page_title: Gangster
section_title: Johnny Torrio
hierarchical_section_title: Gangster / Notorious individuals / Johnny Torrio
caption_attribution_description: English: Mug shot of Italian-American mobster Johnny "Papa Johnny" Torrio, in the immediate aftermath of his 1936 arrest for tax evasion.
context_page_description: A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Some gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster.
  Gangs provide a level of organization and resources that support much larger and more complex criminal transactions than an individual criminal could achieve. Gangsters have been active for many years in countries around the world. Gangsters are the subject of many novels, films, and video games.
context_section_description: Born in southern Italy in 1882, Torrio immigrated to the United States with his mother after his father's death, which happened when he was three years old. Known as "The Fox" for his cunning, he helped the formation of the Chicago Outfit and he is credited for inspiring the birth of the National Crime Syndicate. He was a big influence on Al Capone, who regarded him as a mentor. After the assassination of Big Jim Colosimo, Torrio took his place in the Chicago Outfit. He was severely wounded by members of the North Side Gang while returning from a shopping trip, forcing him, along with other problems, to quit the criminal activity. He died in 1957 and the media learned about his death three weeks after his burial. Elmer Irey, official of the United States Treasury Department, defined Torrio "the biggest gangster in America", "the smartest and the best of all the hoodlums" while Virgil W. Peterson of the Chicago Crime Commission considered him "an organizational genius".
caption: Mugshot of Johnny Torrio in 1936
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