Joe Broadmeadow - Divine Providence: The Mayor, The Mob, and the Man in the Middle

Divine Providence

The Mayor, The Mob,
and The Man in the Middle

Divine Providence

The Mayor, The Mob,
and The Man in the Middle

By Joe Broadmeadow and Pat Cortellessa

Copyright 2021 by Joe Broadmeadow and Pat Cortellessa

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used without the publisher's express written permission except for brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America by IngramSpark

First Printing, July 2021

ISBN Print 978-1-7368288-2-3
ISBN eBook 978-1-7368288-3-0

JEBWizard Publishing
37 Park Forest RD,
Cranston, RI 02920

www.jebwizardpublishing.com

Authors Note

The stories within are all true based on eyewitness accounts, interviews, court documents, public records, and news accounts

To protect the privacy of some individuals, some names or locations have been changed.

"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."

~

Niccol di Bernardo dei Machiavelli

Dedication

The book is dedicated to my dad, Pasquale Cortellessa, Sr. A hard-working family man who always put family first.

He was Lorenzo from our Bronx Tale.

Introduction

The echo of the court clerks announcement of guilty on the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Conspiracy count still reverberated in the halls of Judge Ernest Torres court as the implication ricocheted at the speed of light throughout Providence.

The King is Dead, Long Live the King!

Vincent A. Buddy Cianci, the inimitable, affable, yet darkly complex Mayor of Providence, tarnished forever as a now twice-convicted felon. The Providence Renaissance, forever linked to Buddy in fable if not reality, now faced having the curtain pulled back on the myth enveloping the man..

As Shakespeare said, the evil men do. The good Buddy would now be buried in the federal prison system, removed from the city he loved almost as much as he loved himself.

All that remained now was for someone to pick up the pieces in City Hall and steer the city forward.

Pat Cortellessathe once close friend, turned long-time nemesis of Buddy, fresh from the courtroom where he watched the trial and verdict unfoldnow stood in city hall with the man who would bear the burden of Mayor, John Lombardi. The scene was surreal, unimaginable just a few short months before. Few expected Buddy to be convicted. Most thought Buddy would emerge dirtied but otherwise unscathed, back in the mayors office running his domain. Now the celebration of what many viewed as the end of corruption in City Hall was on.

Pat made his way to the mayors office and walked into what was once the exclusive domain of Buddy. The office, trashed by the celebration, held echoes of so much promise and so many disappointments. Pat wandered over to the window overlooking Kennedy Plaza. The abandoned Caf Plaza building, occupying a prominent place in the plaza, the site of so many battles with Buddy, stood as a reminder of the now-former Mayors penchant for exerting his control wherever he saw an opportunity for self-enrichment.

Pat wondered if it had all been worth it. All those battles fighting for what he believed was right for the city, now mere memories. Buddy was no longer a force to be reckoned with. The conviction took that away. Where it would lead was anyones guess.

What lay ahead for Pat, he could only speculate. But the memories of the war with the city and Buddy had taken their toll. So how had it all come to this?

This is the story of a mayor who would be King, The Mob, who would demand its share of the kingdom, and a man caught in the middle. A story so unique, so endemic to the city, so uniquely Rhode Island, that it casts a spell even to this day.

And Buddy was now out of sight but he was far from finished.

Pat Cortellessa Timeline

1977 21 EAST VIP
Valet Director/manager

1978
Doorman/Cover charge
collector/Ass.t manager Days

1981 Security Chief
@ The Gallery

1983 opened Slades
Pub 45 Eddy Street,
downtown

1984 partner in
NONAME Nightclub
downtown Providence

1986 opened River Caf
Waterfront district Providence

1990 Opened
development of Caf
Plaza/Comfort station
Downtown Providence

1992 Purchased
Anthonys Restaurant
and Earle Building
downtown Providence

1992 Purchased old
Corniche Nightclub
Downtown Providence

1991 Purchased old
Tilly Kings Eddy Street
Providence becomes
Centerfolds

1992 Purchased
building that housed
NOBODY caf Bassett St.

2001 Purchased
Chalkstone House,
Providence

2004 Purchased
building called Smith St. Pub

1998/2002 Candidate
Mayor of Providence

Beginnings

In the 1950s, Providence, Rhode Island, a gritty, working-class city striving to compete with its big brother, Boston, and not-so-distant cousin, New York, had one thing neither city could claim.

Providence had Raymond L.S. Patriarca, the head of the New England Mob and one of the most respected (among those in the organization) and feared (among those who crossed him) bosses in Organized Crime.

At least in the criminal underbelly and backroom politics, nothing happened in Providence that Patriarca didnt know about, manipulate, control, or profit by. All one had to do was invoke the name, Raymond. No last name or further explanation is needed.

Make no mistake about it, there were two governments in Rhode Island.

Most Rhode Islanders knew who Raymond was. Some intimately understood what he was. But only a few knew just how far his influential reach extended across the country.

Raymond was more than just a powerful local mob boss. He carried a great deal of influence with the major New York, Philly, and Las Vegas families.

As Pat Cortellessa would come to experience the Patriarca reach for himselflearning even Frank Sinatra had a picture of Raymond L.S. Patriarca in his house in Palm SpringsRaymond was a force of nature. (Stanton, 2003)

When someone like Frank Sinatra, who sang for Presidents, Kings, and Queens worldwide, has your picture on his wall, that should suggest something.

Raymond was no small-time hood from a backwater. On the contrary, Patriarca was a force to be reckoned with, and he cast a shadow over the whole of New England.

Into this world, two men, Vincent Albert Buddy Cianci, Jr. and Pat Cortellessa, grew up. While Buddy was fifteen years older, their paths were worlds apartCortellessa came from the West end of Providence and went to public schools. Cianci was born into an upper-middle-class family and went to Moses Browntheir lives would be intertwined in ways neither could have imagined.