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Jim Cosmano
James Cosmano also known as "Sunny Jim" (born July 17, 1885 – May 2, 1963) was a leader of the Black Hand street gang in pre-Prohibition Chicago who tried to extort money from the South Side gang. Early years Born ''Vincenzo Cosmano'' in Molochio, Reggio Calabria, Italy, July 17, 1885. He arrived in the United States at Ellis Island on May 14, 1904 aboard the ''San Gottardo''. After a stay in Canada, he crossed over into the US at St. Albans, VT, on December 22, 1904. Cosmano joined the Black Hand as a young man. Cosmano and other Black Handers, including James "The Mad Bomber" Belcastro, preyed on the residents of Chicago's Little Italy and other city neighborhoods at the turn of the 20th century. Extortion and Doublecross In 1910, Cosmano tried to extort money out of James "Big Jim" Colosimo, a powerful brothel owner in the Levee section of Chicago. Cosmano threatened to beat up Colosimo's prostitutes and their customers if he did not receive $50,000 a week. To protect himse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Hand (blackmail)
Black Hand ( it, Mano Nera) was a type of Italian extortion racket. Originally developed in the eighteenth century, Black Hand extortion came to the United States in the later nineteenth century with immigrants. Black Hand was a method of extortion practiced by gangsters of the Camorra and the Mafia. American newspapers in the first half of the twentieth century sometimes made reference to an organized "Black Hand Society", a criminal enterprise composed of Italians, mainly Sicilian immigrants. However, many Sicilians disputed its existence and objected to the associated negative ethnic stereotype, but this was not the only viewpoint among Italian-Americans. ''Il Telegrafo: The Evening Telegraph'', a newspaper for the Italian American community in New York City, printed an editorial on March 13, 1909 in response to Joseph Petrosino's assassination, which read in part, "The assassination of Petrosino is an evil day for the Italians of America, and none of us can any longer deny ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. The word is also used to refer to a period of time during which such bans are enforced. History Some kind of limitation on the trade in alcohol can be seen in the Code of Hammurabi (c. 1772 BCE) specifically banning the selling of beer for money. It could only be bartered for barley: "If a beer seller do not receive barley as the price for beer, but if she receive money or make the beer a measure smaller than the barley measure received, they shall throw her into the water." In the early twentieth century, much of the impetus for the prohibition movement in the Nordic countries and North America came from moralistic convictions of pietistic Protestants. Prohibition movements in the West coincided with the advent of women's su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reggio Calabria
Reggio di Calabria ( scn, label= Southern Calabrian, Riggiu; el, label= Calabrian Greek, Ρήγι, Rìji), usually referred to as Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, is the largest city in Calabria. It has an estimated population of nearly 200,000 and is the twenty-first most populous city in Italy, after Modena, and the 100th most populated city in Europe. Reggio Calabria is located in the exact center of the Mediterranean and is known for its climate, ethnic and cultural diversity. It is the third economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. About 560,000 people live in the metropolitan area, recognised in 2015 by Italy as a metropolitan city. Reggio is located on the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula and is separated from the island of Sicily by the Strait of Messina. It is situated on the slopes of the Aspromonte, a long, craggy mountain range that runs up through the centre of the region. As a major functional pole in the region, it has strong historical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Belcastro
James "Mad Bomber" Belcastro (1895 – August 23, 1945) was a Black Hand gang member, extortionist, and later chief bomber for the Chicago Outfit during Prohibition. Biography Known as "King of the Bombers", Belcastro was highly skilled at constructing improvised explosive devices. He used these skills to extort money from business owners in Chicago's Little Italy district during the 1910s. In the early 1920s, Johnny Torrio and Al Capone formed the Chicago Outfit and put the Black Hand gangs out of business. However, Capone invited Belcastro to join the Outfit and he soon became a prominent member. During the mid to late 1920s, Belcastro was suspected of causing over 100 deaths while bombing saloons that refused to buy alcohol from Capone. During the 1927 Chicago primary elections – the so-called "Pineapple Primary" – Belcastro launched a bombing campaign against the opponents of Capone ally and Mayor, William Hale Thompson. He primarily attacked voting stations inwards wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Italy, Chicago
Little Italy, sometimes combined with University Village into one neighborhood, is on the Near West Side, Chicago, Near West Side of Chicago, Illinois. The current boundaries of Little Italy are Ashland Avenue on the west and Interstate 90/94 on the east, the Interstate 290 (Illinois), Eisenhower Expressway on the north and Roosevelt to the south. It lies between the east side of the University of Illinois at Chicago campus in the Illinois Medical District and the west side of the University of Illinois at Chicago campus. The community was once predominantly Italian immigrants but now is made up of diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds as a result of immigration, urban renewal, gentrification and the growth of the resident student and faculty population of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Its Italian-American heritage is primarily evident in the Cuisine of Italy, Italian-American restaurants that once lined Taylor Street. The neighborhood is home to the Nationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jim Colosimo
Vincenzo Colosimo (; February 16, 1878 – May 11, 1920), known as James "Big Jim" Colosimo or as "Diamond Jim", was an 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 by heading a chain of brothels. From about 1902 until his death in 1920, he led a gang that became known after his death as the Chicago Outfit. Colosimo was assassinated on May 11, 1920, and no one was ever charged with his murder. 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. 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. He emigrat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brothel
A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub parlours, studios, or by some other description. Sex work in a brothel is considered safer than street prostitution. Legal status On 2 December 1949, the United Nations General Assembly approved the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. The Convention came into effect on 25 July 1951 and by December 2013 had been ratified by 82 states. The Convention seeks to combat prostitution, which it regards as "incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person." Parties to the Convention agreed to abolish regulation of individual prostitutes, and to ban brothels and procuring. Some countries not parties to the convention also ban prostitution or the operation of broth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Levee
The Levee District was the red-light district of Chicago from the 1880s until 1912, when police raids shut it down. The district, like many frontier town red-light districts, got its name from its proximity to wharves in the city. The Levee district encompassed four blocks in Chicago's South Loop area, between 18th and 22nd streets. It was home to many brothels, saloons, dance halls, and the famed Everleigh Club. Prostitution boomed in the Levee District, and it was not until the Chicago Vice Commission submitted a report on the city's vice districts that it was shut down. History The Chicago nightlife district was initially located downtown in the First District. However, after the Great Fire of Chicago in 1871, it moved to the south of the city. Before 1890, the area known as Customs House Levee became a gathering place for players and pimps, and was one of the most notorious criminal districts in Chicago. According to one newspaper, Chicago was at that time considered "the mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Torrio
John Donato Torrio (born Donato Torrio, ; January 20, 1882 – April 16, 1957) was an Italian born-American mobster who helped build the Chicago Outfit in the 1920s 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. 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Five Points Gang
The Five Points Gang was a criminal street gang of primarily Irish-American origins, based in the Five Points of Lower Manhattan, New York City, during the late 19th and early 20th century. Paul Kelly, born Paolo Antonio Vaccarelli, was an Italian American who founded the Five Points Gang. It included some who later became prominent criminals in their own right, including Johnny Torrio, Al Capone and Lucky Luciano. Five Points The area of Manhattan where four streets – Anthony (now Worth), Cross (now Mosco), Orange (now Baxter), and Little Water (now nonexistent) – converged was known as "The Five Points". Mulberry, notorious for slum tenements, was one street down from the Five Points. This area, now the present-day location of Chinatown, lay between Broadway and the Bowery. By the 1820s, this district had been a center of settlement for poor immigrants and was considered a slum area of run-down wood frame and brick dwellings, warehouses and commercial enterprises ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Timothy D
Timothy is a masculine name. It comes from the Greek name ( Timόtheos) meaning "honouring God", "in God's honour", or "honoured by God". Timothy (and its variations) is a common name in several countries. People Given name * Timothy (given name), including a list of people with the name * Tim (given name) * Timmy * Timo * Timotheus * Timothée Surname * Christopher Timothy (born 1940), Welsh actor. * Miriam Timothy (1879–1950), British harpist. * Nick Timothy (born 1980), British political adviser. Mononym * Saint Timothy, a companion and co-worker of Paul the Apostle * Timothy I (Nestorian patriarch) Education * Timothy Christian School (Illinois), a school system in Elmhurst, Illinois * Timothy Christian School (New Jersey), a school in Piscataway, New Jersey Arts and entertainment * "Timothy" (song), a 1970 song by The Buoys * ''Timothy Goes to School'', a Canadian-Chinese children's animated series * ''Timothy'' (TV film), a 2014 Australian television comedy * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurice Enright
Maurice "Mossy" or "Mossie" Enright (died February 2, 1920) was an Irish-American gangster and one of the earliest Chicago labor racketeers in the early 20th century. Little is known of Maurice Enright's background before his gang's violent and brutal methods managed to dominate Chicago's labor unions by the end of the 19th century. A veteran of the "Circulation Wars," he became a major figure in the city's steamfitters' union during the early 1910s and was instrumental in the rise of Johnny Torrio, who provided Enright with invaluable political protection from Chicago's First Ward vice district Aldermen "Bathhouse" John Couglin and Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna. Enright remained in control of the city's labor unions into the early months of Prohibition until his death on February 2, 1920, when he was gunned down near his South Side home (most likely by rival Timothy "Big Tim" Murphy or Johnny Torrio and Al Capone. Enright's death occurred shortly before the death of James "Big J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
