Al Capone,
Johnny Torrio
 and Virginia.

On August 17, 1896, an Angel was born – a dangerous Angel!

On January 17, 1899, Gabrielle and Teresina enjoyed the birth of their fourth son, Alphonse – a date like any other, but in the long run, it would mean the starting point for a career that no one had ever even dreamed about. Twenty years later, gangster rule beyond all proportions began.

Gabriele and Teresina Capone had given America Al Capone!

Johnny Torrio would give the word “gangster” new meaning. He would become a successful “gentleman gangster”. It would take a while though.

On his arrival to New York, he was, like all Italians, shuffled off to the slums of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, New York’s “Little Italy”. That is, opportunities for Johnny Torrio to become anything but a gangster were non-existent. It was just as well to begin at once, and it wasn’t long before Johnny was given the nickname “Terrible Johnny” because of his cruelty.
But Johnny Torrio knew better than being a street fighter. A physically small man, but extremely tough, these attributes alone would not elevate him to the higher ranks. If he wanted to be number one, he would have to use his brain, which he had instead of muscles.

Johnny Torrio was a hypocrite of the highest order understanding the significance of acting so that people’s sense of propriety was satisfied. The idea was to hide the gangster within – to not be seen, to remain hidden to the public.

Enjoying one’s own company, avoiding the spotlight and being content with one’s own applause. Dressing correctly, minding one’s language and always having a legal activity as a cover.

These were the guidelines, which Johnny Torrio would follow his whole life and which would transform him from “Terrible Johnny” to “The Fox” because of his cunning and diplomatic behavior, and also would see him pass the final examination as a gentleman gangster.

Chicago was perfectly vulnerable to becoming the city of crime. It was a noisy, messy, pugnacious city, full of gambling dens, speakeasies and quarrelsome wills. It was a city where prostitution flourished and alcohol flowed – open to everyone who had the money to pay for a few moments of happiness.

James “Big Jim” Colosimo was there to serve up the joys and merriment. Together with his considerably older wife, Victoria Moresco, a striking, successful woman, who was already established in Chicago and knew how to grease the wheels, Big Jim had created a whore’s empire, whose bordellos took in about $50,000 a month. Altogether, Victoria Moresco and Jim Colosimo could count over two hundred houses of pleasure, which also served as gambling dens as well as centers for blackmail and other criminal activities.

Parallel to all this, they conducted white slavery with young women who were lured to Chicago by the promise of well-paid work, but were instead drugged, raped and placed in one of the whorehouses or sold to a competitor. The going price was around $400.

Big Jim lived in a way that matched his wealth. He loved the glamorous life and everything connected with it. He loved to hold court and to be overly generous. He absolutely reveled in luxury and vanity, enjoying his role as Chicago’s Maharaja. He looked like a glittering Christmas tree, usually dressed in a chalk-white suit with huge diamonds on each of his fat fingers and with his belt and shoes encrusted with sparkling jewels. His collar buttons, cuff links and tie clips were also studded with diamonds. It was no wonder that he got the nickname “Diamond Jim.”

Big Jim soon became the indisputable mafia boss of Chicago, and it didn’t take long before he invited Johnny Torrio to join his empire.

Johnny Torrio accepted the invitation, and Big Jim named him his right-hand man on the spot. The main headquarters were set up at Big Jim’s newly opened nightclub, “Colosimo´s Cafe”, and Johnny Torrio, straight away, exchanged the vulgar whores and brought in fresh teenagers.

Recruiting Johnny Torrio as administrator for his shady dealings was the best thing Big Jim could have done, since he was only interested in pleasure, and he came to appreciate Johnny Torrio’s considerable talents more and more. Torrio build up and expanded business a little at a time without attracting any more attention to himself, and since Johnny Torrio was very alert in every way, it was pretty clear that Big Jim commanded almost exclusive control of activities in Chicago. But then again, conditions have a chilling tendency to change.

On November 2, 1899, Emmett Crown was born, and now Virginia Crown, the dangerous Angel in waiting, had a brother.

Virginia and Emmett grow up in Little Sicily – a Chicago slum. Virginia becomes Chicago’s beauty, an incredibly beautiful girl – Emmett becomes Chicago’s street fighter, soon to be cultivated as one of Al Capone and Johnny Torrio’s henchmen.

There were two kinds of people – the rich ones with power, and the others who had neither money nor power. Virginia had an idea to get both rich and powerful. Her idea, though, is a dangerous one – she intends to infiltrate the power structures of the Mafia. Her asset is her beauty, and she has it in abundance, which had almost cost her life. Now it was payback time – with interest. It wouldn’t be the first time in the history that an attractive woman had taken advantage of lustful men. And since she was lustful herself, she understood their hunger.

Now Al Capone enters the scene … and the merciless wheel of fortune is put into motion! Organized crime was a new phenomenon which most people didn’t take seriously since they didn’t know what it was about – but they were soon to learn.

Just a stone’s throw from where Capone lived, Johnny Torrio had his headquarters in New York. By now Johnny Torrio was an increasingly powerful man, and the more powerful he got, the more he recognized that Capone was a head above his contemporaries. Al Capone wasn’t only a fighter, with a temperament like a constantly erupting volcano; he also had a well-developed intellect and played a string in Torrio that had been waiting to be plucked, so “The Fox” decided to take the opportunity of cultivating his contact with the talented, ambitious young man with the special qualities.

Meanwhile, Johnny Torrio’s next plans were to move his business to Chicago permanently, and so Capone had to bide his time in New York without his mentor. But not for long.

Now Virginia Crown makes her move. At the tender age of seventeen she knocks on the door to Johnny Torrio’s headquarters, “Colosimo´s Cafe”. Exactly what she’s going to say to him is unsure. She assumes that her beauty will help her through … Which it does – Johnny Torrio is sucked right into the trap. Though Virginia had played with fire – if Big Jim had seen her first, she would probably have ended up drugged, raped and placed in one of the whorehouses. But Johnny Torrio wanted Virginia all to himself.

Virginia had passed the first and most crucial step of her “idea”. Now Virginia asks Johnny Torrio to hire her brother, Emmett, as a bodyguard for herself, and she also persuades him to make her father boss of the construction company he had already given her as a starter. Both requests are granted, and the next step of her plan is to have Johnny Torrio, who is already married, get her pregnant … and Johnny Torrio is in seventh heaven.

But Virginia holds a dark secret … Johnny Torrio is not the child’s father. Virginia is building up her own “mafia family” … So, Prince David was born and everybody is happy. Johnny Torrio wants to divorce his wife and get married to Virginia. But Virginia has other plans.

Johnny Torrio has Al Capone move from New York to Chicago, and Virginia decides that Al Capone should be the “father” to her second child. But things do not go according to plan. Capone although a very willing playmate refuses to consummate, citing his friendship with Torrio as his alibi. Virginia is left stunned.

Virginia, who is already pregnant, has to find a new “father” – and pretty quick – but whom…? She finally manages to get herself “raped” by Big Jim, and now she had started the real chaos ... Johnny Torrio, who has grown to loathe Big Jim, feels sorry for his poor angel, and assures Virginia that he will assume responsibility for her second child. And Princess Cleopatra was born.

Al Capone’s father dies, and Capone buys a two story house and moves the rest of his family from New York. Chicago is his kinda town, Capone loved Chicago … Chicago was like a lustful woman waiting to be seduced, and Al Capone planned to take her and penetrate her underworld. And he wouldn’t lose his erection until she lay at his feet begging for mercy. It wasn’t a question of desire – it was rape, plain and simple.

Johnny Torrio continues to be the “nice guy”, and Virginia continues her “foul play” leading her to success and wealth beyond her imagination.

On the 16th of January 1920 Prohibition starts and the mafia families prepare themselves for smuggling and selling liquor. Every gangster understands the importance of this, except one – Big Jim Colosimo, who refuses to go along. Which means that Johnny Torrio condemns him to death.

By now Emmett is a fully skilled hit man, and as revenge for his sister’s “rape” he volunteers to take care of the problem for Torrio.

Tuesday, May 11, 3:30 p.m., 1920, Big Jim Colosimo dies.

Johnny Torrio takes over everything, and his new partner is Al Capone.

Territorial warring between the mafia families ensues, and right in the middle of it all Virginia acts in her own way taking advantage of the Mafia in order to benefit her own family. She marries Alan Mangold, whose sister’s best friend was raped, split open, shot with twelve bullets and finally tossed into a cemetery on Johnny Torrio’s orders. Virginia gets a third child, Jacqueline. Then Virginia’s eldest daughter, Cleopatra, gets pregnant – the same way her mother got pregnant. And now, once again, the search for the right “father” starts – all while the gangsters kill one another.

With a shocking end, this is a sexually charged and violent historical perspective about American gangster life in the 1920’s, when the rules of street replaced the rule of law – and set the scene for a “dangerous angel”.