Post by Logan on Jan 29, 2016 2:13:20 GMT -6
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.
www.providencejournal.com/news/20160128/vincent-buddy-cianci-1941-2016
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.
www.providencejournal.com/news/20160128/vincent-buddy-cianci-1941-2016