James Vincent "Turk" Torello (December 15, 1930 – April 13, 1979
Woodridge, Illinois) was an
Italian-American
Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...
mobster who became a
caporegime
A ''caporegime'' or ''capodecina'', usually shortened to ''capo'' or informally referred to as "captain", "skipper" or "lieutenant", is a leadership position in the Mafia (both the Sicilian Mafia and Italian-American Mafia). A ''capo'' is a "made m ...
and leading enforcer for the
Chicago Outfit during the mid-to-late 1970s.
Born in
Chicago, Illinois
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, Torello's first arrest was in 1945; he was eventually convicted of auto theft, armed robbery, burglary and hijacking. He served two years in federal prison for violating firearms laws. Torello served as capo of the South Side/26th Street crew.
In the late 1960s, Torello sent Robert "Bobby the Beak" Siegel to Las Vegas to help collect $87,000 from an associate of
Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, the Outfit agent at the
Stardust Hotel & Casino. This story was related by Siegel at the "Family Secrets" organized crime trial, in Chicago, in the summer of 2007.
On another occasion, an angry mob boss
Sam Giancana dispatched Torello and mobster
Jackie Cerone to kill Outfit member Frank Esposito, in
Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
. The
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
(FBI) secretly recorded Giancana's conversation and warned Esposito. He then settled his dispute with Giancana and the hit was canceled. According to tape recordings, Torello and his killers had planned to murder Esposito, cut him up in small pieces and feed them to the sharks off the Florida coast.
By the early 1970s, Torello had become a high-ranking member within the Outfit. In 1973, with the death of
Fiore "Fifi" Buccieri, Torello became the Outfit's chief enforcer. He also became involved in
loan shark
A loan shark is a person who offers loans at Usury, extremely high or illegal interest rates, has strict terms of debt collection, collection, and generally operates criminal, outside the law, often using the threat of violence or other illegal, ...
ing, illegal gambling and
pornography
Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is Sexual suggestiveness, sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolv ...
.
In the late 1970s Torello bought a home in
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...
,
[ Also, Vincent Dominic Caci bought a home in Palm Springs.] and in April 1979, he died of cancer at
Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago at age 48
.
References
* Sifakis, Carl. ''The Mafia Encyclopedia''. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005.
Further reading
* United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs.
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. ''Organized Crime in Chicago: Hearing Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations''. 198
* United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs.
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. ''Professional Motor Vehicle Theft and Chop Shops: Hearings Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations''. 198
External links
TIME.com: The Mafia – Big, Bad and Booming UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. NICHOLAS W. CALABRESE, et al.*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torello, James
1930 births
1979 deaths
American gangsters of Italian descent
Chicago Outfit mobsters
People from Palm Springs, California