WOONSOCKET, R.I. -- An alleged bigamist was ordered held Saturday on charges he tried to murder one wife with a car bomb so he could move in with his 20-year-old second spouse and avoid divorce proceedings, police said.
Ronald M. Harnois, 40, of Woonsocket, was ordered held on $50,000 cash after his arraignment at the city police station on a charge of assault with intent to murder his wife of 6 years, Joanne Harnois, 36.
Harnois was arraigned before a bail commissioner on two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, bigamy, and filing a false document, police said.
The second wife, Tammy Petrin of Woonsocket, allegedly conspired in the plot to kill Joanne Harnois. She was released on $1,000 cash bail and was said to be helping police with their case.
'She is a cooperating defendant at this point,' police Cmdr. Rodney Remblad said.
Remblad said Petrin, an assembly line worker, and her husband's first wife, a waitress, had been friends for about a year before the failed bombing attempt Wednesday night. The two sometimes went bowling and fishing together, he said.
According to police, Ronald Harnois, who drives a truck for a pizza company, married Petrin in May 1989 without telling her he was already married and without letting his first wife know of his second relationship.
Petrin found out two months after her marriage in district court that her new husband had a previous wife, but Joanne Harnois did not know her husband was a bigamist until police arrested him Friday, Remblad said.
'She was sobbing,' the commander said. 'She was upset. I would describe her as being depressed. She is totally out of it.'
Ronald Harnois allegedly strapped a device consisting of six half-foot pipe bombs to the undercarriage of his wife Joanne's Chevrolet Cavalier hatchback. The bombs were designed to explode in a chain reaction and ignite the gas tank, Remblad said.
But only one of the bombs went off around 11 p.m. Wednesday as Harnois was driving to nearby Millville, Mass., to pick up her husband, Remblad said.
The blast ripped numerous holes in the gas tank, flattened the right rear tire, and smashed some nearby plate-glass windows. Harnois escaped injury and ran to call police.
Police arrested Ronald Harnois and Petrin late Friday afternoon as they were walking together. Harnois wanted to kill Joanne Harnois so he could avoid divorce proceedings and live with Petrin, Remblad said.
