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THE HEADLINE OF TUESDAY morning’s Herald read, “GAMBLER SLAIN, CARDELLA NEAR DEATH IN BAR SHOOTING.” The story took up a large section of the front page and continued inside on page six. Nate Cohen’s column was full of accounts and descriptions from different people in the bar at the time of the incident. The basic facts, as summarized, were these:

Rico (Richie) Cardella entered the establishment, a place he frequented once or twice a week, at about ten minutes before seven o’clock in the evening. He told the proprietor, Felipe Gonsalez, age 51, who goes under the name of Chi-Chi, that he was expecting a couple of friends shortly and wanted a booth when they arrived. Cardella sat down at the bar and ordered a light beer. About half an hour later, Gonsalez and several patrons heard Al Niro, age 41, shout to Cardella from the back of the establishment that he had a telephone call.

Niro was a bookie who took bets only on football games. He occupied the same booth five nights a week, Thursday through Monday, from about six to nine o’clock. On Thursday and Friday nights, most of his incoming action was for the Saturday college games. The professional contests played on Sunday kept him busy with gamblers on Saturday night. He spent the other two nights handling whatever business there was for the Monday night NFL games.

Niro made himself a regular in the bar and grille in late July when the professional exhibition season started. He always had a drink up front at the bar before leaving for the night, and asked Gonsalez to call a taxi for him when he was ready to go. Niro often told others he befriended there that business was good and that he liked operating on his own. He suspected that his activity didn’t please the professionals on Federal Hill, but figured they had enough work to keep them busy without getting overly concerned about him.

Just after Cardella got up to take his phone call, Gonsalez got a quick glimpse of a white male who just then entered the establishment. He was about thirty years old, slim, and no more than five feet, ten inches tall. The individual walked past the bar area toward the rear of the building at a quick pace. His right hand was moving around his head and face, making it difficult for Gonsalez to see his features when he glanced in that direction for a moment. The proprietor’s immediate thought was that the individual seemed to be in a hurry to get to the men’s room in back.

Other patrons sitting in the booths along the way were equally at a loss to describe the killer in much detail. They agreed that he moved past them quickly and used his hand and arm to hide his face, although not in an obvious manner. All concurred that he was wearing a black polo shirt with gray slacks and had on an unzippered tri-colored (black/blue/green) windbreaker.

Raymond McHugh, age 47, was sitting in the booth ahead of Niro’s. He came in a half hour earlier with his wife, Elizabeth, who was in the ladies room when the shooting took place. McHugh was facing the front of the bar and looked up from his newspaper for an instant as the killer hurried by. A second later he heard the words, “We warned you,” spoken behind him. That was followed by two muffled sounds. He looked around in time to see the assailant point his gun at Cardella and fire a single shot. Cardella started to reach for his chest, but then fell to the floor. McHugh threw himself down on his seat. Seconds passed before he heard some of the customers shouting and running toward the rear of the building. When he looked up again, the killer was gone and the door in back was closing.

Mary Bennett, a City Hall employee who did some shopping in town after work, was at Chi-Chi’s for dinner. She heard some noise in the rear from her booth and saw Cardella fall down. She hesitated momentarily, thinking he might be drunk, and watched as the killer pushed open the rear door of the establishment and ran out. As she began to get up from her seat, several male patrons ran past her toward Cardella. She followed and saw Niro slumped down in the booth, blood running over his face.

One of the men, Bok Lee, age 28, stopped briefly to look at Cardella before exiting the rear door. He saw a dark colored automobile moving very fast down the alley, toward Weybosset Street. Lee did not wait to see which way it turned when it got there. He dialed 911 from the telephone Cardella was using and informed the police of what just occurred. Gonsalez was in the act of calling the police on another 911 line at the same time.

Police cruisers and several ambulances arrived at Chi-Chi’s within minutes of being notified. Niro was examined and pronounced dead at the scene. Paramedics worked on Cardella about ten minutes, attempting to stanch the flow of blood and giving him oxygen before rushing him to Miriam Hospital. The emergency room there was alerted to his imminent arrival. As of midnight, doctors at the hospital would say only that Cardella’s condition was extremely grave, and he was still in the intensive care unit. As yet, no one has described the extent of the injuries inflicted on him by the gunshot.

Cohen’s column raised the strong probability that Niro was slain as a result of his bookmaking activities. “Everyone knows that the Tarantino family has a stranglehold on gambling in Providence and most of Rhode Island,” it read. “It remains for the police to find out whether or not the order for Niro’s murder came from Federal Hill.”

Cohen indicated that everyone in Chi-Chi’s at the time was being questioned to see if they could come up with a more complete description of the assailant. His final comments referred to “Cardella’s bad luck in having been called to the telephone just before the executioner passed through the bar, intent on ending Niro’s life.”