Dark History: The Rise of Organized Crime In Chicago & The St Valentines Day Massacre Part 1

hello everybody and welcome back to my channel and welcome back to another installation of dark history and this dark history topic was picked by our patreon they had a couple of choices and they settled on this one and I was really excited because it's one of my favorite time periods it's one of my favorite things to talk about and I can't wait to get into it today we're going to talk about the same Valentine's Day Massacre but not just about the event itself in true Stephanie Harlow fashion or in a dig deep go way back because as always to understand what happened at the end you have to understand what happened at the beginning so we're going to talk about how organized crime came to be in Chicago and how it became so powerful and so parasitic on the city that it took over everything entirely the 1920s is one of my favorite time periods I love it I'm a big fan of Great Gatsby I love flappers very interesting to me but also I'm really interested in gangsters I love watching gangster movies Goodfellas The Godfather a Bronx Tale is one of my all-time favorite movies so I'm really excited to share this dark history story with you today before we get started I want to talk about our sponsor for this video one of our og sponsors a sponsor that has truly kept this channel going along with our patreon support Magellan TV is a new kind of documentary streaming service and if you like history which if you're here I assume that you do Magellan TV would be a perfect choice for you they have some of the richest and most varied historical content that can be found anywhere anything from ancient to modern current early modern war biography and even non historical genres like science and crime are historical in nature and we've discovered that here on this channel because we are a true-crime channel we're a mystery channel but I always say we have a little bit of history thrown it because every true crime story can find its roots somewhere in history Magellan TV can be a way for you to gain insight and knowledge about the topics you're passionate about they have over 2000 documentaries available right now and they add new content every single week they can be watched anytime anywhere on your television your laptop your mobile device it's compatible with roku amazon TV Apple TV Google Play and iOS you can even cast from your phone to your TV these documentaries are going to be streamed without interruptions no ads and a limited access and there's a wide selection of programs that are available in 4k without any additional cost if you're interested in today's topic I have a good recommendation on Magellan TV and it's called the st. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929 seven members of bugs Moran's gang are assassinated in a garage by Al Capone's henchmen this event was taken up by the press who named it the st. Valentine's Day Massacre because it took place on February 14th if you're interested in trying magellan TV out supporting this channel and finding yourself a whole new treasure trove of documentaries you haven't watched yet go in the description box if you click the link viewers of this channel are going to be offered a one-month free trial from Magellan TV thank you guys so much for watching the sponsor and let's get into the video like I said in my last video about the grime sisters we could do a series abased is strictly off Chicago based crimes and we'd never run out of information I'm a New Yorker so I Love New York City it's one of my favorite cities in the world and it's full of history and intrigue but Chicago is on a whole new level it really a New York can't even compete with the kind of mysteries and crimes and just unbelievable things that happened in that city so let's jump right in and talk about the st. Valentine's Day Massacre and how the mob even got its foothold in Chicago to begin with now the roots of the Chicago mob can be traced back all the way to the 1850s when Michael kasia's MacDonald an irish-american runaway traveled from upstate New York to Chicago which was a national railroad hub and he arrived there by way of train in 1862 he was young and broke and living in a city that discriminated against those of Irish descent so he had a hard time securing a good job that would pay well so instead of walking the straight and narrow Michael found a way to make his fortune outside of the law think of something that's illegal and Michael McDonald had most likely done it anything from gambling to be boxing promoter a pimp in a bail bondsmen he was known as a sure thing Mike and McDonald is said to have coined the saying there's a sucker born every minute which is usually attributed to PT Barnum with the proceeds from his small-time con man enterprise he created a larger and more legitimate operation opening a saloon his very own gambling house and a high-end hotel by the time the civil war ended he was a wealthy man with many businesses and properties and a lovely girlfriend named Isabella jewel they lived together in a big house in a rich neighborhood fast forward to 1871 and the Great Chicago Fire we find Michael McDonald pretty much starting from square one many of his businesses had burned down his girlfriend Bal had left him seven years after they got together to join a convent but once again he was able to turn it all around open more gambling houses and he began to reform his place in the city even at this time before Michael McDonald and those like him were known as gangsters these men had a firm hold on Chicago's law enforcement when new mayor Joseph Medel eager to prove he was worthy of his position threatened to shut down McDonald and his businesses McDonald retaliated with the promise to reveal all the bribes the Chicago PD had been taking to look the other way so Medel he actually ended up backing down and eventually he left the mayor position and he left the city and settled in Europe although Michael McDonald was in the fullest sense of the word a gangster those who knew him said he had integrity he always kept his word his political poll increased when he got his friend Harvey Calvin elected as mayor and it was well known that he had the city's politicians and law enforcement in his pocket it was also said that if you wanted something done in Chicago you had to go through Mike McDonald the amount of control and influence Michael McDonald had in Chicago would not be seen again until the rise of Al Capone many years later as time went on and he became older and wiser MacDonald expanded his business dealings to a racetrack and even a quarry where he was able to sell limestone for inflated prices after Michael McDonald's death black hand extortion took the city in its grip now black hand was an extortion technique born in Sicily and brought to the United States by South Italian immigrants during the 1880s by the year 1900 black hand operations were firmly established in most major US cities and the whole concept of this black hand extortion it was kind of messed up because it entailed targeting your own those who had a penchant for criminal activity would threaten other Italian immigrants who had come to America to create legitimate and successful businesses the victim would receive a threatening letter promising an array of misfortunes if the recipient did not pay up and this letter would be signed with a black hand drawn in ink this type of extortion was rough and juvenile and the up-and-coming gangsters of the 1900s would put it aside for a more subtle method to understand how it was possible for so much corruption to spread throughout the city you have to understand the political and social structure of Chicago Michael McDonald may have been Chicago's first real gangster but organized crime in the city was a creation of its politicians and its law enforcement who both benefited from it and protected it the political structure of Chicago is essentially made up of 50 Awards with Alderman's being elected to each ward and those Alderman's are responsible for representing the people in their districts that brings us to John Coughlin also known as John Beth house Coughlin and he was the first alderman of Chicago's first Ward from 1892 to the year of his death in 1938 making him the longest-serving alderman in Chicago history until that record was broken in 2014 that's a really long time to hold a record like that but he was corrupt and everyone knew it but he was also the alderman of the most sinful and corrupt district in all of Chicago the first Ward was home to the prolific red-light district filled with brothels and gambling parlors on every corner in kauflin intelligently figured that he could make a lot of money charging these businesses a monthly fee to protect them from police interference he didn't do this alone however while he was the face of the operation he had his fellow alderman Mike pinky Kenna running things behind the scenes and you'll notice that all these people that are affiliated with organized crime they all have these little nicknames sometimes nicknames they've given themselves most of the time nicknames they've been given by others or the press usually I feel like it's the press but together Mike and John led a group called the gray wolves a group of other corrupt aldermen who all had the same goals and they also created a Legal Defense Fund for gamblers and prostitutes who did find themselves on the wrong side of the law in trouble with the police everything was great they were making a ton of money and essentially they were untouchable but there was a wild card that Coughlin and Kenna needed training before they could truly dominate the city enter Big Jim Colosimo Big Jim or Diamond Jim as he is also called is considered to be Chicago's first notorious gangster but even though he got his nickname for the extravagant diamond jewelry and expensive suits he wore he came from very humble beginnings Big Jim was born Vincenzo's Colosimo on February 16th 1878 in Calais Immie a small village in the Calabria region of Italy his father was Luigi and his mother was Luigi's second wife a woman named Jess apena at this time the Italian economy wasn't doing well and people were leaving in droves to emigrate to America in search of jobs the Colosimo family was still doing okay though Luigi was one of the wealthiest landowners in their town and he considered Italy his home vowing to never leave it however when tragedy struck in Vincenzo's mother died Luigi discovered he couldn't handle things on both the business and the family side so he shipped Vincenzo off to the United States in 1891 at the age of 12 Luigi made it clear to his young son things were not always going to be so easy for his family back in Italy and it was his job he was tasked with making his fortune in America and contributing to his family back home he set sail ship accompanied by his 21 year old half-brother Antonio and when they docked in New York Harbor Antonio was basically like okay I got you here I did my job now I'm going back Antonio had no no desire to stay in New York he wanted to be back in Italy so Vincenzo was 12 years old alone in a foreign city unable to speak any English and burdened with the pressure of being his family's Savior essentially the pressure to succeed at all costs because he had people depending on him he didn't stay in New York long as Chicago was his ultimate destination but before he left the Big Apple he decided he needed to Americanize himself a bit toughen himself up to create this new identity and he changed his name from Vincenzo to Jim because Jim is a very American name and it sounds like somebody who's really tough everyone remembers the movie Fievel right if you don't you you should go watch it it was a staple of my childhood years so I imagine Big Jim feeling like Fievel when he arrived in Chicago expecting a shining world of opportunity and just finding poverty and despair wherever he looked in the movie the mice all saying there are no cats in America and the streets are paved with gold and according to my Italian immigrant father that's pretty much what they were told once you get to America everything's going to be easier it was there's gonna be money growing in trees opportunity around every corner instead Jim found himself settling in a small poor Italian neighborhood nicknamed Little Hell a place that wreaked of human waste and humans sin this was the place that Jim first encountered the underbelly of the promised land and where he joined a small group of other young hooligans and began participating in petty crimes such as pickpocketing and baby black hand extortion you know they were kids they're not doing a ton of damage they're not hardened criminals they're just running around the streets taking wallets out of people's pockets if they can and you know trying to pretend that they're extorting people when really most likely these store owners are probably just tossing them alone and being like get out of here kids you're annoying that you're chasing my customers away so this wouldn't last long however Jim realized that this v'l activity wasn't going to get him financially where he needs to be and he also didn't feel right about targeting his fellow Italian immigrants so he went legit and he became a paperboy now in those days papers weren't really delivered house to house if you wanted to buy paper you'd locate a young man hanging out on a street corner toss him your money and get your paper so Jim knew to sell the most papers he needed the best locations the best street corners and he quickly made a reputation for himself as not being afraid to throw a punch to get these locations he was young but he was quite large for his age and very few paper boys would challenge him when he walked up which showed him how powerful a technique intimidation could be to have and one's arsenal at all times Jim Colosimo was a quick learner he kind of had to be he was left to his own devices at a really young age he spent a lot of time in Chicago's first Ward the Vice ward or the red-light district and all its brothels were located he worked on his English he sold his papers but he watched and he observed the business of sex going on around him now at this time sex workers were Chicago's biggest import there are about 10,000 of them working in the city by the year 1900 Jim noted that although there were crackdowns and cleanouts of brothels the first Ward which contained the most of the brothels seemed to be left alone for the most part in fact politicians and police officers were regular customers there he saw the opportunity in the oldest profession in the world offering protection to the girls in exchange for a cut of their money in the simplest of terms he became a pimp he got a few girls to work for him and he glowered at their John's so it was clear that his girls were not to be messed with but this really wasn't the most ideal situation the working girls that were working in the brothels they were protected but his girls were working out on the streets they were beckoning potential clients from doorways and this quote attract the attention of law enforcement even in the first Ward so he went legit again putting pimping behind him for the time being he became a street sweeper and essentially a street sweeper is exactly what it sounds like it's somebody who is tasked with going through the streets usually in urban highly populated areas and and sweeping them out cleaning them out but he made it his goal to be the best damn street sweeper there ever was and with no time he'd gained the respect of his fellow sweepers who looked to him for leadership and advice this wasn't his initial intention to hold influence over so many but his brain worked in a way where he saw the possibilities of this power he organized these people into a club of sorts and this Club caught the attention of our favorite corrupt alderman John bathhouse Coughlin Coughlin knew what politicians have known for centuries you need votes to get or stay in office but you can easily get these votes through bribes or strong persuasion Coughlin noticed that Big Jim who was now six feet tall on about two hundred pounds had a large enough following where it might affect a future election when Colosimo was approached by Coughlin he hadn't even realized that his group could be politically influential or affect elections but when he figured it out he was like hey the more people who listen to me and or are scared of me it doesn't matter which the more pool I have with the real influential people in this city who can give me what it is and what I want which is money and power and with that a relationship was born between Coughlin and Kenna and Big Jim Colosimo this led Big Jim to search for other sources of people he could pull in under his wing and in 1902 he met a woman named Victoria maresco Victoria was also an Italian immigrant one of 18 children who had settled with her family in Chicago once there she too had seen the potential in the business of sin and it opened her very own little brothel she was a handsome woman very driven with an incredible amount of business savvy for her young age of 21 she was also very good at recognizing talent and ambition and others and when she met Big Jim she saw that they were kind of the same they formed a bond and the two got married that same year it didn't seem like this was a love match at least not for Jim Victoria's family was happy with her choice of husband's because he was from Italy and they all knew if his Pole and his influence in the city and Jim liked Victoria because he knew he could learn from her business skills even if there weren't a ton of hard eye emojis going on between the two of them they made great business partners they also made a crap ton of money Victoria's brothel was cleaning up and the couple collected 60% of what their girls made with almost no overhead the girls were responsible for providing their own clothes their own food medical care so essentially all Victoria and Jim had to do was make sure that they kept the lights on and they kept the girls safe from overzealous John's and cops within no time they'd opened up a second brothel this one was meant to have more of a high-class flavour with only the best girls and a significant up charge everything started falling in place for Colosimo his alderman buddies gave him a promotion to precinct captain which meant it would be incredibly easy much easier to fix any tricky elections and he also was the Tribute gatekeeper for the first Ward essentially he was the one going around to all the local businesses and taking their monthly protection payments the next decade would see Big Jim be in control of 100 or more brothels and businesses you couldn't walk down any Street in the first Ward without passing one or more of his businesses and it was said that out of every $2 the girls made he collected a dollar 20 obviously he became a very rich man he would always be driven around the city by his chauffeur he would be dripping in diamonds he loved the Opera he'd go to every single show always accompanied by an entourage sometimes buying 30 seats a night the conductors and the singers they all knew him and he was welcomed backstage after every show he would then invite them all back to his establishment the Colosimo Cafe which boasted a large richly decorated gambling parlor on the second floor now this parlor was frequented by all the high rollers and big in Chicago and the country actresses state senators police chief's he was essentially in control of everyone and everything and no one could touch him that is until late 1909 when he started receiving letters from the black hand he knew who they were of course what they could do if a business didn't pay up Jim had seen their handiwork himself stores going up in flames business owners shot in the street family members kidnapped even if you did pay up there was no guarantee they'd leave you alone famous tenor Enrico Caruso got a letter ordering him to pay $2,000 which he did but then he got another letter shortly after that demanding 15 grand and no one really knew who they were or where they were but by the 1900's black hand groups were firmly established in most major cities including New York San Francisco New Orleans and of course Chicago in 1907 a black hand training facility was discovered in Hillsville Pennsylvania and at this school the students or the members were trained to handle and use a stiletto not the shoe although that would be really cool no one would ever expect to be threatened with a high-heeled shoe however the stiletto I'm talking about is a dagger with a long thin blade very sharp and very deadly if used correctly and that school was there to make sure the black hands knew how to use it correctly Big Jim wasn't having it he'd worked too long and too hard to build his empire to have these little shadowy figures come in and strong-arm him he was the one who did the strong-arming he was the one who did the intimidating goddammit well luckily mrs. Big Jim Victoria Moresco had family in New York who might be able to help Victoria contacted her nephew Johnny Torrio and asked him to come to Chicago and help out now what gave Johnny Torrio the qualifications to handle a problem for Big Jim Colosimo well let's take a look at Johnny Torrio's rise in power he was born donato Torrio on January 20th 1882 in our Cena a town in southern Italy his parents names were Tommaso and Maria but Tommaso died in a work accident when his son was only 2 so Maria and her small child to New York City to start over at first like most of these gangsters he was a common street thug but the thing about Johnny Torrio more so than almost all of his contemporaries he was smart so smart he was given the nickname the Fox Johnny the Fox Torrio I hate to say it I mean I don't really hate to say it it's a fact but most of these gangsters they were not that bright they were scary they knew how to shoot a gun and wield a knife they knew how to wine and dine and schmooze and some might argue they were incredibly hard-working individuals the definition of the American dream they'd all had to overcome the roadblocks of poverty language barriers social disadvantages prejudices and carve out a place for themselves in the world but they weren't always big picture men Torrio however had a scheming mind a mind that saw the details and was able to put them together he would see the writing on the wall far before many others and he'd be used this keen mind to transcend past petty crime he took odd jobs such as a porter or a bouncer and when he wasn't working he was rising in the ranks of a small street gang called the James Street boys who would soon make him their leader through both his legal and illegal activities he saved up enough money to open his own bar at the age of 22 he bought the whole building as well and the building adjacent to it and he rented out the top floors of the bar and the other building he turned into a brothel his rise to wealth and power happened so quickly that he attracted the attention of Paul Kelly leader of the notorious five points gang now Kelly had created this gang out of mostly Italians but the very famous 5 Pointz gangs showcased in the movie gangs of new york preceded his group while they're not really affiliated they're named after the same four streets in New York City which back then had converged to create five points but now the streets of a named different things and everything's been moved it's not really there anymore the way it was back in the 1900s in the 1800s Paul Kelly was an italian-american and he wasn't born Paul Kelly he was named Paolo Antonio vaccarelli so you can see a clear pattern here of these men changing their names to sound more American to assimilate regardless Kelley and his gang or the biggest and baddest in the city at the time and to have an audience with him was like meeting Jesus to these gangsters cali liked Torrio he saw that he was smart you know and he wanted to combine forces making him second-in-command of the five points so the James Street boys and the five points they kind of like converged they merged together and together they began recruiting members from other smaller gangs to increase their numbers and influence in the city one of these new recruits was a man named Frankie Yale Frankie Yale is one of the most interesting gangsters in my opinion I really like him he's one of my favorites but he was born francesco yo Ella yo la Yola either way that's how it was pronounced I think he was born in Calabria Italy On January 22nd of 1893 but it came to New York City with his family in 1900 at the age of 17 he and a wrestler friend severely beat several men in a Coney Island pool hall brawl now Johnny Torrio took notice of Frankie's raw ambition and violent streak and he brought him into the five points gang where Frankie quickly learned the ropes he was just one of those people that never walked away from a fight right you guys know people like this in fact it seemed like he he would seek them out the bloodier the better and if someone accidentally ended up dead well that's just how it be sometimes he even put his own brother Angelo in the hospital after an argument and even if he started out as Torrio's protege he would soon rise up to become a feared and respected boss in his own right in 1909 he opened the Harvard Inn in Coney Island a bar that was a play on his last name so he changed it from Yoli to Yale I can't pronounce it I had the Phanatic pronunciation down and still my brain won't let it happen so he changed it from what it was to Yale Y al e and to Americanize it and keeping with this college theme his new bar would hopefully sound classy enough to attract high paying customers I'm not sure why he just didn't name it the Yale in because that's his last name but okay the Harvard Inn was frequented by many big names in the criminal underworld including Kelly and Torrio themselves and once surly fellow who worked as a bouncer there named Al Capone now it's said that Al Capone received his famous face scars at yells Harvard in when he made a comment about Frank Galluccio s little sister and Galluccio responded by pulling out a knife and slashing Capone on the left side of his face giving birth to Scarface himself I guess the comment that Capone had made about goo Lucio's little sister was like he had come up to her when she was sitting at the table and he said you were really nice but you know take this as a compliment but you have like the nicest but I've seen in a long time and maybe she was offended maybe she was flattered but Galluccio was not having it not his little sister not in public cuz I guess it was loud enough when he said it that everybody heard aside from his quick temper and violent streak Frankie Yale was known for being a snappy dresser and actually being incredibly generous to the people in his neighborhood who were less fortunate a Robin Hood of sorts and you'll see that many of these mobsters these gangsters they do have that Robin Hood complex he would go on to become one of Brooklyn's biggest bootleggers during Prohibition he'd open up and run his own funeral home he even developed a line of cigars with his face on them and in the years leading up to the st. Valentine's Day Massacre he'd play a big part in the growing rivalry between the north side and the south side gangs in Chicago so let's hop back to Big Jim Colosimo he's being threatened by the black hand and he doesn't want to pay up so he recruits Johnny Torrio from New York and brings him to Chicago to handle the problem for him it was 1909 and Torrio was a young man of 28 but he already had an arsenal of mafia connections and street smarts that might be just the thing to solve colosimo's black hand problem before he left Torrio entrusted New York City to the young Frankie Yale now the reason for bringing Johnny Torrio to Chicago was twofold his reputation had preceded him it was well known that he was efficient to say the least and he wasn't someone to mess with if all he had to do was stand at Big Jim side to deter the extortioners great but if he was called to do more that was fine with him to New York City he had grown old for him Chicago was the new frontier it would take a few years but Johnny Torrio would eventually neutralize the Blackhand threat on November 22nd 1911 police responded to reports of shots fired beneath the Rock Island railroad tracks and there they found the two bodies of Pasquale D'Amico and francesco de mello a block away the police came upon another man stefano Danilo who had also been shot but had managed to crawl away from the scene so obviously stefano de nello and Francesco Dinello are brothers so you'd think Stefano is alive somebody just shot his brother he was clearly there he knows who did it he's gonna turn him in right now keep in mind the black hand was kind of a secretive organization no one really knew who was a member if they were more public the whole extortion thing wouldn't work out as well but the police reports stated that the Danilo brothers and Pasquale D'Amico were members of the group who had been known to do some black hand work Danilo wouldn't talk to the police he wouldn't respond when they'd asked him who had done it see no matter how much these gangsters hated each other they had a code of silence between them no snitches running and telling the police was considered to be very unmanly and they wanted the opportunity to handle their enemies themselves in whichever way they saw fit he did however request to see Big Jim Colosimo and Jim was brought to the hospital where Dinello laid in the hospital bed and said not one word he just glowered up at him a message to tell the kingpin that he knew who was responsible for ordering the murders although police knew that gang activity was obviously responsible for the crime and Big Jim was considered to be involved somehow they couldn't hold him on anything since he had an alibi he was at Coliseum OHS cafe that night and dozens of witnesses could vouch for that with the Blackhand problem handled Colosimo and Torrio who was now second-in-command went about their business Torrio was running the Saratoga one of big gyms brothels and he was intent on making it successful the way he made it successful will give you an idea of how far these criminals would go how low they would go to make their money which was their end goal it was always their end goal to to capture that bag right so he knew that the Saratoga wasn't like the most high-end of brothels you know Big Jim and Victoria ran their own brothels they were more high-end they were able to charge more because they had the best girls and Torrio felt like he was kind of getting the the not-so-great girls the ones who didn't have as much experience the ones who kind of weren't as attractive but he did have the youngest girls now allegedly all of these girls were of age that's alleged I doubt that that was completely true all of the time but what he did was he took advantage of the fact that he had the young girls and he dressed them up to look even younger you know pigtails with bows and little skirts and just tried to make them look like little girls which is disgusting but it worked he he brought in the people he brought in the John's he brought in the clientele and it became incredibly successful and he actually teamed up with a married couple Maurice and Julia van beaver who worked in the business of what they called white slavery but in reality was human trafficking women and girls who were kidnapped would be sold to the highest bidder and Torrio had money to spend because as these girls at the Saratoga Torrio's brothel that he was running as they got older his clientele still wanted a younger feel so he had to get fresh inventory is how he looked at it this unsavory business relationship would eventually put Johnny Torrio on the radar of law enforcement first in 1909 and then in 1911 the first time he managed to slither out of trouble but the second time the US Justice Department which would later become the FBI found a woman in a Massachusetts brothel who told them that he'd been shipped across state lines by the van Bevers and Johnny Torrio and Diamond Jim and she identified them all by name now first she didn't want to testify but the police convinced her to and she agreed to testify against all of them in court so they placed her in safekeeping at the Bridgeport jailhouse until the trial the trial she would never make it to Torrio and Big Jim had several informants in the Chicago PD and the informants told Torrio all about the investigation and the girl so Torrio reached out to Frankie Yale in New York City and Yale called on his East Coast network of connections to find out where this witness was being kept two men masquerading as federal agents arrived at the jail and somehow convinced the guards that the witness was in danger and they had to move her and move her they did the next day her body was found riddled with bullets in a Bridgeport cemetery so this all kind of shows you how powerful and net the mobsters had over almost the entire United States how by hook or by crook they'd make sure they were allowed to go about their business on interrupted and unbothered it also might give you some indication of how these men began to feel powerful untouchable and bulletproof but they weren't they were just men mortal men who could be arrested or killed at any moment and you'll see that most of these men we have just been introduced to did not have happy endings let's pop back to New York City and check in with our friend Al Capone even if you don't have an interest in this era or an interest in gangsters you most likely heard the name Al Capone a very big difference between Al and his criminal buddies was he was American born and bred there was a big difference between the Chicago Outfit and the made men of the Mafia the Mafia had its roots in Sicily in the 1800s and started with extended families who were all involved in organized crime the American gangsters were not officially affiliated with this group and although some of them did eventually transition to be made Al Capone would never be because of his birthplace in New York City he was born on january 17th 1899 to Italian immigrant parents Gabriel and Theresa now quick sidenote it's as I'm you know seeing these birthdays it's kind of crazy to me how many of these gangsters were born in January and February Torrio was Diamond Jim was Frankie Yale was it's good sprayed what so Al Capone was one of nine children and in a Capone documentary I watched it made the point of saying that he'd come from a really decent family and he was raised right his mother was a devout Catholic his father was a hard-working barber yet all the Capone children seemed to eventually find themselves involved in one criminal activity or the other the family settled in Brooklyn in the crime-filled Navy Yard District but when Al was pen they moved to a much nicer neighborhood even so al like many other gangsters found himself running around with the street gangs during his youth but there was something about him that was a little different though there was a certain charisma a charm he also had that Robin Hood complex using his violence and savagery to follow the basic Italian code of not bringing innocence and civilians into the gangster melee even before he was a street hardened criminal he witnessed one of his neighbors an older woman get her washboard snatched by a couple of ruffians so he organized a kid gang to find the perpetrators and get it back and give the thieves a good beating he then paraded through the streets holding the washboard high followed by his child gangsters so that they could return it to the old woman he had a flair for the dramatic he very much wanted to be loved and seen as a good person a defender of the innocent even as a small child from a very young age al was bright and motivated but had an obvious problem with rules and authority he was kicked out of school in the sixth grade for slapping his teacher across the face so whatever education he got after that was from the streets he hung out in pool halls he learned the game learned how to make money by hustling ignorant customers he ran around with his gang making money from small-time extortion and petty theft but he used this money to help financially support his large family once again the Robin Hood complex if I steal from the rich and I give to the poor it's actually an honorable thing he worked legitimate jobs too at factory bowling alleys and he moonlighted as a bouncer at clubs such as Frankie yells Harvard in this was his introduction to a larger more organized crime life unlike his haphazard juvenile street gangs as I said this was also where he received his face car at the age of 18 giving him the name Scarface which he honestly hated he was embarrassed of his scars and he'd sometimes put makeup over them or lie and say they were the result of a war injury any time he could help it he turned his face to the right when being photographed so they wouldn't be seen he was very self-conscious and he didn't like the name Scarface the older more seasoned criminal Johnny Torrio became Capone's idol if you were a kid in New York looking to make a life as a criminal Johnny Torrio was like a celebrity and it was an honor to be noticed and mentored by him and one story Oh was established in Chicago he asked Al Capone to join him in the city to act as his bodyguard Torrio was interested in getting into the alcohol business although it hadn't happened officially at prohibition was on the horizon and Torrio being the smart minded businessman he was saw the potential to make a lot of money when the supply could not meet the demand Al Capone had just had his first child a son named Albert Francis and he'd gotten married to a pretty Irish girl named Mae Coughlin no relation to John bathhouse Coughlin she was twenty-one two years older than Capone and even though he would often be unfaithful to her in the future she remained married and what seems to be devoted to him until his death in 1947 even though he was doing well enough in New York City and both his and his wife's families lived there he couldn't say no to Torrio and his chances of upward mobility in Chicago seemed better than his chances in New York City so he and his small family left the Big Apple and moved to the Windy City in 1919 so now we have all our major players in Chicago besides Frankie Yale but Yale would be in constant contact and he'd often travel to the city to help out his buddies with certain tasks as you'll soon see Big Jim Colosimo was getting older and he'd created a downline underneath him essentially where he could basically just hang out at his club Coliseum O's cafe go to the Opera and live the good life for the most part Torrio and Capone we're doing the actual dirty work of running the businesses paying the bribes taking out anyone who stood in their way and this shows a trust for Torrio on the part of Big Jim but all of that would soon be over and the reasons for Johnny Torrio turning on his boss and friend or many in 1919 a pretty young showgirl walked into big Jim's infamous club for an audition her name was Dale winter and Jim had met her previously in Michigan through the opera's orchestra leader when she popped up in his life again he knew it must be a sign and he fell head-over-heels in love with her so he told Victoria you know he wanted to divorce he had fallen in love with someone else and Victoria morasco is not happy about this she did not want to give him a divorce she fought him hard and remembered that Victoria is Johnny Torrio's and so Victoria is actually his family whereas Big Jim was just family by marriage so most likely Johnny Torrio wasn't happy about that considering it to be a betrayal after all he'd come to Chicago at the request of his aunt to help out family but with the divorce Big Jim was no longer family additionally prohibition went into effect on January 17 1920 now prohibition made it illegal to buy or sell alcohol but despite popular belief the 18th amendment did not make it illegal to actually drink alcohol this law had been gaining momentum for years but World War one made it even easier for those people who wanted to see it pass now these people were called DRI advocates and they argued that it was a waste to use a barley to make beer when it could be used to make bread that could feed American soldiers additionally the Maine beer makers in the US were German and the war did not create a very pro-german sentiment in the States so if you were a person who had a crap-ton of alcohol in your possession when Prohibition passed you were free to consume it at your discretion in the privacy of your own home but you just couldn't buy anymore and here's where the supply-demand opportunity arose for those who were already familiar with operating on the wrong side of the law people were not going to stop drinking going to stop wanting to drink and since it would be much more difficult to obtain their alcohol it could be made or bought legally and sold at a premium the first person in Chicago tap on this opportunity was an Irish gangster named Dean O'Banion O'Banion had been born in a small town in Illinois on July 8th 1892 and he moved to Chicago when his mother died in 1901 he settled in Kill gubin on the north side of the city which was a mainly Irish area known for its very high crime rate I think that the area now is known as Goose Island I don't think it's called kill globin anymore but O'Banion was known for having the voice of an angel and when he was a child he sang in the church choir however within no time inevitably he hooked up with a criminal element becoming friends with three specific men George bugs Moran Vincent schemer Dru Chi and Earl Weiss so you know how all the gangsters have these nicknames right big Jam Scarface schemer O'Banion was given his nickname due to an injury he'd gotten in a car accident leaving him with one leg shorter than the other they called him gimpy and he obviously hated it with all of his black gangster heart anyways these four men along with others formed the Market Street gang in Chicago during this time period was essentially a Garden of Eden for those who participated in criminal activity the mayor at that time was quite a character his name was William Hale Thompson but he was given the nickname Big Bill Thompson because he was over six feet tall and he weighed 300 pounds he also dressed and acted outlandishly he liked to wear a cowboy hat and one time he even wrote a horse into the city council chamber he's been called one of the most unethical mayor's in the history of America and Chicago ranked him as number one in their list of the most corrupt public officials in Illinois history which is some kind of achievement considering they've had many some might say that the current mayor is pretty corrupt Jesse Smollett that's all I'm gonna say anyways he was known for his aggressive campaigning techniques and for being very brash not censoring his language and saying essentially whatever popped into his head he's kind of like Donald Trump actually bill Thompson was Donald Trump of the 1920s he was also very anti British for some reason and the petition to have the Chicago library get rid of or censor any books authored by Brits he did accomplish some good things though he was considered incredibly progressive for the time if you overlook his desire to censor literature especially when it came to racial matters in a time when the country was still very racist big bill pushed for equality and even appointed blacks in his cabinet in the African American community he was known as little Lincoln which I think would have offended Abe Lincoln though because big bill he was over 300 pounds and I think Lincoln weighed like 15 pounds soaking wet this openness to equality caused a lot of friction with Chicago's white population who protested against his racial policies and were angered by black support for Thompson during his reelection campaign a sentiment that greatly contributed to a race riot in the city in 1919 for our purposes though it's important to understand that Thompson was anti Prohibition and he wanted people to be able to drink as much booze as they wanted later he would be an instrumental figure in Capone's success between the years of 1919 20s the gangs in Chicago had been left alone to do their business and these men felt comfortable to work out in the open they ward in the streets shooting at each other setting off bombs the city was a war zone and no one really cared the politicians and the police were being paid well to look the other way and the civilian population was indifferent to it as long as they just kept killing each other if the gangs could somehow manage to just attack each other and leave innocent people alone they didn't really care in fact those who lived in Chicago thought it made their City kind of cool and edgy and everyone wanted a story to tell they're interested out-of-state friends of how they knew a gangster or they'd seen something go down as long as everyone's happy right what's the harm well the problem was that this relaxed almost accepting attitude towards crime would breed more crime sending a bad signal to the scumbags of the world that Chicago was the place to be if you thought that Chicago was bad before prohibition the violence and crime in the city was on steroids once it went into effect at this time the city was being controlled by mainly two opposing crime organizations the Irish North Side gang run by O'Banion and his friends and the South Side gang run by Big Jim and his friends neither side liked the other very much Big Jim made his money in brothels and the Irish gang was morally against prostitution they considered it a dirty way to make your money so they operated within the gambling circles and robbery they were excellent safe crackers they were taught by the Picasso of safecracking Charles the axe riser mostly the crew specialized in theft and robbery to supply the city's lucrative black market and later they'd become slugars slugars were essentially muscle for the local newspapers and this is crazy because the sluggers were sent by the newspapers legitimate newspapers to threaten and beat newsstand owners who wouldn't sell their paper at first O'Banion and his crew worked for the Chicago Tribune but they got a better offer from the Chicago Examiner now you know me I don't really want to divert off the topic at hand too much but when I have an interesting piece of historical news to share with you I really can't help it so let's quickly talk about Moses Annenberg the man who enlisted the market gang to beat on newsstand owners the Annenberg family today is worth 2 point 1 billion dollars Moses was born on February 11th 1878 in East Prussia he arrived at Ellis Island with his family in 1885 as a Jewish immigrant with nothing and he moved to Chicago getting his start working at Randolph Hearst spob location in the circulation department where he began affiliating himself with street thugs and criminals trying to win the newspaper Wars in 1922 he bought the Daily Racing Form which is essentially a publication that it talked about horse racing statistics and things in 1927 he took over a wire telegraphing service which he used to provide sports and racing data to illegitimate news agencies and bookies and in 1936 he bought the in choir in an effort to separate himself from the crooks that he'd been running with after spending two years in prison for tax evasion he handed the business over to his 33 year old son Walter who managed against all odds to turn it into the media dynasty that it is today with publications such as Seventeen magazine Playboy and the TV Guide under its umbrella no one is really sure how Walter did this however because he was known to kind of be like a useless guy but he made the right connections in Hollywood and in Washington to make it happen there's a lot of rumors surrounding the family mostly that Walter is anti-american but that's just some scandal T and I think it's very interesting to see how legitimate businesses today have their roots in criminal activity and their connections to the mob do some research on it if you're interested but use Yahoo or another search engine not Google back to O'Banion O'Banion also worked as a waiter and McGovern's tavern where he lulled its patrons into a false sense of security with his beautiful tenor voice while he drugged their drinks and robbed them after they passed out really really sweet guy morally superior to those who made their living in brothels Oh criminals are funny aren't they okay so prohibition hits and O'Banion is like jackpot he made an arrangement with Canadian distilleries to import shipments of beer whiskey Anjan and within no time he was raking in the dough making a million dollars a year which in today's money would have the purchasing power of anywhere between 12 and 14 million dollars he and his crew were also well known for pulling off a heist at the Sibley distillery which had been pad locked and was under federal guard and it held bonded whiskey he and his gang were escorted there by the police chief and four other officers stood guard as they stole 1,750 barrels of whiskey in broad daylight now Police Chief Michael Grady and his co-conspirators were arrested for this later but the charges were dismissed is anyone really surprised the north and south side gangs tended to stay in there lanes and keep out of each other's way but as O'Banion became more and more successful and speakeasies and illegal distilleries began popping up all over the Northside Johnny Torrio took notice and he wanted to get into the bootlegging game he went to Big Jim and he told him that the moment was primed and ready for them to grab it they needed to jump on this train before it left the station and technically he was right but Big Jim wanted no part of it he thought they were making enough with their brothels they were all wealthy and living the good life why did they need to complicate things and here lies another reason for why Torrio became disenchanted with Big Jim C Johnny Torrio was a man for which enough was never enough he was young and he was looking to build an empire he thought big Jim's age and his new girlfriend had made him soft caused him to be unfocused from the bigger picture Torrio was annoyed that Big Jim had pulled back from the outfit wanting to be at his restaurant and play the part of legitimate businessman Torrio felt he was already doing all the heavy lifting what did he really need Big Jim for so Torrio and Al Capone called a Frankie Yale in New York City and they asked him to come to Chicago and meet with them they concocted a plan to remove Big Jim from the equation for good on May 11th 1920 Torrio told Big Jim to meet him at the Colosimo cafe to receive a big shipment it was a cold windy day and Jim was perturbed at having been called out on a day he'd planned to just stay in bed and recover from a hangover when he got to the restaurant he went about his day handling some calls and paperwork saying good morning to the employees that were there and then he walked into the lobby to await the shipment at about 426 p.m. he didn't even know what hit him when two shots rang out and then Big Jim Colosimo was dead now it's still debated as to whether Capone or Yale pulled the trigger but it really shouldn't be it's suspected and most likely true that Frankie Yale a man who had ice water in his veins was the triggerman he had no personal feelings or connections to Big Jim and he was also less likely to be recognized by Jim or eyewitnesses since he wasn't from the area additionally because of big Jim's political connections the police arrived very quickly and they did thoroughly investigate the murder questioning over 30 people including Torrio and Capone but both conveniently had alibis for the time of the shooting the police did however run into Frankie Yale a Union Station getting the hell out of Dodge they had to let him get on the train and leave because they really had no evidence that he was connected but afterwards a porter came forward with the description of a man he'd seen entering the cafe that day a man who looked a lot like Frankie Yale Chicago police contacted the NYPD and asked them to pick up Frankie Yale and hold him for questioning then they grabbed the eyewitness Porter and they get over to New York City where they presented the porter with Yale and asked is this the man that you saw at the cafe well once he was face to face with Yale a man whose reputation for violence and ruthlessness preceded him the porter suddenly stammered that he couldn't remember who exactly he'd seen this sudden onset of short-term memory has since been called Chicago amnesia in reference to witnesses who suddenly don't know exactly what it was they saw when it came to members of organized crime on May 14th the callous emos funeral was held and it was a grand affair this would be the first of the gaudy over-the-top gangster funerals and even in death Jim was a trendsetter because from from then on any time a gangster died they'd have this extremely over-the-top extravagant funeral Jim was paraded through the city in this huge expensive bronze coffin surrounded by mobsters and politicians alike there were huge lavish bouquets covering the casket and the two biggest and most lavish had been sent from Al Capone and Johnny Torrio who attended the event with solemn looks and downturned eyes while they secretly patted themselves on the back for having pulled it off over 10,000 people attended the funeral and afterwards Johnny Torrio got right to work because now he was in charge his first order of business was to make his loyal friend Al Capone his second-in-command and his second order of business was to jump right into the blue legging business making waves with Dean O'Banion who was not really happy about this competition competition that he really hadn't had before he'd essentially already eliminated all of his competition on the north side and he was sitting pretty he had decided to purchase a flower shop he called Schofield's this shop would become the center of his operations but like Big Jim O'Banion felt that his criminal activity was running smoothly enough for him to pursue his real passion flower arranging I'm not lying I'm not trying to be funny the man was an artist when it came to arranging flowers and this business was wildly successful due to all the gang shootings and gangster funerals that were happening because it was customary to send flowers to a man who had killed and it was considered to be in very poor taste if you did not O'Banion was known to spend long hours at the shop and would often bring his eighteen year old wife home a bouquet every night now the two gangs began participating in fights with each other attacking each other in the streets blowing up each other's cars all to show dominance for who the real boss was there was a downside to this however because all the death and destruction began tutoring civilians from frequenting mob owned businesses no one wanted to be hanging out at a gambling house that could be attacked any moment by bloodthirsty gangsters wielding tommy guns both O'Banion and Torrio felt the pain when the money wasn't coming in as readily so they decided to meet and agree on an uneasy truce in early 1921 Torrio and Capone met with O'Banion and his second-in-command Earl Weiss they agreed to maintain their own territories stay out of each other's way when it came to bootlegging and to join forces and other business ventures like casinos restaurants and nightclubs splitting the profits from these establishments now this deal would not only allow each man to expand his bootlegging without interference in his own territory but it would be more profitable for everyone for a short time there was a semblance of peace and everyone went about their business the public acts of violence stopped and the people started going to the businesses again the money was rolling in but then the West Side gang popped up and threw a wrench and the whole thing the West Side gang was an independent in syndicate made up of six brothers who were known as the terrible Jenna's the brothers were Sicilians from Genoa who operated out of Chicago's Little Italy and they were named bloody Angelo Antonio the gentlemen Mike the devil along with Peter Sam and Vincenzo aka Jim I don't know why three of them got cool nicknames and then three of them sound like accountants but it's kind of funny somehow these boys had managed to obtain a federal license to legally manufactured industrial alcohol which they then sold as drinking alcohol and by 1923 they were supplying Torrio with the majority of his product since they were all Italian that gave them a kinship and the genna's were profitable suppliers satori Oh kind of let them do what they wanted including invade O'Banion's territory and sell their product there for a lower cost which obviously was not okay with O'Banion who had a good amount of territory including Chicago's wealthier district to the Gold Coast so O'Banion mat with Torrio again and he was like this is messed up man we had an agreement and these guys are all over my territory undercutting me costing me money what's going on what are you gonna do about it but Torrio didn't really want to ruin his relationship with either the West or the Northside gangs they both were beneficial to him in a way so he tried to come to a compromise and he asked O'Banion to forgive the debts that one of the genna's had racked up at a North Side casino he said that this would be sort of an olive branch to the genna's and they might be convinced to back off O'Banion couldn't believe his ears he felt that Torrio was in league with the genna's they'd already cost him a lot of money they'd disrespected him and now Torrio wanted him to allow them to get away with a very large debt he was not having it and he refused to back down bound to handle the West Side gang problem himself he began hijacking the trucks hearing the genes-- shipments he also did his partner Torrio dirty when he got information that the police were planning to raid a distillery that both O'Banion and Torrio owned and ran jointly before the raid he went to Torrio and asked to be bought out of the distillery which tutorial was more than happy to do he was like this is a really profitable distillery why do you want to get out of it but whatever cool with me so he handed him half a million dollars but then when the place was raided Torrio and six of his guys were arrested and after he bailed them all out he put two and two together have you realized that O'Banion had essentially set him up after doing all of this O'Banion had made himself a target of both the genna's the Terrible jenna's and Johnny Torrio because in reality the only thing that had been keeping the genna's from killing O'Banion had been Torrio but now Torrio had no reason to keep denying them that pleasure and he gave the green light to take O'Banion out Frankie Yale was called back from New York City again and at this point I have to imagine they keep using Frankie for these hits not just because he was a savage but because he wasn't from the area so he'd be less likely to be noticed and pointed out by eyewitnesses on November 10th 1924 Frankie Yale placed an order at skull fields flower shop under the name Mike Merlot and when it was ready he and two of the Jana's thugs went to go pick it up when they walked in O'Banion was happily arranging chrysanthemums and he looked up to greet them asking them if they were there to pick up the Merlot order and sticking out his hand for a shake Frankie Yale stepped ahead of the other two he nodded and took O'Banion's hand holding it in a vise grip as O'Banion was trying to figure out why this guy was being so extra with his handshake the other two opened fire killing Dean O'Banion and his very own precious flower shop he would not be bringing his wife flowers that night or ever again the city would witness another extravagant mob funeral with O'Banion being buried and a $10,000 coffin and of course there was flowers tons of flowers Torrio and Capone also attended the funeral locking eyes with O'Banion's right-hand man Earl Weiss their twin glares a message to him Weiss glared right back and without breaking their gaze he spat on the ground in front of him sending his own message This Means War Earl Weiss was born on January 25th 1898 in Poland another january birthday if you didn't notice he started his criminal career stealing cars and he was dubbed at the perfume burglar after he knocked over shelf perfumes during a botched robbery the police gave him that name the perfume burglar he did not like it because it was kind of like a joke WAIS was a rough character with bottomless black eyes and a temper that flared up without warning he'd shot his own brother in 1920 but he was also deeply religious and he always wore cross around his neck and carried a rosary in his pocket many suspected that his foul moods would come after his chronic migraines but if he was having a good migraine free day you couldn't find a nicer person he took care of the people in his neighborhood when they couldn't pay their bills or they were down on their luck and he paid for all of his parents living expenses along with the expenses of his parents neighbors and friends his showgirl girlfriend called him the finest most decent man she'd ever known so like most people Weiss had two sides to him and for the most part he played it smart when it came to rival gangs he'd even been the one who'd encouraged O'Banion to make the truce with Torrio but after albanians death he became a man obsessed with revenge and his tunnel vision would put him in the crosshairs of one of the most dangerous men alive at the time Al Capone Weiss took over with Vincent schemer as his second-in-command and George bugs Moran as the muscle and their first order of business was retribution for their longtime friend and boss a little over two months later on January 12th 1925 Jaime and his gang slowly drove by Capone's limo which was idling outside of a State Street restaurant they were all armed with machine guns and they used them to pepper the limo with bullets before peeling off the only problem for the north side gang was that Capone was not inside the limo he'd been inside the building and when he heard the shots he ran out stunned his driver had been injured but Capone himself was very much alive and very angry Capone didn't even have a chance to retaliate though because only 12 days later Johnny Torrio and his wife were arriving home from the grocery store when he was attacked by Weiss's men he was walking up to his front door his arms full of packages from a day spun shopping and he didn't notice the blue Cadillac pulling up slowly behind him and parking Weiss and Moran jumped out of the car holding machine guns and rained bullets on Torrio's car and on Torrio himself two of these bullets hit him one in the arm and one in the groin and he fell to the ground the two attackers approached sure that they would finally be able to avenge the death of O'Banion Torrio was lying on the ground injured and helpless and they got closer and bugs Moran placed a pistol to his head and pulled the trigger but nothing happened he had no bullets left or the gun jammed we don't know but Weiss and Moran weren't gonna leave it at that they were here it was the time they might not get another chance so they just started like viciously kicking and punching him but they did need to flee the scene as Torrio's wife Anne had already called the police so they got their punches in they got their kicks in and then they ran Johnny Torrio was hospitalized but alive and it took him four weeks to recover with Al Capone personally sitting next to his side day and night the entire time to make sure that nothing happened to him when Torrio was finally back to full health Capone told him okay it's time to get back to work take out Weiss and his crew in response for the attempt that they've made on both of their lives but Torrio mentally was done he was he was not into it anymore he had plenty of money more money than he could probably ever spend he had the love of a good and loyal wife he told Capone that this was a young man's game and it was time that al took over the operation Torrio left the United States with his wife moved to Italy where he reunited with his mother and left Capone now at the age of 27 in full control of a criminal empire that spanned most of the city in brought in millions of dollars a year and it's really so strange to think about it how young some of these guys were when they were handed this power and responsibilities sometimes when we think about gangsters we think about these kind of like old Italian guys a little paunchy a little overweight kind of like in their Middle Ages but when they first got into the game when they first started rising in power they were young in their early 20s they were kids essentially but they did have to grow up quick if you look at the story of Big Jim Colosimo just basically dropped off in a foreign country not knowing the language at the age of 12 and being expected to not only survive but flourish and become successful these guys had to really they had to grow up fast there probably wasn't much of a childhood for these men so that's going to be it for today we a really good foundation we understand the major players we understand how organised crime took its hold on Chicago we understand how very very corrupt the police and politicians were in Chicago and that's gonna come into play as well in the next video we're gonna talk about how Weiss does not want to let things lie he continues to go after Al Capone and Al Capone is not somebody you can continue to go after without retaliation and a lot of this is going to lead to what happened on that February 14th night we'll also talk about the actual night in question and then we'll talk about the investigation after the results how it kind of wasn't the the best investigation how it went wrong in a lot of ways how there was obviously because there's so much coverup and corruption in the political system and in law enforcement in Chicago the investigation was never really going to end up finding any concrete evidence but it's a very interesting story I can't wait to tell you about it thank you so much for being here with me remember to check out Magellan TV in the description box if you haven't already and if you have checked it out and you've been watching stuff always remember to leave it in the comments section also message me on Instagram or Twitter let me know what you're watching so I can either watch it or tell you that I watched it too and let you know what I think about it and leave in the comments as well another dark history series you'd like to see for next month thank you guys so so much for being here I appreciate you all beyond words I love you so much stay kind and stay beautiful and I'll see you next time [Music] [Applause] [Music] down [Music]

Channel: Stephanie Harlowe

Views: 157,242

Rating: 4.9179673 out of 5

Keywords: chicago, gangland, al capone, johnny torrio, frankie yale, stephanie harlowe, true crime, dark history, organized crime, the mob, prohibition, beer wars, 1920's chicago, st valentines day massacre, bugs moran

Id: MyKBNIM8940

Length: 68min 38sec (4118 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 12 2020