Reputed mobster dies after revealing location of body

PROVIDENCE—An associate of the Patriarca crime family has died, about a month after he told police where the body of a man killed in a 1978 mob slaying was buried.

State Police Lt. Col. Steven O’Donnell said Friday that the family of Nicholas Pari confirmed his death. Pari was 71.

Pari was convicted of manslaughter in the killing of Joseph “Joe Onions” Scanlon 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.

Pari was arrested last month in a sweep of alleged mob associates. He then led police to an East Providence lot where they dug up remains believed to be those of Scanlon.

O’Donnell said Pari told him he did not have long to live.