It was February 16, 1878, in a small town named Colosimi, in the mountainous province of Calabria in Italy, when a woman by the name of Giuseppina Mascaro gave birth to a little boy, Giacomo Colosimo. The boy's father, Luigi Colosimo, was a landowner in a town where the main industry was farming. This made his family one of the wealthier families in the most economically depressed area in Italy. When Giacomo was a child, his father sent him to Chicago, where he would become one of the most notorious gangsters ever. At the height of his power, he owned more than 200 brothels and he lived mostly without regard to the law. Colosimo was very well liked by many people, which kept him in power for more than a decade. His political power along with his influence over the poor workers and vice lords made him the most powerful man in Chicago and the most omnipotent gangster in the world. In the early 1830's, the Chicago legislature banned any form of prostitution, however the city's fathers and the majority of the Chicago population thought that prostitution was a needed vice. They thought it would be better to segregate prostitution into "vice districts  rather than ban it entirely. No one realized that these segregated districts were the birthplace of the notorious Levee, which was where the Chicago Outfit and other organized crime syndicates started. The Levee was a small area in the First Ward that consisted of brothels, saloons, gambling houses and overcrowded apartments.. Some of these brothels were extravagant and luxurious and many were small, filthy, one-room shacks. One of the most famous brothels of all time was the Everleigh Club. This club was run by the Everleigh sisters, Ada and Minna, who bought a run-down brothel and refurnished it to make it one of the most extravagant and renowned brothels of all time. Most men would end up spending $200 dollars an evening on girls, food, and liquor. With this kind of profit the Everleigh Sisters made more than a million dollars in cash, when in 1911, Mayor Carter Harrison Jr. ordered the club to be closed. Colosimo would achieve the same amount of success as the Everleigh Sisters, but first he would have to climb his way up the political ladder as well as the vice ladder ("Prostitution ). Luigi Colosimo realized that the little town of Colosimi did not give Giacomo the chance to bring fame to their family name so he sent Giacomo to Chicago in 1891 at age 13. Giacomo was to be accompanied by his brother, Antonio, who was only 21. But once Giacomo had arrived in Chicago and found a home, Antonio left for Italy. This left young Giacomo all alone while the city was preparing for the World's Columbian Expedition. Giacomo felt that since he was in America he needed to seem American and changed his name from Giacomo to James, however he soon took on the nickname of Jim. Colosimo completed all of his citizenship papers on April 4, 1896 (Bilek, Ch. 2). Colosimo lived in an area where there were a lot of Southern Italian immigrants. Colosimo's neighborhood had severe poverty and overcrowding and was the most violent neighborhood in Chicago. This is where Colosimo began his first criminal activities of pickpocketing and extorting local merchants. Colosimo's first real job was to make sure that the first editions of the morning paper were passed out. Colosimo also shined shoes, sold chewing gum and shoestrings, and ran errands for gamblers. At the age of 15, Colosimo became a gandy dancer. Gandy dancers worked on the railroads. They were tough, large, and strong men known for their drinking, profanity, and upper body strength. Colosimo was regarded as the toughest and most fearless man in his work gang as a gandy dancer (Bilek, Ch. 4). Colosimo soon moved to live with a friend, Emilio, who was from Laurenzana, Italy. Emilio, who had many children, was an honorable man who never engaged in any vice. Emilio taught Colosimo to love classical music and opera. Emilio also taught Colosimo the necessity for being an honest businessman, and Colosimo was forever afterwards known for keeping his word. Colosimo created a lifelong friendship with Emilio's youngest son Rocco, who became a lawyer while Colosimo turned to labor jobs and vice (Bilek, Ch. 4). Colosimo's power in his community grew vastly as he moved up the labor ladder. Colosimo worked as a street sweeper for only a little while because of his strength and personality that made the other street sweepers look up to him. He was soon promoted to street and alley inspector, which meant he was in charge of supervising the other street sweepers and making sure that nobody littered on the streets. Almost immediately, Colosimo raised the pay of the street sweepers by 2 dollars a day. When Colosimo realized that many of the street sweepers looked up to him, he organized them into social and athletic clubs. Colosimo also created the first street sweepers union and took over control of the excavator's union. These unions were a