Change Emerging from Tragedy

Because we learn

Scott Monty

Apr 16, 2021

∙ Paid

*The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16th October, 1834* by Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1834 or 1835 (public domain - Google Art Project, CC 1.0 Universal)

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“Calamities are of two kinds: misfortune to ourselves, and good fortune to others.” — Ambrose Bierce, 1906

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When you put a lawyer in charge of an establishment—a good lawyer—you’d expect that everything would happen according to the law.

But that’s not how things ran at Barney Welansky’s place.

Barney was a lawyer, alright. But he was a lawyer for Charles Solomon, also known as “Boston Charlie,” one of Boston’s gangland leaders. Charlie was a Russian-born mob boss who controlled Boston’s bootlegging, narcotics, and illegal gambling during the Prohibition era.

Charlie was a big shot, and so was Barney, by association. So when Solomon was gunned down in the men’s room of the Cotton Club in Roxbury, ownership of Charlie’s supper club passed to Barney.

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As the new owner, Barney wanted to class up the joint. Privately, he was…

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