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that by the later ‘20s most of the larger independents were either paying protection money to the River Gang or had been forced out of business.
    Pete Licavoli’s consent counted as much as the government’s if you wanted to run liquor as an independent whiskey hauler on the Detroit River. According to one account, “it was not wise to go into business without Pete Licavoli’s okay, as your first trip may be your last.”
    A number of men who were associated with the River Gang during the period 1925-1930 would become important leaders in the modern-day Detroit area Mafia organization. Among those who worked in various capacities for the River Gang during this period were: Sam Orlando, Tony Orlando, James Moceri, Mike Moceri, Vito Scola, Joe Marlow, Moses Massu, Joe Mercurio, Tom Delano, Angelo Meli, James Pizimenti, Mike Rubino, Barilow Frontiera, Art Simmons, Gerald Lewis, Dominic Badalamenti, Charles Aiello, Sam Palazzola, Frank La Rosa, William Steinberg, Martin Thomas, Mel Raymon, Burt Medica, Mat Species, Tony Parisi, Elmer Macklin, James Licavoli, Sam Paul, John Ventimeglia, and Joe Tallman.
    On September 8, 1927, an event would occur that would have important consequences on the evolution of not only the River Gang, but also the future underworld organizations of both Detroit and Toledo, Ohio. Acting on an anonymous telephone tip, members of the Windsor Police and the Ontario Provincial Police busted into a room in Windsor’s Prince Edward Hotel and arrested Thomas Licavoli and Frank Cammarata. The men were reported by the Windsor, Ontario, police to be suspects in the $15,000 robbery of a liquor export dock in LaSalle, Ontario, the previous week. In reality, the anonymous telephone caller had told the Windsor Police that the two men were registered at the hotel and that they had pistols in their possession. Exactly what Licavoli and Cammarata were doing in Windsor at that time is open to speculation. One rumor that was circulating in the Detroit underworld was that the two men had gone to Windsor to kidnap some wealthy liquor exporters. A loaded U.S. Army .45 caliber automatic pistol was found in their room, tucked under the pillow on “Yonnie” Licavoli’s bed. A .38 caliber automatic pistol was also found in the side pocket of Cammarata’s car, which was parked in the hotel’s garage. Both men were arrested and charged with having “offensive weapons” in their possession in Canada without a permit. They were held at the Essex County Jail in Sandwich, Ontario, pending their arraignment on the charge.
    Both Licavoli and Cammarata were granted bail bonds of $15,000 each, which they were unable to raise. At their trial in the Essex, Ontario, Court House in October 1927, defense attorneys for the two men argued that the two guns that had been found by the police actually belonged to two other men whom Licavoli and Cammarata knew only by their first names as Tony and Joe. Tony and Joe were supposedly hired by Licavoli and Cammarata to run liquor across the river to Detroit for them. The jury was out only four hours and returned a verdict of guilty as charged on October 24, 1927. Cammarata and Licavoli were remanded to custody and scheduled to be sentenced the following day by Justice William Wright. Wright had been the presiding judge who had sat on the case. The two men could receive up to a maximum sentence of five years in prison on the gun conviction charge.
    On October 20, 1927, Wright sentenced Thomas Licavoli and Frank Cammarata to three years each in the Kingston Penitentiary at Portsmouth, Ontario. The two men continued to be held in the Essex County Jail in Sandwich, while their lawyers appealed their convictions to the Appellate Court at Toronto, Ontario. Their appeal was eventually turned down, and their convictions were upheld. On November 28, 1927, Thomas Licavoli and Frank Cammarata entered the Kingston Penitentiary. At the time of their Canadian conviction, both Licavoli and Cammarata were