joe onions

From the November 20th Providence Journal...

Body of Slain Mobster Unearthed in Riverside
The Rhode Island State Police yesterday unearthed what they believe are the remains of Joseph P. “Joe Onions” Scanlon, the onetime hood, police informant and victim of an infamous Rhode Island gangland slaying.

Half-Irish and half-Italian, Scanlon grew up in Hartford’s South End, then a predominantly Italian neighborhood of working-class families, tidy houses, corner markets and bakeries. Scanlon grew up to be a short-order cook at various Hartford restaurants.

Scanlon went to Providence, then the center of the New England rackets under Raymond L.S. Patriarca, and fell into a life of crime. But it all ended abruptly on April 3, 1978, with a bullet through the skull.

He had a winning personality, the family friend said, “and wasn’t so bad looking.” He was Joe Onions, she said, “because he made the girls cry.”