7:05 AM Wed, Nov 18, 2009 | Permalink
Thomas J. Morgan  Email
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On the local front:
Joseph "Joe Onions" Scanlon
A year ago today:
Two backhoes dig and move gravel for more than six hours behind an apartment complex in Riverside without finding the body of Joseph "Joe Onions" Scanlon, the victim of a gangland slaying 30 years ago. Lt. John J. Leyden and Lt. Kevin J. Hawkins, of the Rhode Island State Police, called off the dig at 3:35 p.m. The backhoe operators from the state Department of Transportation will return to the site this morning and resume their search for Scanlon's remains behind the Lisboa Apartments, at 378 Bullocks Point Ave. The grassy area behind the complex is less than 20 yards from the East Bay Bike Path.
Journal file photo/ Bill Murphy
State police detectives and FBI agents use a backhoe to dig for the body of Joseph "Joe Onions'' Scanlon
It was the second straight day of digging. During the excavation, work crews found carpet remnants, plastic bags and wire - but no bones or other body remains. Investigators remained certain they will find what they are looking for. Two days ago 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.
5 years ago today:
Pascoag Utility District officials are concerned about state Health Department requirements for bringing water to customers again, as the contamination level of its wells has dropped significantly. The Burrillville village's water supply was contaminated in August 2001 with the gasoline additive methyl tertiary-butyl ether, or MTBE. Residents have relied on the neighboring Harrisville Fire District for their water supply since January 2002, when a Superior Court judge ordered the Harrisville district to pump water into Pascoag. Recently, state Department of Environmental Management officials measured the peak level of contamination at 17 parts per billion, said PUD board of commissioners chairman Alber G. Palmisciano. For the last week, they were a steady 5 parts per billion. The Health Department issues an advisory at 40 parts per billion. "That's well below the safe level," Palmisciano said.
25 years ago today:
Pawtucket investigators have stopped talking publicly about the abduction/killing of 4-month-old Jerri Ann Richard, but others can talk of little else. "This is supposed to happen in Los Angeles or New York, not Pawtucket," said Kevin F. O'Sullivan, manager of MoJo's, a restaurant a half-block from the infant's home and near the narrow, dead-end alley where she was found beaten to death four nights ago. "People are shocked, wondering who the hell did it. They're wondering if it'll happen again." Marybeth Crawley, a young woman working the front desk of the YMCA at 20 Summer St., which seems to have spoken for the community with its corner sign reading: "Jerri Ann Please Forgive Us Our Transgressions," said, "My sister's scared to death that someone's going to break into her room at night, break in and steal her. It does make you wonder what everything's coming to."
On the international front:
On this date in 1820, U.S. Navy Captain Nathaniel Palmer discovers the frozen continent of Antarctica.
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