Cleveland Crime Boss Licavoli Dies at 81

OXFORD, Wis. —  James (Jack White) Licavoli, 81, identified by federal authorities as head of organized crime in Cleveland, has died of an apparent heart attack, federal prison officials said.

Licavoli died Saturday at a nearby hospital, said Warden R. D. Brewer of the Oxford prison, where Licavoli was serving a 17-year sentence. Brewer said Licavoli was a quiet prisoner and there was “nothing uncommon about him at all.”

Licavoli, whose mob ties reportedly dated to the Detroit Purple Gang of the 1920s, was one of six reputed Mafiosi convicted in 1982 of charges stemming from the 1977 bombing death of his supposed Cleveland crime rival, Daniel J. Greene.

Licavoli was acquitted on Ohio charges of bribery and murder relating to the Greene slaying after more than four years of court proceedings, but he was convicted of federal charges of conspiring to violate federal racketeering laws.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused last year to hear an appeal of Licavoli’s conviction.

“Nothing fazed him,” James R. Willis, one of Licavoli’s lawyers, said. “Some people just don’t cry. He was one of those people who did not cry.”

The son of Sicilian immigrants, Licavoli first lived in St. Louis and then moved to Cleveland in 1938, where he set up a vending machine and gambling business. He was subpoenaed in 1951 to testify before the Kefauver Committee of the U.S. Senate on organized crime.

Licavoli was cited for contempt of Congress for his refusal to answer questions about slot machine businesses in Ohio, in which the Internal Revenue Service said he had part interest.

Licavoli was also investigated for a loan sharking and gambling business.