Goodfella

Playing a high-rolling mobster, Norm Berger was a convincing undercover agent for the IRS and FBI. Then the government accused him of pocketing some of the proceeds. As Norm would say, "Ya gonna love this one."

Comments (0) By Thomas Korosec Thursday, Jan 27 2000

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Mark Graham

Guy wise: In his high-rolling days, Norm Berger called anything less than $1,000 "peanut money." Now, he says, he has his phone in the name "Berger Norman" to save the $2-a-month fee for an unlisted number.

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Berger's ex-wife, with whom he is still friendly on and off, says she believes he is stuck in that chapter of his life because he enjoyed it so much. "He had a nice, normal home and family. I was vice president of the PTA...Norm wanted to run around like a gangster. That sort of thing would be an embarrassment to me, but that's what he liked," she says.

Her ex-husband had been a lifelong gambler, but once he got a taste of the high-rolling, $200-a-night-suite life, he became addicted to it, she says. Same with the gangster act he adopted in his undercover role. "He took on this persona for the government," she says. "And it consumed him."