Buddy Cianci: Naughty American

SAN DIEGO (TNA) – When the sitting mayor – a former organized crime prosecutor – is found to have a weakness for women, booze, kidnapping, and racketeering, you know you have a character on your hands.

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As Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, Vincent 'Buddy' Cianci reached heights of naughtiness most Americans can only dream about.

And when the same mayor threatens to search Bob Dylan’s tour bus unless he’s allowed backstage to meet the singer during a performance in the politician’s city, you know you have a character on your hands.

The people of Providence, Rhode Island, are well acquainted with the character known as Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci, the ex-mayor who served two stints in City Hall, from 1975 - 1984 and 1991 - 2002.

During his tenure, Cianci proved very, very good: As a charismatic former assistant district attorney, and the first Italian-American mayor in city history, he attracted the attention of the Republican national party, which wanted him to run for U.S. Senate. There was even talk of Cianci one day running for president.

In his 21 years in office, Cianci helmed an ambitious downtown revitalization, dubbed the “Providence Renaissance,” and pulled the city out of its economic and cultural doldrums. The renaissance put expensive condos downtown and beautified the murky Providence River – a favorite mob dumping ground for bodies.

Cianci presided over a miracle: Downtown Providence actually became livable. In fact, visitors began referring to Providence as “lovely” and “beautiful” – laughable characterizations before he took office.

Providence stepped out like a debutante during Cianci’s reign, becoming the backdrop for several movies, including “Meet Joe Black” and “Dumb & Dumber.”

The greatest boost to Providence’s image during Cianci’s two stints, labeled “Buddy I” and “Buddy II,” came when NBC aired the prime time drama, “Providence,” which ran from 1999 to 2002. The show disoriented many Providence natives who couldn’t understand why anyone would want to watch a TV show about their city.

But for all the good Cianci did, he could also be very, very bad.

His first stint ended in disgrace, when he resigned after being convicted of assault with a deadly weapon. In a tale that’s become as much of the city’s lore as Edgar Allan Poe wandering the streets at night, Cianci kidknapped his ex-wife’s lover, a business associate named Raymod DeLeo, held him captive at the mayor’s residence, and roughed him up for more than four hours.

As uniformed city police officers stood guard, Cianci – drunk and possibly coked-up – slapped and punched his victim, alternately sobbing and ranting about loyalty and infidelity. At one point, the mayor threw an ashtray at DeLeo’s head and stood poised to hit crack him over the head with a fireplace log until a henchman intervened.

At another point, the mayor also attempted to put out a cigarette in a man’s eye socket, only to be fended off. Later, Cianci demanded that DeLeo pay him $500,000, or the amount the mayor agreed to pay his wife in the divorce settlement. Pay by Friday, he screamed at DeLeo, “Or you’ll be DEAD – D-E-D!”

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Buddy Cianci's naughtiness is so legendary that 'Family Guy' creator Seth MacFarlane chose to have two of his characters attend Buddy Cianci Jr. High School.

Recalling Cianci’s mental state during the assault, DeLeo said, “I saw a crazed man. I saw a lunatic.”

Cianci was an inveterate wise ass. In the days following his indictment for the incident, the mayor attended a boxing match at the Providence Civic Center. When middleweight boxing champ Marvin Hagler knocked out his opponent in the fourth round, Cianci quipped, “There have been longer fights at my house.”

In March 1984, Cianci pled guilty and received a five-year suspended sentence. He resigned from office two days later.

However, instead of serving penance out of the spotlight, the indefatigable Cianci took to the airwaves, hosting a drive-time radio show in which he defended his record, attacked his rivals, and reveled in the missteps of local politicians.

While some citizens were appalled, most were merely bemused: the mayor could be convicted, but not defeated.

For all of Cianci’s bluster, one thing about the man became clear: He absolutely loved Providence. In office, he had gotten to know the city well. He’d seen its ugliness, and still adored it. The people of Providence could only hope for so much in a mayor.

Which is why in 1991, Cianci was reelected. The convicted felon ran behind the slogan “He never stopped caring about Providence,” and voters, like an abused spouse, bought into the rhetoric. They wanted the good Buddy back.

And on the surface, they got him.

During Buddy II, Cianci initiated the “Providence Renaissance.” In 1992, he brought a minor league hockey team, the Providence Bruins, to town. He lured Nordstroms and Brooks Brothers downtown (Nordstroms! Downtown!), and he managed to get a beautiful new train station built.

But the bad Buddy returned as well. Cianci continued to obsess over personal slights. It was during Buddy II that Cianci offered the Nazi salute and threatened to raid Bob Dylan’s tour bus.

He showed he didn’t handle rejection well. During a political function, he sidled up to a former supporter who had defected to the other side and cautioned, “You’d better not have a drink and back out of your driveway.”

Cianci notoriously sparred with the University Club, a private club for the city’s well-heeled. The mayor, who had applied for membership in the 1970s and was rejected, held a grudge that festered for nearly 20 years. In 1998, when the club needed permits for a major renovation project, Cianci seized his revenge.

He held up the permits in endless red tape. When club directors called on the mayor to broker a deal, Cianci launched a tirade that concluded with the now infamous line, “The toe you stepped on yesterday may be connected to the ass you have to kiss today!” He then threw the delegation out of his office.

During Buddy II, Cianci graduated from such petty vendettas to widespread racketeering. Everyone and everything in City Hall, down to the fixtures, could be bought. Want a job on the Providence police force? That’ll cost you $5000. Want to settle a tax debt? Hand over $10,000.

Often the deals were clear-cut bribes, or kickbacks. Other times, the mayor dressed them up as contributions to a nebulous political organization called “Friends of Cianci.”

Meanwhile, the mayor was living large. He owned a 51-foot yacht, lived in an elegant home in a swank neighborhood, and jetted off to the Caribbean for trysts with different women. The Feds began to take notice.

In 2001, they had seen enough. As the culmination of a three-year sting, named “Operation Plunder Dome,” the FBI delivered a 97-count indictment against Cianci.

Unperturbed, the wisecracking mayor used the indictment for new material during press conferences and his many appearances on Imus in the Morning.

In his first press conference after being indicted, the mayor riffed on the Clinton sex scandal, snapping, “There are still no stains on this jacket.”

Weeks later, when Cianci learned that a federal prosecutor had shown friends surveillance tapes of the mayor taking bribes, he cracked on Imus, “I guess Blockbuster’s was closed that night. I wonder if [the prosecutor] sold popcorn.”

The curtain was about to drop on the Buddy Show, however. In June 2002, Cianci was convicted of a single racketeering charge and sentenced to five years in federal prison. After serving his sentence, Buddy was released to a halfway house in Boston in May 2007.

A few months later, he moved back to Providence and took up residence in a condo that overlooks the river walk he helped construct. Much has been made of the fact that he’ll be eligible to run for mayor in 2014.

The cult of Buddy endures. In 2003, “Buddy” Cianci: The Musical debuted at the Fringe Festival in New York, and David Mamet is working on the screenplay of the authoritative Cianci biography, “The Prince of Providence,” by The Providence Journal investigative reporter Mike Stanton.

Even “Family Guy,” the animated TV series set in Rhode Island pays homage to the ex-mayor, naming the local junior high school “Buddy Cianci Junior High School.”

If any one person captures the zeitgeist of Providence, Rhode Island in the late 20th century, it’s Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci. No other figure comes close to representing the charisma and charm of the people, and the rot and corruption of the government.

“I was convicted of being the mayor,” he famously groused about his felony convictions.

And perhaps he was. But being the mayor also got him inducted into The Naughty American Hall of Fame. Congratulations, Buddy.