James T. Licavoli
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James T. "Blackie" Licavoli [Jack White] (August 18, 1904-November 1985) was a Cleveland mobster and, most notably, one of the earliest organized crime figures to be convicted under the RICO Act.
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[edit] Early life
One of many in the Licavoli family to be involved in organized crime, James Licavoli first arrived in Cleveland in 1938, quickly establishing control over illegal gambling and the vending machine industry in the neighboring cities of Youngstown and Warren. Called before the Kefauver Committee in 1951, Licavoli refused to answer any questions regarding his business activities or otherwise.
[edit] Rise to power & the Cleveland Mob Wars
Upon the death of longtime mobster John Scalish in 1976, control for Cleveland’s lucrative criminal operations (specifically the control over the cities Teamsters Union) was up for grabs. Although Licavoli was thought to be Scalish's successor, other mobsters such as John Nardi challenged him for leadership of the organization. With the assistance of Irish mobster Danny Greene, many of Licavoli's supporters were killed within several weeks including the disappearance of one of his most powerful allies Leo "Lips" Moceri, whose bloodstained car was found in a hotel parking lot in Akron.
The series of murders soon gained the attention of other criminal organizations, particularly the Genovese crime family, although Licavoli declined Frank "Funzi" Tieri's offers for help fearing the New York crime family might try to cut in on Cleveland’s criminal operations. Licavoli also had to fend off interference from the Chicago Outfit, whose leader Joey Aiuppa declared neutrality in the gang war and ordered that none of the Chicago syndicate members were to assist Licavoli.
Although on the defensive throughout the early phases of the gang war, Licavoli proved to be able to fight an effective war and successfully killed both Nardi and Green in separate car bombings in 1977.
[edit] Downfall
With the deaths of Nardi and Green, Licavoli emerged triumphant and soon assumed complete control of criminal activities in Cleveland. Under Licavoli, the Cleveland syndicate infiltrated the FBI's Cleveland branch through bribing a female clerk to inform him information on federal investigations on organized crime as well as the identities of several government informants. In a later conversation with Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno (described in his later autobiography The Last Mafioso), himself a government informant, Licavoli commented "Jimmy, sometimes, you know, I think this [explicative] outfit of ours is like the old Communist party in this country. It's getting so that there's more [explicative] spies in it then members."
A lifelong friend of Licavoli, Fratianno became alarmed that Licavoli would eventually discover his activities and quickly entered the Witness Protection Program thereafter. With federal authorities aware of the Cleveland office leak, as well as his recent acquittal for bribery and the gangland slayings of Nardi and Green, Licavoli was singled out as a prime target for the newly created Racketeering and Corrupt Organization or RICO Act. Brought to trial in 1982, Licavoli was convicted of federal RICO charges and sentenced to seventeen years imprisonment, and died three years later at the Oxford Federal Correctional Institute.
[edit] Further reading
- Jacobs, James B., Christopher Panarella and Jay Worthington. Busting the Mob: The United States Vs. Cosa Nostra. New York: NYU Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8147-4230-0
- Neff, James. Mobbed Up: Jackie Presser's High-Wire Life in the Teamsters, the Mafia, and the FBI. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989. ISBN 0-87113-344-X
- Porrello, Rick. To Kill the Irishman: The War that Crippled the Mafia. Novelty, Ohio: Next Hat Press, 2004. ISBN 0-9662508-9-3
[edit] References
- Fox, Stephen. Blood and Power: Organized Crime in Twentieth-Century America. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1989. ISBN 0-688-04350-X
- Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0-313-30653-2
- Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
