 He was first arrested in 1902 for incorrigibility and sent to a reformatory asylum.He was caught pickpocketing five years later and was imprisoned on a variety of charges over the next decade including petty theft, grand larceny, felonious assault and vagrancy.He became involved in labor racketeering in Manhattan's Lower East Side and, prior to the third "Labor Slugger War", Levinsky reportedly became ""a thorn in the side of clothing contractors"".