 Due to his unionizing activities, he apparently became the target of assassination by certain business interests.Other sources claim he headed a gang of gunmen and thieves which began muscling in on the territory of other "labor sluggers", particularly that of newsboy and labor racketeer William Lipshitz.On the morning of December 5, 1922, Levinsky was shot and killed by Lipshitz while entering a Broadway loft building where he was employed as a cutter for the Levinson Brothers.