Then-Mayor Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci waves to the crowd from the route of the 2002 Bristol Fourth Of July Parade, the last time he marched in the parade before serving a prison sentence.

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THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / Bill Murphy

BRISTOL

On July 4, 2002, 10 days after Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr. was convicted of federal racketeering conspiracy, the then-mayor of Providence marched in the Bristol Fourth of July parade, just like he always did on Independence Day.

A spectator at the end of the parade route asked Cianci, who was awaiting sentencing, if he would ever march again.

“I’ll be back,” Cianci replied.

That promise will come true tomorrow, when Cianci is set to make his first appearance in the parade in six years. Released from prison last year and now a radio talk-show host, Cianci has a ready answer for anyone who may think it’s inappropriate for a convicted felon to take part in Bristol’s storied parade.

“It’s America,” he said. “Parades are for everybody.”

Cianci’s return to Bristol seemed inevitable. He was a veritable fixture in the parade from the first time he marched, in 1974.

But don’t expect Cianci to have a prominent place in the parade, the centerpiece of what’s believed to be the oldest continuous Fourth of July celebration in the country, now in its 223rd year. No longer an elected official, he’ll be at the back of the parade, with a host of other radio celebrities.

The man who used to sit proudly atop a white horse as it carried him down the parade route will be walking.

“He’s just one of a number of radio personalities we’ll have,” said Judy Squires, chairwoman of the parade.

The Bristol Fourth of July Committee didn’t make a special effort to have Cianci participate in the parade. In fact, the invitation to him was unintentional.

Squires wrote a letter to Rhode Island’s major radio stations last year inviting their on-air personalities to march in the parade. A Bristol native whose father once chaired the parade committee, Squires remembered watching the parade when she was younger and seeing radio personalities take part.

“They were fun and upbeat,” she said. “People could put faces with the names on the radio.”

A number of hosts from Lite Rock 105 and 92 Pro-FM agreed to march. Cianci will be the most prominent name from WPRO-AM in the parade.

“Most of our guys will be away on vacation,” said Paul Giammarco, program director at WPRO.

But not Cianci. He’s not taking his vacation until next week. He says he didn’t plan it that way.

Still, in an interview this week, he said he missed the parade during his five-year sentence in a New Jersey prison. Even if he wasn’t invited this year, he said he probably would have come to Bristol anyway, to watch the parade from the sidelines.

“I have so many pleasant memories from the past,” he said.

Cianci was Providence’s mayor twice. He was first elected in 1974, but was forced to resign in 1984 after receiving a five-year suspended sentence for assaulting Raymond DeLeo, his estranged wife’s lover, with an ashtray and a fireplace log. He was elected a second time, in 1990, and left office after he was sentenced to prison in December 2002.

In nearly all of his years in office, Cianci marched in Bristol’s parade. In the early years, he was never invited. Only federal, state and Bristol officials were; Cianci first appeared as a “musical director” of a drum and bugle corps. In another year, he marched with a contingent of Vietnam veterans.

Invitation or not, Cianci made his presence felt, marching down the 2.6-mile route with a contingent of hundreds of Providence firefighters and police officers. In some of those years he rode a white horse.

Of all the years he marched, he says 1976 sticks out because of the estimated 300,000 people who came out during the nation’s bicentennial celebration.

But 1980 is his favorite year. Cianci was in the midst of a campaign for governor and was told by parade organizers not to come; they didn’t want the celebration to turn into a political event.

Nevertheless, the morning of the parade, Cianci did show up, arriving dramatically by helicopter. Even though he didn’t belong in the parade, no one tried to stop him, as organizers didn’t want to add to the spectacle.

Cianci marched far behind his opponent in the governor’s race, the incumbent, J. Joseph Garrahy, who was invited. Cianci got a raucous reception. He later lost the race to Garrahy.

When Squires announced to the Fourth of July Committee in April that Cianci would represent WPRO in the parade, she would only say, “It should be interesting, to say the least.”

Earlier this week, she declined to elaborate.

Since Cianci’s impending return to Bristol was made public, there have been a handful of angry letters to the local weekly newspaper and some messages left on the paper’s anonymous phone line.

“Shame on parade organizers for not refusing that unabashed egotist a place in our historic and patriotic exercises,” Bristol resident Michael L. Martel wrote to the Bristol Phoenix.

Roberta Cicilline-DiMezza, the sister of Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline (who will also march), called Cianci’s participation in the parade “enormously embarrassing” to Bristol.

“Unless we want our Fourth of July parade to become another parade of horribles, we better think twice about who takes part in our celebration and the message we wish to convey to the world,” wrote Cicilline-DiMezza, who lives in Bristol.

Cianci is unapologetic. He says that anyone bothered by his participation in the parade can “close their eyes when I march past.”

“If some people object, they ought to get over it,” he said. “If they’re offended that I’m there, I can’t help that.”

Reminded that DeLeo’s house is at the end of High Street on the parade route, Cianci didn’t react.

In 2002, when the parade stalled outside the house and Cianci stood by, DeLeo’s son Stephen and two of his school friends sang, “For he’s a RICO felon, For he’s a RICO felon, For he’s a RICO felon, which nobody can deny.”

Cianci says he couldn’t hear the singing over all the noise on the parade route.

“I don’t remember that actually,” he said.

Although it’s clear there are some who agree with the DeLeos, others may welcome Cianci’s return. In 2003, the first year of Cianci’s prison sentence, someone held up a sign at the end of the parade route that remarked on his absence.

“We want Buddy,” the sign said.

It’s been five years since then, and Cianci isn’t sure how people feel these days. He plays down any effect his presence will have on this year’s parade.

“Who knows if anybody will even remember who I am down there,” he said.

akuffner@projo.com