Victor Licata (– December 4, 1950) was an American mass murderer who used an axe to kill his family in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, on October 16, 1933. The killings, which were reported by the media as the work of an "axe-murdering marijuana addict", were adduced as prima facie evidence that there was a link between recreational drugs, such as cannabis, and crime. This led to the killings being abused in 1930s anti-drug campaigns against marijuana.
Recent research has revealed that marijuana was never referenced in any of Licata's psychiatric reports nor was it considered a contributing factor in the homicides. Instead, it has been confirmed that Licata had been diagnosed with a mental illness and measures were being taken to institutionalize him prior to the tragic murders.
Two weeks after the murder of his family, 21-year-old Licata was declared unfit to stand trial for reasons of insanity and committed to the Florida State Hospital for the Insane. He escaped, was later recaptured and hanged himself in prison in 1950.
Murders
On October 16, 1933, 21-year-old Victor Licata used an axe to murder his parents, two brothers, and a sister while they were asleep. All died from blows to the head. The next morning police discovered a confused Licata in a bedroom of the family home. He was wearing a clean pressed shirt and trousers, although beneath the clean clothes his body was smeared in blood.
Despite evidence Licata had a pre-existing history of mental illness, police and the press made unattributed claims that he was "addicted" to marijuana. On October 17, 1933, the Tampa Bay Times wrote:
W. D. Bush, city chief detective, said he had made an investigation prior to the crime and learned the slayer had been addicted to smoking marijuana cigarettes for more than six months.
However, a day later the Chief of Tampa Police Department downplayed the role the drug had in the murders, although he pledged himself to the cause of marijuana prohibition:
An October 20, 1933, editorial on page six of the Tampa Morning Tribune was entitled "Stop This Murderous Smoke". The editorial writer called for the prohibition of marijuana:
[I]t may or may not be wholly true that the pernicious marijuana cigarette is responsible for the murderous mania of a Tampa young man in exterminating all the members of his family within his reach — but whether or not the poisonous mind-wrecking weed is mainly accountable for the tragedy its sale should not be and should never have been permitted here or elsewhere.
Licata was never prosecuted for murdering his family. He was examined by psychiatrists eleven days after his arrest and was diagnosed with "dementia praecox with homicidal tendencies". This made him "overtly psychotic" with a condition that was "acute and chronic". It was determined that he was "subject to hallucinations accompanied by homicidal impulses and periods of excitement". He was committed to the Florida Hospital for the Insane in Chattahoochee, Florida on November 3, 1933. His medical file does not reference his marijuana usage. On October 15, 1945, Licata and four other patients escaped. All were quickly recaptured, except Licata. Years later, he visited a cousin in New Orleans and was recaptured by the police with the assistance of the cousin. He was then incarcerated at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, Florida. A few months later, on December 4, 1950, Licata killed himself by hanging.
Anti-drug propaganda
Even though evidence indicated that Licata had long been experiencing psychosis, the Press turned the Licata case into a drug-use cause célèbre. Evidence shows that a year before the murders, Tampa police had filed a petition to have Licata institutionalized for mental illness. But it was withdrawn when the family vowed to increase their oversight of his behavior. Mental illness ran in the Licata family, and prison psychiatrists speculated that he had inherited his insanity as his parents were first cousins. One of the brothers he slew was a diagnosed schizophrenic and his paternal granduncle and two paternal cousins had also been institutionalized for mental illness.
Nevertheless, the role that marijuana had to play in the murders led it to be cited by proponents of anti-drug laws as evidence of "marijuana-crime-insanity". The case served to inspire media depictions of normal people driven to criminal insanity by the "evil weed" such as the notorious 1936 exploitation film Tell Your Children (a.k.a. Reefer Madness).