The American Mafia - Jim Colosimo

Jim Colosimo
? to May 11, 1920.
"Big Jim," "Diamond Jim"

Colosimo was a vice racketeer in Chicago just after the turn of the 20th Century. His primary illicit business enterprises appear to have been gambling rackets and the management of a string of social clubs and brothels.

Without the benefit of a gang of his own, Colosimo was repeatedly victimized by Black Hand extortion and sent to New York for aid. He called for his relative Johnny Torrio, who partnered in a Brooklyn-Manhattan gang leadership with Frankie Yale, to move west. Torrio settled in Chicago around 1909 and immediately put an end to Colosimo's Black Hand troubles.

In 1919, Five Points Gang enforcer Al Capone, who was wanted on murder charges in New York, decided to follow in Torrio's footsteps and joined Colosimo's Chicago organization.

With the arrival of Prohibition, Torrio and Capone wished to expand their illicit enterprises into bootlegging. Colosimo reportedly refused, possibly because he foresaw conflicts erupting with other criminal organizations in the city.

At the time, the operation of home breweries in Chicago's Sicilian-Italian communities and liquor smuggling operations were being coordinated by rival gangs. While Colosimo was reportedly Sicilian by birth (coming to America in 1872 when just one year old, or, according to other sources in 1881 when nine), he generally functioned outside of the Mafia establishment (one reason he was targeted by Black Handers).

Colosimo was assassinated May 11, 1920. It is widely believed the hit was performed by Uale at the request of Torrio and/or Capone. However, the Colosimo-Torrio-Capone group was not a Mafia organization, and, in fact, was presenting growing problems for the true Mafiosi in town - the Gennas and later the Aiellos. The Gennas might have been partly responsible for Colosimo's death. Colosimo also went through an ugly divorce just before his death, and his former brother-in-law was apparently suspected by police.

Whoever the responsible parties were, Torrio and Capone were the main beneficiaries. They took over Colosimo's businesses and formed a full-fledged gang.

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