Giovanni “Papa Johnny” Torrio ran Chicago’s Mafia in the 1920s, building it from a prostitution racket into an illegal liquor empire. His feud with Irish-American bootleggers led to the worst violence in the history of American organized crime and paved the way for Al Capone. Later in his life, Torrio helped create the Commission that still governs the mob in America.

No one seems to know for sure where Torrio was born, but it was somewhere in southern Italy on January 20, 1882. His father died when he was two years old, and his mother took him to New York City shortly after.

Torrio grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a slum neighborhood populated by immigrants. His mother remarried, and his stepfather, who owned a grocery store, hired him as a porter. But the store was really an illegal liquor front and served as Torrio’s introduction to crime. He soon joined a group of teenage boys known as the James Street Gang and rose to become their leader. The James Streeters were allied with the notorious Five Points Gang of lower Manhattan. Torrio saved enough money to open a billiards hall in Brooklyn where his boys could hang out and orchestrate crimes. The parlor drew a number of rising young criminals, including Alphonse “Scarface” Capone, better known as Al. Before long Torrio’s business success drew the attention of Paulo Vaccarelli, also known as Paul Kelly. Kelly ran the Five Points Gang and, in the early 1900s, made Torrio his lieutenant. Torrio quickly began to take after his new mentor, transforming his image from that of a street thug into that of a well-dressed businessman with legitimate interests. The change earned Torrio the nickname “The Fox.”

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