Word: colosimo
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Chicago was strident, corrupt, lavish, fat from war contracts in 1919 when a young hoodlum from Brooklyn slipped into Diamond Jim Colosimo's South Side underworld and muttered his name. The hoodlum, branded on one swart cheek by the razor memento of the Neapolitan Camorra, was Al Capone...
...school of criminals that flourished in the prohibition era, Johnny Torrio was probably dean. From Brooklyn's Five Points Gang he went to Chicago as chief gunman for James ("Big Jim") Colosimo. As assistant in Chicago, Johnny Torrio selected a stocky Brooklyn boy named Al Capone. In 1920, Jim Colosimo was shot dead. Torrio succeeded him as Chicago's top racketeer and kept Al Capone as a $75-a-week underling. Johnny Torrio left Chicago shortly after Dion O'Banion's elaborate funeral in 1924, went back to be riddled with bullets by O'Banion...
...violation seemed thoroughly in keeping with that gangster's fabulous career. A small-time tough who operated an East Side poolroom in Manhattan before the War, Torrio rose to be a rugged member of Brooklyn's notorious Five Points Gang. His fame spread to James ("Big Jim") Colosimo, then Chicago's No. 1 brothel operator. He hired Torrio as head triggerman shortly after the War. Torrio's marksmanship and disarming personality made him a Colosimo favorite. To help him in his work, Torrio imported from Brooklyn a broad-shouldered, scarfaced Italian named Al Capone. Torrio taught...
...Colosimo was shot dead in his Chicago restaurant. Some accused Torrio, others Capone. At any rate Torrio quickly stepped into the dead man's shoes, kept Capone as his right-hand man. When Dion O'Banion's North Side gang hijacked too much of their beer in 1924; O'Banion was neatly drilled in his Chicago flower shop. Torrio attended the $50,000 funeral with Capone, looked at his dead foe, murmured disconsolately: "Poor Dion." But the floral wreath he sent was dumped in an ashcan, and Torrio fled to Hot Springs, Ark., to New Orleans...
Born in Brooklyn 34 years ago, Alphonse Capone started up to the top of U. S. crime on May 12, 1920 when James ("Big Jim") Colosimo, whose lowly bodyguard Capone was in the Chicago underworld, was assassinated...