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This Day in History
May 28
Crime
The decision in a well-known securities fraud case is upheld, 1986
The U.S. Court of Appeals upholds the conviction of writer R. Foster Winans for securities fraud. Winans, author of the "Heard on the Street" column for…
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Bugsy Siegel
(born Feb. 28, 1906, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.—died June 20, 1947, Beverly Hills, Calif.) New York and California gangster who was the U.S.
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Al Capone
The most notorious gangster in American history, Al Capone ran Chicago's largest bootlegging, prostitution and gambling syndicate.
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Meyer Lansky
(born July 4, 1902, [officially assigned date by U.S. authorities], Grodno, Russia—died Jan. 15, 1983, Miami Beach, Fla., U.S.) one of the most powerful and richest of U.
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Vito Genovese
(born Nov. 27, 1897, Rosiglino, Italy—died Feb. 14, 1969, Springfield, Mo., U.S.) one of the most powerful of American crime syndicate bosses from the 1930s to the 1950s and a major influence even from prison, 1959–69.
(born February 1882, Orsara, Italy—died April 16, 1957, New York, N.Y., U.S.) American gangster who became a top crime boss in Chicago and, later, one of the founders of modern organized crime in America.
Born in a village near Naples, Torrio was brought to New York City by his widowed mother when he was two. He became a brothel-saloonkeeper and leader of the James Street Boys, allying them with the Five Points Gang (1904–08). He then rose to become a rackets boss ( i.e., engaged in activities involving extortion) in Brooklyn before being called to Chicago in 1909 to operate and expand Big Jim Colosimo's chain of brothels. In 1919 Torrio summoned his old friend Al Capone from New York to manage one of the brothels and, in 1920, had either him or Frankie Yale murder Colosimo. Torrio thereby inherited Colosimo's empire and immediately expanded into big-time bootlegging (illegal manufacture, sale, and transport of alcohol) and gambling casinos of the Prohibition era.
In 1925, after successively being shot at and wounded by a rival gang and serving nine months in prison for operating a brewery, Torrio turned over his rackets to Capone and retired to Italy (1925–28). Returning to live in New York, he invested profitably in real estate and helped create a bootlegging combine, becoming a close associate of Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and other bosses. Torrio was one of the directors of the national crime syndicate or cartel formed in 1934.
In 1936 he was charged with income tax evasion and, after a long trial and many appeals, went to prison again (1939–41). He subsequently went into virtual retirement, very wealthy, and died of a heart attack in a barber chair in 1957.
Copyright © 1994-2009 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. For more information visit Britannica.com.
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