The lessons Torrio learned from Kelly stayed with him throughout his career ; Torrio eventually earned the moniker of " The Fox " due to his cunning and diplomatic ways.

O ' Banion's murder sparked a bloody, brutal gangland war between the North Side Gang and the Outfit that eventually chased Torrio out of Chicago.

He was also at this time, although not so interwoven in high politics and the rackets as Torrio and Capone, the most powerful and most dangerous mob leader in the Chicago underworld, the roughneck king.

This further demonstration of O'Banion's ballooning power did not please Torrio and Capone.

That sort of braggadocio, for that sort of reason, in the view of Torrio and Capone, was a nonsense.

But Torrio and Capone had graver cause to hate and distrust the Irishman.

During this time, Capone was influenced by gangster Johnny Torrio, whom he came to regard as a mentor.

Capone was recruited for Chicago by Johnny Torrio, his Five Points Gang mentor.

In 1925, Torrio was severely injured in an attack by the North Side Gang ; he turned over his business to Capone and returned to Italy.

Born in 1899, Capone settled in Chicago to take over Johnny Torrio ’ s business dealing with outlawed liquor.

Johnny Torrio and his lieutenant, Al " Scarface " Capone, moved to the South side of Chicago, absorbed the territory and pushed the Southside O ' Donnells ( an Irish group of brothers that held a piece of the Southside and claimed it as their turf ) out of the way.

But the Gennas ( a Sicilian group of brothers who controlled a piece of Southside territory, and were partners of Torrio and Capone ) wanted to extend their interests into other territory.

Torrio was on vacation and left Al Capone in charge of the operations.

Capone and Torrio thought that O ' Banion's death might end their troubles.

Capone and Torrio also attended the funeral, and Moran vowed to take revenge.

According to writers on organized crime, the Syndicate was born from an idea of Johnny " The Fox " Torrio and was founded or established at a May 1929 conference in Atlantic City, attended by leading underworld figures throughout the United States, including Torrio, Lucky Luciano, Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, Joe Adonis, Benjamin " Bugsy " Siegel, Dutch Schultz, Abner " Longy " Zwillman, Louis " Lepke " Buchalter, Vince Mangano, gambler Frank Erickson, Frank Scalice and Albert " Mad Hatter " Anastasia .< ref > Carl Sifakis, < cite > The Mafia Encyclopedia: second edition </ cite >, ( Checkmark Books )</ ref > Others describe the Atlantic City meeting as a coordination and strategy conference for bootleggers .< ref > Dennis Eisenberg, Uri Dan, Eli Landau ,< cite > Meyer Lansky: Mogul of the Mob </ cite > Paddington Press, 1979 </ ref >

John " Papa Johnny " Torrio ( January 20, 1882 – April 16, 1957 ), also known as " The Fox " and as " The Immune ", was an Italian-American mobster who helped build the criminal empire known as the Chicago Outfit in the 1920s that was later inherited by his protégé, Al Capone.

In 1918, Yale contacted Torrio and requested that he should take Capone to Chicago as he was facing prison time.

As the 1920s progressed, Torrio and Capone presided over the expansion of the Chicago Outfit as it raked in millions from gambling, prostitution, and now bootlegging.

Capone had men guarding Torrio around the clock to make sure his beloved mentor was safe.

On January 25, 1925, Drucci, Weiss, and George Moran ambushed Torrio lieutenant Al Capone, shooting up Capone's car, but failing to kill him.

After his recovery and a short jail term, Torrio relinquished control of the South Side Gang to Capone and returned to New York City.

In May 1920, Frankie traveled to Chicago and personally killed longtime gang boss Big Jim Colosimo at the behest of Chicago Outfit friends Torrio and Capone.

In November 1924, Frankie was asked once again to come to Chicago to help out his old pals, Al Capone and Johnny Torrio ; they needed another rival murdered.

Through his liquor smuggling activities, Nitti came to the attention of Chicago crime boss Johnny " Papa Johnny " Torrio and Torrio's newly-arrived soldier, Al Capone.

Torrio, excited that there would be no more problems between them, jumped at the idea and met O ' Banion at the warehouse.

On Saturday, January 24, 1925, in retaliation for the O ' Banion assassination, North Siders Hymie Weiss, Vincent Drucci, and Bugs Moran attacked Torrio as he was returning to his apartment at 7106 South Clyde Avenue from a shopping trip with Anna, his wife.

* John Torrio at Find-A-Grave

In 1919, Torrio and Colosimo opened a brothel at 2222 South Wabash called Four Deuces.

After Colosimo returned to Chicago a week later, Torrio called him and let him know about a shipment arriving at his cafe.

Mike Merlo had such complete control of the Organized Crime activities in Chicago, that upon his death in 1924, a war between north side gangs against Johnny Torrio ( with underling ) Al Capone at his side, instantly erupted.

* 1884-Foundational Outfit leader Giovanni " Johnny " Torrio, nicknamed, " The Brain ," emigrated from Italy to New York City with his family, at age two.

* Jan. 12, 1925-North Side Gang members Hymie Weiss, George " Bugs " Moran and Vincent " Schemer " Drucci followed the limousines that Al Capone and Johnny Torrio were riding in to a restaurant, at south 55th Street and west State Street.

In 1957, Torrio had a heart attack in Brooklyn while sitting in a barber's chair waiting for a haircut, dying several hours later in the hospital.

He brought John " The Fox " Torrio to Chicago from Brooklyn and made him his second in command.

Torrio brought his old Brooklyn lieutenant, Al Capone, to work there as a bartender and bouncer, providing Capone his introduction to Chicago.

16, 1957-Foundational Outfit leader Johnny Torrio died of a heart attack while in a barber chair in Brooklyn, NY.

They were disturbed by his idiotic bravado -- as, when his bodyguard, Yankee Schwartz, complained that he had been snubbed by Dave Miller, a prize-fight referee, chieftain of a Jewish gang and one of four brothers of tough reputation, who were Hirschey, a gambler-politician in loose beer-running league with Torrio and O'Banion, Frank, a policeman, and Max, the youngest.

In May 1924, O ' Banion discovered that their Sieben Brewery was going to be raided by federal agents and sold his share to Torrio.

As a teenager, Ioele was befriended by John Torrio, who ushered him into the Five Points Gang and groomed him for a life of crime.

After his death, his gang was controlled first by John Torrio and then by Al Capone.

In the early 1920s, the North Side Gang's greatest rival was the Chicago Outfit, run first by John " The Fox " Torrio and then Al Capone.

Severely injured in an assassination attempt by the North Side Mob in January 1925, the shaken Torrio returned to Italy and handed over control of the business to Capone.

* Jim Cosmano, a major Chicago Black Hand leader, is severely wounded in an ambush by Johnny Torrio on a South Side bridge.

* July-Shortly after being brought to Chicago by his cousin John Torrio, New York gunman Roxie Vanilli is arrested for the murder of a Chicago police officer in Chicago's infamous vice district, The Levee.

These gangs included the predominantly Irish North Side Gang, under boss Dion O ' Banion, the Sicilian Genna Brothers gang and the South Side gang, then run by Torrio and Capone .< ref >

* February 9-Johnny Torrio is sentenced by Judge Adam Cliffe to nine months in the Lake County Jail, in Waukegan, Illinois, a short distance north of Chicago.

After his release, Torrio would be escorted by Capone out of Lake County.

Enright remained in control of the city's labor unions into the early months of Prohibition until his death on February 2, 1920, when he was gunned down near his South Side home ( most likely by rival Timothy " Big Tim " Murphy or Johnny Torrio and Al Capone.

* Jan. 18, 1912-Jim Cosmano, a major Chicago " Black Hand " leader, was severely wounded in an ambush by Johnny Torrio, near the 22nd Street police station.

O ' Banion's murder began a five-year gang war between the North Side Gang under O ' Banion, then under Hymie Weiss, then under Vincent " The Schemer " Drucci ( and later under George " Bugs " Moran ), and Al Capone's Chicago Outfit, that probably started when O ' Banion swindled Outfit head Johnny Torrio out of half-a-million dollars when O ' Banion sold Torrio a Prohibition brewery O ' Banion knew was going to be raided by the authorities.

Soon after this attack, Torrio retired to Italy and was succeeded by his lieutenant, Al Capone.