Mob victim’s remains positively identified

Human remains dug up in East Providence last year are those of a missing Mob victim, the state Department of Health said Wednesday.

Officials said medical examiners used DNA to identify the remains as those of Joseph “Joe Onions” Scanlon, who was killed in 1978. Health officials said the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head.

“Because the DNA analysis for this case was so highly specialized, the femur and DNA samples from the family were sent to the University of North Texas for analysis,“ Chief Medical Examiner Thomas Gilson said in a news release.

State police started digging at the Bullocks Point Avenue site in November, acting on information from Nicholas Pari, an associate of the Patriarca crime family.

Pari was convicted of manslaughter in Scanlon’s killing and sentenced to seven years in prison. Pari and a co-defendant claimed they tossed Scanlon’s body into Narragansett Bay, but investigators long had doubts.

Scanlon was a low-level street criminal with organized crime ties, but sources said the Mob found out he was a police informant.

Pari died in December.