Buried bones ID’d as 1978 RI mob victim Joe Onions
PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Bones dug from a dirt lot by police acting on a tip from a dying killer belong to a mob victim nicknamed Joe Onions, who was shot in the head three decades ago, state officials said Wednesday.
State police detectives unearthed Joseph “Joe Onions” Scanlon’s bones in November after arresting 71-year-old Nicholas Pari, who was terminally ill and offered to lead them to Scanlon’s burial site.
Investigators said they compared the skeletal remains with a DNA sample taken from Scanlon’s family to make a match.
“We hope that this information will bring closure for the family” said David Gifford, director of the state Department of Health, in a written statement. “This death occurred 30 years ago. We hope this gives them peace.”
The announcement solves a mystery that long vexed veteran Mafia investigators, who solved Scanlon’s killing but never found his body.
Pari and Andy Merola were convicted in 1979 of killing Scanlon because they believed he was a police informer, but the convictions were overturned by the state Supreme Court. The pair later pleaded no contest to lesser charges as part of a plea deal and confessed to dumping Scanlon’s remains in Narragansett Bay.
Investigators long had doubts about their story.
Pari, arrested on unrelated charges during a raid last year, told police he was dying and said Scanlon was buried near an East Providence apartment complex. Pari died a month later.
Merola went to his grave in 2007 without divulging the secret.
Source: boston.com
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