James T. Licavoli - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Licavoli Crime Family

The Licavoli Mob was an Italian American mob that was based in Detroit and St. Louis. The mob was formed by the brothers Thomas "Yonnie" Licavoli and Peter "Pete" Licavoli.- Background :...

, James T. "Blackie" Licavoli also known as "Jack White" (August 18, 1904 − November 27, 1985) was a Cleveland, Ohio mobster and one of the earliest organized crime figures to be convicted under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act

Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as the RICO Act or simply RICO, is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization...

(RICO Act).

Early life

James Licavoli was born Vicentio Licavoli in St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

, the third of four children of Dominic and Girolama Licavoli. They emigrated to the United States and eventually settled in St. Louis along with other members of their family. In St. Louis, James Licavoli along with his cousins, Peter

Peter Licavoli

Peter Joseph Licavoli , was an organized crime figure in St. Louis, Missouri before moving to Detroit, Michigan...

and Thomas

Thomas Licavoli

Thomas "Yonnie" Licavoli was a gangster and bootlegger during Prohibition. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Yonnie, along with brother Peter Joseph Licavoli and cousin James Licavoli, worked with Jewish gangsters to take over illegal gambling in St. Louis. He was a member of the Licavoli Crime Family...

also known as "Yonnie" were bootleggers.

In 1928, Licavoli was shot in the leg and arrested after a wild chase and shootout with St Louis Police. Though he had fired on the police, Licavoli was charged merely with carrying a concealed weapon and even that charge was dropped. Later, Licavoli went with his cousins to Detroit

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

where as part of the Detroit Mafia they wrested control of the city's rackets from the self-destructing Purple Gang

Purple Gang

Purple Gang can refer to:*The Purple Gang, Jewish American bootleggers and hijackers in the 1920s*The Purple Gang , British rock band active intermittently since the 1960s*East Harlem Purple Gang, Italian American gang of drug dealers and hitmen...

, previously dominant in Detroit. There he was convicted of bootlegging and served a stint at Leavenworth. Upon his release, he joined his cousins in Toledo

Toledo, Ohio

Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...

, where they had moved to avoid heat from the murder of a crusading Anti-Mafia radio broadcaster, Jerry Buckley.

The Licavolis and their cousin, Leo "Lips" Moceri, didn't remain in Ohio for long. Five members of the gang including Yonnie were arrested for the murder of a popular Toledo bootlegger. Peter Licavoli returned to Detroit and regrouped - his force retaining the original Purple Gang title. James Licavoli went on the lam and hid in Pittsburgh where he stayed with up-and-coming mob boss, John Sebastian Larocca

John Sebastian Larocca

John Sebastian LaRocca was boss of the Pittsburgh crime family from the 1950s until his death in 1984.Born in Sicily, LaRocca and his family emigrated to the United States in 1910, settling in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. As a young man, LaRocca went to work in the coal mines...

Move to Cleveland

One of many in the Licavoli family to become involved in organized crime, James Licavoli first arrived in Cleveland in 1938. There he soon became good friends with Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno

Jimmy Fratianno

Aladena "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno was a Cleveland, Ohio, mobster and later acting head of the Los Angeles crime family before becoming a government witness...

and Tony "Dope" Delsanter. Among their exploits at the time, they teamed up to rob northeast Ohio gambling halls. In 1940, Licavoli was made into the Cleveland crime family and quickly established control over illegal gambling and the vending machine

Vending machine

A vending machine is a machine which dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, consumer products and even gold and gems to customers automatically, after the customer inserts currency or credit into the machine....

industry in the neighboring cities of Youngstown

Youngstown, Ohio

Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...

and Warren, Ohio

Warren, Ohio

As of the census of 2000, there were 46,832 people, 19,288 households and 12,035 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,912.4 people per square mile . There were 21,279 housing units at an average density of 1,322.9 per square mile...

. During this period, Licavoli was a suspect in the murders of Jim "Mancene" Mancini and gambling slot czar Nate Weisenberg.

In 1951, Licavoli was called before the US Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

committee on organized crime, known as the Kefauver Committee. Licavoli refused to answer any questions.

Rise to power

By 1970, James Licavoli had become known as "the king of the hill" - Murray Hill, Little Italy. He never married and remained a lifelong bachelor. He lived with a 70 year old roommate who was also a bachelor and worked as a carpenter. Since his income had never been declared, he was even able to draw a monthly social security check.

Licavoli had been called "Blackie" while he was growing up in Collinwood. Now he was known in the Mob as "Jack White," a more ironic reference to his swarthy complexion.

Despite his immense wealth, he had a reputation for being cheap and occasionally foolish to the point of embarrassment. Once at a local mall, he was detained by store detectives for switching the price tags on a pair of pants. After hearing about his background, the department store manager declined to prosecute. Another time he was caught using slugs on machines. He also used stolen credit cards on vacations.

In 1976, longtime Cleveland family boss John Scalish

John T. Scalish

John T. Scalish was an Ohio mobster who became the boss of the Cleveland crime family. Scalish was the brother-in-law of Philadelphia crime family boss Angelo Bruno and Cleveland mob associate Milton Rockman....

died, leaving control of Cleveland’s lucrative criminal operations, specifically the cities' Teamsters Union locals, up for grabs. Licavoli was Scalish's logical successor, and he became boss of the Cleveland crime family.

Cleveland mob war

During this time, Licavoli had to deal with Irish gangster Danny Greene

Danny Greene

Daniel "Danny" J. Patrick Greene was an Irish American mobster and associate of Cleveland mobster John Nardi during the gang war for the city's criminal operations during the 1970s. Competing gangsters set off more than 35 bombs, most attached to cars in murder attempts, many successful...

trying to take control of rackets in Cleveland. Mafia associate John Nardi

John Nardi

John Nardi was an influential associate of the Cleveland crime family who was involved in labor racketeering in Cleveland, Ohio. At the end of his criminal career, Nardi turned against his crime family in a bloody gang war.-Early years:...

sided with Greene and switched alliance, strengthening Greene's criminal empire and giving him an advantage on the Cleveland family. This erupted into an all out war with many of Licavoli's supporters being killed in the process.

These murders soon gained the attention of other criminal organizations, particularly the Genovese crime family

Genovese crime family

The Genovese crime family , is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The Genovese crime family has been nicknamed the "Ivy League" and "Rolls Royce" of organized crime...

of New York. Despite the war hurting the Cleveland family's reputation, Licavoli declined Genovese leader Frank "Funzi" Tieri's offers for help; he feared that the Genovese family would try to muscle in on Cleveland’s criminal operations if he accepted. Licavoli also had to fend off interference from the Chicago Outfit

Chicago Outfit

The Chicago Outfit, also known as the Chicago Syndicate or Chicago Mob and sometimes shortened to simply the Outfit, is a crime syndicate based in Chicago, Illinois, USA...

. Outfit leaders Tony Accardo

Tony Accardo

Antonino Joseph Accardo , also known as "Joe Batters" or "Big Tuna", rose from small-time hoodlum to the position of day-to-day boss of the Chicago Outfit in 1947, to ultimately become the final Outfit authority in 1972, until his death...

and Joseph Aiuppa

Joseph Aiuppa

Joseph John Aiuppa , also known as "Doves," "Mourning Doves," "O'Brien," or "Joey Doves," was a Chicago mobster who became a leader of the Chicago Outfit.-Early career:...

finally declared their neutrality in the Cleveland gang war and ordered their subordinates not to assist Licavoli.

During the early phases of the war, Licavoli was on the defense. Although no serious attempts were made on his life, many of Licavoli's men and associates were killed in the war. This included one of Licavoli's most powerful allies, consigliere

Consigliere

Consigliere is a position within the leadership structure of Sicilian and American Mafia crime families. The word was popularized by Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather , and its film adaptation...

Leo Moceri, whose bloodstained car was found in a hotel parking lot in Akron, Ohio

Akron, Ohio

Akron , is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. It is located in the Great Lakes region approximately south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron Metropolitan...

. Repeated attempts to kill Nardi and especially Greene failed. However, in 1977, things started turning in his favor. His men were able to kill Nardi with a car bomb. Later the same year he hired Ray Ferritto

Ray Ferritto

Raymond W. Ferritto was an Italian American mobster from Erie, Pennsylvania. Ferritto is best known for the 1977 murder of Irish mob boss Danny Greene....

to kill Danny Greene. While Greene was visiting the dentist, Ferritto parked his car attached with a car bomb next to Green's. When Greene left the dentist's office and went to his car, the bomb was ignited, killing Greene. Licavoli would go on trial for their murders, but was eventually acquitted.

With the deaths of Nardi and Greene, Licavoli assumed complete control of criminal activities in Cleveland. Under Licavoli, the Cleveland syndicate successfully infiltrated the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

's (FBI) Cleveland branch. They accomplished this by bribing a female clerk to update them on organized crime investigations and provide the identities of government informants. In a later conversation with lifelong friend and FBI informant Jimmy Fratianno

Jimmy Fratianno

Aladena "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno was a Cleveland, Ohio, mobster and later acting head of the Los Angeles crime family before becoming a government witness...

(described in Fratianno's biography The Last Mafioso
The Last Mafioso
The Last Mafioso: The Treacherous World of Jimmy Fratianno is a biography novel detailing the life of American Mafia member Aladena "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno. It chronicles Fratianno's life from a kid in Cleveland to becoming the acting Boss of the Los Angeles crime family...

), Licavoli ironically commented "Jimmy, sometimes, you know, I think this fucking outfit of ours is like the old Communist party in this country. It's getting so that there's more fucking spies in it than members."

Downfall

Fratianno soon became alarmed that Licavoli would discover he was an informant, so he quickly made a deal with the FBI to testify against numerous Mafia members so that he could be entered into the Witness Protection Program. With Fratianno's help, the FBI closed the leak in their Cleveland Office. Prosecutors now targeted Licavoli for prosecution under the newly created RICO Act. When Licavoli was arrested at his home, police confiscated his cane with a long hidden blade in it and $3,000 in his underwear drawer. In 1982, Licavoli was tried and convicted of federal RICO charges and sentenced to seventeen years imprisonment.

In 1985, James Licavoli died of heart attack at the Oxford Federal Correctional Institute in Oxford, Wisconsin

Oxford, Wisconsin

Oxford is a village in Marquette County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 536 at the 2000 census. The village is located within the Town of Oxford.-Geography:Oxford is located at ....

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