Johnny Torrio
1882 to April 16, 1957.
"Fox"
Torrio is credited with being one of the organizers of the national crime Syndicate.
Torrio, believed to have been a nephew of Big Jim Colosimo of Chicago and the son of a widowed mother, grew up in New York and was a member of Five Points gangs until heading across the river to a leadership position alongside gangster Frank Yale. Torrio had established himself as a big shot in Brooklyn by 1909, when his uncle called him west to help out with a Black Hand problem. (The call to Chicago might have been as late as 1916.)
Colosimo was NOT a Mafioso. He served local political interests while running a string of brothels and entertainment establishments. As a wealthy Italian, he was victimized by extortionists. Torrio set about the tasks of eliminating the Black Hand threat and forming a gang to support the illicit operations of Uncle Jim.
By 1919, Torrio was Colosimo's right hand man. The new Torrio gang needed a ruthless enforcer. When one Torrio's old underlings from Brooklyn, Alphonse Capone, was wanted on murder charges in New York, Torrio decided that he should have a change of scenery. Capone was put to work as a bouncer in Colosimo's establishments and an enforcer for Torrio.
Colosimo was killed on May 11, 1920. Underworld legend says that Torrio and Capone were responsible because Colosimo hesitated to step on local gangsters' toes by going into the bootlegging business. But many others would have wanted Colosimo dead.
If Torrio and Capone were involved, it is likely that their old Brooklyn friend Frank Yale was imported to Chicago to take care of the murder. Yale was in town when Dion O'Banion was killed and is often said to be responsible for that death as well.
However, Colosimo had also recently left his wife to marry another woman. The wife and her family would have had reason to go after Colosimo. The birth of a Colosimo gang would have offended the existing gangs in the region, including the Sicilian Genna Family and the Irish-Jewish conglomeration on Chicago's North Side. The Black Hand extortionists put out of business by Colosimo's call to Torrio would also have had a score to settle with him.
Torrio took over the Colosimo operations and attempted to make peace with his neighbors. He tried diplomatically to establish zones of influence for the various gangs within the city and its suburbs. In 1923, the Torrio gang's move into Cicero required careful negotiations with the mobsters and politicians already in that community.
The peace in Chicago was an uneasy one and was broken in 1924 when Torrio was betrayed by North Siders who sold him the Sieben Brewery and then had police raid the establishment shortly thereafter. Torrio was sentenced to a prison term, but before he was sent away, rival gangsters decided to try to send him to the morgue. He was shot and severely wounded at his home Jan. 24, 1925. As he lay in the hospital, he reportedly turned command of his organization over to Capone and officially retired.
Torrio would no longer directly participate in the Chicago underworld, but he would still be an influential character on the national (and perhaps international) scene. After recovering from his injuries and serving his prison sentence, Torrio headed out on the road. He repeatedly visited New York and also went abroad. In New York, he worked closely with the likes of Charlie Luciano and Frank Costello and may have been one of the architects of the cooperative bootlegging organization known as the Seven Group.
It is believed that Torrio played an elder statesman's advisory role as organized crime units from around the country assembled into a national Syndicate in the early 1930s.
Torrio was once again jailed in 1939 when he was convicted of income tax fraud. After his release in 1941, he led a quiet life in Brooklyn.
He died of a heart attack in a Brooklyn hospital at the age of 75. His passing and burial were handled so quietly, that newspapers did not become aware that he had died until three weeks later.
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The American "Mafia"