Update: Dig for mobster's body suspended again / Video
4:03 PM Tue, Nov 18, 2008 | Permalink
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EAST PROVIDENCE -- For a second day, the earth-removal search for what may be the body of reputed mobster and police informant Joseph P. "Joe Onions" Scanlon has been suspended in an apartment building's yard. The dig in the triangular grassy area behind Lisboa Apartments, at 378 Bullocks Point Ave., in the Riverside section, is slated to resume at 9 a.m. tomorrow. Two state Department of Transportation backhoes were worked throughout most of the day in the search for what authorities described as the victim of a three-decade-old mob murder. They would dig one hole, fill it up, then dig another hole and fill it, as they progressed around the building. One backhoe began the task yesterday, before stopping as darkness fell. The work started up again at 9 this morning. So far, workers have turned up carpet strips and plastic bags but no remains. Rhode Island State Police troopers, wearing their black State Police windbreakers, secured the site. Officially, the state police won't comment on whose remains they are searching for. "We are excavating, looking for the remains of a historic assassination, mob hit," Lt. Col. Steven G. O'Donnell said this morning. Yesterday, investigators said they believe the body presumed buried at the site to be that of Joseph P. "Joe Onions" Scanlon, a reputed Providence mobster and police informant believed slain in a Knight Street bar in 1978. Two men, Andrew F. Merola and Nicholas "Nicky" Pari, pleaded no contest to killing him in 1982. The two had been convicted of the murder in 1979 -- marking the state's first such conviction without a victim's body having been found -- but the convictions were overturned by the state Supreme Court on grounds the trial judge had improperly excluded defense testimony that could have discredited testimony of one of the state's key witnesses. Pari, whom the state police call a longtime mob associate, was arrested yesterday on weapons and racketeering charges as part of an undercover sting operation that nabbed 18 people. Mobster Gerald Tillinghast was also arrested. Investigators said Pari told them Scanlon's body was buried at that address in East Providence. Four more arrests were announced today. -- With reports from W. Zachary Malinowski and archival reports Pari, 71, is dying from cancer and is confined to a wheelchair. "The state police were very considerate, sensitive and empathetic about his condition," his lawyer, Gerrick Van Duesen, said yesterday, adding that he was not aware of any disclosures his client may have made regarding Scanlon. "His prognosis is imminent, immediate, bleak and grim." Previous leads in the search for Scanlon's body were unsuccessful. The apartment complex where Scanlon is now presumed to be buried is owned by Celestino Antonio, who bought the property in 1991, according to town records. At the time of Scanlon's disappearance, the property was owned by Stanley White III, who built the 18-unit complex in 1977. 
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Was it necessary to mention the name of the current owner of the apartment complex.
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Why is money being wasted on digging bones? The person is dead.
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Joyce12, the name of the owner according to town records is public information. You can find it at http://data.visionappraisal.com/EastProvidenceRI/findpid.asp?iTable=pid&pid=7050.
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would that bar be where the E&O is now?
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You're right, he is dead. And his body is evidence, and improperly buried. You don't think he deserves a decent burial? If you were murdered would you want to be left in somebody's backyard?
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Pub Info: I am quite aware that the owner's name can be found on Vision Appraisal's website,but his name is not germane to this story so there wasn't any point to publishing it .
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Nothing but trouble at that apartment complex anyway, it's like they have a big black cloud over their heads...in the shape of an ONION!!!
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"but his name is not germane to this story.."
The Germans ain't got nothing to do with it.
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