Johnny Torrio
Johnny Torrio | |
---|---|
Born | Donato Torrio January 20, 1882 |
Died | April 16, 1957 New York City,U.S. | (aged 75)
Resting place | Green-Wood Cemetery,Brooklyn, U.S. |
Other names | The Fox The Brain Papa Johnny Terrible Johnny The Immune |
Occupation | Crime boss |
Predecessor | Big Jim Colosimo |
Successor | Al Capone |
Criminal status | Released |
Spouse |
Anna Theodosia Jacobs
(m.1912) |
Allegiance | Chicago Outfit |
Conviction(s) | Tax evasion(1939) |
Criminal penalty | 2 years' imprisonment (1939) |
John Donato Torrio[1](bornDonato Torrio,Italian:[doˈnaːtoˈtɔrrjo];January 20, 1882 – April 16, 1957) was an Italian-born mobster who helped build theChicago Outfitin the 1920s later inherited by his protégéAl Capone.[2]Torrio proposed aNational Crime Syndicatein the 1930s and later became an adviser toLucky Lucianoand hisLuciano crime family.
Torrio had several nicknames, primarily "The Fox" for his cunning and finesse.[3]TheUS TreasuryofficialElmer Ireyconsidered him "the biggest gangster in America" and wrote, "He was the smartest and, I dare say, the best of all the hoodlums. 'Best' referring to talent, not morals".[4]Virgil W. Peterson of theChicago Crime Commissionstated that his "talents as an organizational genius were widely respected by the major gang bosses in the New York City area".[5]Crime journalistHerbert Asburyaffirmed: "As an organizer and administrator of underworld affairs, Johnny Torrio is unsurpassed in the annals of American crime; he was probably the nearest thing to a real mastermind that this country has yet produced".[6]
Early life
[edit]Torrio was born inIrsina(then known as Montepeloso),Basilicata,inSouthern Italy,to Tommaso Torrio and Maria Carluccio originally fromAltamura,Apulia.[7]When he was two his father, a railway employee, died in awork accident;shortly after, Torrio immigrated to James Street on theLower East Sideof New York City with his widowed mother in December 1884.[7]She later remarried.
His first jobs were as a porter and bouncer in Manhattan. While he was a teenager, he joined a street gang together with another James Street residentRobert Vanellaand became its leader;[8]he eventually managed to save enough money and opened a billiards parlor for the group, and from there grew illegal activities such as gambling and loan sharking. Torrio's business sense caught the eye ofPaul Kelly,the leader of theFive Points Gang.Torrio's gang ran legitimate businesses, but its primary concern was thenumbers game,supplemented by incomes from bookmaking, loan sharking, hijacking, prostitution, and opium trafficking.Al Capone,who worked at Kelly's club, admired Torrio's quick mind and looked to him as his mentor.[9]
Capone had belonged to the Junior Forty Thieves, theBowery Boysand the Brooklyn Rippers; they soon moved up to the Five Points Gang.[10]Torrio eventually hired Capone to bartend at the Harvard Inn, a bar in theConey Islandsection of Brooklyn owned by Torrio's business associate,Frankie Yale.[11]
Move to Chicago
[edit]By 1909, Torrio moved toChicago."Big Jim" Colosimo,who had become head of a burgeoning vice empire in Chicago is reputed to have invited him to the city to help him deal withBlack Handextortionists. After doing so, Torrio became a top lieutenant in Colosimo's organization, rising to underboss by 1914.[12]
In 1919, Al Capone arrived in Chicago and started working as a bouncer and bartender at one of the Colosimo gang establishments, the Four Deuces at 2222 S. Wabash Street.[12]
Colosimo murder
[edit]WhenProhibitionwent into effect in 1920, Torrio pushed for the gang to enter intobootlegging,but Colosimo stubbornly refused. In March 1920, Colosimo secured an uncontested divorce from Victoria Moresco.[13]A month later, he and Dale Winter eloped toWest Baden Springs, Indiana.Upon their return, he bought a home on the South Side.[13]On May 11, 1920, Colosimo drove to Colosimo's Cafe to meet an associate he had never met before. He was shot and killed a few minutes after entering the restaurant by a gunman hiding in the cloak room. A bullet entered Colosimo's brain, behind his right ear.[12]Contract killerFrankie Yalehad allegedly traveled from New York to Chicago and personally killed longtime gang boss Colosimo at the behest of Torrio.[14]Although suspected by Chicago police, Yale was never officially charged.[15]Colosimo was allegedly murdered because he stood in the way of his gang making bootlegging profits, having "gone soft" after his marriage with Winter.[13]
Rivalry with North Side Gang
[edit]Torrio headed an essentially Italian organized crime group that was the biggest in the city, with Capone as his right-hand man. However, many other gangs were active in Chicago at this time, and Torrio was wary of being drawn into gang wars and tried to negotiate agreements over territory between rival crime groups. In 1920, Torrio built an agreement between most of Chicago's bootlegging gangs into a city-wide cartel.[12]The smallerNorth Side Gangled byDean O'Banionwas of mixed ethnicity and was a member of the bootlegging cartel. In 1924, the North Side Gang discovered that the Genna brothers, close to Torrio's gang, were selling their booze in North Side Gang territory. O'Banion went to Torrio, who was unhelpful with the encroachment of the Gennas into the North Side despite his pretensions to be a settler of disputes.[16]As a result, the North Side Gang responded by hijacking Genna beer shipments.
In May 1924, O'Banion learned that the police planned to raid the Sieben brewery on a particular night. Before the raid, O'Banion approached Torrio and told him he wanted to sell his share in the brewery, claiming that he wanted to leave the rackets and retire to Colorado. Torrio agreed to buy O'Banion's share and gave him half a million dollars. On the morning of the deal, the police (including the police chief) raided and shut down the brewery. Torrio, O'Banion, and several others were arrested. Torrio was indicted on bootlegging charges, a repeat offense for him with mandatory jail time. Torrio realized he had been betrayed and conned out of $500,000 by O'Banion.[12]
Torrio would have immediately attempted to retaliate against O'Banion and the North Side Gang had it not been forMike Merlo,head of theUnione Sicilianalabor organization. Merlo had a vested interest in keeping the peace between Chicago's gangs, and he convinced Torrio to forestall any violence against the North Side Gang.[12]
Mike Merlo died of cancer on November 8, 1924. On November 10, three men entered O'Banion'sSchofield's Flowersshop under the pretense of buying flowers for Merlo's funeral and shot O'Banion dead. The killers are reputed to have beenFrankie Yale,John Scalise,and Albert Anselmi, acting on Torrio's behalf.[12]
O'Banion's death placedHymie Weissat the head of the North Side Gang, backed byVincent DrucciandBugs Moran.Weiss had been a close friend of O'Banion, and the North Siders made it a priority to get revenge on his killers.[17][18][19]
Assassination attempt and handover to Capone
[edit]In January 1925, Capone was ambushed, leaving him shaken but unhurt. Twelve days later, on January 24, Torrio and his wife Anna were ambushed outside their home by Weiss, Drucci, and Moran. Torrio was shot several times and nearly killed. After recovering, he effectively resigned, handed control of the gang to Capone, and fled to New York.[20][21][22][12]
In late 1925, Torrio moved to Italy with his wife and mother, where he no longer dealt directly with the mob business. He gave total control of the Outfit to Capone and said, "It's all yours, Al. Me? I'm quitting. It's Europe for me".[23]Torrio left a criminal empire which grossed about $70,000,000 a year ($1,241,304,000 in 2024 dollars) from bootleg liquor, gambling and prostitution.[23]
Later years and death
[edit]In 1928, Torrio returned to the United States, asBenito Mussolinibegan putting pressure onthe Mafiain Italy. He is credited with helping to organize a loose cartel of East Coast bootleggers, theBig Seven,in which many prominent gangsters, includingLucky Luciano,Longy Zwillman,Joe Adonis,Frank Costello,andMeyer Lanskyplayed a part. Torrio also supported the creation of a national body that would prevent all-out turf wars between gangs that had broken out in Chicago and New York. His idea was well received,[24]and aconference was hosted in Atlantic Cityby Torrio, Lansky, Luciano and Costello in May 1929; theNational Crime Syndicatewas created.[25]
Torrio was charged withincome tax evasionin 1936 and, after several failed appeals, was sent to prison in 1939, serving two years. In 1940, a property that Torrio co-owned with Vanella, Jack Cusick, and Capone was sold at auction to satisfy Capone's tax delinquencies.[26]After his release, he lived quietly until his death.[27]
On April 16, 1957, Torrio had a heart attack in theBrooklynborough ofNew York City, New Yorkwhile he was sitting in a barber's chair waiting for a haircut; he died several hours later in a nearby hospital.[28][29]
In popular culture
[edit]Torrio has been portrayed several times in television and motion pictures:
- byOsgood Perkinsin the 1932 film,Scarface(as Johnny Lovo).[30]
- byNehemiah Persoffin the 1959 film,Al Capone.
- byCharles McGrawin the 1959 television series ofThe Untouchables.
- byHarry Guardinoin the 1975 film,Capone.
- by Guy Barile in the 1992 film,The Babe.
- byFrank Vincentin the 1993The Young Indiana Jones Chroniclesepisode "Young Indiana Jones and the Mystery of the Blues".
- byByrne Pivenin the pilot episode of the 1993 television series,The Untouchables.
- by Kieron Jecchinis in a 1994 episode of the television series,In Suspicious Circumstancesentitled "No Witness, No Case".
- byGreg Antonacciin theHBOseries,Boardwalk Empire.
- byPaolo Rotondoin the 2016 television miniseriesThe Making of the Mob: Chicago.
- byAl Sapienzain the 2017 filmGangster Land.
References
[edit]- ^"John D. Torrio's Personal items".My Al Capone Museum.RetrievedMarch 18,2020.
Always known as John, his real name at birth was Donato Torrio. This fact was found in the registry office at Irsina (Montepeloso) [...] The name John was later added when arriving to America.
- ^"John Torrio Pleads Guilty".Associated Press.April 12, 1939.RetrievedAugust 6,2012.
Johnny (the Immune) Torrio, deciding he wasn't immune to relentless government prosecution, pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court...
- ^Nelli, Humbert S. (1981).The business of crime.University of Chicago Press. p. 163.
- ^Folsom, Robert G. (2010).The Money Trail.Potomac Books. p. 231.
- ^Peterson, Virgil W. (1983).The mob: 200 years of organized crime in New York.Green Hill Publishers. p. 156.
- ^Johnson, Curt; Sautter, R. Craig (1994).Wicked City Chicago: From Kenna to Capone.December Press. p. 363.
- ^abDe Tullio, Maurizio (May 18, 2015)."Non era orsarese Johnny Torrio, padre putativo di Al Capone"(in Italian).RetrievedJune 17,2016.
- ^Hunt, Thomas (June 2015)."Just how organized was Calabrian organized crime?".The American Mafia – The History of Organized Crime in the United States.RetrievedJune 27,2020.
- ^Sifakis, Carl (2006).The Mafia Encyclopedia.Infobase Publishing. p. 168.
- ^Burch, Brian; Stimpson, Emily (March 21, 2017).The American Catholic Almanac: A Daily Reader of Patriots, Saints, Rogues, and Ordinary People Who Changed the United States.Image Books. p. 17.ISBN978-0-553-41874-3.RetrievedOctober 5,2017.
- ^Bardsley, Marilyn."Scarface".Al Capone.Crime Library. Archived fromthe originalon November 4, 2013.RetrievedMarch 29,2008.
- ^abcdefghBinder, John J. (2017).Al Capone's Beer Wars: A Complete History of Organized Crime in Chicago during Prohibition.Prometheus.ISBN978-1633882850.
- ^abcSawyers, June (July 26, 1987)."The Vice Lord Who Fell in Love With a Choir Singer".Chicago Tribune.p. 163.RetrievedJune 14,2022– via Newspapers.com.
- ^Schoenberg, pgs. 62-66
- ^Schoenberg, pgs. 62-65
- ^Bergreen, Laurence(1994).Capone:The Man and the Era.New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks. pp.131–132.ISBN978-0-684-82447-5.RetrievedMarch 18,2020.
- ^Bergreen, pp 134–135
- ^Bergreen, p. 138
- ^"Hymie Weiss".My Al Capone Museum.RetrievedOctober 2,2018.
- ^Sifakis, Carl (1999).The Mafia Encyclopedia, 2nd ed.Checkmark Books. p. 362.
- ^Russo, Gus(2001).The Outfit.Bloomsbury. pp. 39, 40.
- ^Newton-Maza, Mitchell (2014).Disasters and Tragic Events.p. 258.
- ^abSann, Paul (1957).The Lawless Decade: Bullets, Broads and Bathtub Gin.Courier Corporation. p. 111.
- ^Abadinsky, Howard (2009).Organized Crime.Cengage Learning. p. 115.
- ^"80 years ago, the Mob came to Atlantic City for a little strategic planning".Press of Atlantic City. May 13, 2009.RetrievedAugust 6,2012.
- ^"U.S. Sells Capone Land for Taxes".Daily News.March 29, 1940.
- ^"Johnny Torrio".Encyclopædia Britannica.RetrievedMarch 18,2020.
- ^"Johnny Torrio, Ex-Public Enemy 1, Dies; Made Al Capone Boss of the Underworld".The New York Times.May 8, 1957.RetrievedAugust 6,2012.
The man who put Al Capone into business died unnoticed in a Brooklyn hospital three weeks ago, it was learned yesterday...
- ^"Torrio Dies. Gave Capone Racket Start".Associated Press.May 8, 1957.RetrievedAugust 6,2012.
Johnny Torrio, first of the bigtime bootleggers, died after a heart attack in a Brooklyn barber's chair April 16. So obscure had he become that his death went....
[permanent dead link] - ^Adler, Tim (2011).Hollywood and the Mob: Movies, Mafia, Sex and Death.Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 40.
Further reading
[edit]- McPhaul, Jack (1970).Johnny Torrio: First of the Gang Lords.New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House.
- Russo, Gus(2001).The Outfit: The Role of Chicago's Underworld In the Shaping of Modern America.Bloomsbury USA.ISBN1-58234-279-2.
- Bergreen, Laurence(1994).Capone: The Man and the Era.New York City: Simon & Schuster.ISBN978-0-684-82447-5.
External links
[edit]- "John Torrio".Organized Crime Figure.Find a Grave.January 1, 2001.RetrievedMarch 18,2020.
- "John D. Torrio".My Al Capone Museum.RetrievedMarch 18,2020.
- 1882 births
- 1957 deaths
- Al Capone associates
- American gangsters of Italian descent
- American shooting survivors
- Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery
- Chicago Outfit bosses
- Five Points Gang
- Gangsters from Chicago
- Italian crime bosses
- Italian emigrants to the United States
- Italian gangsters
- People from Irsina
- Prohibition-era gangsters