Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

By Tracy Breton
Journal staff writer

Former Rhode Island Atty. Gen. Dennis J. Roberts II, who prosecuted Nicholas S. Pari and Andrew F. Merola for the assassination of Joseph "Joe Onions" Scanlon 30 years ago, says he will be mighty surprised if the police find Scanlon's body buried in East Providence.

Yesterday, Pari, who is now 71 and near death, according to his lawyer, was arrested on new charges and told the state police that he had stashed Scanlon's body in East Providence, prompting an excavation that is still going on near an apartment complex in that city.

Back in 1982, after the state Supreme Court reversed the first-degree murder convictions of Pari and Merola based on errors made by their trial judge, Roberts agreed to reduce the charges against the two men because, he says, Pari agreed to disclose where they hid their victim's body, which has never been found.

In May 1982, Pari told prosecutors that after Scanlon was shot to death in a Federal Hill bar owned by Merola, the body was taken to Narragansett and dumped off shore.

In an interview with The Providence Journal today, Roberts said he believes Scanlon's remains are still under water.

"I believed it then and I believe it now frankly. I thought they took him out to sea and dumped him way out in the ocean. I think we were both convinced that that is exactly what happened," Roberts said of the prosecutor who was in charge of the case back then, Henry Gemma Jr.

Roberts said he agreed to the reduced charges not because he believed authorities would ever be able to recover the body from the ocean's bottom but because "at least there was closure" with them admitting to the killing and then saying what had happened with Scanlon's corpse.

Merola, who is now deceased, ended up pleading no contest to second-degree murder and was sentenced to serve 10 years of a 25-year term. Scanlon's girlfriend, Sandra Surprise, identified him at trial as the shooter.

Pari pleaded no contest to manslaughter and was sentenced to serve seven years of a 20-year term.

 Tags  Dennis J. Roberts II East Providence Joseph Scanlon mob hit

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