Buddy cianci grandchildren

Buddy Cianci was elected six times to the mayoralty of Providence, Rhode Island, and had to resign twice, each time after a felony conviction.PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN SNYDER / REUTERS

“Be careful,” the notoriously thuggish Mayor Vincent Albert (Buddy) Cianci, of Providence, Rhode Island, told an officer of that city’s notoriously sniffy-patrician University Club, back in 1998. “The toe you stepped on yesterday may be connected to the ass you have to kiss today.”

That is a teaching that would fit handsomely on a tombstone for Cianci, who got himself elected for the first time, in 1974, as an anti-corruption candidate, and died in that city Thursday morning, at the age of seventy-four, with a reputation as one of America’s most thoroughly corrupt political personalities. In the intervening years, he served as mayor twice—in a scandal-plagued first round, from January, 1975, to April, 1984, and again from January, 1991, to September, 2002—and both times was forced to resign after being convicted of felonies. He was Providence’s first Italian-American mayor (breaking a long Irish-Ame

Vincent 'Buddy' Cianci, 1941-2016

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr., Providence’s longest serving mayor who championed the rebirth of the city he loved but whose felonious deeds twice expelled him from office, died Thursday. He was 74.

An ambulance rushed Cianci to Miriam Hospital Wednesday evening after he suffered severe abdominal pain while taping his weekly WLNE Channel 6 television show. He had been treated for colon cancer in 2014, the same year he tried unsuccessfully to resurrect his reign over the city.

Cianci was one of Rhode Island’s biggest celebrities, a shrewd politician with a larger-than-life persona who over the years was described as both a charismatic visionary and a vindictive scoundrel.

He was known simply as "Buddy" to everyone, everywhere; the sharp-tongued, quick-witted man with the famous toupee, which he surrendered in 2002 when he reported to federal prison to serve 4½ years on a corruption charge.

To live or work in Providence meant being asked over the last four decades the same question: “And how’s Buddy doing?” as if he was as m

Buddy Cianci

American politician and radio host

Buddy Cianci

Cianci in 2009

In office
January 7, 1991 – September 6, 2002
Preceded byJoseph R. Paolino Jr.
Succeeded byJohn J. Lombardi
In office
January 7, 1975 – April 25, 1984
Preceded byJoseph A. Doorley Jr.
Succeeded byJoseph R. Paolino Jr.
Born

Vincent Albert Cianci Jr.


(1941-04-30)April 30, 1941
Cranston, Rhode Island, U.S.
DiedJanuary 28, 2016(2016-01-28) (aged 74)
Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
Political partyRepublican (until 1982)
Independent (after 1982)
Spouse

Sheila Bentley

(m. 1973; div. 1983)​
Children1
EducationFairfield University (BA)
Villanova University (MA)
Marquette University (JD)
Allegiance United States
Branch/service United States Army
Years of service1966–1969 (active)
1969–1972 (reserve)
RankSecond Lieutenant
UnitArmy Military Police Corps

Vincent Albert "Buddy" Cianci Jr. (, see-AN-see; Italian

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