Big Jim Colosimo

Born: February 16th, 1878

Died: May 11th, 1920

"Big Jim" Colosimo was an Italian-American gangster who started the Chicago Outfit, the most successful crime organization, and was a very intelligent businessman. Big Jim or "Diamond Jim" was also the co-founder of the White Slave Ring.

Big Jim Colosimo

Early Life

Giacomo Colosimo, or Jim Colosimo, was born on February 16th, 1878 in Calabria, Italy. When he was 10 years old, Jim and his family emigrated to the U.S. They lived in the slums of Chicago and Jim

worked as a shoe shiner and a newsboy. Even going into his early teenager years, Jim got extra money through pick pocketing, a crime that he was best at. At the age of 18, Colosimo was already hiring prostitutes to work for him. He was also blackmailing several wealthy citizens of Chicago. While working as a pimp, Jim had a honest job with the Chicago's street-sweepers. He was very successful with this because many of the sweepers were Italian and he was one of the rare few who could speak English. With his money as a pimp and his sweeper job, Jim earned enough money to open a pool hall. Through this, he gained a reputation as a "tough criminal".

Life of Crime

Big Jim eventually met a woman named Victoria Moresco who fell in love with him. They were later married in 1902. By this time, Colosimo owned a pool hall, a saloon and now his wife's business, a bordello which is also known as a "whorehouse". Big Jim was quickly gaining wealth. Soon his wife and him opened several more prostitution houses and competed with the best of pimps. Overtime, Big Jim Colosimo owned or made profits in over an estimated 200 prostitute houses.

As prostitution was growing, the demand for women to work as prostitutes was high. To solve the problem, Colosimo and his wife founded Chicago's White Slave Ring with another couple. The White Slave Ring was an organization that kidnapped young girls, beat and raped them and sold them to pimps for $ 400 each. Usually the target was

underage teenage girls who were immigrants and could not speak English. This made it more difficult for the girls to get help. The slaves were sold to pimps in other states so the families could not track their daughters. The Colosimos also supplied out-of-state slaves to local prostitute owners. The White Slave Ring mainly worked with contacts in Kansas City, St. Louis, Milwaukee and New York.

Jim's wife, Victoria Moresco

Jim received many blackmail letters from enemies, the only solution he found was to fight back. Colosimo needed help and found assistance in his wife's nephew, brought in from New York, Johnny Torrio. Big Jim was very impressed with the nephew and Torrio became a well used contact in New York. Over the next years, Johnny moved to Chicago to work for Colosimo permanently. By this time, Colosimo already started his gang commonly known as the Chicago Outfit, the most powerful and successful gang in Illinois. Jim also opened his most famous restaurant, Colosimo's Cafe in 1910 and it was located on 2126 Wabash Avenue.

Big Jim Colosimo and his father with young Johnny Torrio

As years went on, Big Jim relied on Johnny Torrio more and more. Johnny redecorated many of the Outfit's brothels to make them less sleazy. Torrio also ran many of Colosimo's saloons and restaurants along with Colosimo's Cafe. Many times Torrio helped Colosimo out of trouble. As time went on, Colosimo's greatest enemy turned out to be Torrio himself.

Leading to Murder

During the Prohibition Era, Torrio and Colosimo's relationship started to have flaws. Torrio wanted to have the Outfit set up its own breweries to reduce the cost of shipments. He also wanted to buy whiskey straight from Canada and not from U.S. middlemen. However, Colosimo overruled Torrio and told him that he only sold drinks in speakeasies, and with Johnny's new plans, it would attract too much attention.

Colosimo continued to anger Torrio when Colosimo divorced Torrio's aunt, Victoria, in 1920. Big Jim had fallen in love with a singer at one of his bars, Dale Winter. The two were married in April of 1920. Dale was opposite of Jim's ex-wife who helped him in crime, Dale was completely against it. Because of this, Colosimo spent less and less time with his men and let them gather money for him while he stayed home with his new wife and mother-in-law.

After, multiple meetings with the heads of all the major gangs, Torrio announced that he would get rid of Colosimo and asked for the gangs' support. Torrio also said he would take over the position of the Outfit.

Dale Winter and Big Jim

Colosimo's Assasination

On Tuesday, May 11, Torrio called Colosimo and asked him to come to Colosimo's restaurant. Torrio said that some bootleggers were delivering two shipments of whisky and wanted to give them to only Colosimo. Big Jim protested but Johnny told him to be there at 4pm. Colosimo's chauffeur picked him up at 3:45 and later told press that Jim was angry that Torrio couldn't just deal with the shipment himself.

When Colosimo arrived at Colosimo's Cafe, it was clear that the bootleggers were running late, Big Jim was asking around and his head chef said that no shipments were due that day. Worried and confused, Colosimo left the restaurant. At 4:25, an assassin, hiding in the cloakroom, jumped out and shot Big Jim twice. The only witness was a waiter who saw the killer jump out of the cloakroom, steal Colosimo's wallet and run out the entrance. The murderer was apparently there for a while eating ice-cream and on his check he said "So long Vampire, so long Lefty." The meaning behind it was never understood.

The Investigation

Several police suspected the motive to be revenge for his ex-wife Victoria. Victoria's brother was the prime suspect but he had a legitimate alibi. 30 people were interviewed for the murder including Johnny Torrio. While this was going on, the waiter who saw what happened chose a mugshot of Frankie Yale and said that was who he saw. Frankie Yale was Torrio's partner in New York. Yale who happened to be in Chicago was arrested but later released after the waiter refused to testify at the trial.

Years later, Al Capone apparently confessed to a journalist about the murder of Colosimo and how he killed Big Jim. Capone was never brought to trial and the murder was never solved.

Big Jim Colosimo was buried at Oak Woods cemetery in Chicago.

Frankie Yale

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