Johnny Torrio

The Chicago Outfit was founded in the 1920s by American mobster John Donato Torrio, an Italian-born citizen who later passed it on to Al Capone. In the 1930s, Torrio proposed a National Crime Syndicate and later served as Lucky Luciano and the Luciano crime family's advisor. In particular, Torrio was known as "The Fox" for his slyness and dexterity. Elmer Irey, a US Treasury officer, thought highly of him "He was the brightest and, I dare say, the greatest of all the hoodlums", the author said of the largest criminal in America. "Best" refers to ability rather than morality ". His "talents as an organizational genius were generally regarded by the main gang bosses in the New York City region", according to Virgil W. Peterson of the Chicago Crime Commission. According to crime writer Herbert Asbury, Johnny Torrio "is unrivalled in the annals of American crime as an organizer and administrator of underground operations; he was perhaps the closest thing to a true mastermind that this nation has yet produced".

Torrio survived and completed a lengthy jail sentence. (While purchasing an illegal brewery from O'Bannion in May 1924, he had been set up.) He left Chicago to Al Capone while he was incarcerated and declared he would retire to Italy. After three years of retirement, he went back to work with Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano in New York and eventually rose to the position of mafia elder statesman. In 1939, he was found guilty of tax evasion and sentenced to two years in prison. He ultimately transitioned from organized crime to real estate. He had a heart attack on April 16, 1957, while seated in a barber's chair, and later that day he passed away. Few people showed up for his funeral. He had faded into obscurity to the point that it took three weeks for his passing to be announced in the press, and only after his will had been probated.