LAW AND ORDER
Q & A : Brendan Doherty
A look back at the former Rhode Island State Police superintendent and detective ’ s career during the mob heydays . BY JAMIE COELHO
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF BRENDAN DOHERTY .
A FORMER DETECTIVE FOR THE RHODE ISLAND STATE POLICE , Brendan Doherty spent years investigating organized crime in Rhode Island . He joined the Rhode Island State Police ranks at age twenty-one , and later went on to become superintendent in 2007 . Long after retiring from the police force , he published a book in 2019 , It ’ s Just the Way It Was : Inside the War on the New England Mob and Other Stories . In this interview , he says he regretted declining participation in the Crimetown podcast , but included many stories from the time in his book .
Doherty ( right ) walking with mob associate Rudolph Sciarra while working undercover .
How did you first get interested in investigating organized crime ? In college , I was involved in boxing , and I wanted to turn pro . Every gym that I would go to , there ’ d be wise guys there , and I fought some of them . There was a mutual respect . I might get in the ring with a guy who did prison time , and he knew who I was , and that I had an interest in the state police , and yet there were no grudges . You just did what you had to do in the ring .
What was it like to be a detective during the height of organized crime in Providence ? When I was a young detective in the organized crime unit [ in the 1980s and ’ 90s ], criminal conspirators were still around from the ’ 60s and ’ 70s that were shaking down bars and nightclubs . You had to understand why some of these factions and relationships existed , who took care of who , or who maybe testified in the trial for someone . So I became a historian on knowing who ’ s who of the major players . When I first started , Raymond L . S . Patriarca , the father , was a strong figure nationwide , and contrary to popular belief , his son , Raymond Jr ., was a lot stronger than some people gave him credit for . He inherited a mob family and society was changing .
Why do you think these men were drawn to a life of organized crime ? I was a boxer in Central Falls , Rhode Island , and this kid came into the gym . I fought him as a kid . His name is Bobby Wallason . Wallason actually spells it out pretty well in Crimetown when he talked about what being a
70 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I MARCH 2025