Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Journal photo / Steve Szydlowski
Investigators place some of their findings into evidence bags after turning up what they believe are the remains of mob hit victim Joseoh "Joe Onions" Scanlon in an East Providence yard this afternoon.

EAST PROVIDENCE -- Investigators digging for the victim of a mob hit 30 years ago found a boot, bones and what appears to be a jacket this afternoon. They feel confident they've turned up the remains of the reputed mob associate-turned police informant.

"We have strong reason to believe that this is the body of Joe 'Onions' Scanlon," state police Col. Brendan Doherty said at an impromptu news conference at the scene of the search.

A pathologist from the Office of State Medical Examiners will determine whether they are indeed Scanlon's remains.

After turning up a boot at 2:18 p.m., digging stopped in the yard of the Lisboa Apartments complex in the city's Riverside section where backhoes have been been at work since Monday.

A white sheet was spread out, and blue-gloved investigators from the state Medical Examiners Office and Rhode Island State Police were using it to sift through dirt pulled up in the same scoop that revealed the footwear. A picnic bench was put into service to hold evidence, as well as the usual evidence bags.

Handshakes were given all around, including to the backhoe operator, and the deep holes on the property were being filled up by 3 p.m. today.

The investigators hit pay dirt about 30 feet straight back from the rear door of the apartment complex, near a stockade fence.

Investigators have been digging with backhoes in the area near the East Bay Bicycle Path since Monday, the day law enforcement agents netted close to two dozen on racketeering and other criminal charges.

Investigators had remained certain they will find what they are looking for.

On Monday morning, Nicholas "Nicky" Pari, 71, of North Providence, one of two men convicted of killing Scanlon, accompanied state police detectives to Riverside and showed them the area where he buried the body. The state police dog also detected a scent of human remains.

According to testimony at the trial of Nicholas Pari and Andy Merola, Scanlon was wearing dungarees, a windbreaker and brown shoe boots when he was shot.

Pari was among those, including mob hitman Gerald "Gerry" Tillinghast, arrested in a large-scale racketeering, drug peddling and stolen goods ring that the authorities allege operated out of a flea market on Valley Street in Providence.

Former R.I. Attorney General Dennis J. Roberts II had agreed to reduce first-degree charges against Merola and Pari in 1982 after Pari told prosecutors that Scanlon's body had been dumped in the ocean off Narragansett.

Today, Robert said he is very surprised that the police found Scanlon's body buried in East Providence. "I've been duped. What can I tell you? It was a bizarre case. I really had thought that they took this guy way out in Block Island Sound and dumped him overboard. The tide wouldn't wash him in. I figured he'd be out there with Captain Kidd forever."

Journal photo / Bill Murphy
Digging today produced a hole that looks more like a trench, as excavators moved closer to the apartment complex at 378 Bullocks Point Ave. in their third -- and last -- day of the search. Watch video of their efforts today.

-- With reports from Journal staff writers W. Zachary Malinowski and Tracy Breton

 Tags  East Providence footwear Joseph P. "Joe Onions" Scanlon mob hit

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