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Welcome back to true crime cases. I'm your host, Lainey.

The mafia in Chicago has a long and storied history, with origins dating back as far as the late

1800s. It has ties to the island of Sicily and is known as the outfit and La Cosa Nostra, an Italian phrase apparently meaning our thing.

The Chicago outfit was born from the murder of James Big Jim Colosimo on May 11, 1920.

Big Jim, also known as Diamond Jim, ran a house of ill repute in Chicago's Levy Vice District.

He also owned a restaurant, which featured a cabaret as well as a separate room for late-night

fine dining. This was an establishment frequented by high-power politicians and celebrities.

Big Jim had been born in Palermo, Sicily, in 1878, but his parents moved the

family to Chicago when he was just a year old. As a youth, Big Jim was a bootblack, or a shoeshine

boy in a saloon run by Hinky Dink Kenna, an alderman in the first ward of Chicago. At the time, there were two aldermen

for each ward. The other alderman for the first ward was Bathhouse Coughlin, who, along with

Hinky Dink, ran numerous vice operations and also took money from any payment made to the first ward.

Hinky Dink took a liking to Big Jim and eventually got

him a job as a street cleaner. In this position, Big Jim was able to ingratiate himself with other

Italian immigrants, who, in turn, voted for Hinky Dink in the elections. Hinky Dink then promoted

Big Jim to street cleaner supervisor, and from this position,

Big Jim managed to organize the Italian street cleaners into a union. With Hinky Dink's approval,

Big Jim eventually married a woman named Victoria Moresco, who was the madam of a brothel.

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