PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Gerald Tillinghast, a mob enforcer in Rhode Island who spent nearly three decades in prison for the 1978 killing of a loan shark and was suspected of other crimes, has died.
Tillinghast died Monday in hospice care surrounded by his family, according to his obituary posted by the Nardolillo Funeral Home in Cranston. He was 75.
Tillinghast had been an enforcer for the Patriarca crime family in the 1960s and 1970s, The Providence Journal reported.
He and his older brother were arrested for killing mob loan shark George Basmajian in 1978.
He was also a suspect, along with several other people, in the theft of millions of dollars’ worth of valuables during the Bonded Vault heist in Providence in 1975, but he was acquitted of all charges.
Joe Broadmeadow, a retired East Providence police captain who coauthored a book with Tillinghast, called him the “last of the real wiseguys.”
“Jerry Tillinghast was an enigma,” Broadmeadow told WPRI-TV. “He could be charming and witty but there was, always, an edge. He is certainly one of the most memorable people I ever met.”
Tillinghast was paroled in 2007 and expressed remorse.
“Crime don’t pay. You lose everything you had going for you,” he said in a 2018 interview with WJAR-TV. “Then you have to think to yourself — when you’re in that cell counting the bricks on the wall — how’d this happen? Was it worth it?”
Tillinghast grew up in South Providence and served in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. Survivors include five children, 18 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
“Jerry was the best dad, brother, grandfather, uncle and friend. He showed every person in his life so much love and appreciation and we are forever grateful. We love and will miss him terribly,” his family said in a statement.
Funeral services are private.
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