View source for Big Jim Colosimo

{{Short description|American mobster (1878–1920)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2022}}
{{Infobox criminal
| name              = Big Jim Colosimo
| image             = Big Jim Colosimo.webp
| caption           = 
| birth_name        = Vincenzo Colosimo
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1878|2|18}}
| birth_place       = [[Colosimi]], [[Calabria]], [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]]
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1920|5|11|1878|2|16}}<ref name="Mob Museum">{{cite web|title="Big Jim" Killed|url=https://themobmuseum.org/timeline_events/big-jim-killed/|website=The Mob Museum|access-date=10 December 2018}}</ref>
| death_place       = [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], U.S.
| death_cause       = Gunshot wounds
| resting_place     = [[Oak Woods Cemetery]], Chicago
| other_names       = "Big Jim", "Diamond Jim"
| occupation        = [[Crime boss]]
| allegiance        = [[Chicago Outfit]]
| spouse            = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Victoria Moresco|1902|1920|reason=divorce}}
* {{marriage|Dale Winter|1920}}
}}
}}
'''Vincenzo Colosimo'''<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7N5ct-uNCtsC&q=luigi%2520colosimo&pg=PA254|title=The First Vice Lord: Big Jim Colosimo and the Ladies of the Levee|last=Bilek|first=Arthur J.|date=2008-01-01|publisher=Cumberland House Publishing|isbn=9781581826395|language=en}}</ref> ({{IPA|it|vinˈtʃɛntso koˈlɔːzimo|lang}}; February 16, 1878 – May 11, 1920), known as '''James''' "'''Big Jim'''" '''Colosimo''' or as "'''Diamond Jim'''", was an [[American Mafia|Italian-American Mafia]] crime boss who emigrated from [[Calabria]], Italy, in 1895 and built a criminal empire in [[Chicago]] based on prostitution, gambling and [[racketeering]]. He gained power through petty crime and heading a chain of [[brothel]]s. From 1902 until his death in 1920, he led a gang known after his death as the [[Chicago Outfit]]. Colosimo was assassinated on May 11, 1920, and no one was ever charged with his murder.<ref name="Bergreen-1994" /> [[Johnny Torrio]], an enforcer whom Colosimo imported in 1909 from New York, seized control of Colosimo's businesses after his death. [[Al Capone]], a close associate of Torrio, has been accused of involvement in Colosimo's murder but was not yet in Chicago at the time.<ref name="Bergreen-1994" />

==Early years==
Colosimo was born on February 16, 1878, to Luigi Colosimo and his second wife Giuseppina Mascaro in the town of [[Colosimi]], [[Province of Cosenza]], Italy.<ref name="Lawless">{{cite web |last1=Sann |first1=Paul |title=The Roaring Twenties |url=http://www.lawlessdecade.net/20-41.htm |website=The Lawless Decade |access-date=10 December 2018}}</ref> He emigrated from Italy to Chicago at the age of 17, starting out as a petty criminal. Colosimo attracted the attention of First Ward aldermen [[Michael Kenna (politician)|Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna]] and [[John Coughlin (alderman)|John Coughlin]]. They made him a [[precinct captain]] and later their [[bagman]]. This gave Colosimo the political connections that helped him rise to power as a mob boss.<ref name="kobler">''Capone: The Life and World of Al Capone'' by John Kobler</ref>

==Prostitution empire==
Later, Colosimo acquired another nickname, "Diamond Jim," because he frequently dressed in a white suit and wore diamond pins, rings, and other jewelry.<ref name="Lawless" /> This, combined with his charm and money, helped him establish relationships with women. He loved women and money, which fueled his enthusiasm for [[prostitution]]. In 1902, Colosimo married Victoria Moresco, an established Chicago [[Procuring (prostitution)|madam]]<ref name="dr.com.tr">{{cite web |title=When the Outfit Ran Chicago, Vol I: The "Big Jim" Colosimo Era |url=https://www.dr.com.tr/ekitap/when-the-outfit-ran-chicago-vol-i-the-big-jim-colosimo-era |website=D&R |access-date=10 December 2018 |language=tr}}</ref> and together they began expanding their prostitution business.
 
Among Colosimo's first brothels was The Victoria (named after his wife), on Archer and Armour Avenue,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Keefe |first=Rose |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sGz8dePJA7YC&dq=victoria+brothel+colosimo&pg=PA106 |title=Guns and Roses: The Untold Story of Dean O'Banion, Chicago's Big Shot Before Al Capone |date=2003 |publisher=Cumberland House Publishing |isbn=978-1-58182-378-3 |language=en}}</ref> and The Saratoga, at Dearborn and 22nd Street.<ref name="Binder-2017">{{cite book |last=Binder |first=John J. |date=2017 |title=Al Capone's Beer Wars | chapter=Chapter 1}}</ref> Within a few years, Colosimo had expanded this to nearly 200 brothels and had also made inroads into [[gambling]] and [[Racket (crime)|racketeering]].<ref name="kobler" /> Colosimo was reputedly making $50,000 ($720,000 in 2022) per month from his various legal and illegal operations.<ref name=chicagodead/>

==Help from New York and expansion==
By 1909, [[Black Hand (blackmail)|Black Hand]] extortion was a serious threat to Colosimo in Chicago. He brought in gangster [[John Torrio|John "The Fox" Torrio]] from [[Brooklyn, New York|Brooklyn]] and made him his second in command.<ref name="dr.com.tr" /> Torrio was the nephew of Moresco. Laurence Bergreen states, "Torrio is [also] described as Colosimo's nephew, but in the absence of any evidence to confirm the relationship, it is more likely their kinship was spiritual rather than familial." There are also references to Colosimo's wife being somehow related to John Torrio.<ref name="Bergreen-1994">{{cite book |last=Bergreen |first=Laurence |date=1994 |title=Capone: The Man and the Era |url=https://archive.org/details/caponemanera00berg |url-access=registration |publisher= Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=978-0-684-82447-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/caponemanera00berg/page/81 81]}}</ref> 

In 1910, Colosimo opened Colosimo's Cafe, a restaurant and nightclub at 2126 South Wabash. It quickly became a popular destination for prominent Chicagoans and visitors, gaining nationwide fame.<ref name="Lawless" /> Colosimo's crew grew into a multi-ethnic, hierarchical gang, with Italian, Irish, Polish, and Jewish gangsters. Colosimo's vice interests eventually expanded into Chicago's suburbs, including Burnham and South Chicago.

In 1919, Torrio and Colosimo opened a brothel at 2222 South Wabash called the Four Deuces, referencing the address. Torrio hired his old Brooklyn colleague [[Al Capone]] to work as a bartender and [[bouncer (doorman)|bouncer]], which gave Capone his entry into Chicago crime.<ref name="kobler" />

==Betrayal==
[[File:AlCaponemugshotCPD.jpg|thumb|right|Al Capone mugshot]]
[[File:Grave of Vincenzo Colosimo (1878–1920) at Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Colosimo mausoleum at Oak Woods Cemetery]]

When [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] went into effect in 1920, Torrio pushed for the gang to enter into [[Rum-running|bootlegging]], but Colosimo stubbornly refused. In March 1920, Colosimo secured an uncontested divorce from Moresco.<ref name=chicagodead>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/103733013/the-vice-lord-who-fell-in-love-with-a/ |title=The Vice Lord Who Fell in Love With a Choir Singer |first=June |last=Sawyers |newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]] |page=163 |date=July 26, 1987 |access-date=2022-06-14 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> A month later, he and Dale Winter eloped to [[West Baden Springs, Indiana]]. Upon their return, he bought a home on the South Side.<ref name=chicagodead/> On May 11, 1920, Colosimo drove to Colosimo's Cafe to meet an associate he had never met before. He was shot and killed a few minutes after entering the restaurant by a gunman hiding in the cloak room. A bullet entered Colosimo's brain, behind his right ear. <ref name=Binder-2017/> Contract killer [[Frankie Yale]] had allegedly traveled from New York to Chicago and personally killed longtime gang boss Colosimo at the behest of Torrio.<ref>Schoenberg, pgs. 62-66</ref> Although suspected by Chicago police, Yale was never officially charged.<ref>Schoenberg, pgs. 62-65</ref> Colosimo was allegedly murdered because he stood in the way of his gang making bootlegging profits, having "gone soft" after his marriage with Winter.<ref name=chicagodead/> 

Colosimo was the first gang leader to organize the disparate parts of Chicago's crime scene. After his death, Torrio took over his gang,<ref name="Mob Museum" /> later to be replaced by [[Al Capone]].<ref name="dr.com.tr" /> His mob eventually became the infamous Chicago Outfit that ruled over some parts of the city.<ref name="kobler" />

Colosimo was interred at [[Oak Woods Cemetery]] in Chicago, in a lavish funeral witnessed by 5,000 mourners.<ref name="Bergreen-1994" />

==In popular media==
===Film===
*In ''[[Scarface (1932 film)|Scarface: The Shame of a Nation]]'' (1932), the death of "Big Louie" Costillo (Harry J. Vejar) is loosely based on Colosimo's assassination. Antonio "Tony" Camonte kills Big Louie at the behest of his friend Johnny Lovo, Costillo's right-hand man. Lovo was based on Johnny Torrio and Camonte on Al Capone, and the film presents Costillo's murder as the beginning of Lovo and Camonte's involvement in bootlegging, similar to how Colosimo's refusal to allow bootlegging is considered the primary reason for his murder.
* [[Joe De Santis]] played Colosimo in ''[[Al Capone (film)|Al Capone]]'' (1959).
* [[Frank Campanella]] played Colosimo in ''[[Capone (1975 film)|Capone]]'' (1975).

===Television===
*Peter Siragusa portrayed Colosimo in the pilot episode of [[The Untouchables (1993 TV series)|The Untouchables (1993)]].
*Colosimo and a fictionalized account of his murder was the subject of a 1993 episode of ''[[The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles]]'', titled "Young Indiana Jones and the Mystery of the Blues."  Colosimo was portrayed by [[Raymond Serra]], Victoria Moresco by Linda Lutz, and Dale Winter by [[Jane Krakowski]].
*Colosimo was portrayed by Peter Banks<!-- the actor born in 1943 in Canada --> in a 1994 episode of [[In Suspicious Circumstances]], titled ''No Witness, No Case'' (a reference to a prostitute whom Colosimo had sent from Chicago to Connecticut, who was murdered after she talked to the police).
*In 2010, Colosimo's murder was depicted in the series premiere of HBO's ''[[Boardwalk Empire]]''. It depicts Colosimo, played by Frank Crudele, as the victim of a hit ordered by Torrio and committed by [[Frankie Yale]] to allow Torrio to go into bootlegging. He is shown being shot at the back of the head while listening to an [[Enrico Caruso]] record in his restaurant.
* He was portrayed by Andre King in the 2016 docuseries ''[[The Making of the Mob: Chicago]].''

===Music===
*In Ian Hunter's song "Resurrection Mary", the storyteller, who sees the infamous ghost of the title, used to do "the numbers for Big Jim."

===Theater===

*In the musical [[Chicago (musical)|Chicago]], the character [[Velma Kelly]] mentions she wants to perform at Big Jim Colosimo's, bribing the matron for the opportunity.

===Gaming===
*In ''[[Mafia: Definitive Edition]]'' (2020), the mentioned offscreen murder of the Illinois mob boss Felice Peppone in 1922, by his two capos Ennio Salieri and Marcu Morello to get into the bootlegging business and form their own Mafia families in the city of Lost Heaven, is loosely inspired by the murder of Colosimo.

==See also==
* [[List of homicides in Illinois#Organized crime|List of organized crime killings in Illinois]]
* [[List of unsolved murders (1900–1979)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Bilek, Arthur J. ''The First Vice Lord: Big Jim Colosimo and the Ladies of the Levee.''  Nashville: Cumberland House, 2008.

{{S-start}}
{{s-other|[[American Mafia]]}}
{{Succession box| title=[[Chicago Outfit]] Boss <br> 1910–1920 |
before=New title | after=[[John Torrio]] | years=}}
{{S-end}}

{{Chicago Outfit}}
{{American Mafia}}
{{Prostitution in the United States|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colosimo, Jim}}
[[Category:1878 births]]
[[Category:1920 deaths]]
[[Category:Al Capone associates]]
[[Category:American brothel owners and madams]]
[[Category:American gangsters of the interwar period]]
[[Category:Chicago Outfit bosses]]
[[Category:Deaths by firearm in Illinois]]
[[Category:Italian crime bosses]]
[[Category:Italian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Murdered American gangsters of Italian descent]]
[[Category:People from Cosenza]]
[[Category:People murdered in 1920]]
[[Category:People murdered by Italian-American organized crime]]
[[Category:Unsolved murders in Chicago]]