Search Weight Loss Topics:




Aug 17

Political Scene: Former club owner, candidate recalls era when Buddy and the Mob ruled Providence – The Providence Journal

Testosterone Comments Off on Political Scene: Former club owner, candidate recalls era when Buddy and the Mob ruled Providence – The Providence Journal

PROVIDENCE 'Twas a time when Buddy Cianci and the Mob ruled Rhode Island's Capital City.

Politicians and their minions frequented the clubs where the mobsters and their alcohol-infusedwannabeshung out, wagedturf battles and exchanged punches.

More than a few of these players ended up dead or in jail.

Providence MayorVincent A. "Buddy" Cianci Jr.was sentenced to five years in federal prison after a jury convicted him of running a criminal enterprise out of City Hall.

"It's a wild story,'' says former Providence club owner and sometime political candidate Pat Cortellessa, who survived clashes with thewiseguys, but gothishead proverbially handed to him by the mercurial mayor.

Former East Providence Police Capt. Joe Broadmeadow who also co-wrote a book with Brendan Doherty, the retired head of the Rhode Island State Police tells Cortellessa's story in a new book coming out Monday.

"Divine Providence: The Mayor, The Mob, and The Man in the Middle."

The book paints this vivid and Runyonesque picture of the 1970s-'80s Providence club scene:

"The payoffs and bribes for liquor licenses, the 'rent' paid to the mob for protection, and the always volatile mix of alcohol, pretty women, and testosterone-fueled muscle heads with too much brawn and ... under-used brains."

"Remember, this was in the cocaine-fueled insanity of the time when weapons, alcohol, testosterone, and dominance-seeking males often considered a night without a fight a failure."

At one point, the book tells us, "it got so bad Pat resorted to keeping an M-1 carbine in his car, just in case."

Cortellessa comes across as neither hero nor villain, but a survivor repelled by the blatantcorruption, he says, heencountered emanating out of City Hall.

Thebook tracks his attempts to make nice with the mayor by making $500 contributions and hosting fundraisers for him before their dealings turned into all-out war.

Coming five years after Cianci's death in 2016, the book gives Cortellessa a last word onwhat happened to his license to run the long-gone Caf Plaza in the oldcomfort station in Kennedy Plazawhen he refused to pay the tithe,he alleges, Cianci's front-manFrank Correntedemanded of him.

He recounts his version of how far Cianci and his allies on the city Board of Canvassers and in the city police department went to keep him from running against Republican-turned-Independent Cianci in 1998.

He reveals one or more conversations with the FBI.

He also spells out the hard lessonhe learned when he tried to open his firstrestaurant in Providence, at the site of the old East Side Diner, without "wiseguy insurance."

On Aug. 31, 1982, just weeks before finishing the renovations, the building went up in flames.

The city fire chief told The Journal-Bulletin: "the strong odor of a flammable liquid" remained the next day.

In 2018, Cortellessa ran for secretary of state against the incumbentDemocrat Nellie Gorbea. He lost:67.4% to 32.5%.

In 2020, running again as a Republican, he lost his bid for the state Senate seat held by Cranston Democrat Hanna Gallo.

Asked last week if he intended to run for anything next year, in 2022, Cortellessa said he has not yet definitely decided, buthis decision to tell his story, without holding back,would likely complicate his chances.

Take his relationship withMafia capo Frank L. "Bobo" Marrapese Jr.

Long known as one of the most vicious enforcers for New England crime boss Raymond L.S. Patriarca, Marrapese died in December 2017, while serving time for the murder of mob associate Richard Dickie Callei on March 15, 1975.

But when rivalries festered among the competitive club owners or tussles threatened to blow up Cortellessa, more than once,put his"faith in mob diplomacy and the word of Bobo Marrapese.'' He viewed him as his protector.

Cortellessa denies paying bribes for licenses or "rent" to the mob.

Here's the way it worked, according tothe book:

Bobo Marrapese owned the video games and pool tables. It served as a safety net from jealous nightclub owners. Using those machines was insurance against the business burning to the ground, as I knew from personal experience.

"Of course, Coin-O-Matic (the business front controlledby Raymond L.S. Patriarca) had the cigarette machines.

"Using the machines from these guys didnt cost the business anymore each side got 50% of the proceeds but using the wiseguys machines had other fringe benefits."

Buddy started coming in Slades for a drink once in a while,'' Cortellessa saidof hisbar and grillacross the street from City Hall."Sometimes, hed bring his daughter, Nicole, and while Buddy sat at the bar, shed play the Pac-Man video game."

The intersection between Cianci and the Mob?

In an exchange of emails last week, Broadmeadow provided tidbits from his research for an earlier book aboutJerry Tillinghast, "an at once intimidating and charming member of [mob associate Gerard] Ouimettes crew."

"The association with the mob started with the usual outreach for votes. When Buddy first ran against[incumbent Mayor Joseph] Doorley, he needed to gather votes. Patriarcas support (clandestine of course) was needed to get the Italian vote."

"Cianci reached out to Gerard Ouimette who had [Tillinghast] and others gather up 'absentee'ballotsfor Cianci, delivering over two thousand to the polling location from the Hill and South Providence with their connections to the black community.

"Jerry talks about it in my book 'Choices: You Make em You Own em.' Tillinghast would end up working for the city as a laborer. He was working for the city when he got arrested for the [George] Basmajian homicide."

But "Buddy wasnt the only candidate who came seeking votes from the wiseguys,'' Broadmeadow wrote in the book.

He said "Ouimette and crew'' also delivered votes for a certain [state] Senate candidate, but "soured" on him when he proposed re-instituting the death penalty for murder.

"Such legislation was anathema to groups where murder was a method of eliminating problems."

Broadmeadow identified the senator as the late Joseph Rodgers, future presiding justice of the R.I. Superior Court.

Cortellessa's fight with Cianci came to a head in the mid-'90s, after the mayor's returnto City Hall, following his time-out for assaulting a Bristol contractor.

Cortellessa had negotiateda $200,000 deal with Solon Mitrelis of S & J 351 Inc. to take over therest of a 15-year lease with the City of Providence for the cafe in Kennedy Plaza.

For the first five years, things went well. The Caf Plaza had an outside area for seating permitted by the Providence Parks Department.

When the lease came up for renewal in 1995, "Pat asked the mayor how to proceed."

Go see Frank, Cianci said, giving Pat a wink of the eye.

He did, according to court testimony recounted in the book.

We sat in his office,'' said Cortellessa ofCianci's director of administration Frank Corrente who would later be indicted and convicted with Cianci during Operation Plunder Dome. "And Corrente said, 'you can help us if we can help you.'

I said what do you mean by that? Cortellessa testified.

He says, do you own property on Eddy Street?

"I said, yes, I do. I had a piece of property on Eddy Street which was a restaurant at the time ... called Caf Anzio."

"He said, 'we want the business and the building too.'

I said that I couldn't help [him] because there was already 'a sales agreement' on the property," Cortellessa testified.

"He said, you better break the agreement.'

"I never went back."

"Within a few days, Cortellessa ... was told by the city Board of Licenses that the license allowing him to operate an outdoor patio at Caf Plaza was revoked."

"He operated under a Superior Court injunction for two years while the suit made its way through ... court."

Ultimately, "the Rhode Island Supreme Court ruled 3-1 against Pat."

Thelma Correntetold The Journal last week that husband Frank was not up to answering questions about an alleged incident that long ago.

"What most didnt know was the FBI ... approached Pat about working undercover."

According to the book, Cortellessa told them he believed he could do moreby running for mayor himself.

"He wanted to take the public role of targeting the mayors corruption,'' Broadmeadow wrote.

But that did not go well.

A candidate for mayor needsat least 500 signatures from registered voters. Cortellessa's campaignsubmitted 802. Election officials certified 534, just enough to qualify him for the ballot.

But the Providence Democratic City Committee filed a challenge.

"Cianci sent city workers, accompanied by Providence Police officers, to interview anyone who signed the papers. Fifteen of those interviewed signed affidavits that they did not sign the nomination papers.

"Cortellessa still qualified for the ballot with 519 signatures."

But then, "a lawyer representing the local Democratic Party urged the board to disqualify Cortellessa as a candidate and ask Police Chief Urbano Prignano to open a criminal investigation ... [into] fraud and forgery."

As recounted in The Journal at the time: "Jack Potter, himself a Democratic candidate for Governor in 1998 ... accused the party and board of executing a setup."

"Standing near the table and raising his voice, Potter testified that he had signed Cortellessas papers himself, only to have [Democratic party] staff members call him and try to coerce him to say otherwise under a threat of a perjury charge."

"Now you can see why no one runs against the son-of-a-bitch," Potter said of Cianci.

"Despite testimony to the contrary, the signs of intimidation and threats, and that some signatures were unchallenged, the board removed two full pages of signatures from Pats nomination papers."

He was out. Cianci ran unopposed.

In 2018, the state Board of Electionsruled in an unrelated case that only the invalid signature needed to be removed.

According to Broadmeadow, thebook will be available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, local book stores and directly from his ownJEBWizard Publishing.

See the original post here:
Political Scene: Former club owner, candidate recalls era when Buddy and the Mob ruled Providence - The Providence Journal

Related Posts

    Your Full Name

    Your Email

    Your Phone Number

    Select your age (30+ only)

    Select Your US State

    Program Choice

    Confirm over 30 years old

    Yes

    Confirm that you resident in USA

    Yes

    This is a Serious Inquiry

    Yes

    Message:



    matomo tracker