EP 54 | The Lasting Legacy Of The Coconut Grove Fire, Boston, Massachusetts

Crime is history and sometimes history is crime. One single event changed the course of history. In 1942, the world was in the throes of the Second World War. The Great Depression created a kind of desperation Americans hadn’t seen and men and boys were shipping out by the droves.

Two historic events intersected on Saturday, November 28, 1942, Holy Cross and Boston College played before 41,000 college football fans at Fenway Park. Underdogs Holy Cross destroyed any hopes of The Eagles going to the Sugar Bowl or any other bowl, taking the undefeated team down, 55-12. BC staff and players were so dazed by what happened, they canceled their planned celebration at the famed Cocoanut Grove. They would not know what hand fate dealt them that night. 

That night, the nightclub - almost double its legal capacity - went up in flames. The Cocoanut Grove was a tinderbox, given the flagrant negligence of its owner, Barnett “Barney” Welansky, self-proclaimed pal of the mob and local politicians, including Mayor Maurice J. Tobin, cut corners and ignored common sense public safety. Four hundred and ninety-two* people died as a result of the Cocoanut Grove Fire. It was due to absolute negligence by the club owner but, today, 81 years later, the actual cause of the fire remains undetermined. Boston hospitals were overwhelmed by the rate at which the injured were arriving. Doctors and nurses and medical professions were pushed to the brink on how to effectively care for the gravely injured. There is a sliver of a silver lining, a quote from Professor Barbara Poremba’s recent article in The Salem (Mass) News and a member of the Cocoanut Grove Memorial Committee.

We say let no one die in vain. That’s difficult given that so many of the casualties were young people just beginning their adult lives, but what emerged from the ashes of the Coconut Grove Fire revolutionized medical treatments for treating burn victims and people affected by this kind of trauma. Sweeping changes to building codes and safety regulations came as a direct result of the massive loss of life at Cocoanut Grove. 

The 2021 documentary, Six Locked Doors, takes us inside the events of that night, accounts from survivors, and the people who played a role in the worst nightclub fire in US history.

*according to the The Cocoanut Grove Memorial Committee, 490 people died in the fire.

Crime of the Truest Kind
Created, written and hosted by Anngelle Wood

Transcript

Anngelle Wood: 0:00

Well, hello, my name is Anngelle Wood and this is Crime of the Truest Kind. Well, I am feeling better. My entire house has been sick, including some of the dogs, so it has been a slow crawl back. I'm here and I'm proud to share this new episode with you. Crime of the Truest Kind is about New England, crime stories and history the things that happen here. Crime is history and sometimes history is crime. This episode will be history- heavy.

Anngelle Wood: 0:54

I really dug into the times the 20s and the 40s and learned quite a lot on that trip. I do break down the historic fire at Coconut Grove and the mysteries that surround it, the eerie coincidences related to that disaster and what it was like during that time, the Great Depression, World War II, gangsters and I gave myself quite a history lesson. So if you are like me and you like that, stay with me. This is episode 54. The Lasting Legacy of Coconut Grove, Boston, Massachusetts. There's something that resonates with me and people like me those of us who spend time in music venues. The Station Fire in 2003 in West Warwick, Rhode Island, was catastrophic for its ferocity, its negligence, its unfathomable loss and how it affected a community and the entire state of Rhode Island. I've shared my story about that, how I was on morning radio heard through New England and in Rhode Island on what was known as the FNX Radio Network, while we had staff in Providence and were very scared that some of our own coworkers were at that show that night. You can listen to the episodes I did about the Station and the people involved in Episodes 11, 12, 13. Another massive fire in our history is the story of the Worcester Cold Storage Fire on December 3, 1999. While different in how it happened, but no less tragic and no less impactful on the Worcester community, those six firefighters should be here today doing the job they loved or being retired, enjoying their grandkids or living in Florida. Everybody in Massachusetts wants to move to Florida. 81 years ago, the city of Boston was visited by the worst fire disaster of our time, recognized as the largest loss of life in any nightclub in history. A solemn distinction, a catastrophe of epic proportions. It is known as the Coconut Grove Fire of 1942. I watched the documentary Six Lock Doors about the Coconut Grove Fire. It captures the stories of survivors, many of whom have since passed away, and it is definitely recommended viewing.

Anngelle Wood: 3:51

It was Saturday, November 28th, Thanksgiving weekend. It was a big day at Fenway Park where college football rivals Holy Cross and Boston College were facing off. Boston College came into that matchup against Holy Cross undefeated. With that kind of record. The Eagles were ready to pack their bags for the sugar ball. Before that final week of the 1942 regular season, the Midwinter Sports Association had its sights on Boston College and either Georgia Tech or Georgia, the best two teams in the Southeast Conference. It was one for the books Seeing.

Anngelle Wood: 4:34

Another measure of mystery would seal the state in the annals of time. The cover of that program for that November 28, 1942, BC versus Holy Cross game showed a photo of the two team captains Holy Cross's captain, wore number 55. The BC captain, wore Number 12. That game would go down as one of the biggest upsets in college sports history as Holy Cross crushed BC 55 to 12. Eerily, those team captains unwittingly predicted that momentous end. They got, as we like to say, their asses handed to them. The Boston Globe's, Jerry Nason, wrote on November 29, 1942, an awesome Holy Cross team drove the previously unbeaten Eagles right into the sea, hammered them unmercifully throughout the action and ran up the incredible score of 55-12 on a team that had one foot in the sugar bowl two hours earlier. It was a colossal reversal of form and it wasn't encumbered by any fluke or any miscarriage of justice, of any pranks of fate. The young men from Worcester simply left the wreckage of the Boston College line all over Fenway Park and in the midst of the debris left only one glittering, dauntless, daring figure of a man Mike Holovak. A sellout crowd of 41,300 saw Holy Cross completely obliterate any chance at all of the Eagles going to the sugar or any other bowl by scoring in the first five minutes of play, piling up a 20-6 lead at halftime and quickly amend a fourth and fifth touchdown after intermission. Stunned Eagle fans had already been planning their trip to New Orleans for the sugar bowl. It would not be. Boston College's scheduled victory celebration at the famed Coconut Grove that evening was canceled. Sufficiently dazed by their epic loss, they would not know what fate dealt them that night, not at the time. That historic upset and the incredible triumph of Underdog's Holy Cross probably saved the lives of the BC Eagles who would have attended.

Anngelle Wood: 7:17

That Saturday was a pretty chill day at the Charlestown Navy Yard. The National Archives called it uneventful. In the duty log, 19 ships were birthed or moored at the Charlestown Navy Yard or at nearby auxiliary piers along Boston Harbor. The officers performing periodic controls took note of the vessels that navigated in and out of the yard and the South Boston Naval Annex throughout that calm late November day, activity not uncommon for this facility which produced and repaired numerous ships for use during World War II. Thousands of men labored inside those ships.

Anngelle Wood: 8:02

They were riddled with asbestos. U. S. Naval vessels prior to 1980 were covered in it. Exposure caused many veterans to later develop mesothelioma and many other serious conditions. The Navy used the toxic mineral because of its affordability and its strength and resistance to heat and chemical damage. Asbestos was good insulation, fireproofing and building material and the Navy used it in nearly every part of each ship, from bow to stern. Then maybe you're saying to yourself "who gives a shit? I do, I give a shit. These men got sick working for the United States Navy. Many suffered and died as a result. Do any search for asbestos and Navy ships you're going to get a lot of Jim Sokoloves. They built more than 200 and repaired thousands more over the Charlestown Navy Yard's 174- year history.

Anngelle Wood: 9:07

Dry dock one helps make this work possible. Built in 1833, one of the first in the country, it provided a dry area to build and repair ships the building that now houses the U. S. S. Constitution Museum, which you can visit and explore the history of old iron sides. Put it on your trouble itinerary. The building it is in once contained huge steam powered pumps that move seawater in and out of the Grand Dry Dock. Today, workers still use Dry Dock number one to repair the U. S. S. Constitution and the USS Cassin Young. That ship was built in 1943 in San Pedro, california, and it is one of 175 Fletcher class destroyers built during World War II. Here in Charlestown, the Navy Yard built dozens of similar ships during the war and then in the 1950s, Cassin Young and many other destroyers received regular repairs and modernization in Charlestown. I worked in the Charlestown Navy Yard. No, I didn't fix ships, and it had become far more bougie by then.

Anngelle Wood: 10:20

Nomar Garcia parra, Red Sox Shortstop, number five. He had a condo there. He kept it a while, even after he was traded to the Cubs in 2004. With the following year, November 2005, nomar and his Uncle Victor saved two women who'd fallen into the Boston Harbor. One night, one woman fell. Nomar saw her and ran to help. Then a second woman fell, bumping her head. Uncle Victor jumped from the balcony of their condo into the water 20 feet below, one of those women had a very large bump on her head and appeared to be unconscious for a moment. But when she came to, do you know what the first thing she said was, "Are you Nomar? Now, this has nothing to do with Cocoanut Grove, but I do love to tell you Boston stories when I have them.

Anngelle Wood: 11:14

The men of the Navy Yard would be a part of history. On that November night, once the magnitude of this fire was realized, an urgent call for help was issued. Navy Army, Coast Guard, National Guard personnel all called to assist in the evacuation and removal of the injured. It was nearly a year after the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7th 1941. And newspaper headlines were routinely full of news of the war in Europe and what was going on in the Pacific. And the war was raging. It would go on for another three years, finally concluding in September 1945. But that night, November 28th 1942 would also go down in history. Despite the outcome of the BC - Holy Cross game, it was Thanksgiving weekend and many servicemen were looking forward to letting loose and forgetting about work for a while. Dinner, drinks, dancing that was on their docket. In Boston, the place to be and be seen was the famous Cocoanut Grove nightclub.

Anngelle Wood: 12:22

Cocoanut Grove opened in 1927, two years before the start of the Great Depression. The roaring twenties were loudest on the New York Stock Exchange. Share prices rose to unprecedented heights. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shot from 63 in August 1921 to 381 in September of 1929. A series of disastrous events would follow. On what is forever known as Black Monday, October 28th, 1929, The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped almost 13% and continued to plummet. Federal Reserve leaders didn't agree on how to respond.

Anngelle Wood: 13:06

The US appeared to be headed for economic recovery following that Stock Market crash of 1929, until a series of bank panics in the fall of 1930 turned that recovery into the beginning of the Great Depression. By March 1933, the commercial banking system had collapsed. President Roosevelt, who had just taken the oath of office after beating Hoover, winning largely because of Hoover's handling of the economy, Roosevelt declared a National Banking Holiday. For an entire week, beginning March 6, 1933, all banking transactions were suspended in an effort to stem bank failures and ultimately restore confidence in the financial system. What it also meant is that Americans couldn't access their money in the banks. They couldn't withdraw any, they couldn't transfer any, they couldn't deposit any. We've heard those stories of old timers stuffing their money in their mattress. Well, this is a reason why. Sweeping reforms would accompany the economic recovery, but not so fast. We got hit again , a double- dip recession, a re-recession, in 1937. We saw something in 2008 that made our financial institutions nervous and brought out the economists and the historians to recall similarities between the recession of 2008 and the Great Depression, with special interest in that recession within a recession.

Anngelle Wood: 14:40

Now, what could the new president do that could aid in this financial meltdown? What do people consume that could ramp up some sweet tax revenue? Well, in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt made a campaign promise. They all do. We've heard them. One famous one, " read my lips no new taxes. And I cannot do a George Bush imitation, and I'm very sorry. President George Herbert Walker Bush, the dad, said that at the Republican National Convention in 1988 when he accepted the nomination. President Bush, by the way, born in Milton, Massachusetts. M any of the Bushes are New Englanders, really. Anyway, this isn't about the Bushes or politics, but the elder Bush would lose a second term to Bill Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, where some would say His no new taxes promise got left on the cutting room floor, so to speak. Roosevelt pledged to legalize alcohol on the campaign trail.

Anngelle Wood: 15:43

Roosevelt's was elected in a landslide, winning both the electoral vote and the popular vote with 57% to Hoover's 39%. Hoover was pretty much booed out of town. Many believe he did not do enough to pull the US out of the Great Depression. In fact, homeless encampments were called Hoovervilles , and the Hoover blanket? Well, it was an old newspaper or cardboard used by a homeless person for warps. Oh, it was cruel, no doubt.

Anngelle Wood: 16:16

President Roosevelt was inaugurated on March 6, 1933, after dealing with the banking crisis and the budget during the first week on the job, and then on March 13, he called on Congress to repeal Prohibition. On March 23, he signed the Cullen- Harrison Act, which amended the Volstead Act permitting the manufacturing and sale of low alcohol beers and wines anything up to 3.2% alcohol by volume. On December 5, 1933, the 21st Amendment was ratified, overturning the 18th Amendment that prohibited the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors. Interestingly though, the Amendment didn't specifically outlaw the consumption of alcohol, though prohibition was in effect designed to reduce drinking by eliminating the businesses that manufactured, distributed and sold alcohol. The 18th Amendment to the US Constitution took away license to do business from the brewers, distillers, vintners and the wholesale and retail sellers of alcoholic beverages. Over time, prohibition would make criminals out of a lot of regular people.

Anngelle Wood: 17:35

The leaders of the Prohibition movement were alarmed at the drinking behavior of Americans and they were concerned that the culture of drinking would spread. And Prohibition wasn't the success that the Anti-Saloon League or the Women's Christian Temperance Union had hoped. Women were strongly behind the movement. Alcohol was seen as the home wrecker of homewreckers, the destroyer of marriages and families, and men would belly up to the bar, spend their paychecks and leave nothing for their wife and children. While it was largely a product of Christian organizations like those I just mentioned, e vidently data has shown that Americans drank a bit less during those roaring 20s, though I have to ask how would they really know? The liquor trade just went underground to secret tea rooms and speakeasies. There were about 200,000 illegal bars in operation by 1933 selling moonshine.

Anngelle Wood: 18:29

Moonshine was alcohol produced illegally. Think of it as in liquid liquid form. Most of it was just rot gut stuff, jackass brandy, that caused internal bleeding, and the bootleg alcohol was brought in from Canada or South America. As crime grew, rackets and hustles had some banner years. Bootlegging blew up, rum running was a career and gangland characters like Al Capone lived large off the illegal production and sale of alcohol. That kind of gang activity led to more violence, brutality like that of the infamous St Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago where, on February 14, 1929, seven men were lined up against the wall in a Northside garage and executed. Five known members of George "Buggs Moran's gang, one associate and a garage worker, were killed. The hit was allegedly ordered by rival boss Al Capone, who was working remotely from his Florida home at the time. It is believed that the multiple murder was revenge for the Northside Gang appropriating some Canadian whiskey that Capone's gang was running down the Detroit River.

Anngelle Wood: 19:44

According to the book Rum Running in the Roaring 20s: Prohibition On The Michigan-Ontario Waterway by Philip Parker Mason, despite some of their best efforts, feds and local patrols seized an estimated 5% of smuggled booze. It was some real Elliot Ness shit. It all seems really absurd today that there were shootouts over some shitty brown liquor when it's now sold next to the chips and the dips in the store. It's not unlike the absurdity I feel when people are still in jail for selling pot, when cannabis dispensaries are now the new frozen yogurt shop. Prohibition came to an end in late 1933 because of the depression, because of the desire to tax the shit out of it and in an attempt to curb the violent crime that had generated over the 13 years.

Anngelle Wood: 20:39

The Coconut Grove opened on October 27, 1927. In the Bay Village neighborhood of Boston, it would eventually spread across three buildings, a city block wide, resting snugly among Broad, Shawmut, and Piedmont streets. The initial venture was a partnership between two band leaders Milton "Mickey Alpert and Jacques Renard. Alpert had the idea of a stylish nightclub for the city. They could press a button and the ceiling opens, revealing the moonlight above. Coconut Grove was called the jewel among the supper clubs, alpert and Renard, with interest from financier Jack Berman that was a pseudonym to cover his very shady past. They planned to take vacant space that had been a garage in a film repository near the Boston Common and turned it into a respectable establishment with top-level entertainment. Berman was to offer unlimited funding. Supposedly no expense was to be spared. Berman is also the one who recommended the name after the famed Coconut Grove nightclub at Los Angeles's Ambassador Hotel. The Ambassador Hotel would go down in history many years later when Robert Kennedy was assassinated there on June 5, 1968.

Anngelle Wood: 21:54

On the surface, it would seem that Jack Berman was very instrumental in establishing Coconut Grove. But what he really wanted to do was launder money through the club and he would soon disappear, leaving Alpert and Renard to fund the club on their own. They were left told in the entire bag. They did make a go of it, but the challenges of prohibition and their inexperience made it impossible to fly right and turn a profit. Facing bankruptcy, they turned the club over to Charles "King Solomon in 1931 for a reported $10,000, a steal seeing that that is the equivalent of just over $200,000 today.

Anngelle Wood: 22:36

Charles Solomon, born of the Russian Empire in 1884, now HE was Hollywood gangster, white suits, real beaut. He was called the King of Dope in some reports of the time. Resettling in Boston as a child, he was deep into a life of crime by his early 20s Fencing, stolen goods, prostitution, drugs. He was a bootlegger, built a speakeasy empire and controlled gambling in New England. He did skirt an narcotics charge in 1922, but served 13 months of a five year sentence in Atlanta for witness tampering in his drug trial. He was a man always looking over his shoulder. He would bolt doors closed to prevent customers from leaving without paying. Eldine and Dash the old June screw. He was also playing dirty, so the idea of limiting entry and exit might save him from being ambushed by rival thugs. Oh, and he was room running and he had a great deal of product at the Grove to show for it.

Anngelle Wood: 23:37

His involvement was short-lived, though. On the night of January 24th 1933, he left the Grove pulling $4,600 in cash from the till and headed to the Cotton Club on Tremont Street. There he partied with some dancers into the morning hours. When he got up to use the bathroom, men followed him in. Witnesses say they heard an argument about a double cross. And no good rat, does it get more Boston than that? It actually does. Hang on.

Anngelle Wood: 24:06

A second Boston Charlie, as he is sometimes referenced, was heard saying something like you got my role, now what do you want? That lore continued with Boston Charlie staggering out of the bathroom bleeding from three bullet holes. The rats got me, he said. He was rushed to Boston City Hospital where he died. With his last breath he cursed his killers, those dirty rats Killers. He didn't snitch on, by the way, he's no rat. And that $4,600 was never found on him after he died. He had 80 cents, a diamond ring and an uncashed check for 14 bucks in his pocket. His occupation was listed as theater owner In his age 46. 3,000 people attended his wake at his home in Brookline, massachusetts.

Anngelle Wood: 24:57

One Boston Globe reporter described the scene as cops, reporters, photographers, lawyers, actresses, small fry racketeers and little Caesars of Gangland, who all kept their right hands in their right hand pockets and answered questions with the word, " scram. I don't know, that's just so funny. The murderers, they would be caught. Police found the getaway car 10 days later, abandoned in the woods in Foxboro, Mass. That's where Gillette Stadium is. It's where the Patriots used to win games.

Anngelle Wood: 25:30

Three of the men were acquitted. One, an ex-con, James "Keats Coyne, who had worked at the Cotton Club as a doorman, was tracked down in Indiana. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and robbery and got 10 to 20 years in prison. Another man, James Scully, a jury convicted him of robbing Solomon the night of his murder. He got 16 to 20. I'll be right back.

Anngelle Wood: 25:55

Please support Crime of the Truest Kind, and there are a number of ways to do so. Listen to the show, tell your friends about it, share it on social media, leave a five- star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Go to the merch store, buy some merch, drop a tip in the jar, give the dogs a bone. Really, my dogs are obsessed, become a patron on Patreon with four tiers starting at just $1. All links at crimeofthetruestkindcom.

Anngelle Wood: 26:27

Upon Solomon's death, ownership was passed to his lawyer, Barnett "Barney Walansky. Solomon's wife gave him the club in lieu of attorney fees. Welansky had a more traditional image for the club and expanded the property. He added the Melody Lounge, the Caricature Bar, and managed to transform its image from a Gangland Speakeasy to a reputable establishment for family celebrations and political fundraisers. He played up that tiki- style decor and pulled in more mainstream acts to play, and he brought in Mickey Alpert as the club's emcee and entertainer.

Anngelle Wood: 27:08

Welansky cut a lot of corners, hiring underage kids for low wage work and unlicensed servicemen for repairs. His idea of running a tight ship was to continue the Boston Charlie tradition of locking viable means of egress, concealing doors and windows, obstructing emergency exits. They all had a real preoccupation for patrons leaving without paying. He created the perception of a legitimate business, but he often bragged about his mob ties and his connection to Boston Mayor Maurice Tobin. So the coconut grove was a popular hunt with its glitz and glamour sought out by the city's elite. Its posh interior carpeting that made patrons feel like they were walking on air blew, the lore hanging from the ceiling. But beneath the surface of that feigned respectability, walansky ran a ship business, ignoring safety codes, hiring children Labor laws were very different in 1942, and going on the cheap wherever possible. The fake plastic palm trees that lined the venue. They were made of highly flammable materials, canopies made of cheap cloth hung from the ceiling to create a feeling of ambiance. In Walansky he often bragged. He didn't need to obey any codes.

Anngelle Wood: 28:40

It was a hotspot in the city social scene. The South Sea vibe and constellation painted ceilings and it had that retractable roof feature, a convertible club. How cool is that? Patrons were treated to fine food. I guess I didn't read one review on how it was finer folks and finest entertainment. It became known as a place where locals could be in the presence of famous performers or movie stars. Now I would like to say with confidence that a young Frank Sinatra played the grove in 1941, appearing with Tommy Dorsey's orchestra before he went solo. But I only read that in one place. No one else mentioned it, so maybe I don't know. Also, it could be a reference to the coconut grove at the ambassador in Los Angeles. Famous movie cowboy Buck Williams was at the grove that night.

Anngelle Wood: 29:38

He is one of the more popular topics of retelling from over the years. As the lore goes, he escaped from the fire but ran back in to rescue the injured until he collapsed on the sidewalk and was rushed to the hospital where he died a short time later. What did happen was Buck Thomas went to the club reluctantly. That night he attended a dinner in his honor, hosted by his agent, scott Dunlop, despite feeling under the weather and tired from all the promotional stops he had made while in Boston as part of the tour to promote US war bonds. He'd made a number of appearances during his time here. What did happen? He was seated among the VIPs on the terrace when fire spread rapidly through the dining room. Buck Jones was found slumped under his table, severely injured a position that plays doubt on those stories of an initial escape in any rescue efforts. He was barely alive, rushed to the hospital where he died of his injuries. Two days later His agent, scott Dunlop, who some of those rumors had Buck Jones attempting to rescue that night. Dunlop was seriously injured but he did survive.

Anngelle Wood: 30:55

Mickey Alpert sold off the burden of the Grove years before, but he would play a crucial role in the club's appeal as a premier entertainment destination. He was brought in as master of ceremonies and on stage that night, like so many nights before. Sometime after 10 o'clock, alpert, getting ready to introduce singer Billy Payne, saw a commotion breakout, a bar room brawl. Oh no, when he turned toward the lobby, it was on fire and people were scrambling to get out. In coverage of the Fire, billboard Magazine described what witnesses said about those moments. Mickey Alpert, band leader, urged the band to continue playing during the Fire and keep a semblance of order, but the panic had begun and he couldn't stop it. Alpert, the bands and the chorus girls escaped through a basement exit. They got to safety only because they were familiar with the club. It is said that Mickey Alpert went back in and helped rescue 35 patrons. He suffered severe burns to his face and hands but he survived. And singer Billy Payne, who was just about to start his performance as the Fire broke out. He is credited with saving 10 patrons that night. He helped lead them into the walk-in refrigerator in the basement near the Melody Lounge. Think of it as a really cold panic room. So what happened On that Saturday night after Thanksgiving 1942, more than 1,000 patrons packed into cocktail lounges and the dining room.

Anngelle Wood: 32:40

We know that Boston College's epic loss earlier in the day bummed the team out so badly they canceled their scheduled celebration. The club had no trouble filling those seats. Of the many revelers were servicemen. They were awaiting deployment to ship out and serve in World War II. Some were leaving the next day. People were lined up to get in and at 10 o'clock they shut the doors. No one else was led into the club.

Anngelle Wood: 33:08

Around the same time someone seated in the Melody Lounge in the club's basement unscrewed a light bulb that was in a painted cocktail shell on the wall. One of the series is that one of those servicemen was getting romantic with a lady friend and wanted to dim the light. The place was mobbed. There would be no privacy. An eyewitness shared a different story and I won't get to that. The bartender saw the bulb was out. He asked a busboy to take care of it. That busboy was 16 year old, stanley Tomozowski. It was too dark to see so he lit a match to fix that bulb. That is when eyewitnesses said they first spotted fire in a decorative fake palm tree. One woman, joyce Spector, whose account is featured in the documentary Six Locked Doors, said decorations went up like crepe paper and, to everyone's shock, the fire raced across the ceiling in the lounge, the ceiling that was covered with that blue cloth material.

Anngelle Wood: 34:13

While this is happening, the floor show is about to begin. Within eight minutes, that small flame grew, fueled by highly flammable decor, spreading up the stairs through the foyer, pulled into the caricature bar by an exhaust fan. Simultaneously, the oxygen-hungry blaze gained strength like a bed of slithering serpents conquering their prey. They move into the main dining room, first reaching the canopy covered terrace where the VIPs are seated, across the dance floor, through the passage into the new cocktail lounge in the rear of the venue, a supercharged fireball from the passage where it hits the lounge like a blow torch. Multiple guests are incinerated. Patrons are panicked. Shouts of fire, fire ring through the billowing smoke. No one can think or contemplate where to go or what to do. People are crawling on the floor to escape the smoke.

Anngelle Wood: 35:13

In this building that is double its legal capacity, it is pure chaos. And then darkness. All the lights went out. Rooms fill with acrid black smoke. In the dark, people try to leave the way they came in. Terrified, they crowd into one another. Some patrons die where they sit. The noxious air had other plans. Patrons respond and start to break into the building. On all sides, locked doors and piles of bodies in the entranceways. On Piedmont and Broadway exits hamper rescue and recovery.

Anngelle Wood: 35:59

The movement of this fire and the volume of carbon monoxide gas generated by the lack of oxygen was accelerated by the narrow width of the stairway, just four feet wide, which acted like a chimney, adding a draft of suction to the room below that narrow stairway out of the basement lounge. Bolted exits, obscured doors, windows concealed with false walls and blackout curtains inside swinging doors and the front entrance's revolving door prohibited people from reaching safety. That entryway became a death trap. The entire building was. Witnesses spoke of hearing a poof in the foyer area, a flash over. In 50 years after the disaster, a former Boston firefighters research revealed the presence of methyl chloride, a highly flammable gas used in refrigeration because of the wartime shortage of freon. It is believed, at least by this investigator, that a flash over event occurred when partially combusted gas coming up from the basement ignited when it reached the area of the foyer. It's in diagrams I'm looking at in the Journal of Light Construction magazine. This is the stuff I read now.

Anngelle Wood: 37:24

The fire was catastrophic in nature. Could it have been prevented? We don't know, because it is still unclear to this day, how it actually started, so many theories prevail. That's unbelievable, given all this time. The young bus boy was blamed initially. Stenly Tomozowski was a victim of a different kind. He, at 16, worked nine-hour shifts at the coconut grove on Fridays and Saturday nights For 247-plus tips. That's not per hour, that's a flat rate. I had to get that through my head.

Anngelle Wood: 38:03

Stanley worked to help his family. He wanted to care for his sick mother, to help his dad who was a janitor, and to buy war bonds. What is a war bond, you may be wondering, because I didn't know. A war bond is a debt instrument issued by a government as a means of borrowing money to finance its defense initiatives and military efforts during times of war. A war bond is essentially a loan to a government. Civilians worked to pay for the war. The working public would buy these bonds out of patriotic feelings or some other kind of emotion.

Anngelle Wood: 38:41

For months after the fire he was forced to stay at a hotel under police guard for his own safety. His teacher came to his defense, describing him as one of the swellest kids. He would eventually be exonerated, deemed not responsible for the flammable bamboo and raton and fake plastic trees and the safety code violations of the club. Stanley Tomazowski was still ostracized I'm not talking Bill Buckner here or someone wearing a Bill's hat and a Pat's game For more than 50 years of his life he was blamed for the fire that killed 492 people. He joined the army and he went to war. He graduated from Boston College. He married a woman named Betty and together they raised three children. He worked as a federal auditor until his retirement. Stanley Tomazowski died on October 20, 1994 in Braintree, massachusetts, at the age of 68. He was buried in the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne.

Anngelle Wood: 39:55

In 1972, stanley Tomazowski told a Boston Globe reporter that he prayed for the souls of the innocents who died. He also said he often visited their graves in Massachusetts. I've suffered enough, was spit on, called every name in the book and threatened he said Phone calls in the middle of the night. It hasn't been easy. I don't have a sense of guilt because it wasn't my fault. If I felt guilty I wouldn't be talking to you, my name would not be on the doorbell or in the telephone book. I never backed away.

Anngelle Wood: 40:34

As I continue to read and learn about the Coconut Grove fire, I am reminded of the station nightclub fire in West War, rhode Island, where, on February 20th 2003, 100 people died in a fast-moving fire, with many trapped in the doorway, like the people in that revolving door. In times of confusion and chaos, people need guidance. We lose our faculties. I think about that a lot. This should have never happened in 1942, and it should never, ever have happened in 2003. Fires happen. Math casualties like these should never. I did a three-part episode series on the station nightclub fire episode 21, 22, and 23.

Anngelle Wood: 41:25

There was a long list of code violations at Coconut Grove. Wolanski was tight with the mayor so he felt he could let it all ride, and well he did. Violations were well documented Significant overcrowding 1,000 people in a building designed for 460, blocked and locked exits, door swinging inward open flame, flammable interior finishes, the lack of exit signs and emergency lighting, blocked egress and electrical work was subpar, done by unlicensed workers. The Coconut Grove fire led to many safety changes. Building codes were amended in the city and elsewhere. Revolving doors would be outlawed but would later be reinstated, provided a revolving door is placed between two outward opening exit doors. Think about that every time you walk past a hotel, a government building, a department store. It's all because of Coconut Grove.

Anngelle Wood: 42:31

Exit doors needed to be clearly marked, be unlocked from within and free from blockage by screen straps. Furniture, business supplies. The use of non-combustible decorations and building material was ordered. Now that that's part of the station nightclub story. The soundproofing at the station nightclub was combustible. The owners of the club will argue. They were told it was fireproof. The placement of emergency lighting and sprinklers was ordered. New requirements for exit signs meant they had to be lit up at all times with independent electrical sources and be visible through thick smoke.

Anngelle Wood: 43:17

Another myth about the Coconut Grove is that the name Coconut Grove was outlawed in the city of Boston. That didn't actually happen, but no business since the fire has tried to use the name Coconut Grove, although when Bun Raddies in Austin changed hands in the early 1990s they renamed it Melody Lounge. After the Melody Lounge where a terrible mass casualty event took place, is that like naming your boat the Titanic? What's stupid? And it definitely crushed the vibe at the former Bun Raddies. That and the fact that Abel Harris was shot and killed there in 1987. I cover his story too, episode 20. What's more astounding than someone naming their music venue Melody Lounge in the city where the Worst Nightclub disaster took place is that the cause of the fire is still inconclusive. How can that be Not unlike the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013,?

Anngelle Wood: 44:24

Victims were transported to hospitals in any way possible. Taxis played a big role, cars and buses and delivery trucks. Nearly all were sent to Boston City Hospital, now the Boston Medical Center or Mass General Hospital. The latter is where another key player in the story was at the very time victims were being rushed in. I will get to that. There was a great piece I read in the Salem news by Barbara Poremba, a professor at Salem State University and a member of the Coconut Grove Memorial Committee, where she spoke about what came out of the tragedy.

Anngelle Wood: 45:01

There was some good fortune that night, as the chaos ensued and badly injured people were arriving by the droves. It was right around shift change, medical staff were scheduled to leave at 11 and the overnight staff were due to report. It would be all hands on deck. Nursing students were mobilized. Calls went out over the radio for off-duty nurses and volunteers to report. In a 75 minute period, boston City Hospital received and triaged 429 patients. 300 were dead on arrival and 129 were admitted. This volume, averaging one patient every 11 seconds, exceeded the treatment rate in London during the Blitz and is one of the highest admission rates ever recorded. Mass General Hospital received 114 victims. 75 were dead on arrival and 39 were admitted to White Six a word that was rapidly cleared for the victims. Overwhelmed by the magnitude of casualties over such a rapid period, doctors turned to new experimental procedures to try to save lives. These medical practices would go on to be used to treat thousands injured and more and more civilian victims, like those of the Hartford Circus Fire in 1944.

Anngelle Wood: 46:26

On July 6th, an afternoon performance of Ringling Brothers in Barnabon Bailey Circus before a crowd of 7,000 people turned deadly. At least 167 people were killed and over 700 were injured when a fire raged. The cause of that fire remains unknown and it is still debated whether it was accidental or arson. Significant advances were made in the treatments and nursing care of burns directly related to the coconut growth fire, like the first use of penicillin in the civilian population, improved smoke inhalation and fluid and plasma replacement treatments, and the development of specialized nursing burn units. A new understanding of survivors, guilt and grief, and treatment for what we now know as PTSD post-traumatic stress disorder that came out of the misery people had to endure, not only by the victims, but also the caregivers who witnessed the horror and the suffering. Medical professionals gained greater understanding of emergency triage. That led to advancements in disaster planning, response and management of mass casualties. In this piece she calls it a tiny sliver of a silver lining to the tragedy. It is that these many advancements have saved millions of lives, since they are a legacy to the victims of the coconut growth fire. Thank you, professor Parimba.

Anngelle Wood: 47:59

Not all victims were burned, however. Some are crushed, multiple broken bones, others are fixated by smoke and fumes. Some of their lungs were so destroyed that it killed them. Another incredible fact I learned from the documentary is this Merck Labs was testing penicillin on the troops and, by request of the medical teams treating their survivors and the call was made asking if they would release some for civilian use, penicillin was brought to Boston by state police convoy, with officers from each state police department passing from state to state under the cover of night in secret, so the Nazis would not find out about it. That is incredible. Medical teams did not know how to use it initially, but their work would go on to revolutionize burn care. One of those many medical professionals was Dr Bradford Cannon, a plastic surgeon who helped pioneer a new treatment for burns and used it on victims of the coconut growth nightclub fire. He passed away in 2005 at 98 years old.

Anngelle Wood: 49:21

By law, the coconut grove could accommodate 460 people, but on that night more than 800 patrons were dining and dancing. Among those 928 identified persons inside the club when the fire broke out, 805 were patrons and 123 were club employees, entertainers or others working in some capacity. Among that, 805, 431 were men and 374 were women. Among all 805 known patrons present when the fire broke out, 464 died and 341 survived. The median age of male patron victims was 28. The median age of female patrons was 26. Of the 26 non-patrons who died as a result of the fire, 17 were club employees, 6 were entertainers, 2 were passing rescue workers, who were not counted among the 928 inside the club, and 1. Carol Libby Cohen, aged 25, from Dorchester. She was a non-employee war bonds salesperson stationed in the club foyer.

Anngelle Wood: 50:47

On the night of the fire, the club's owner, barnett Barney Walanski, was recuperating from a heart attack he suffered 12 days earlier. He was at Massachusetts General Hospital as the staggering number of victims from his club due to his negligence were being carried in screaming in pain on the edge of death. His brother, james, was overseeing club operations that night. Due to the nature of the case, the death toll and the flagrant disregard of public safety, a grand jury indicted 10 employees, but the only person convicted was Walanski. He was sentenced to 12 to 15 years for manslaughter and sent to Charlestown State Prison. Its location is close to the current site of the Bunker Hill Community College, also known as Goodwill Hunting University. With his health failing, he had late stage cancer. Walanski was pardoned by former Boston Mayor turned Massachusetts Governor, maurice J Tobin. He had a bridge named after him. He served three and a half years of his 12 to 15 year sentence. Barnett Barney Walanski died within months of his release, on January 27, 1947. He was 49. It has been 81 years. This colossal disaster is forever ago.

Anngelle Wood: 52:23

Pearl Harbor, old Pearl Harbor, happened on December 7, 1941. Less than one year earlier. I cannot explain Pearl Harbor and its meeting to history right now, so your homework is to Google Pearl Harbor. You could, if you wanted, to Watch the 2001 film starring one Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett, directed by Michael Bay. So there's action, but it is kind of shit. I will say this it was an attack on the United States and what President Roosevelt called a date which will live in infamy. 2,402 Americans lost their lives in an early morning attack on Pearl Harbor and Hawaii. In comparison, the September 11, 2001 attacks led to 2,977 deaths, according to the 9-11 Memorial and Museum, and what came next in both were more dark days for US history.

Anngelle Wood: 53:26

In 1993, the Bay Village Neighborhood Association dedicated a plaque to memorialize the events of that night and the people lost. The bronze plaque was created by Anthony Marra, the youngest survivor of the fire, a 15-year-old bus boy at the time. It was set in the Redbrick sidewalk at the location of where the revolving door once stood. The plaque bears a schematic of the club layout, with seven palm trees, an explanation of the fire and the phrase Phoenix out of the ashes, a reference to the changes in fire codes and advances in burn treatments that occurred as a result of the fire. In 2013, the road formerly known as the Chomet Street extension next to the site of the Coconut Grove was renamed Coconut Grove Lane to honor the memory of that night.

Anngelle Wood: 54:24

In 2016, family members whose relatives were at the club that night, like Dorothy Doucette, learned that developers moved the plaque from its original home when someone bought the old parking lot on Piedmont that was the former site of the Coconut Grove. The new owners were preparing to build wait for it luxury apartments. Yeah, an epidemic in the Boston area, with everything being unaffordable to anyone who grew up here. Tony Marra's plaque was removed with the understanding that it would be returned to the same spot when construction was complete. But once the Piedmont Park Square condos were occupied, the new owners objected to the memorial returning to the sidewalk. Someone among the new condo owners wrote to the Bay Village neighborhood association that only a small portion of our building overlays the site of the club and we now occupy these homes with our families as part of the Bay Village Association and we would like to enjoy our homes in peace, without tragic memories hanging wreaths at our doors and tourists peeking into our houses.

Anngelle Wood: 55:43

The Bay Village neighborhood association moved the plaque. It was relocated to the next block at the corner of Piedmont and Coconut Grove Lane, adjacent to the Revere Hotel Garage. The streets in the area where the club once stood have been reconfigured somehow and the Revere Hotel occupies some of the physical space where the Coconut Grove was located. I stared at the map for a long time and it didn't make complete sense to me, but okay. And finally, this November the Coconut Grove Memorial Committee broke ground on the new permanent memorial that will honor the legacy of Coconut Grove and the people who died. Three 11-foot arches will replicate the club's entrance. The project site is located in Stoutler Park at 243 Stewart Street, one block from the former Coconut Grove site at 17 Piedmont Street. I'm still trying to get over the fact that people live in condos where almost 500 people died. I certainly hope they're not haunted.

Anngelle Wood: 56:59

There are two remaining living survivors of the Coconut Grove fire Joyce Spector, now Joyce Mechelburg, who was in the Melody Lounge at the time the fire started and saw the bus boy light the match. She was 18 at the time and was there with her fiance, justin Morgan of Cambridge. Morgan had enlisted and was about to deploy the next day, but Justin didn't survive the fire. Now, according to Joyce, the light bulb was knocked out by someone throwing something at it. I found that very interesting. I didn't see other reports of anyone saying that she is 99 years old and lives in Massachusetts.

Anngelle Wood: 57:43

Robert Shumway was 18, and the student at Williston Academy in East Hampton. At the time he was in Boston with his friend Richard Moulton to attend the Holy Cross BC came at Fenway, they decided to visit the famous Coconut Grove. On their way home, the two, mingled inside the club, walked outside and then returned to the main floor near the Carricketture Bar, there was an explosion. A blue and orange ball of fire that started in the basement of the club, where the Melody Lounge was, and traveled up those stairs and across the foyer. The two would spend the night covering and carrying bodies to ambulances and everyone else. While they're gone, we cannot forget the diligence of the first responders and volunteers who came out to help and the medical professionals whose care of the hundreds injured in the fire and their dedication to their field, who changed medical care for burn patients and trauma patients forever. This is a part of our history, not only Boston's but the country. You can move the plaque all you want, but the history remains and as time goes on, less and less becomes known about the magnitude of what happened that night.

Anngelle Wood: 59:01

In the documentary Six Locked Doors shares the words of Santayana's Life of Reason. They are words we should all live by because so many had to die by them. "Those who could not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Thank you for listening. My name is Anjelle Wood. Crime of the truest kinds is online at crimeofthechewestkindcom. Everywhere you listen to podcasts, follw @Crime of the Truest Kind. Leave a five-star review. They are my favorite. Drop me a message. Tell me what you liked about this episode. Send me an email and suggest a story. Thank you, Patreon patrons, superstar EP's Lisa McColgan, Rhiannon, Solid Gold Devin, Pam Kay, newbir Michelle, all you wicked cool ones. This has been a rather beefy episode. I really did enjoy researching and learning about it. I have new live events to announce very soon. I must be going now. Lock Your Goddamn Doors.