by Mike Stanton
I also talked to Vin Vespia, Mickey Farina, and two other sources who wish to remain anonymous about the relationship between Buddy Cianci and Sheila Bentley.
The intrigue of the Cianci campaign was described to me by Ron Glantz, Mickey Farina, and Sharky Almagno. There were also stories in the newspaper at the time about the formation of Friends of Cianci. Cianci and Farina told me about the fateful Rosario Club meeting on primary night. Farina and Glantz described the clandestine van rendezvous. Herb DeSimone and Jean Coughlin talked to me about the campaign in general. Two sources told me about Lloyd Griffin’s Atlantic City ploy in securing absentee ballots, including a former Cianci aide who heard the story from Cianci. A source who was at the hotel on election night told me about Cianci’s comment to his mother. Cianci told me about McGarry’s being carried into his house to meet with him after the election; McGarry told the Journal at the time about the meeting.
Chapter Three: The Art of Politics
Cianci’s workout with the city softball team was described in a Providence Journal story and photo-essay. For the inauguration, I drew on the Journal’s coverage and also looked at pictures in a file in the newspaper’s library.
The Robert Haxton affair was chronicled in the Journal, including an in-depth story by Lorraine Hopkins that ran on November 14, 1976. I also interviewed Ron Glantz, Major John J. Leyden of the Providence police, and Francis Darigan.
For vignettes about the mayor’s style, I interviewed several former aides and others. Joe Agugiaro described the mayor’s trip to Nashville to lobby for the Fraternal Order of Police convention, including the al dente story, which was also referred to in a Journal story about Cianci. Joe Vileno was in the mayor’s office when he slid out of his chair in reaction to the news that the Biltmore had closed. Vileno also told me about the mayor’s pressuring the banks to cash senior citizens’ Social Security checks. Another former aide, who wishes to remain anonymous, described the meeting with Antoinette Downing, which was also referred to in newspaper clippings. Cianci told me the story of the City Hall janitor stealing the aldermen’s chairs that turned up in the antique store. Two sources told me the story of the mayor’s losing his temper and throwing chairs in his outer office. Barney Prignano and Carol and Joseph Agugiaro described Cianci’s interaction with his police drivers.
Nick Easton and Ken Orenstein described the problems with the mayor’s Office of Community Development.
Cianci, Herb DeSimone, and federal appeals judge Bruce Selya, Chafee’s 1976 campaign chairman, described Cianci’s jockeying with Chafee for the U.S. Senate seat in 1976. Joe Vileno described the GOP function at the West Valley Inn in West Warwick, when Chafee upstaged Cianci. A source with ties to both Cianci and Chafee also talked to me about the behind-the-scenes drama.
Norm Roussel described accompanying Cianci to Kansas City to speak at the 1976 Republican National Convention.
For the account of Chief Ricci’s suicide, I interviewed two of the police officials who found his body, John Leyden and Ted Collins, as well as Ron Glantz, who described the phone call from Cianci in which the mayor wondered whether Ricci had left a note. A Cianci aide who requested anonymity described being angry at the mayor following Ricci’s death. I also read the extensive Journal coverage.
Chapter Four: Operation Snow Job
For the story of the Marquette rape accusation, I drew on federal court records that emerged during Cianci’s libel suit against New Times magazine, including the July 24, 1978, New Times article by Craig Waters and interrogatories in which Cianci said that he paid his accuser three thousand dollars. (Cianci has said that the civil settlement had nothing to do with the district attorney’s decision not to charge him criminally.) I also obtained police and prosecution records from 1966, including the alleged victim’s handwritten statement, a Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory report, and a police summary stating that Cianci had failed a polygraph test three times and that his accuser passed the test. The police summary also quotes a crime-lab investigator calling it “one of the most clear-cut cases of rape he had ever processed,” and the Milwaukee district attorney at the time, Hugh O’Connell, calling it one of the more “dastardly” crimes he had ever seen, but that “due to a lack of evidence prosecution was almost impossible.”
In researching the events of 1978, I interviewed Ron Glantz and Herb DeSimone about their trip to Milwaukee; Milwaukee lawyer Alan Eisenberg, a law-school classmate of Cianci’s; Chuck Hauser, then executive editor of The Providence Journal; Joel Rawson, another editor; and Journal reporters Doane Hulick and Bert Wade. I also talked to Paul Giacobbe, then a television reporter for WJAR–Channel 10, and obtained footage of a televised interview that he did in 1978 with Ruth Bandlow.
In researching the Blizzard of ’78, I consulted Journal clips, including a special section that the newspaper later published, and a Channel 10 television documentary. I also interviewed Cianci and Glantz, who both blamed Governor Garrahy for the delays in plowing Providence, and a Cianci aide who was snowbound at City Hall.
Glantz told me about the falling-out between Cianci and McGarry, which was also evident in McGarry’s public criticisms of Cianci in 1978.
The Wednesday Night Massacre was described to me by Glantz; another Cianci aide who requested anonymity; Ray Dettore, one of the Cianci appointees sworn in that night; and council members Ed Xavier, Joe Cirelli, and Charles Mansolillo. I also read Journal stories about the massacre and its aftermath. My description of the 1935 Bloodless Revolution is based on McLoughlin’s Rhode Island: A History, and Pride Without Prejudice: The Life of John O. Pastore, by Ruth S. Morgenthau.
Cianci aide Joe Vileno told me about trying to make bets on the election with Vinny Cirelli at the Old Timer’s Tap. Cirelli told me about making peace with Cianci after the 1978 election and described the fund-raiser where Cianci stood on the bar.
Chapter Five: The Education of Ronnie Glantz
I interviewed Ronnie Glantz extensively about his role in Cianci’s first administration and the corruption that engulfed it. His allegations of payoffs to Cianci from specific contractors are also contained in a 1987 state police report that I obtained and in court papers filed by the government in Operation Plunder Dome, offering a preview of what Glantz would have testified to if he had been called. (Glantz could only have been called as a rebuttal witness by the government if Cianci had taken the stand and opened the door to evidence of earlier corruption.) James A. Forte, the contractor whom Glantz alleges gave him ten thousand dollars to deliver to Cianci, later pleaded guilty to paying fifteen thousand in bribes in 1990 to city officials in neighboring Pawtucket. The other contractors named in the state police report and in the court papers include Jack and Danny Capuano, Tony Rosciti, Gene Castellucci, and Robert Doorley. Those documents also name Joe DiSanto as a bribe recipient.
Several people described the close relationship between Cianci and Glantz, including Carol Agugiaro, who also told me how Glantz would clown around in the office. Jim Taricani told me about seeing Glantz and Cianci arguing in the mayor’s office one day over a winning lottery ticket.
In a March 28, 1979, story, The Providence Journal’s Doane Hulick quoted political sources that Cianci was in California pitching himself as a possible vice-presidential nominee to Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford; Cianci said the trip was nonpolitical. Two sources told me that Cianci was, in fact, interested in the vice presidency; one said that he came home “pissed off” that it hadn’t worked out.
Wendy Materna, David Ead, and another source told me of hearing Cianci describe his visit to Frank Sinatra’s house in Palm Springs, including the reference to Raymond Patriarca. Ead and the source recalled Cianci’s saying in the early 1980s that Patriarca’s picture was on the wall. Materna said she heard the story several times in later years, with the bartender asking about Patriarca but no reference to his picture on the wall. Paul Campbell told me the story of how Cianci helped Sinatra’s friend’s child who wanted to attend Brown University; anothe
r source confirmed it. Joe Vileno told me about Cianci’s telling him that governors weren’t like mayors, because they could keep people at arm’s length. I’ve heard Cianci say similar things. Cianci’s exchange with former San Francisco mayor Joseph Alioto was written about in The Providence Journal on May 21, 1979.
Glantz and contractor Thomas Ricci described Mickey Farina’s City Hall parties with city contractors. The subsequent falling-out between Cianci and Farina—though not the reason why—was reported in The Providence Journal. I spoke to Glantz and Farina.
The Journal wrote stories about Cianci’s fund-raising operation, including one on July 8, 1984, by Katherine Gregg and Ira Chinoy, that cited the internal strategy memo and quoted Therese Kelly about how employees were pressured to buy fund-raising tickets. Several Cianci aides told me the same thing, as did police major John J. Leyden, who says that the mayor pressured him. A former aide told me the story of Cianci asking aides if they liked their paycheck. Former Cianci aide Bruce Melucci described the ticket-committee meetings. Glantz, Melucci, and Carol Agugiaro told me that Buckles Melise was a regular and a strong ticket seller. A former aide told me that Cianci spent campaign funds to pay the butcher’s bill.
Glantz told me about the time that Cianci asked a policeman to watch his mother’s house because there was five hundred thousand dollars in cash in the safe; he also told the state police about that, according to a 1987 state police memo summarizing an interview in federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, with Glantz.
Tommy Ricci corroborates Glantz’s description of how games were played with bid specifications, emergency contracts, and splitting bigger jobs into smaller ones to avoid competitive bidding. He also told me about meeting President Ford; the bar melee at the Marriott was confirmed by a retired police official.
Jimmy Notorantonio’s trash-into-cash scheme is documented in court records and newspaper accounts. When Noto was sentenced to prison, he drove to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, with his good friend Joe Doorley.
I interviewed two Cianci aides, Patrick T. Conley and Paul Campbell, regarding the 1980 governor’s race. Cianci told me the story of his helicopter’s emergency landing at the Port of Providence and the guard dogs. Providence Journal sports columnist Bill Reynolds was with Jimmy Breslin for the comments on Cianci’s helicopter. Chafee’s former chief of staff David Griswold and a former Cianci aide both told me of Cianci’s interest in an ambassadorship from Ronald Reagan but said that the mayor was never seriously considered.
Retired major Lionel Benjamin of the Rhode Island State Police told me about Cianci’s anger over not being clued in about the state police investigation of no-show city workers. Another law enforcement source told me about Cianci’s crack that Colonel Walter Stone would have to clean up after his horse once Cianci became governor. Former major John Leyden of the Providence Police Department told me about the investigation of the bad-check cops loyal to Cianci and the interference he faced from the police chief.
Two former Brown University officials, admissions director James Rogers and athletic director John Parry, talked about Cianci’s reaction after his nephew was rejected. Another source confirmed Cianci’s anger. (The Brown president at the time, Howard Swearer, is dead.) Cianci’s Moses Brown classmate Robert Ellis Smith said that Cianci later told him the story, leaving the impression that the rejected nephew got in.
Mac Farmer told me the story of Tony Bucci’s leaving his office light on to signal the City Council.
Retired state police captain Brian Andrews told me about following Patriarca and Blackjack DelSanto to Boston. I also have testimony from Nino Cucinotta describing the Boston Mafia induction ceremony. Jim Diamond, who worked for Attorney General Richard Israel, said that another Israel supporter described to him his conversation with Cianci about why the mayor would tolerate an underworld figure on the city payroll.
Bruce Melucci, Cianci’s 1982 campaign manager, told me about the campaign strategy; he also told me the story of Cianci and Henry Cabot Lodge. Melucci told me that the shotguns the police carried in the garbage strike were not loaded.
Arthur F. Coia’s ties to Patriarca were documented years later in court records and union disciplinary proceedings.
Chapter Six: Nightmare on Power Street
My account of Buddy Cianci’s assault of Raymond DeLeo, and the mayor’s alleged attempt to pressure Lenore Steinberg, is drawn primarily from court records in the case—grand-jury testimony and state police statements. My Providence Journal colleague Tracy Breton, who covered the original case, conducted a lengthy interview with DeLeo for a 2002 newspaper story that we worked on together. I subsequently interviewed DeLeo. I also spoke to William McGair and Herbert DeSimone, who were there that night; Lieutenant Richard Tamburini; Vincent O’Connell, who worked for Cianci as a private detective on the case; and other sources connected to the case who wish to remain anonymous. Cianci’s only comment to me about that night on Power Street, made shortly before he went to prison, was “Remember, I never actually hit him with that fireplace log.” I also read notes that Sheila kept over a period of several months following the assault, thanks to a source.
DeLeo and former Cianci aides described the mayor’s crumbling marriage, including his infidelities, which Cianci acknowledged in his grand-jury testimony.
Norm Roussel, in an interview with me, described his weekend in London with Cianci shortly before the mayor pleaded no contest.
The intensifying corruption investigations of City Hall were well documented in The Providence Journal and state and federal indictments. Nick Easton described the meeting of state and federal authorities in the police chief’s office to discuss corruption.
Chapter Seven: He Never Stopped Caring
Cianci has described his time in exile in various interviews during his years out of office and after his comeback. His failed comeback in 1984 was well documented in the Journal, including his rousing reception at the St. Joseph’s Day parade. Aide Paul Campbell also told me about the comeback effort. Patrick Conley, Norm Roussel, Bruce Melucci, and Skip Chernov told me about their encounters with Cianci in exile. Cianci talked about having martinis with Bill Warner. A well-placed source confirmed that Cianci was one of the inspirations for the Pathological Liar character on Saturday Night Live.
Ron St. Pierre, then with WHJJ radio, told me about Cianci’s hiring as a talk-show host; he also confirmed that everyone knew that the caller “Ray from Lincoln” was mob boss Raymond “Junior” Patriarca. Cianci’s on-air roasting of Patrick Kennedy is recounted in Darrell West’s biography of Patrick Kennedy. I was able to observe Cianci and the smoke-filled radio booth firsthand; in the winter of 1987–88 I did a weekly sports-talk show on college basketball with hosts Dick & Dave, immediately following Cianci’s show.
Wendy Materna told me about her background and her relationship with Cianci.
I relied on interviews, court files, and Journal stories in recapping the state and federal corruption investigations of City Hall. I talked to Ronald Glantz, Thomas Ricci, former U.S. attorney Lincoln Almond, former federal prosecutor and Rhode Island attorney general James E. O’Neil, retired state police major Michael Urso, and other former members of law enforcement who requested anonymity. I also obtained a July 21, 1987, state police memo from Urso to Colonel Walter Stone, summarizing his meeting with Glantz at the Allenwood Federal Prison Camp.
There is an inconsistency in the matter of whether Cianci paid Buckles Melise five thousand dollars to keep him from testifying. Federal prosecutors, in court papers filed in Operation Plunder Dome, said that Glantz would testify that Cianci paid Melise. Glantz told me that Cianci had promised to pay Melise but subsequently refused, triggering an argument with Joe DiSanto over lunch at the Old Canteen. DiSanto, who wanted Melise taken care of, according to Glantz, later went on trial and Melise testified against him. DiSanto would not talk to me.
The Henry Gemma matter was covered by The Providence Journal and also described by Arlene Violet in he
r book, Convictions.
Two of Cianci’s real estate partners, Patrick Conley and Paul Campbell, told me about their business ventures in the late 1980s. I also read news stories in the early 1990s describing his business dealings and personal finances during that period. Joseph Cerilli’s allegations of bribing Cianci are contained in Cerilli’s state grand-jury testimony in another corruption case, involving former governor Edward D. DiPrete. Joseph Mollicone’s bribery allegations were described in court papers filed by federal prosecutors in Operation Plunder Dome.
Conley, Campbell, Tom Rossi, Wendy Materna, and Steven Antonson talked to me about the 1990 comeback, as did other advisers who requested anonymity. I also interviewed Fred Lippitt and read the Journal’s coverage of the campaign and subsequent court challenge.
Chapter Eight: Zorba the Mayor
Carol Agugiaro described the weekend meeting in the mayor’s office when Cianci regained office. Two sources told me of warning Joe Almagno not to work for Cianci, and of his later statement that he was getting out before “this all blows up.” John Palmieri described the chilly directors’ meeting. Several former aides described Cianci’s saying, “Marry your enemies and fuck your friends.” Cianci told me the story of the Turks Head Club meeting with corporate executives.
The Amsterdam’s incident was described to me by Peter Dupre, two of his business associates, and two patrons who were there that night and saw Cianci argue with the doorman. Cianci’s girlfriend Wendy Materna told me that she was there and that there was a disagreement over the cover charge, which she felt they shouldn’t have had to pay since they were going in for dinner. She said that she was unaware of anything that happened afterward.
Regarding the early 1990s wars with the City Council, I interviewed Joshua Fenton, Rita and Lyman Williams, Steve Woerner, Tom Rossi, John Lombardi, and Balbina Young.
