Chicago was a perfect place to build a criminal empire. It was
a rowdy, pugnacious, hard-drinking town that was open to anyone with enough
money to buy it. In the words of one of her top journalists,
"She was vibrant and violent, stimulating and ruthless, intolerant of smugness,
impatient with those either physically or intellectually timid."
It was a bloody and brutal city where tens of millions of cows, hogs and
sheep were slaughtered by men wading through blood on the killing floor.
It was strictly a commercial town with no appetite for snobbery or "old
money."
Political corruption was a tradition in that vast prairie city, creating
an atmosphere of two-fisted lawlessness in which crime flourished.
The city became known for its wealth and sexual promiscuity. When
Al Capone came to the city in 1920, the flesh trade was becoming the province
of organized crime. The kingpin of this business was "Big Jim" Colosimo
along with his wife and partner, Victoria Moresco, a highly successful
madam. Together their brothels were earning an estimated $50,000
per month.
Big Jim owned the Colosimo Cafe, one of the most popular nightclubs
in the city. Nobody cared that he was a pimp. It never
stopped him from hobnobbing with the rich and famous. Enrico Caruso
was a regular, as well as the distinguished lawyer Clarence Darrow.
Big Jim, with huge diamonds glittering on every one of his fat fingers
and diamond-studded belts and buckles, was a true product a Chicago society
--handsome, generous, gaudy, larger than life.
As his family vice business grew, Big Jim brought in the discreet Johnny
Torrio from Brooklyn to operate and grow their empire. It was the
best decision he could have made because Torrio expanded their business
without attracting attention. Torrio was a serious businessman with
no interest in hanky-panky. In stark contrast to Big Jim, Torrio
didn't drink, smoke, swear or cheat on his devoted wife Ann.
The downfall of Big Jim was a pretty young singer who stole his heart.
He foolishly divorced Victoria and married the young immediately afterward.
Word of Colosimo's folly got back to Brooklyn where Frankie Yale took notice
of opportunity and decided to muscle in on Colosimo's huge empire.
On May 11, 1920, Yale assassinated Big Jim in his nightclub.
Bergreen describes the first of Chicago's great gangster funerals: "the last rites became a gaudy demonstration more appropriate to...a powerful political figure or popular entertainer...an event that priests and police captains alike attended to pay their last respects to the sort of man they were supposed to condemn. Colosimo was universally recognized as Chicago's premier pimp, yet his honorary pallbearers included three judges, a congressman, an assistant state attorney, and no less than nine Chicago aldermen."
Eventually the police figured out who the murderer was and they arrested
him in New York. However, the only witness to the murder was a waiter,
who refused to testify against Frankie Yale. While Yale was able
to avoid prosecution, his attempt to take over Colosimo's empire failed.
Torrio was able to maintain his grip on the vast multimillion-dollar-a-year
business he had built for Big Jim. With a big boost to business from
Prohibition, Torrio oversaw thousands of whorehouses, gambling joints and
speakeasies.
It was into this vast criminal enterprise that Torrio brought twenty-two-year-old
Al Capone from his honest bookkeeping job in Baltimore. The money
and opportunity for advancement was an order of magnitude greater, but
the disgrace of managing brothels bothered Al. It was 1921 and Capone
had turned his back on respectability forever. With his business
acumen, soon Al became Torrio's partner instead of his employee.
Al took over as manager of the Four Deuces, Torrio's headquarters in the
Levee area. The Four Deuces was a speakeasy, gambling joint and whorehouse
all in one. Soon his brother Ralph would come to join him in
Torrio's business.
At this time, Al became associated with a man that would be his friend
for life, Jack Guzik. Incredibly enough, Guzik's large Jewish Orthodox
family made their living through prostitution. Closer in lifestyle
to Torrio, Guzik was a devoted family man who acted like an older brother
to Al. Once again, Capone showed his ability to step outside the
Italian community as he had in marrying his Irish wife. Now his closest
friend was Jewish. Capone's lack of prejudice and ability to create
alliances outside of the Italian gangster community would be invaluable
in creating his destiny.
Al was doing quite well financially and bought a house for his family
in a respectable neighborhood. To this modest home at 7244 Prairie
Avenue, he brought not only Mae and Sonny, but his mother and other siblings.
Al posed to his neighbors as a dealer in second-hand furniture and went
out of his way to maintain a facade of respectability. Bergreen
was convinced that the house on Prairie Avenue, Mae and Sonny represented
Capone's striving for redemption. "Although he preyed on other people's
weaknesses for a living, his reputation and standing in the community mattered
deeply to him. The deeper he went into racketeering and all its associated
sins, the more he idealized his family, as though they, in their innocence,
were living proof that he was not the monster that the newspapers later
insisted he was."