POPULAR PAWTUCKET MAYOR: Thomas P. McCoy was effective and ambitious, but also was accused of vote fraud during his tenure.
12.19.99
15. As a new century dawned, Republicans ruled the Rhode Island roost. One of the wiliest and most corrupt GOP leaders was Charles R. Brayton, a Warwick native and Civil War general whose nickname was "Boss.'' "An honest voter,'' Brayton said, "is one who stays bought.''
16. Caroline Schermerhorn Astor was the arbiter of who was acceptable in society and Who. Was. Not. An invitation to Beechwood, her Newport mansion, told the world that You. Had. Arrived.
17. Thomas P. McCoy was an effective and ambitious Pawtucket mayor who was also accused of major vote fraud. The stadium that bears his name was built on a swamp, cost millions more than stadiums twice its size, and enriched many of his friends. Still, when he died in office in 1945, half the state came to his funeral.
18. When Raymond L. S. Patriarca 's son had trouble changing his schedule at the University of Rhode Island, dad made a call on Sept. 24, 1962.
To Governor John A. Notte Jr.
One eavesdropping FBI agent said he "puked'' to hear Notte offer help. Patriarca had been a thug since his bootlegger days, when, at the age of 25, he was named a Public Enemy by the Providence Police (that meant they could pick him up any time they caught him driving after dark). But it was in the 1960s that he became widely identified as the boss of organized crime in New England.
The 1960s marked the peak of Patriarca's power in Rhode Island. In 1967 he was arrested for the first time in 30 years. He was convicted of murder and jailed until 1975; he died in 1984.
By then, the Rhode Island mob's influence was on the wane.
19. Providence Mayor Vincent A. "Buddy'' Cianci , Rhode Island's most gifted politician since World War II, tirelessly promotes Providence and has the foresight and vision to pounce on every good idea he comes across.
He's had big wins: his 1974 defeat of incumbent Democrat Joseph Doorley gave Providence its first Italian-American mayor.
And big losses: he presided over a famously corrupt administration until he was forced to resign, in 1984, for assaulting a man who had dated Cianci's ex-wife.
In 1990, he narrowly won the mayor's seat again. His second administration went swimmingly until the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a probe of wrongdoing at City Hall -- dubbed Operation Plunder Dome.
15. As a new century dawned, Republicans ruled the Rhode Island roost. One of the wiliest and most corrupt GOP leaders was Charles R. Brayton, a Warwick native and Civil War general whose nickname was "Boss.'' "An honest voter,'' Brayton said, "is one who stays bought.''
16. Caroline Schermerhorn Astor was the arbiter of who was acceptable in society and Who. Was. Not. An invitation to Beechwood, her Newport mansion, told the world that You. Had. Arrived.
17. Thomas P. McCoy was an effective and ambitious Pawtucket mayor who was also accused of major vote fraud. The stadium that bears his name was built on a swamp, cost millions more than stadiums twice its size, and enriched many of his friends. Still, when he died in office in 1945, half the state came to his funeral.
18. When Raymond L. S. Patriarca 's son had trouble changing his schedule at the University of Rhode Island, dad made a call on Sept. 24, 1962.
To Governor John A. Notte Jr.
One eavesdropping FBI agent said he "puked'' to hear Notte offer help. Patriarca had been a thug since his bootlegger days, when, at the age of 25, he was named a Public Enemy by the Providence Police (that meant they could pick him up any time they caught him driving after dark). But it was in the 1960s that he became widely identified as the boss of organized crime in New England.
The 1960s marked the peak of Patriarca's power in Rhode Island. In 1967 he was arrested for the first time in 30 years. He was convicted of murder and jailed until 1975; he died in 1984.
By then, the Rhode Island mob's influence was on the wane.
19. Providence Mayor Vincent A. "Buddy'' Cianci , Rhode Island's most gifted politician since World War II, tirelessly promotes Providence and has the foresight and vision to pounce on every good idea he comes across.
He's had big wins: his 1974 defeat of incumbent Democrat Joseph Doorley gave Providence its first Italian-American mayor.
And big losses: he presided over a famously corrupt administration until he was forced to resign, in 1984, for assaulting a man who had dated Cianci's ex-wife.
In 1990, he narrowly won the mayor's seat again. His second administration went swimmingly until the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a probe of wrongdoing at City Hall -- dubbed Operation Plunder Dome.
A
yearlong Providence Journal series about life in Rhode Island.
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in cooperation with the Rhode Island Historical Society.
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