July 23, 1964
Beware of the company that you keep. That is the lesson when considering many of the following murders. Search high and low and it is difficult to find anything on Vincent Bisesi other than the news that he was found murdered in the company of Paul J. Colicci. We know the last time his wife Lena saw Vinny was on July 14 when he was driving Colicci’s car. He was said to have been working in Boston and Quincy at the time. Joe Barboza in his book said they were working a stolen television and air conditioning scam and living in the Sheraton Hotel in North Quincy at the edge of the Neponset River which gave them easy access to Boston.
On July 19, the Providence, R.I. police sent out a teletype saying that since 9:00 a.m. on July 14th, the 5’ 7” Vincent Bisesi of Providence, R.I., who worked as a salesman in the Boston area, had been missing. On July 20, it sent out another teletype saying that 5’ 9’ Paul J. Colicci was missing from his address in Providence. Both men were said to be operating a 1963 Chevrolet white.
Bisesi and Colicci were found on July 23, 1964, in a badly decomposed state in the trunk of a 1953 Chevrolet sedan with Rhode Island plates outside the Sheraton Hotel in North Quincy. Their bodies had been stuffed into the trunk for ten days during the hottest month of the year. Each one had been shot in the head. Barboza said they were shot in their hotel room and then dumped in the trunk of the car.
Colicci was known as one of Raymond Patriarca’s strong-arm men. He was said to have had a long rap sheet and had been in and out of prison for more than two decades. His claim to fame was his participation in in the $200,000 jewel robbery of Mrs. Richard N. Coffin, the wife of the late Damon Runyon a famous newspaper columnist, at her South Dartmouth, MA estate in 1947. He was convicted and sent to Walpole State Prison.
It was said by the gangsters that Colicci’s anger brought about his own death. He was picked up on a small rap and got some time in the Rhode Island State Prison at Cranston. He figured that Raymond Patriarca could get him out of prison, so he wrote to him several times but never heard back. It was said the Patriarca really did not care to do anything for him. Finally, as time passed with no reaction from Patriarca, Colicci became frustrated and angry. He wrote a letter that demeaned Patriarca calling him some vile names which caused one person to write, “He might as well have penned his own obituary.” It was common knowledge Patriarca did not take insults too well, especially from low level soldiers in his own family.
Colicci was eventually released from Cranston. After his release, he continued his television and air conditioning scam in the Boston area. For Patriarca, often referred to as “The Man,” Colicci’s business dealings in Massachusetts made for an ideal situation to revenge the insults. He arranged for his Boston underlings to remove Colicci for his indiscretions. As for Bisesi, seems like he just had horrible timing and judgment. He was with the wrong guy at the wrong time.
Similar to the guy with Brian Halloran.