John Donato Torrio (born Donato Torrio, ; January 20, 1882 – April 16, 1957) was an Italian-born mobster who helped build the Chicago Outfit in the 1920s later inherited by his protégé Al Capone. Torrio proposed a National Crime Syndicate in the 1930s and later became an adviser to Lucky Luciano and his Luciano crime family.
Torrio had several nicknames, primarily "The Fox" for his cunning and finesse. The US Treasury official Elmer Irey considered 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." Virgil W. Peterson of the Chicago Crime Commission stated that his "talents as an organizational genius were widely respected by the major gang bosses in the New York City area". Crime journalist Herbert Asbury affirmed: "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".
Early life
Torrio was born in Irsina (then known as Montepeloso), Basilicata, in Southern Italy, to Tommaso Torrio and Maria Carluccio originally from Altamura, Apulia. When he was two his father, a railway employee, died in a work accident; shortly after, Torrio immigrated to James Street on the Lower East Side of New York City with his widowed mother in December 1884. 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 of Paul Kelly, the leader of the Five Points Gang. Torrio's gang ran legitimate businesses, but its primary concern was the numbers 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.
Capone had belonged to the Junior Forty Thieves, the Bowery Boys and the Brooklyn Rippers; they soon moved up to the Five Points Gang. One of Torrio's associates, Frankie Yale, eventually hired Capone to bartend at the Harvard Inn, a bar in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn.
Move to Chicago
thumb|Torrio in 1903
By 1909, Torrio moved to Chicago. "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 with Black Hand extortionists. One of these instances is assumed to be the death of Black Hand extortionists Felice Danello, Stefano Danello, and Pasquale Damico on the night of November 22nd, 1911. At the Rock Island Railroad underpass at Archer near Clark St., Felice and Damico were killed by a hail of bullets, with Stefano dying weeks later in the hospital. Torrio became a top lieutenant in Colosimo's organization, rising to underboss by 1914.
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. A month later, he and singer Dale Winter, the star attraction at his club, eloped to West Baden Springs, Indiana. Upon their return, he bought a home on the South Side. Although suspected by Chicago police, Yale was never officially charged. Colosimo was allegedly murdered because he stood in the way of his gang making bootlegging profits, having "gone soft" after his marriage with Winter. 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.
Assassination attempt and handover to Capone
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. 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. and a conference was hosted in Atlantic City by Torrio, Lansky, Luciano and Costello in May 1929; the National Crime Syndicate was created.
Torrio was charged with income tax evasion in 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. After his release, he lived quietly until his death.
On April 16, 1957, Torrio had a heart attack in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York while he was sitting in a barber's chair waiting for a haircut; he died several hours later in a nearby hospital.
In popular culture
Torrio has been portrayed several times in television and motion pictures:
- by Osgood Perkins in the 1932 film, Scarface (as Johnny Lovo).
- by Nehemiah Persoff in the 1959 film, Al Capone.
- by Charles McGraw in the 1959 television series of The Untouchables.
- by Harry Guardino in the 1975 film, Capone.
- by Guy Barile in the 1992 film, The Babe.
- by Frank Vincent in the 1993 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles episode "Young Indiana Jones and the Mystery of the Blues".
- by Byrne Piven in the pilot episode of the 1993 television series, The Untouchables.
- by Kieron Jecchinis in a 1994 episode of the television series, In Suspicious Circumstances entitled "No Witness, No Case".
- by Greg Antonacci in the HBO series, Boardwalk Empire.
- by Paolo Rotondo in the 2016 television miniseries The Making of the Mob: Chicago.
- by Al Sapienza in the 2017 film Gangster Land.