Overview:
The longest-serving officer in the Providence Police Department worked his last shift this past Saturday.
You see a lot of things in 43 years as a patrolman with the Providence Police Department. But one thing that Officer Frank Moody did not expect to find was a tryst between two members of rival gangs at an out of the way eatery in a plush part of the East Side.
“You talk about Romeo and Juliet and the Capulets and Montagues,” Moody said. “I caught a guy and his girlfriend having breakfast at The Butcher Shop one day. We saw the car, we saw them, and I walked in and go, ‘what are you doing here?’”
The male gang member had a lengthy rap sheet, but he was more concerned about the possible exposure of his forbidden relationship.
“The guy said, ‘you’re not going to say anything?’” Moody recalled. “‘No, but you realize you are walking a fine line?’ And I walked out and I said to the other guys, I said, you can not make this up. This is Shakespeare.”
Patrolman Moody has witnessed the drama of city life, a blend of tragedy and comedy, since joining the Providence department in October 1980.
He’s ending his hitch since he is 65, the mandatory retirement age. Moody’s long career gives him perspective on some of the dramatic changes in the city over time.
Back in 1990, he was credited with unraveling a plot to kidnap Blaise Marfeo, a Mob associate who ran an East Side restaurant, Adesso.
It was part of a clash between Providence and Boston factions of La Cosa Nostra. The attempted kidnapping of the bookmaker came around the time of an attempted hit on Frank “Cadillac Frank” Salemme north of Boston.
“Salemme had been shot up in Saugus,” Moody said.
“Outside the IHOP,” noted a reporter.
“Yep, and there were a lot of guys turning up dead during that time frame. So it was a violent time frame.”
Violent crime has trended down in Providence since the waning of the crack epidemic in the ’90s
But Patrolman Moody has seen up close how cross-town gang battles in Providence have devastated generations of a small group of families.
During a ride around the city, he pointed to a section of graves in the Old North Burial Ground, located off North Main Street.
“I’m going take you up here, we call it murderers’ row, right up in here, a lot of young kids, both sides, gunslingers, right in here,” he said. “You see the names and it’s about four, five families that are always prevalent. And when I lock up the great-grandchildren of people that I arrested when I first came on, you’re like, really? It’s sad.”
Moody grew up on the East Side and while he’s had a variety of different roles with the Providence department over time, he’s been assigned there for long stretches.
He marveled at how Ives Street in Fox Point, once a hub for street-level drug sales, has changed for the better.
“To see this how it is now, it’s like night and day,” Moody said, “it’s completely changed. Now you’ve got you can buy an electrical bicycle down here! You’ve got all these great restaurants. You’ve got Thai, hamburgers, Mexican. If you told me that was going to happen in 1989, I would have said, no way, nope.”
On the whole, Moody believes Providence has improved since he signed on in 1980, although guns are more common, fentanyl has added to the threat posed by drugs, and appreciation for the job done by police is sometimes a hard sell. That wasn’t the case at City Hall the other day, where Moody received a citation from Providence Mayor Brett Smiley.
“We’re so grateful for your service to our city,” Smiley said, “and there are not a lot of officers who make it to the mandatory retirement age and the fact that you’re going a little bit kicking and screaming is a testament to your commitment to the job.”
“I looked at the young guys yesterday,” Moody responded. “It’s time, it’s time.”
“As my neighborhood police officer, I am personally grateful,” Smiley said, handing congratulatory cigars to the retiring officer. “I remember when we had the attempted smash and grab at our house. You were the officer who responded, long before I got elected to anything. The whole East Side, I think, knows you well and trusts that you’re looking out for us.”
It was Moody’s first visit to City Hall since he helped capture an escaped killer from Oregon in 1998 — and got short shrift from then-Mayor Buddy Cianci during a news conference called to celebrate the bust.
Moody gave Cianci some of the credit for improving the city, but also wondered how much more he might have done had he not been corrupt. Cianci once tapped Moody on the shoulder while he was arresting an assault suspect near PPAC.
“And I’ve got one handcuff on the suspect, and he goes, ‘Salute me!’ I’m going, ‘you’re a military guy’ — he’s a former MP — ‘what are you doing?’
Cianci responded, “Salute me right now!”
“So finally I switch hands and I render the salute,” Moody recalled, resulting in a standoff of sorts.
Moody has dealt with worse things than an imperious mayor. He’s faced suicidal people, been cut on the job and was part of an intense 15-minute gun battle in 2022 that caused so much hearing damage that he has to use hearing aids.
“Um, yeah, you’ve seen a lot,” said Moody, who credits a love of camping and the outdoors with helping him to maintain perspective. “It does change us. There’s no way it’s not going to affect us and our views, but our humanity sets us apart from the criminal element. It’s what keeps us grounded. You can’t lose your humanity, your compassion for people.”
Moody served under 10 different chiefs. With his retirement, the most senior officer in Providence is now Maj. David Lapatin.
After working his last shift, Moody planned to take a few days off and then begin a new part-time job. He’s going to work for the Connecticut-based gun maker, Colt Manufacturing.
Political reporter Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis@thepublicsradio.org.
