Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Nicholas "Nicky" Pari, 71, of North Providence, one of the two men convicted of killing fellow mobster associate, turned police informant, Joseph P. "Joe Onions" Scanlon, died last night, Lt. Col. Steven G. O'Donnell said.

"We were told by his family that he (Pari) died last night," O'Donnell said.

Pari, 71, was arrested last month and charged with being the mastermind of a large-scale racketeering, drug peddling and stolen goods operation based at the Valley Street Flea Market, 500 Valley St, Providence.

He was allowed to remain free on $30,000 surety bond because of his poor health -- he was dying from cancer and confined to a wheelchair.

The day of his arrest, Pari told investigators that he buried Scanlon with a backhoe behind the Lisboa Apartments in Riverside, near the East Bay Bike Path. Two days later, a backhoe unearthed remains believed to be Scanlon's. The RI State Medical Examiner's office has not yet conducted DNA tests on those remains.

"Mr. Pari decided to come to grips with his mortality by letting us know where Mr. Scanlon was buried," said O'Donnell.

Scanlon disappeared on April 3, 1978. A year later, A Superior Court jury found Pari and Andy Merola found guilty for their roles in killing Scanlon in Merola's social club on Knight Street in Providence, and both men served substantial prison terms.

-- With reports from Journal staff writers Karen Lee Ziner and W. Zachary Malinowski.

 Tags  Joseph Scanlon mob Nicholas Pari

Comments

S. Robertson said:

Nicholas "Nicky" Pari, 71, of North Providence, one of the two men convicted of killing fellow mobster associate, turned police informant, Joseph P. "Joe Onions" Scanlon, died last night, Lt. Col. Steven G. O'Donnell said.

Please work on sentence structure.

Link | December 21, 2008 8:47 PM
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