Originally published in Boston Magazine — Buddy Cianci has since been convicted of corruption.
There’s something about Providence, just as there’s Something About Mary.
Like the title character of that movie, which was shot here, that something seems to have made it desired by everyone who comes into contact with it.
Doubt it? Well, the capitol of the smallest state in the union is now locale of choice for TV shows (NBC’s Providence, Fox’s The Family Guy) and movies (Amistad, the upcoming Outside Providence and many, many more). The city where for decades the biggest claim to entertainment fame was being the birthplace of George M. (“Yankee Doodle Dandy”) Cohan, is now just a latte and a music trend away from being the Seattle of the late ‘90s.
So what is the something that attracts the media moguls here? It’s that such a small city (18.1 square miles) encompasses so much and, because of this absurdly small size, that means the sacred and the profane not only live next door to each other but are related at least by marriage.
Consider: It is a city with such a deep commitment to restaurants that the city government actually provides financing to new eateries. At the same time, the best-known place in town to eat is Haven Bros., a greasy spoon on wheels that every evening is parked next to City Hall’s steps.
It is a city so racially diverse that along with the usual Portuguese, Cambodians, Italians, Irish, WASPs, Jamaicans, Indians and who-have-you, it has both African-Americans and Cape Verdeans who, to the uninformed eye, look and sound exactly alike, but woe be unto you if you cannot tell them apart.
It is a city at the beginning of its Warholian 15 minutes of fame, and one with moral roots so deep that every wiseguy-wannabe on Federal Hill knows Providence was founded by Roger Williams, who was kicked out of the Bay State for propagating the absurd idea of religious tolerance.
And, if it is William’s spirit that has allowed this city to survive more than 350 years without significant racial strife, then it is the spirit of those wiseguys who have given it a history of the most interesting, colorful and corrupt figures anywhere in the nation.
The most recent example of this is the FBI’s arrest of the chairman and vice chairman of the city’s Board of Tax Assessment Review on charges of money laundering for the purpose of bribery and extortion. The casual Providence observer might wonder why the city’s Finest didn’t handle the job themselves. Perhaps because there are already way too many stones being thrown in that particular glass house. The police have a long history of being among the integrity challenged. Just prior to the FBI bust, the Providence Journal (whose reporters operate in what the Pentagon would describe as “a target-rich environment.”) reported that the cops didn’t know what had happened to merchandise they had seized at a pawnshop, didn’t keep records of cars confiscated in drug raids, and wound up in possession of a late-model BMW and more than $19,000 in cash without going through a forfeiture process. (“Really, it just fell into my pocket. I have no idea how it got there.”)
And this is just in the last month. You don’t have to look much farther into the past to come up with a litany of equally amusing/appalling characters.
“There’s Joe Bevilacqua who was the supreme court chief justice … caught walking out of a motel with his fly [down] after he’s in there with a hooker,” says Chip Young, who co-writes an off-the-wall gossip column for the Providence Phoenix. “Tom Fay, the next supreme court justice … gets caught writing things off like limos and tuxes. Matty Smith, the speaker of the house who we used to call Milkshake Matty because he used to get an Awful Awful [milkshake] from Newport Creamery and have one of his interns pour out the Awful Awful and fill it with beer when he was presiding over late night sessions. Then there’s Rubbers Ruggiero, the guy from the senate who got caught stealing condoms from a CVS.”
Ruggiero, a state senator from the Charles Street area of Providence, is so widely known as Rubbers that Providence Journal columnist Bob Kerr can’t even remember his real first name, Dominick. But that doesn’t mean the he isn’t dear to Kerr’s heart. “As you know, Providence is probably the strip club capital of the East Coast,” says Kerr. “There’s been a recent move to block this new lounge that’s going in on Charles Street called the Cadillac Lounge that’s being promoted by one of the leading skin guys in town. The guy leading the neighborhood opposition is … Ruggierio. So here’s Rubbers … leading this crusade to keep this strip club out of the neighborhood.”
Oh, and did we mention that former Governor Ed DiPrete is currently serving time for bribery, extortion and racketeering? Even with a scorecard it’s hard to keep track of who’s in and who’s out of prison.
