Johnny Torrio: Part 2

In the aftermath of Colosimo’s death, Torrio became Chicago’s most powerful crime boss. He had dreams of organizing a national crime syndicate taking in all the major gangsters across the country. The first step towards achieving this goal was to organise the Chicago criminals. At a summit meeting, he divided Chicago into several territories, each one belonging to one of the major players in the city. He brought home the point that violence and reprisals damaged everyone’s business and drew too much police attention. If they all respected each other’s territories and kept the peace, they would all prosper. Having said that, he made it clear that the other gangsters would have to "rent" these territories by paying a percentage of their profits to him and that failure to do so would result in war. Most of the hoodlums present were in no position to argue.

The largest territory belonged to Torrio and consisted of "the Loop" in the city centre and the South Side. The Northside belonged to Dean O’Banion’s gang. The Genna family controlled Little Italy in the Southwest and Edward "Spike" O’Donnell claimed the "Kerry Patch" South of Torrio’s turf. Joe Saltis and Frank McErlane ruled the docklands while Terry Druggan and Frankie Lake dominated the Westside. Further West, William "Klondike" O’Donnell established his region and Roger Touhy took the suburbs around the city.

Dean O’Bannion (sometimes referred to as Dion O'Banion) was a wild and unpredictable character and though he agreed to the terms Torrio set down, "the Fox" was suspicious. Hoping that a business partnership would encourage good relations, he allowed the Irish gangster to share the proceeds of some of his speakeasies and distilleries in exchange for participation in O’Banion’s successful beer network.

O’Banion seemed to be going along with the scheme, but in reality his Northsider gang was making a fortune from hijacking Torrio's whisky trucks. Torrio suspected O'Banion was involved in the stick-ups, but he did not have any proof and did not want to start any gang wars. Then, in an act of defiance, O'Banion robbed the Sibley Warehouse in South Sangamon Street. The Northsiders broke into the warehouse and stole almost 2,000 barrels of whisky belonging to Torrio and Capone. The entire haul was valued at about $1 million, and as a "practical joke", O’Banion filled the warehouse with barrels of water. "Deanie" was daring the two Italians to blame him for the theft.

Another one of O’Bannion’s schemes was carried out in February 1924 when one of his men, John Duffy murdered his girlfriend Maybelle Exley. Duffy panicked and called his boss for help. O’Banion told Duffy to meet him in Torrio’s club, the Four Deuces. When he got tired of waiting, Duffy left the Four Deuces only to find O’Banion waiting for him in a car outside. Dean brought him to a secluded woodland area and shot him, dumping the body in a location where it would easily be found. The most conniving part of the plot was that Duffy’s last known whereabouts was the Four Deuces, implicating Torrio’s Outfit in the murder. The subsequent investigation brought a lot of unwelcome attention to the club, disrupting the gambling, prostitution and drinking that took place on the premises. To make matters worse, the Four Deuce’s manager Al Capone was the number one suspect.

Mayor of Chicago William "Decent" Dever had been causing problems for a lot of gangsters since he replaced the corrupt "Big Bill" Thompson in 1923. In 1924, Torrio decided it would be best to pull out of Chicago and he moved most of his business to Cicero, a satellite town. On April 1 1924, there was a mayoral election in Cicero and Torrio hired 250 thugs to intimidate the voters, kidnap officials and stuff the ballet boxes. 24 of these men were provided by Dean O’Banion. As payment, O’Banion received a quarter share in Torrio’s casino "The Ship" and the bootlegging rights to a portion of Capone’s territory in Cicero. It was a generous payment, considering that the territory in Cicero was making $20,000 per month. Through a combination of bribery and intimidation, O’Banion convinced a large number of Al Capone’s customers to move their saloons into O’Banion’s territory. The area began to rake in $100,000 per month, making it the most profitable portion of Cicero’s booze trade. Al wanted to retaliate, but once again, Torrio insisted on a peaceful solution. He asked O’Banion to return some of the territory to Capone in exchange for a share in Torrio’s own prostitution business in the Forest View area. O’Banion treated the offer with contempt, calling Torrio a "guinea bastard" and insulting him for being a pimp.

While this was going on, Torrio’s allies the Genna brothers were selling their cheap "rotgut" booze on O’Banion’s turf. Since Torrio was the self-made leader of Chicago’s crime syndicate, O’Banion went to him for justice. Torrio dodged the issue saying that the Genna’s answered only to Mike Merlo, president of the Chicago chapter of the Unione Siciliana. The Northsiders responded by hijacking trucks belonging to the Genna’s. The Genna's wanted to kill O'Banion, but Torrio and Merlo both agreed that it would be best not to go to war.

Torrio’s peacful philosophy soon changed. O’Banion announced that he was retiring from his life of crime and leaving Chicago, and he wanted money to set up his legitimate lifestyle in Colorado. Torrio and O'Banion were equal partners in the Sieben Brewery, and Dean wanted to sell his half to Torrio for $500,000. It was a fair price, especially if it meant getting the controversial gangster out of the city. But when they were closing the deal at the brewery, the place was raided by Prohibition agents. O’Banion had known about the raid in advance and timed the deal perfectly. He knew it would be Torrio’s second offence under the Volstead Act, meaning compulsory jail time for the Italian gangster. O'Banion received the maximum penalty for a first offence, a $1,000 fine. It was well worth the fine considering he got $500,000 payment from Torrio for a brewery that could no longer be used. The whole incident had been a set-up and O’Banion never had any intention of retiring to Colorado.

Gangster lore tells that this incident is the only time that Torrio lost his temper, screaming and throwing things around his office after his release on bail. While Johnny was awaiting his trial, Angelo Genna ran up a gambling debt in Torrio and O’Banion’s casino "The Ship", Torrio suggested they write it off as a favour to their colleague, but Dean reacted a little differently. He went to a phone booth and rang Angelo, telling him if the money wasn’t paid within a week, he would kill him. The Genna brothers came to the Ship, furious with Torrio, who claimed that O'Banion had been acting against his wishes. They all discussed the possibility of killing O'Banion, but they knew Mike Merlo would never allow it. Unfortunately for Deanie, Merlo was already in hospital dying of cancer.

Less than a week later, on Saturday November 8, Mike Merlo died leaving the way clear for Torrio and the Gennas to make a move on O’Banion. On Sunday November 9 1924, Vincenzo Genna went into Schofield’s Flower Shop and purchased a $750 wreath for Merlo. Schofield’s was owned in part by Dean O’Banion and provided the floral tributes for all gangster funerals in the city. Once Vincenzo had bought the wreath and cased the store, someone phoned in with an order for $2,000 worth of flowers. The name given was Frankie Yale, Torrio's friend from New York and National Chairman of the Unione Siciliana, but it is unclear whether the caller was really Yale or Angelo Genna.

Mike Merlo’s funeral was on Monday November 10 1924. At about 11:30, three men came to collect "Frankie Yale’s" flowers. Two of the men were Albert Anselmi and John Scalise, infamous assassins working for the Genna’s. Standing between them was the man who killed O’Banion. An employee went to the back room to sweep up while Dean dealt with the customers. While shaking O’Banion’s hand, the killers drew a pistol and fired off six shots. The murderer was still clutching the victim’s hand when the porter rushed out to the front of the shop. The three hit men turned and fled.

So who was the killer? The majority of historians believe it was Frankie Yale, who was arrested shortly afterwards as he was boarding a train to New York. Yale was in town for Merlo’s funeral and it was not the first time he was suspected of carrying out a hit for Torrio in Chicago. Yale claimed to be having lunch at a restaurant at the time of the shooting, and a waiter testified to this. Rumours suggest that the waiter was a friend of "Samoots" Amatuna, a gangster working with the Genna’s. But if Yale committed the murder, why did he order the flowers in his own name, drawing suspicion on himself? This is why some people suggest that the killer was Mike Genna.

The murderer may be unknown, but the men behind the murder were certainly Johnny Torrio and the Genna family. Fearing retribution from the Northsiders, Torrio and his wife took a vacation in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The new leader of the Northsiders, Hymie Weiss bided his time for Torrio’s return. In December 1924, Torrio was attacked in a drive-by shooting outside his apartment at 7016 S. Clyde Avenue. He escaped unharmed, but with two bullet holes in his fedora. On January 23 1925, he pleaded guilty to violating Volstead Act at the Sieben Brewery (which he had bought from O'Banion) and received a 9-month prison sentence. The judge allowed him a few days to sort out his business interests before the sentence began.

The following day, Torrio and Anna returned home from a shopping trip in a Lincoln car borrowed from one of Torrio’s men, Jack Guzack. Their driver was one of Capone’s chauffeurs, Robert Barton. As they were unloading shopping, a black limousine pulled up and four men opened fire with two .45 pistols, a 12 gauge shotgun and a Thompson sub-machine gun. They riddled the car with bullets, hitting both Barton’s legs. When they noticed that Torrio was not in the car two men jumped out of the limo and fired, hitting Johnny 4 times in the chest, neck, right arm and groin. The family dog was killed by a stray bullet. One of the men put a pistol to Torrio’s temple and pulled the trigger, only to find he was out of ammo. The limo driver blew the horn and the assailants jumped back inside to make their getaway.

Al Capone organized a private room at the hospital and surrounded it with bodyguards. Al even slept beside Torrio’s bed with a loaded revolver. Torrio made a very quick recovery and was able to serve his 9-month sentence in Waukegan Prison. The warden had been bribed into giving the mobster a bullet proof cell with two armed guards outside at all times. The cell contained an easy chair and a radio, and Torrio was the only prisoner allowed to hang pictures on his wall. He also had a comfortable down mattress to replace the standard lumpy flock mattresses that other convicts slept on.

A Northside gangster named George "Bugs" Moran was arrested for the attempted murder of Torrio after a 13 year-old boy identified him as the man who put a gun to Torrio’s temple. Despite Moran’s airtight alibi, many believe that he and Hymie Weiss were the two men who jumped out of the limousine and that Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci was the driver. But Charlie "Lucky" Luciano put forward another theory in his memoirs. Luciano was a member of the Five Points Gang at the same time as Capone and Torrio. Luciano blames Al Capone for the murder attempt saying that Capone wanted to take over his boss’ empire. According to Luciano, everyone in the New York underworld believed that Capone faithful Leonard "Neddles" Gianola lead the hit team.

Whatever the truth, Capone benefited most from the attempt on his boss’ life. One of the perks of buying off the warden was that Torrio could hold private meetings with anyone he wished. Shortly after his incarceration began, Torrio called Capone to Waukegan Prison and announced his retirement. He said that the life of a criminal was too dangerous and that he and Ann were taking his mother back to Italy. Just as he had given Frankie Yale his entire New York business, he handed everything in Chicago, Cicero and Burnham over to Capone. But it did not end there. The man known as "Little Johnny", "Terrible Johnny", "The Fox" and "The Brain" would not stay in Italy forever; and he would continue to be an important figure in organized crime.