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Authors: John Kobler
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was lost on Sunny Jim Cosmano. He thought he could extract $10,000 from Big Jim. The misjudgment cost him a nearly mortal stomach wound inflicted by buckshot at close range. Two policemen stood guard by his hospital bed, waiting to remove him for questioning to headquarters as soon as he recovered, a trip Cosmano contemplated with no relish. His confederates, wondering how they could spare him the ordeal, consulted "Big Tim" Murphy, one of the few important Irish racket bosses whom the Italian underworld esteemed. Big Tim's advice was succinct: "Knock the cops on the head and carry him out." Four of Sunny Jim's friends paid him a visit, bearing flowers and candy. They also carried guns. They disarmed the policemen. They roped them together back to back, helped the patient dress, and smuggled him out of the hospital to a hideaway, where he convalesced, untroubled by interrogators.
Torrio's mother, Maria Caputa, was living with him in Chicago, and when Big Jim bought the restaurant that became famous as Colosimo's Cafe, she lent her name to the deeds. For a time Mama Maria and Papa Luigi Colosimo ran the place. Torrio had a small interest in it, which he sold to Mary Aducci, the wife of a Colosimo lieutenant. She remained Big Jim's partner for many years. He later took in a third partner, "Mike the Greek" Potzin, a gambler and whoremaster.
Torrio's services to Colosimo went far beyond planning the liquidation of Black Handers. He was an organizational genius. Years later Elmer L. Irey, chief of the Enforcement Branch of the U.S. Treasury, called him "the father of modern American gangsterdom." With the cool, soft-spoken little New Yorker as his gray eminence, Big Jim consolidated his holdings to become the foremost Chicago racketeer of his era. Starting with the Saratoga, of which his grateful uncle had made him the manager, Torrio was soon supervising all the Colosimo brothels, and he put them on a sounder business footing. He next reorganized the adjunctive saloons and gambling dives. Under his guidance the Colosimo-Van Bever white slave ring captured the Levee market. Torrio saw personally to the greasing of police and political palms. When Colosimo branched out into the protection racket, Torrio collected the dues, using no persuasion other than a quiet word of warning, a thin smile, and an icy stare. He suffered a slight setback when he was arrested along with several members of the white slave ring, following the transportation of a dozen girls from St. Louis to Chicago. Maurice Van Bever and his wife, Julia, paid a $1,000 fine and went to jail for a year. Five others received lesser sentences, among them the prosecution's star witness, Joe Bovo, the pimp who had delivered the St. Louis cargo. But the court freed Torrio because Bovo would not testify against him. It was Torrio's first court appearance. Colosimo, shielded by Coughlin and Kenna, was not even questioned.
The year Torrio came to Chicago the armies of reform were beginning to gather strength. Crisis after crisis shook the Levee, toppling some of its vice lords, but Torrio steered his uncle safely through all of them. On the night of October 18, 1909, the English evangelist Gipsy Smith, accompanied by three Salvation Army bands, led 2,000 faithful to the red-light district. By the time they got to Twenty-second Street 20,000 curious Chicagoans were marching with them. As the harlots and their madams looked on in stunned disbelief from behind closed shutters, the bands struck up and the con gregation joined Smith in the hymn "Where He Leads Me I Will Follow." Marching back and forth through the Levee, they knelt before the most notorious brothels like the Everleigh Club and Colosimo's Victoria, recited the Lord's Prayer and sang "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight?" Smith climaxed the invasion with a prayer for all of the Levee's fallen women.
One immediate result was not what the evangelist intended. Many of the youths in the great throng, who might never
Torrio's mother, Maria Caputa, was living with him in Chicago, and when Big Jim bought the restaurant that became famous as Colosimo's Cafe, she lent her name to the deeds. For a time Mama Maria and Papa Luigi Colosimo ran the place. Torrio had a small interest in it, which he sold to Mary Aducci, the wife of a Colosimo lieutenant. She remained Big Jim's partner for many years. He later took in a third partner, "Mike the Greek" Potzin, a gambler and whoremaster.
Torrio's services to Colosimo went far beyond planning the liquidation of Black Handers. He was an organizational genius. Years later Elmer L. Irey, chief of the Enforcement Branch of the U.S. Treasury, called him "the father of modern American gangsterdom." With the cool, soft-spoken little New Yorker as his gray eminence, Big Jim consolidated his holdings to become the foremost Chicago racketeer of his era. Starting with the Saratoga, of which his grateful uncle had made him the manager, Torrio was soon supervising all the Colosimo brothels, and he put them on a sounder business footing. He next reorganized the adjunctive saloons and gambling dives. Under his guidance the Colosimo-Van Bever white slave ring captured the Levee market. Torrio saw personally to the greasing of police and political palms. When Colosimo branched out into the protection racket, Torrio collected the dues, using no persuasion other than a quiet word of warning, a thin smile, and an icy stare. He suffered a slight setback when he was arrested along with several members of the white slave ring, following the transportation of a dozen girls from St. Louis to Chicago. Maurice Van Bever and his wife, Julia, paid a $1,000 fine and went to jail for a year. Five others received lesser sentences, among them the prosecution's star witness, Joe Bovo, the pimp who had delivered the St. Louis cargo. But the court freed Torrio because Bovo would not testify against him. It was Torrio's first court appearance. Colosimo, shielded by Coughlin and Kenna, was not even questioned.
The year Torrio came to Chicago the armies of reform were beginning to gather strength. Crisis after crisis shook the Levee, toppling some of its vice lords, but Torrio steered his uncle safely through all of them. On the night of October 18, 1909, the English evangelist Gipsy Smith, accompanied by three Salvation Army bands, led 2,000 faithful to the red-light district. By the time they got to Twenty-second Street 20,000 curious Chicagoans were marching with them. As the harlots and their madams looked on in stunned disbelief from behind closed shutters, the bands struck up and the con gregation joined Smith in the hymn "Where He Leads Me I Will Follow." Marching back and forth through the Levee, they knelt before the most notorious brothels like the Everleigh Club and Colosimo's Victoria, recited the Lord's Prayer and sang "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight?" Smith climaxed the invasion with a prayer for all of the Levee's fallen women.
One immediate result was not what the evangelist intended. Many of the youths in the great throng, who might never
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