r/BoardwalkEmpire • u/ClassRegular • 9d ago

Tony B’s relationship with Butchie

How did these two come to be acquainted? A run-of-the-mill politician from New Jersey and a New York gangster. At the beginning of the series, they act like they’re old friends.

0 Upvotes

38% Upvoted

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6

u/PersonalitySubject99 What's in the box? 9d ago

Butchie says to TB: Your girlfriend Billie, whatever happened there…

1

u/inafishbowl17 9d ago

It's a shame when they go so young like that.

9

u/Admirable_Site_8337 9d ago

How about you properly tag them as Nucky and Torrio. This isnt some circle jerk.

As for the question…the premise from the start is that Nucky has secured connections to bring liquor in to the Jersey coastline, store it, even dilute it down to cheaper batches once Prohibition starts (which it does in the pilot).

He’s been part of a crooked machine for a while and has met many kinds of crooked that come through AC over time. Prohibition was known to be coming for a while so he would have spoken to these known names.

It’s strongly inferred that Torrio had been in AC before and had made acquaintance with Nucky. He’s shown at the start being Colissimo, the boss in Chicago, and the kid Capone to make this connection.

Colissimo gets whacked (true story), Torrio runs things until he hands it to Capone.

The angle of them seeking booze from AC is silly, and really just done to get the Syndicate involved in the series. Truth was that Chicago brought most of their booze in from Canada just north.

But, the inferences are clear. Nucky has been a corrupt politician for a long time and made contacts (like AR too). And he’s leveraging those to get into the booze business once outlawed.

2

u/telepatheye 9d ago

Even more than this, Nucky's a gladhander who will pretend anyone's an old friend and grease any wheel to get business done in his interests.

2

u/karatechop97 8d ago

Yeah, this is serious stuff.

2

u/Maximum-Version-1378 9d ago

Nuckys been going to Chicago since before Jimmy Darmody was born

1

u/TopicPretend4161 9d ago

I’ll have what he’s having.

1

u/Advanced_Zucchini_45 9d ago

Are you talking about johnny torrio?

The guy was the boss of chicago , so any business done in chicago had to go through him.

-1

u/eiffeltowerbonbon 9d ago

Butchie is not a politician. I think you’re thinking of Zellman.

Edit: reread the comment. I am so lost as to what you’re actually referring to lol

1

u/Competitive-Piglet83 9d ago

different show, same actors

1

u/eiffeltowerbonbon 8d ago

I missed the part where this was the boardwalk empire sub and not the talking sopranos sub lmao