John Torrio News Today

CHICAGO, Oct. 8, 1931 (UP) - Alphonse Capone's plea that he's just a poor, underpaid clerk instead of a multi-millionaire liquor baron, backfired at his income tax fraud trial in federal court today.

Johnny Torrio, Italian-born American gangster who was the rackets boss in Brooklyn before becoming a top crime boss in Chicago during the Prohibition era. Mentor of Al Capone and rival of Dion O’Bannion, Bugs Moran, and Hymie Weiss, Torrio was one of the founders of modern organized crime in America.