page_title: Johnny Torrio
section_title: Later years and death
hierarchical_section_title: Johnny Torrio / Later years and death
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: John Donato Torrio was an Italian-American mobster who helped build the Chicago Outfit in the 1920s. It was later inherited by his protégé Al Capone. Torrio proposed a National Crime Syndicate in the 1930s and later became an adviser to Lucky Luciano and his Luciano crime family.
  Torrio had several nicknames, primarily "The Fox" for his cunning and finesse. Considered one of the most influential personalities in American organized crime, Torrio impressed authorities and chroniclers with his business acumen and diplomatic skills.
  The US Treasury official Elmer Irey considered him "the biggest gangster in America" and wrote, "He was the smartest and, I dare say, the best of all the hoodlums. 'Best' referring to talent, not morals". Virgil W. Peterson of the Chicago Crime Commission stated that his "talents as an organizational genius were widely respected by the major gang bosses in the New York City area". Crime journalist Herbert Asbury affirmed: "As an organizer and administrator of underworld affairs Johnny Torrio is unsurpassed in the annals of American crime; he was probably the nearest thing to a real mastermind that this country has yet produced".
context_section_description: In 1928, Torrio returned to the United States, as Benito Mussolini began putting pressure on the Mafia in Italy. He is credited with helping to organize a loose cartel of East Coast bootleggers, the Big Seven, in which a number of prominent gangsters, including Lucky Luciano, Longy Zwillman, Joe Adonis, Frank Costello, and Meyer Lansky played a part. Torrio also supported creation of a national body that would prevent the sort of all-out turf wars between gangs that had broken out in Chicago and New York. His idea was well received, and a conference was hosted in Atlantic City by Torrio, Lansky, Luciano and Costello in May 1929; the National Crime Syndicate was created.
  Torrio was charged with income tax evasion in 1936, and after several failed appeals, Torrio was sent to prison in 1939, serving two years. In 1940, property that Torrio co-owned with Vanella, Jack Cusick and Capone was sold at auction to satisfy Capone's tax delinquencies. After his release, he lived quietly until his death.
  On April 16, 1957, Torrio had a heart attack in Brooklyn while he was sitting in a barber's chair waiting for a haircut; he died several hours later in a nearby hospital.
  The media did not learn about his death until three weeks after his burial.
caption: Torrio following his 1936 arrest for tax evasion
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