[2][3] Linsey was born in Grodno, Russian Empire (now Belarus)[1] to Jewish parents Abraham Linsky and Sarah Slotnick and immigrated with his family to Boston at age 1.
[2] After his father died of tuberculosis in 1908,[4] his mother remarried grocer Joseph Ackner.
[1] At the start of Prohibition, the 21-year-old Linsey began bootlegging illegal liquor with Charles "King" Solomon from a front business, the National Realty Company.
He also bought Canadian liquor from the Bronfmans and, although serving a year[2] for violations of the Volstead Act,[6] he was acquitted from his two later indictments on similar charges.
He was alleged by Vinnie Teresa to have been involved in wholesale gambling in the time after the Prohibition era.