Leisure was born in Detroit, Michigan, his mother was Lebanese and his father a Sicilian. Leisure was an associate of the St. Louis crime family and later started his own criminal organization, which became known as the Lebanese Mafia. His father was a hard worker, and with time opened Lesiure's an Italian-Lebanese restaurant in the 1920s. Leisure was a business agent for Local 42 and part owner of LN & P Company, a towing company owned by the Leisure family Leisure died at a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Missouri on July 17, 2000 at age 56.