Providence Confidential

12:48 PM EST on Thursday, November 18, 2004

BY ANDY SMITH
Journal Television Writer

Just in case you've been nostalgic for the Plunder Dome saga, cable channel A&E takes you back Saturday night as City Confidential devotes an episode to the FBI investigation and subsequent trial that landed former Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. behind bars.

The show airs at 10 p.m.

The idea behind City Confidential is to explore crimes that had an impact on their communities, and the show comes across as part travelogue, part true-crime drama.

Executive producer Laura Fleury said Plunder Dome seemed tailor-made for the show, combining an interesting city, a large and colorful cast of characters and a criminal case that had everyone talking.

Among those who talked about it for the camera were Journal investigative reporter Mike Stanton, Channel 12 investigative reporter Jack White, comedian (and Plunder Dome courtroom artist) Charlie Hall, WHJJ radio talk show host Arlene Violet, Cianci defense attorney Richard Egbert, the FBI's undercover witness Antonio Freitas, federal prosecutor Craig Moore, FBI special agent W. Dennis Aiken and more.

Fleury said staff and crew from Jupiter Entertainment, the Tennessee company that produces City Confidential, visited Providence in mid-June.

Cianci declined to be interviewed, Fleury said.

The opening segment of City Confidential makes much of the Providence Renaissance -- "from dying mill town to trendy tourist mecca."

The cameras linger on the Providence Place mall, the restaurants of Federal Hill, the flames of WaterFire. The gondolas that occasionally ply the downtown rivers are downright irresistible.

But then Cianci is indicted.

"Providence was left wondering if the Medici behind the city's renaissance was really a Mafioso," intones narrator Keith David, who has replaced the late Paul Winfield as the distinctive voice of City Confidential.

We get a whirlwind tour of Cianci's career, from his first campaign as an anti-corruption candidate through his forced retirement after he pleaded no contest to an assault charge in 1984.

Then it's Cianci on his radio talk show, Cianci running for office again, and finally his giddy triumphs of the '90s. We hear about Cianci's collection of toupees, his marinara sauce, his ubiquitous presence in every corner of the city.

"The longest running lounge act in American politics," said Stanton.

All of this, of course, is nothing new to Rhode Islanders, but it serves as a quick course in Basic Cianci for City Confidential's national audience.

Then, the downfall.

We see the door of Cianci's former East Side home while City Confidential describes how Aiken went to Cianci's house and informed him he was under federal investigation. Then we cut to City Hall, and footage of federal agents removing cartons of documents.

There are the arrests of city tax officials Joseph Pannone and David Ead, and blurry black-and-white shots from the undercover videotapes secretly shot by Freitas.

In one, Pannone and Freitas are counting out money for "Uncle Frank" -- Cianci's second-in-command Frank Corrente.

(In an advance tape sent to The Journal, City Confidential erred in saying that WPRI, Channel 12, first aired an FBI undercover tape showing Frank Corrente taking money prior to the trial. It was actually WJAR, Channel 10, whose investigative reporter, Jim Taricani, is on trial for refusing to reveal the source of the tape. Producer Fleury said she would double-check the facts and try to fix the error before the show airs on Saturday.)

Meanwhile, City Confidential shows footage of Cianci proclaiming his innocence and vowing to fight the charges. Alas, we don't see Cianci declaring there are no stains on his jacket.

Plunder Dome was a lengthy and complicated affair. If you subtract time for commercials, City Confidential has about 44 minutes of air time.

"We can't possibly tell the whole story," said Fleury. "We have to make a lot of tough choices about what's in and what's not . . . we try to pull out the key points to give the audience an idea of what's happening."

City Confidential manages to get in the story of Cianci's membership in the University Club; missing from the narrative is the trial and conviction of deputy tax assessor Rosemary Glancy.

The drama peaked on June 24, 2002, when the jury delivered its verdict on Cianci. Both Stanton and White describe the hushed silence that fell over the courtroom when the jury came back with a guilty verdict on the first charge against the mayor, racketeering conspiracy.

"This was a perfect story for us to tell from the point of view of the community," said Fleury. "It's a case that people are still talking about."