Colosimo was repeatedly victimized by Black Hand extortion and sent to New York for aid. Johnny Torrio, co-leader with Frankie Uale of the Five Points Gang of Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, decided to move west to assist Colosimo. Torrio settled in Chicago around 1909 and immediately put an end to Colosimo's Black Hand troubles. In 1919, Five Points enforcer Al Capone, who was wanted on murder charges in New York, decided to follow in Torrio's footsteps and joined Colosimo's Chicago organization.
With the arrival of Prohibition, Torrio and Capone wished to expand into bootlegging. Colosimo refused, possibly because he foresaw conflicts erupting between his group and the other criminal organizations in the city. At the time, the operation of home breweries in Chicago's Sicilian-Italian communities and liquor smuggling operations were being coordinated by rival gangs. While Colosimo was reportedly Sicilian by birth (coming to America in 1872 when just one year old, or, according to other sources in 1881 when nine), he generally functioned outside of the Mafia establishment (and that is one reason he was targeted by Black Handers).
Colosimo was assassinated May 11, 1920. It is believed the hit was performed by Uale, ostensibly at the request of Torrio. But we must remember that the Colosimo-Torrio-Capone group was not a Mafia organization, and, in fact, was presenting growing problems for the true Mafiosi in town - the Gennas and later the Aiellos. It may be that the hit on Colosimo has been incorrectly attributed to Torrio, when the Gennas should really have been blamed.
Whoever the responsible parties were, Torrio and Capone were the main beneficiaries and moved into the leadership of the Colosimo gang. Torrio, it should be noted, took a conciliatory attitude toward other gang leaders in Chicago and suburbs and tried to work cooperatively with them.
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