Organized Crime Figure. Born in St. Louis, he and his family eventually moved to Detroit and began a large-scale liquor smuggling operation across the Detroit River. He was convicted along with Frank Cammerata of a concealed weapons charge in Windsor, Ontario and served three years in a Canadian prison. Upon his release he and his family became embroiled in Detroit’s gang wars of 1930-31. Implicated in the murder of radio broadcaster Jerry Buckley, Licavoli relocated to Toledo, Ohio, where he and his family consolidated the rackets and murdered their rivals, specifically Jack Kennedy in July 1933, he was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to a long term in the Ohio State Prison.