responsibility."

After reading that, I'm a bit baffled why a small potatoes talk radio personality was their target and not a politician, if they were so bristly about the state of American affairs.

As a podcast host myself, I learned a lot from reading this about how to present myself on the air, not to be so caught up on being 'professional' but to be compelling and engaging. Everyone in America is WAY too preoccupied with a totalitarian Code of Professionalism and less with truly expressing themselves. Now, I can't wait to follow the example Berg set!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book about 70s and early 80s talk show host Alan Berg, who became famous at his radio station in Denver, Colorado for becoming a controversial personality, either much-loved or much-hated. Eventually a hate group from Hayden Lake, Idaho plotted to kill him and one of their members eventually did, in 1984.

The book more or less alternates chapters between discussing Berg's life and career, and then profiles of the hate group members as each joined and moved to Idaho from all parts of the country. You don't know until very late in the book which one actually does the killing. (Which I guess would be obvious.) I personally would have preferred a little more information on Berg and a little less on the skinheads.

The Alan Berg story was the inspiration for a Pulitzer-prize nominated play by Eric Bogosian, which premiered on Off-Broadway in 1987. Bogosian played the lead in the play and also in the movie version released the following year, directed by Oliver Stone and co-written by Stone, Bogosian, Tad Savinar, and the book's author Stephen Singular. The movie's shock jock is fictional, "Barry Champlain", but clearly it was based on Berg. It is not as obvious in the film which one of the many people calling in will be Champlain's killer, or if the person had any affiliations with the KKK or the equivalent.

I have the DVD of the film and having read the book now, I was impressed by Stephen Singular's writing style and would certainly recommend the book to others who like this genre.


**#34 of 100 books I have pledged to read/review in 2015**

[Mike Glaser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Closer to 3 1/2 stars but I round down. So I was watching the movie “Talk Radio” and found out that the premise from the movie came from the death of Denver radio host, Alan Berg and it also mentioned this book. My curiosity aroused, I decided to read the book. A very interesting tale about Alan Berg, his life and the group of new-Nazis that murdered him. One of the biggest takeaways for me was that I do not remember this incident at all. Granted, I was finishing up flight school when this occurred but I really have no memory about it at all. Second, I do not think that an individual like Alan Berg could exist on the airwaves today without being shut down. He was an equal opportunity abuser of his guests and was firmly on the side of free speech, even if it was offensive. Finally, I was surprised by the relative incompetence of the FBI. I thought that there fall from competence was a more recent occurrence but this book shows that they were not really good even back in the 1980’s.

[Mark Schomburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never noticed this news story back in the early 80s, but I did later notice an acute interest in neonazi groups during the later 1980s while living in Seattle, Washington. Evidently the heightened interest in Seattle was because the manhunt of the white supremacist group that killed Berg, ended in King County (Seattle area) after raids at Whidbey Island. This book is a very informative read into the white underbelly of extremist America which shows its connection to grassroots organized crime.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting history on the Alan Bergs life and the people that killed him.

[Barbara Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked it a lot. Loved that the author really didn’t have much of an opinion - he just reported what happened. Although this is an old book, it’s quite relevant in today’s world.

[Greg D'Avis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Berg murder was huge news when I was a kid - this is a very good, wide-ranging retelling that covers a lot of ground. Far better than the average '80s true crime paperback.

[Miller Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mediocre! I bought this from a thrift store because I thought the cover and title were cool. RIP Alan and punch a N*zi right in the head if you see one!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

account of the murder of Denver talk show host Alan Berg
by the neo-Nazi terrorist group The Order in 1984..

[Bobby Daugherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Biography of Alan Berg the Denver Howard Stern. It also covers the Order a criminal organization that murdered Berg in a drive by shooting.